When our family is on vacation, we look forward to visiting other churches. My husband is our church’s senior pastor, so he especially enjoys sitting in the congregation and hearing from another preacher. We choose vacation locations where there’s a solid church and often one where we know the pastor—at least by reputation.

Inevitably, however, we roll out of our Airbnb, navigate to the church’s meeting place, and follow signs to the sanctuary only to discover that we’ll be hearing from the summer intern or a student at the nearby seminary. I guess every pastor needs a vacation.

Those sermons from inexperienced preachers haven’t always been the best sermons I’ve heard, but they do give me hope for the future.

As Brandon Cooper wrote recently,

We all feel the tension between today’s needs and tomorrow’s. We feel it keenly because today’s needs are pressing, and we know that a 25-year-old, fresh out of seminary, won’t preach with the skill, authority, and life experience of a seasoned preacher. . . . [But] we train the next generation of leaders because we want to see the work continue for generations to come, and we trust God to advance his kingdom through the faithful preaching of his powerful Word no matter who’s in the pulpit.

That sweaty, stumbling, disorganized guy up front may not have the skills of Spurgeon (yet!), but he’s a testimony to God’s faithfulness from one generation to another: building his church and breaking down the gates of hell, one imperfect sermon at a time.

That’s worth getting out of bed on vacation to witness.