Dr. Howard Hendricks—“Prof”—died last week. It is estimated that during his sixty years of teaching at Dallas Theological Seminary he had 13,000 students. I was not one of them, but I heard him speak in person several times back when I was in college, was influenced by some of what he wrote, and have been aware of how profoundly he influenced those who studied under him. I assembled a handful of quotes I’ve heard that are attributed to him.
- You cannot impart what you do not possess.
- You can impress from a distance, but you can only impact up close.
- If you cannot be accused of exclusivity, you are not discipling.
- You teach what you know, but you reproduce what you are.
- You never graduate from the school of discipleship.
- You focus on the depth of your relationship [with God]; let Him determine the scope of your ministry
- The secret to concentration is elimination.
- Nothing is more common that unfulfilled potential.
- The Bible was written not to satisfy your curiosity but to help you conform to Christ’s image.
- The goal is not to make you a smarter sinner but to make you like the Saviour.
- It’s a sin to bore people with the Bible.
- Christian education is a bomb with a long fuse—it takes a while to go off.
- Our problem is that we are in the Word but not under the Word.
- Most people don’t think, they just rearrange their prejudices.
- Your strengths develop your confidence; your weaknesses develop your faith.
- My greatest fear is not your failure, but your success.