CNN has an nice profile of preacher Fred Craddock:
A preaching ‘genius’ faces his toughest convert
From CNN.com
Craddock had three books in his childhood home: his mother’s King James Bible, his father’s complete works of Shakespeare and “The Life and Times of Billy Sunday.”
Sunday was a Major League Baseball player who became one of America’s most famous preachers during the early 20th century by transforming preaching into an athletic event.
He’d smash chairs, throw parts of his clothing into the audience and run across the preaching platform as if he were sliding into home plate while proclaiming, “Safe at home — by the blood of Jesus!”
Sunday was the type of pastor Craddock grew up admiring. They strode the pulpit like human firecrackers: booming voices, explosive movements, big men who radiated power.
Craddock had a problem. He couldn’t bring the thunder. He was short, and his voice was weak. His high school counselor tried to talk him out of becoming a preacher because of his size. And his first church sermon landed with a thud. While preaching about three wise men visiting baby Jesus, an elderly man stood up in the back and blurted: “How do you know there were three?”