They always say that preachers should be ready to “Preach, pray, or die in a moments notice.”

I never really put much stock in that… until yesterday!

Yesterday we were at a church in South Carolina… my parent’s church… pastored by my uncle.

We had spent the weekend with my parents and for some reason we were late for every important event = getting to my parents house, a wedding, and church. Yup, that made me pretty happy… 😦

In keeping with our pattern, we walked into church late… I mean LATE!

Not only were we late, but I was grumpy about it too!

I was in a vile mood. Our van was having some problems and wasn’t starting. This kind of messed everyone’s morning up! “The Ladies” were sensing the pressure and were acting it out! Sherri and I were running around trying to get ready and grumping the whole time! Needless to say, I was not feeling like “Super Pastor.”

We walked into church about five minutes before the preaching began. There was some “special music” before the teaching. While the vocalists were singing, my uncle (the pastor) came back to the back seat where I was sitting (in all of my grumpy splendor) and said, “Come here, I want to talk to you.”

He took my to his office and said, “You’re preaching today.”

“WHAT? I DON’T EVEN HAVE A BIBLE WITH ME! I’M GRUMPY AND HAVEN’T THOUGHT FOR ONE MINUTE ABOUT PREACHING!” (That’s the edited version of what I was screaming in my head!)

To make a long story short… there were four preachers in the building yesterday! He gave each one of us four minutes… FOUR MINUTES… to talk about church growth.

Dude… giving a preacher four minutes is like giving a fat man one M&M… it’ll never satisfy and ultimately he’ll just grab the bag and run!

Crazy… crazy… crazy!

Late, grumpy, unprepared, preaching for four minutes… oh my gosh!