Rev. Charles Garrett should be preaching at a church with 1,000 members. Not one of the modern expository preaching, doctorate demanding congregations of the inter city, prim and proper pious churches of modern America but at a church that wants to grow by winning souls for Christ, where the members want to know and live the truths of the scriptures, who are not frightened by the demands of a loving God but firmly believe in the reality of a risen saviour.
With a congregation that is small, some members out sick and others away doing their Christian duties to the men and women who cannot leave their prisons to seek out the truth for themselves, I was half expecting a sermonet but received the full meal as if I had been only one of hundreds.
That man can preach.
Maybe you are one of those who has a disdain for the old style firm and brimstone preachers and prefer the modern expository style popular among churches today. And there are many good things to say about expository preaching and no, it doesn't have to be fire and brimstone to be enlightening as well as motivational but one can hardly blame the preacher for getting excited in the pulpit when he is talking about what his saviour did for him any more than one can blame a Boston Red Sox fan for getting excited when a Red sox gets a hit while playing thee Yankees, or when their favorite football team scores a last minute touchdown to win the big game.
Someone in the congregation shouts "Amen preacher" and a visitor thinks "This is a bunch of crazy people" and then goes home and paints his face blue in support of the Duke basketball team as they begin play in the March Madness road to the national championship.
Excuse me if I get excited about the things that are really important.
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