[Iscool]

The raised platform you stand on is called a podium.Or a stage...Or a milk crate...And since you don't generally see a surfboard as a table on a church podium, it really doesn't matter what you call it...

Straining at knats...

[Melian]

The word “podium” is often misused. Since you were correcting someone, I thought you’d like to be truly correct. See the dictionary for the definition of podium. I’m not sure what “straining at knats” means. Did you mean gnats?

I would thoroughly agree that a minister using a surfboard as a table in a church is odd... or theatre. It looks as though he has his Bible on it.