Emphasis Preaching Journal

Following a summer of Pastoral Clinical Education at Patton State Mental Hospital, I wrote a sermon titled "My Summer in a Mental Hospital." Some of my parishioners were debating about my status -- was he a patient or a chaplain's assistant? I had become a Christian nine years before. My superior, however, questioned if I were one of the well or the sick. Throughout the summer, he confronted me, bluntly, yet compassionately. "Keller, you're three-fourths screwed up, and one-fourth able to handle life ... you've never learned how to chit-chat. You're always talking about a cause.