Choosing carefully

Ed Stetzer considers matters of appropriateness and language in the pulpit:

My advice is simple. Be careful with your words. You only have so many to use in your upcoming sermon, so choose them wisely. Those words may comprise your very last sermon. Have you considered that? What words will be most useful in communicating truth, and the gospel? What words will help you best uncover man's hypocrisy, stubbornness and idolatry while pointing them to the hope of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus? Your words should be appropriate for your audience and context, they should clarify truth, expose error and exalt Jesus. If you are a teacher, then you are not a child, so don't speak like one. Be thoughtful, provocative, and clear. Know your audience. Do not use words that will interfere with the message you are called by God to communicate, but do not neglect to use words that will arrest their attention and display the significance of the message.

The advice is thoughtful and worth reading in its entirety. And thanks to Todd Rhoades for the link.