"Has the smoothness of the performance become more important to us then the fear of the Lord?...It is the truth and power of the gospel that must change people's lives, not the glamour of our oratory or the emotional power of our stories...The message of the cross smashes the great idolatries of the ecclesiastical world: our endless self-promotion, our love of mere professionalism, our addiction to well-defined methods. Doubtless in some circumstances it might be wrong to critise any one of these tendencies. Yet taken together they weave a pattern of ministry that is far removed from the message of the cross." D.A. Carson "The Cross and Christian Ministry"