Are sermons really that boring?

Sister Margaret had spent weeks preparing the first grade children for their first Communion, stressing the solemnity and importance of this sacrament.

Much to her chagrin, during Mass on the big day, one boy in the front row was talking and giggling nonstop. Finally, unable to put up with it any longer, she whispered to the lad seated next to her, "Please go up there and tell that one he's done enough talking and had better stop, right now!"

Without question, the boy rose and walked to the front... and delivered Sister Margaret's message to the surprised priest in the middle of his sermon!

That joke (from the Good Clean Funnies List - highly recommended) may be a bit unrealistic, but honesly, haven't you ever wanted to tell the preacher he's said enough and should finish?

Sometimes you get the guy who has no presence. What he's saying might be very good, but he's just not got the personality to deliver it well.

Other times you get the cliched vicar who drones on using big words and with no relevance to real life. It might be useful to a theology student, but for practical every day application, it's pretty much useless.

Sometimes you've got some who really knows his stuff, and one-on-one or in Bible study he's very good, he's just not good at delivering his knowledge in sermon format.

But sometimes you find someone who you can really connect with. It's someone who speaks in a way that you understand and about issues you want to know more about. Their theology is spot on but they don't express it with long words, they just talk as if they're having a conversation with you. They talk to God in just the same way, as if he's in the room next to you. And when they talk about the Bible they really make it come alive for you so you can really understand what was going on.

If you have problems finding good preachers and you're the same sort of age as me (20s-30s) then you might want to check out Pastor Mark Driscoll's sermons from Mars Hill Church in Seattle. They're on www.marshillchurch.org and cover all sorts of subjects, books of the Bible, and are well worth listening to.