In an age in which time is more and more limited and valuable, why do millions return to our sanctuaries week after week to listen to sermons? Though there are multiplied reasons, for many it is the desire to hear an authentic word from God. In lives that are torn by stress, puzzled by ethical questions, filled with anxiety about the future, they come to you as God's messenger to be reminded that their lives matter, that God cares, that there is hope. They come, as the Greeks came to Philip, saying, "Sir, we would see Jesus."

One young preacher expressed feelings of frustration about his place in the pulpit. He wrote: "I wish I did not hate preaching so much, but the degradation of being a Brighton preacher is almost intolerable…the pulpit has lost its place."

The writer was F. W. Robertson who, within a few years of his premature death in 1853, was being called one of England's greatest preachers. Perhaps more important than the accolades of historians are the words of one of his church members:

"I cannot describe…the strange sensation, during his sermon of union with him and communion with one another which filled us as he spoke…

Nor can I describe the sense we had of a higher Presence with us as he spoke—the sacred awe which filled our hearts—the hushed stillness in which the smallest sound was startling—the calm eagerness of men who listened as if waiting for a word of revelation to resolve the doubt or to heal the sorrow of a life."