'Preachers lead whenever they help others bridge the gap between their aspirations and their reality. Doing so will mean challenging their ideas and helping them see beyond their shallow goals. It will mean pacing the challenge to keep them moving forward with discouraging them. It will mean keeping the focus on the issue until people accept responsibility for it and begin to change. Preachers lead whenever they help others bridge the gap between their understanding of God and God's claims in their lives. Preachers are equipped to do that only as they are open to God's work in their own lives and have seen their own values, attituudes, and behaviours challenged and changed by the Word of God.'
Alice P Mathews, Preaching That Speaks to Women, p.139.
