I office up on the 9th floor of the Justice Center. I can hear a street preacher cutting loose 9 floors below. I cannot understand what he is saying, just the noise. It actually reminded me of listening to a really bad sermon in church. You know, the kind where the preacher got lost in some tangent and could not find his way back, or is droning, or obviously is not prepared, or just not good at preparing sermons. Your mind wanders off to think about something more productive, but the noise is still there.

Sometimes the preacher and the congregation join in the conspiracy. They have tuned out and he knows it. He can see their boredom. But, he is stuck on his course and feels he must finish. The congregation knows they are stuck until he is finished, since it is not polite to get up and leave. So they suffer together, shepherd and flock, until it is mercifully over.

Where does bad preaching come from? There are several sources. First, lack of inspiration. That is, the preacher's own spiritual life is dry and he has nothing to say. Second, lack of preparation. It takes a lot of study and writing to produce a good sermon, if you "full text" it. Hastily scribbled thoughts often do not hold up in the presentation. Third, laziness may prevent the preacher from putting in the hard work necessary to do the job. It is easier to just comment or offer supposedly practical thoughts on a subject than to study the text, read commentaries, look at the original language, etc. Fourth, lack of ability. Some guys just don't have it. I watched the local, public access channel the other day. It is held hostage to preachers in little churches who bring in videos of their sermons so they can say they are on t.v. I could not even tell what the guy was talking about. But, I'll tell you, this guy down on the sidewalk has both a lot of passion and a lot of volume. It must be playing havoc with the t.v. crews down on the sidewalk to report the murder trial. I hope the guy is laying it on. My experience is that media folks could use it.