“Informed imitation, that’s our goal. We don’t listen to the preaching of others so that we can be slavish imitators. We listen as fellow artists, as those who have learned enough about preaching to know competence when we hear it, to respect the ways in which more experienced practitioners of our craft can teach us. I don’t believe we discover or become confident in our ‘own voice’ until we first have listened, appreciated, criticized, inculcated, internalized, and risen above the voice of others. Imitation is an essential aspect of our development of good preaching.”
–William Willimon, Preaching Master Class (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2010), 48.
