Here it is, six months after the beginning (and end) of the Persian Gulf War, and those war-related phrases are still bouncing around in our everyday conversation.
For instance, how many times are we going to have to hear some journalist or political commentator describe something as "the mother of all campaign speeches" or "the mother of all budget compromises" or some similar nonsense? (Come on, admit it: haven't you used that "mother of all ..." phrase in a sermon already? It's probably the only clever idea Saddam Hussein came up with in the whole conflict.)
However, there are a host of other words and phrases that emerged from the Gulf War (and the omnipresent television coverage of it). While most of them have specific military definitions, they also can be adapted to effectively describe elements of every preacher's life.
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Skud: We've all preached them. Lots of sound and smoke but not well aimed.
Collateral Damage: Even when you've preached a skud, it often manages to touch a few folks -- though not where we might have expected. (That's an amazing thing about the Spirit's work -- He takes some of our worst sermons and still finds ways to use them in people's lives.)
Strategic Strike: You know what those Sundays are like. It all comes together and you feel like Charles Spurgeon, Billy Graham, and the Apostle Paul all rolled into one. (The more self-exalted you feel afterward, the more likely you are to follow it with a series of skuds.)
Stealth: One of those sermons in which even you can't figure out what it was you were trying to say.
MRE (Meal Ready-to-Eat): Frankly, I'll take Sunday afternoon dinner-on-the-grounds any time -- those meals are always ready to eat. (Did someone say "come to the front of the line, preacher"?)
With this issue we welcome two new members to our Board of Contributing Editors:
Frank Harrington is Pastor of Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the nation's premier Presbyterian pulpits. Gardner C. Taylor is Pastor Emeritus of the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, New York. (Dr. Taylor's photo graced the cover of our last issue.)
We are proud to have both of these gifted Christian servants sharing in this ministry with us.
Speaking of Contributing Editors: in the May-June issue of Preaching, an advertisement for Word Ministry Resources mistakenly identified Joel Gregory as "President of the Southern Baptist Convention." While that may be prophetic, it is not accurate at present. Gregory is a past president of the Texas Baptist Convention but is not a past or present SBC president.
But if Joel Gregory is ever elected president of the SBC, just remember: you heard it here first.