When someone steps in on a Sunday to preach a sermon, this is described as “filling the pulpit.”
It has also been observed that a high percentage of ministers are overweight.
Feel free to look up the studies.
Considering some are more literal in their mode of interpretation than others, this may be an instance of a metaphor being missed. In their effort to match their frame to the sizableness of their pulpit, the minister may become prone to excess at the congregational potluck, not because they wish to be a glutton, but rather a grand pulpiteer.
With regard to preaching, pastors want to rise to the occasion. If filling a pulpit, these pastors expand for the exhortation. People pleasers that they are, if they need to fill their bellies to more fully fill a pulpit, whether they eat or drink or whatever they do, they’ll do so to the glory of God.
Instead of inviting someone to fill the pulpit, perhaps we should be more direct, ask our preacher to “preach the Word,” in season or out of season, in whatever shape, and at whatever size, they may so be.
