Preaching now requires a reveling in paradox — a constant melding of structure and spontaneity, failure and success. Preaching is the dance of preparation and improvisation, standing and shuffling, firm footage and roundtable, top-down-and bottom-up-ness, hierarchy and free form, storytelling and story catching, formulation and nimbleness, a skeletal grid and a fleshy adaptability, a confident mastery of material and an openness to learning from anyone — anywhere, anytime, a set trajectory, and the trench ability to adjust on the fly.
