We were out shopping in a place we don’t normally visit at a time we’re usually at home.
The woman in the store thought we looked familiar.
“Don’t I know you from the Baptist Church on _________ Street?”
Establishing that there was no such church on that street, we tried to get a fix on the correct denomination, and then using the names of people who had pastored that church, determine what years she attended there. We connected with the name of one particular minister.
“He was a great orator;” she said.
I had no response to that particular comment, but inside I was thinking, ‘Really? A good orator? That’s all you walked away with, after years of sitting under his ministry?’
She then informed us where she was currently attending; a church where, I will grant you, skills at oratory probably rank fairly high.
Still, I was broken inside. The man she referenced was a spiritual leader. He was a visionary.
Yes, he brought the scriptures to life on Sunday mornings, but he was so much more than the sum of his preaching, at least in my life anyway. He was a good friend.
I felt a rather passionate response welling up, about how the work of preaching is more than just stringing rich vocabulary together eloquently, but then decided just to smile.
Guess I’m not a good orator.
Thinking Out Loud 
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