Ministering the Coming Word at Advent /// He sat across the table from me in defeat. “Pastor,” he had written to me several weeks earlier in an email, “I appreciated your sermon today on prayer. But it was also difficult for me. Can we get together?” I happily said yes. We arranged a time and place and met. There at the restaurant he began to explain to me why the message was so difficult. “I’ve struggled with addiction since I was thirteen. I’ve come clean on it repeatedly. Confessed my sins and sought mercy. Done everything everyone has told me to do to get victory. I’m in church and support groups and therapy weekly…” “Good job,” I said — though…