HEARERS OF THE WORD. A deaf church is a dead church; that is an unalterable principle. God quickens, feeds, inspires and guides his people by his Word. For whenever the Bible is truly and systematically expounded, God uses it to give his people the vision without which they perish. From "I Believe in Preaching" (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982), p. 113, by John Stott.