The Pulpit

The call to preach has sent me into ten different pulpits over a life time of ministry.  From Stapleton, Bethel, and Zoar, to Tennille and Talbotton, to St. John in Columbus, to Vidalia, Perry, Richmond Hill, and finally to Rocky Ford which is just up the road from the farm I went as preacher in response to that call.  As I note the journey and look at it on a map, it has been like a circle that started in one place and brought me back to almost the same point.  And even more so, as I started preaching in the small church, the sermon I preached which might well be my last one as a preacher of a congregation was at a small church.  It has seemed like the journey has really been a circular journey.    

Each of of these churches provided me with what every preacher needs:  a pulpit.  Each one was distinctive.  Some were simple and some were not so simple.  The one which stands above all the others was the one in Vidalia.  It is what a pulpit is all about.  It was high above the floor of the church.  I joked in the beginnng about being concerned about nosebleed.  But, not only was it high, but it was also strong and prominent as it projected itself into the space of the church.  To step up and into that pulpit which seemed to wrap itself around the preacher was always of a moment of being reminded that the preaching was important work that God was wanting to be done.   

It was a pulpit which brings to mind something Herman Melville wrote in his famous writing, "Moby Dick:"  " for the pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God's quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favorable winds. Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow."  Those who preach dare not forget they are called and the place given to them in the world because of that call.