Emphasis Preaching Journal

New seminary graduates, full of hopes and dreams, we came to be pastors of small rural churches. These churches had a reputation of being a valley of exceedingly dry bones. For decades they had been "almost dead," though they never quite gave up the ghost. We were ready for the challenge. We had, after all, studied church renewal and written papers about leading communities through change. We were ready to make dry bones live! Twenty years have passed since those days. The young ministers are now middle-aged pastors, scattered across the nation.