From “Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons” by Frederick Buechner
From the Foreword by Brian McLaren:
People who are afflicted with the twin passions of preaching and writing will probably agree that each benefits the other. For example, in writing, when you slowly and painstakingly fold a clever crease in syntax, when you layer and lean parallelisms one upon another just so, when you learn to signal your logical connections with sturdy connecting words like indeed, however, and for example, you practice skills that are likely to sneak out when you preach – to your surprise and your hearers’ delight.
And similarly, preaching can’t help but teach you something about writing. You learn to feel the rhythm of a sentence. You imagine actual readers encountering your words in real time. You learn to simplify, which is harder than it looks. You learn to write in a whisper, maybe to romance your readers with a tiny scrap of punctuation – just as you might do with a gesture or sigh when you preach. In fact, if you practice enough writing and preaching, and if you are blessed with extraordinary natural aptitudes from the start, you have the chance of spiraling into greatness. You may even excel beyond that and become a Frederick Beuchner.