Will Willimon on intellectual curiosity, theology, preaching and communion

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet Will Willimon today.  Probably everyone who reads my blog has their own pastor/scholar heroes.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lesslie Newbigin, Eugene Peterson, and Will Willimon are some of mine. 

Today I had the opportunity to hear him interact with some Duke Divinity School students in Ken Carder’s Introduction to Christian Ministry course (of which I served as the Teaching Assistant last year). 

Here were three of my favorite ideas Willimon shared today:

1. "As a pastor, it helps to be an intellectual. Amidst the ordinary, getting excited about ideas helps."
2. “By their 50's, pastors need theologians. Ministry is too dangerous, too peculiarly demanding. At that point, you need more than just liking people.”
3. "Some biblical texts are all gospel or all law. I preach them in their onesidedness and then let communion balance it out."

Willimon was Dean of Duke Chapel for 20 years and had now been a United Methodist Church bishop in Alabama for five years. He blogs at http://willimon.blogspot.com/ and has two new books out. 

The Early Preaching of Karl Barth: Fourteen Sermons with Commentary by William H. Willimon by Karl Barth and William Willimon (Paperback - Sep 2, 2009)

Undone by Easter: Keeping Preaching Fresh by William H. Willimon (Paperback - Oct 2009)

See also Bishop Willimon's Podcast -- The iTunes link will only work if you have iTunes, which is free program that works on PC's and Macs, installed on your computer.

Comments

[Clay Knick]

It would not be too much to say that Willimon's book "Pastor" saved my vocational life. Right book, right time in my life. I still get it out and read parts of it now and then. I got him to sign it in '04 when he came back to Duke to lecture about preaching. He's so very right about #1 & #2 & I think he's spot on with #3 too.