Shortly after I had gone to my pastor and talked with him concerning this vague sense of calling to ministry that I was experiencing, he suggested that I preach while he was on vacation. By doing that, I could get some sense of what preaching was about and perhaps help to determine if that was the direction God was leading me. That sounded reasonable enough, so I agreed.

As I thought about that upcoming first venture into the realm of preaching, I asked my pastor, who is now my best friend in spite of the fact that he got me into this, "What should I preach about?" With a twinkle in his eye, he replied, "Preach about God and preach about twenty minutes. Folks come to church to hear about God, but if you ramble on longer than twenty minutes, you're going to lose most of them."