As I’ve been making my way through Lewis Drummond’s biography on Charles Spurgeon (entitled Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers) I came across this rather humorous story of how he got his church into a building project:

“One Sunday at New Park Street Chapel, being overwhelmed by the vast crowd and the hundreds, if not thousands, who were turned away every Sunday, he wheeled around in the pulpit, faced the back wall, and cried out, ‘By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, and by faith this wall shall come down too’. New building campaigns are not normally announced to churches quite that bluntly. The deacons were aghast. More than one informed the preacher they did not want to hear of it again. ‘What do you mean?’ asked Spurgeon, ‘You will hear no more about it when it is done; and therefore the sooner you set about doing it the better.’ They set about doing it! And it opened a new door of ministry…” (page 208)

Let’s see, how can I slip that into my sermon this Sunday……