A young pastor came to see me the other day. We went to lunch at one of the gourmet establishments of our fair city. It was an interesting day.

He came to pick my mind, he said. Seems he was experiencing frustration in his ministry.

Now, this young cleric is above average. While some folks stand in the pulpit and relate a story and others provide a suffering congregation with an extensive exegesis on the context of the holy writ, he speaks to folks where they live.

I know a couple of members of his church. Prior to his coming I had once been told, “He demands in his intensity and his obvious joy that we listen.”

It must be wonderful to be so gifted. I remember once back in the last century thinking myself that kind of minister. Then one day, driving back from a trip to the big A down the interstate I clicked on WEBS. And there I was, taped-delayed to be sure, delivering some message. About half way through that oration I began to appreciate the judgment of those who thought I would not be the next Billy Graham.

Back to the modern wonder, and he is truly a modern wonder in his communication skills.

“I’m just really discouraged,” he said. “I’ve been working my butt of in that parish for four years now. We’ve grown a good bit, and I’m thankful for that. But we are nowhere near the place I wanted us to be and I encouraged the folks there to be.”

I was looking down at my plate as he spoke contemplating the possibility of obtaining the contract for broccoli at Ruby Tuesday. They serve broccoli with everything! But I was listening.

“Where did you want to be?”

He looked around and said, “I really thought by now we’d be the largest and best church in the county. But we haven’t come near overtaking some other churches.”

“Your goal is to surpass the other churches?”

“I’d certainly want to make every effort to show we’re the best congregation in the area.”

I stirred the broccoli around a bit, and then ate a piece. I took a drink of tea. Then I said, “Would you allow me to tell you about story about a business I heard of that became the best?”

“Of course not.”

“Well,” I said, “it seems in a metropolitan area of the country there were three pizza establishments within a city block. One of the establishments decided they needed to drive the other two places out of business if they were going to enjoy the profits of which they dreamed. So, these enterprising fellows had a large sign placed over the door reading, “Best Pizza In This County.”

“The second pizza place got a little concerned with that sign. It was too much of a challenge. They worried about the possibility of losing business. The constructed a sign reading, ‘Best Pizza This State.’

“The battle was engaged. The third establishment, which was the smallest of three to begin, watched with interest what was going on. The owner really was too busy to concern him with the competitive advertising. But his loyal customers said he should compete with them. He decided to do so. He had a sign pup over his business. It read, ‘Best Pizza On This Block.’”

After downing another sprout of broccoli I asked, “Can you guess which one is still in business?”