Introduction – 02 – Of Fruits and Roots

Why catechize God’s sheep?  Because the Word must be “sounded down” into our souls before roots can be sent down into the ground of God’s grace.  Good preaching is like a rooting hormone, it stimulates the growth of roots of righteousness (Prov 12:12) which enable the Believer to be grounded and settled in the faith (Col 1:21-24).

A. W. Tozer expresses this need is his classic pithy style:

A tree can weather almost any storm if its root is sound, but when the fig tree which our Lord cursed “dried up from the roots” it immediately “withered away” (Mark 11:20–21). A church that is soundly rooted cannot be destroyed, but nothing can save a church whose root is dried up. No stimulation, no advertising campaigns, no gifts of money and no beautiful edifice can bring back life to the rootless tree.  Tozer, A. W. (1986). The Root of the Righteous. (p. 5). WingSpread.