Of all the questions we have heard since LEADERSHIP was launched, two have distinguished themselves for being asked the most often: 1) What has happened to great preaching? and 2) Who are the great preachers of today? With these questions in mind- plus a host of others-we began to develop and assemble the material for this issue's theme, Preaching and Worship. Two clippings came to my attention that individually do not directly address these questions. Together, their impact has started a chain reaction of thought that I want to share with you.

The first clipping came from Fredrick Buechner's book Telling the Truth and freezes in time-like a flash picture-a scene that could occur any Sunday morning in almost any church. In fact, this may have been the setting in which you found yourself last Sunday morning:

"The sermon hymn comes to a close with a somewhat unsteady 'Amen,' and the organist gestures the choir to sit down. As the preacher climbs the steps to the pulpit with his sermon in hand, ...