Without a Preacher

King penned this outline, which explores the importance of a preacher's spiritual guidance, on the verso of a form for a 19 February 1962 speaking engagement.¹

Introduction: Definition of Preacher and Preaching. See Keighton's [book?]²

1. Without a preacher we would be tempted to be satified with our evil ways.³ But the preacher reminds us that in our individual and collective lives that where we are is never where we ought to be. Without a preacher we would be satified with the vally, but he reminds us that we are made for the stars
2. Without a Preacher we would conclude that we could lift ourselves by our own botstraps.
3. Without a preachr we would conclude that man is the center of the universe. So many things have happened recently to give us the impression that man can do anything. (Give examples)

^1. Shirley Bird to Charlotte Sander, 19 February 1962.

^2. King may refer to Keighton's definition of preaching in his book The Man Who Would Preach ([New York: Abingdon Press, 1956] , pp. 19-20). In his copy of the book, which he kept in his personal library, King underlined several passages including: “The sermon is what takes place in the lives of our hearers, and preaching is influencing human lives.”

^3. Cf. Romans 10:14.