By Jerry Johnston  |  IDEALLY SPEAKING

 

When I first heard Bruce Callahan, I knew he'd never make television's "Great Preachers" series. 

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He was too rough around the edges. When he preached from a script, the sermon sounded canned ("The devil will make you bitter, but Jesus will make you better!").

 

When he tried to wing it, he lapsed into "Spoonerisms" — jumbled words. (The Rev. Spooner would say things like "tons of soil" for "sons of toil.")

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No, Bruce Callahan was a far cry from Billy Graham.

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But I soon learned the man had a gift. And the gift was this:

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He knew how to speak from the heart, to the heart, about matters of the heart.

And his gift has changed the way I look at the world.