Makes me think about the old preacher joke about a senior pastor at a Baptist church who was mentoring the junior pastor (or youth minister in some versions) through the business of preparing and preaching an effective sermon. At one point, he let him in on the trade secret that—although Baptists aren’t supposed to drink alcohol—when he’d been a young preacher just starting out himself, he’d sometimes have a glass of gin (which looks exactly like water) prepared for him on the pulpit in case he ever got nervous and needed a little liquid courage. So, when his young new protégé confessed to being rather anxious about having to preach the entire Sunday sermon himself for the first time, his understanding mentor prepared just such a “glass of water” for him.
Come Sunday, when the young preacher started losing his cool and stammering a bit, he grabbed the glass and took a swig. After that, the sermon went a lot smoother, and he felt by the end that he was doing pretty well at it. Indeed, by the time his rather lively sermon concluded, he had all his congregants’ rapt attention.
Afterward, however, (as often happens to those who drink alcohol) he couldn’t remember just what exactly he’d preached or why his congregants liked it so much. So, after everybody had gone home except his mentor and himself, he sidled up to him and asked “So, how’d I do?”
“Well!” said his mentor, “I don’t think they’re ever gonna forget that sermon! You did make a few mistakes, though. First, that sermon was mighty long-winded: the service ran over by a full forty minutes; and second, uh… for the record, when you were talking about that showdown between Israel and the Philistines? I think you meant to say David slew Goliath; he didn’t—as you put it—’stomp the hell out of him!'”
So now I’m imagining this preacher’s ‘shroom-fueled sermon was sorta like that guy’s…
Makes me think about the old preacher joke about a senior pastor at a Baptist church who was mentoring the junior pastor (or youth minister in some versions) through the business of preparing and preaching an effective sermon. At one point, he let him in on the trade secret that—although Baptists aren’t supposed to drink alcohol—when he’d been a young preacher just starting out himself, he’d sometimes have a glass of gin (which looks exactly like water) prepared for him on the pulpit in case he ever got nervous and needed a little liquid courage. So, when his young new protégé confessed to being rather anxious about having to preach the entire Sunday sermon himself for the first time, his understanding mentor prepared just such a “glass of water” for him.
Come Sunday, when the young preacher started losing his cool and stammering a bit, he grabbed the glass and took a swig. After that, the sermon went a lot smoother, and he felt by the end that he was doing pretty well at it. Indeed, by the time his rather lively sermon concluded, he had all his congregants’ rapt attention.
Afterward, however, (as often happens to those who drink alcohol) he couldn’t remember just what exactly he’d preached or why his congregants liked it so much. So, after everybody had gone home except his mentor and himself, he sidled up to him and asked “So, how’d I do?”
“Well!” said his mentor, “I don’t think they’re ever gonna forget that sermon! You did make a few mistakes, though. First, that sermon was mighty long-winded: the service ran over by a full forty minutes; and second, uh… for the record, when you were talking about that showdown between Israel and the Philistines? I think you meant to say David slew Goliath; he didn’t—as you put it—’stomp the hell out of him!'”
So now I’m imagining this preacher’s ‘shroom-fueled sermon was sorta like that guy’s…