To appreciate the important role of the minister in colonial New England we need to consider the power of the Puritan preaching. Today many mainline Protestants think of preaching as a form of religious communication, delivered in the church by a minister, usually once a week, with most sermons lasting no longer than thirty minutes. With this view of preaching in mind, imagine what it was like in Puritan New England, where ministers typically preached three times each week, with each sermon lasting