The Preacher as Realist

Warren Wiersbe in an essay entitled, "Your Preaching is Unique," provides the following helpful observation.

"God help the preacher who abandons his ideals! But, at the same time, God pity the preacher who is idealistic that he fails to be realistic. A realist is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been purified. A skeptic is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been burned. There is a difference."

Warren Wiersbe, "Your Preaching is Unique," in Preaching to Convince, ed. James D. Berkley (Waco: Word, 1986), 167.