Here's an easy method for testing whether a sermon can deliver: ... Change the setting from a public situation to an individual one. Take away the pulpit, the pews, the choir. Move to a kitchen table. The preacher on one side, a couple of friends on the other.

Notice how the volume of one's voice drops, and the frequency of gesticulations decreases. One's theology also becomes more modest, less confident. Notice too an increased concern for the responese of one's listeners. A preacher might even look to them for help in this vital quest for God's Word, God's love, God's peace. If a minister can preach in that same way to me from the pulpit I'll have what I want from a sermon, and so will his or her members.