At the beginning of each new semester, teachers and professors frequently distribute to their students a sheet of paper called a synopsis. This synopsis contains a list of things the teacher plans to cover during the semester, along with other pertinent information, such as a list of books the student will be expected to read (which always gave me a headache), the schedule of examinations (ditto), and a list of papers to be written and what length they should be. I argued unsuccessfully with my professors at seminary that they were not doing future congregations any favors by requiring ministry students to be long-winded, but, as you can see, it didn’t do any good. Oh, well... At least I have someone to blame it on!

One item on the list in which every student took great interest was the per…