Remembering Fred Craddock

 

I’m going to write a word, and the moment that you read the word, I want you to see a face.

To recall a face and a name, someone who comes to your mind when you read the word.

Are you ready?

The word is preacher.

Preacher.

Do you see a face?

I see a face.

I see the face of a man peering over the pulpit on my college campus, inspiring the congregation with his words, crafting stories that shaped new worlds, rearranging lives. He never knew that his sermon changed the path of my life. Preacher.

Do you see a face?

I see the face of a professor who walked into classrooms filled with beginning preachers, and he encouraged them “to take a word and toss it against the clear glass of silence, and shatter the silence of not knowing what to say.” Preacher.

Do you see a face?

I see the face of a man who believed that the hearers are just as important as the preachers during the sermon. His sermons gave listeners room to draw their own conclusions, and he invited them into the joy of discovery with him. Preacher.

Do you see a face?

I see the face of a man who once wrote that if he could choose only one verse to preach on for the rest of his life, it would be Luke 6:35. “…God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” But he didn’t just preach the verse. He lived it. He knew that the “final work of grace in anyone’s life is to make a person gracious.” He lived that so fully that the congregation in which he worshiped made this its first rule: “We will turn away only the people that Jesus turns away.” Preacher.

Do you see a face?

I see the face of a man who loved his neighbors. He loved them so much that he spent his retirement serving in ways that brought hope and healing to a weary land. Preacher.

Do you see a face?

I see the face of a man who could put words together in such a way that they went straight to the heart by way of truth. He wasn’t afraid to lay bare his deepest fears or doubts or dreams or sorrows, and when he spoke you knew that he understood you in ways that no one else had. Preacher.

Do you see a face?

I see the face of a mentor I never met. He wrote books that have shaped two generations of preachers, doing more to strengthen the preaching of the church than could ever be calculated. Always a student of the word; always a teacher; always encouraging others to speak. Preacher.

Do you see a face?

I see the face of Fred Craddock.

And I hear his voice.

And I give thanks that he now rests from his labors, and that his works shall surely follow him.

Thanks be to God for the life and ministry of Fred B. Craddock.

Preacher.

 

 

 

 

Resources for Those Who Wish to Learn More about Fred Craddock or Hear His Voice

A Sermon by Fred Craddock: When the Roll Is Called Down Here

An Article from the Christian Century Article about Fred Craddock

Fred Craddock on Gratitude

A Link to the Craddock Center