"Imaginative Reading for Creative Preaching" held at Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan

July 7-18, 2008

Led by Neal Plantinga and Hulitt Gloer

Mildly stated, this two-week seminar was a joy for Neal Plantinga, for his Co-Host, Hulitt Gloer of Baylor University, and for the 14 pastors as well. For ten mornings the group sang and prayed together and then discussed literature that would nourish the mind and heart of preachers and set them up to do the same for their hearers. The seminar read and discussed fiction, essays, children’s literature, and poetry.

Figure 11
Figure 11: Neal Plantinga and Hulitt Gloer Lead Seminar

Two stellar members of the English Department of Calvin College assisted for a morning apiece. Gary Schmidt introduced the seminar to the genres within children’s literature, demonstrating the seriousness and depth within it. It turns out that this literature—written not just for children, but also for the childlike—gives the preacher stories and images that are appealing to three generations. Think, for instance, of Aslan, C. S. Lewis’ Christ figure in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Lewis tells us how weighty he is in words understandable by nine-year-olds and their grandparents: "They say Aslan is on the move—perhaps has already landed. . . :"

Susan Felch, another star of the English Department at Calvin College, helped the seminar learn to read resonant poems by Jane Kenyon and Robert Frost, showing us again and again how poetry helps us see deeply into the human condition. Poems are highly compressed insights into everything under the sun--including God, sin, grace, the beauty of creation, life, death, pilgrimage, aging, wonder, terror, longing, and going home. Preachers address the same themes in Scripture, and do so from strength if they possess a mind already rich in understanding of them.

As the seminar moved through the two weeks, participants came to see the benefits of a solid reading program. It may

  • Expand and refine the preacher’s understanding of sin and grace;
  • Provide preachers with stories that let them be like Jesus—who never taught publicly without using a story (Mark 4:33-34)
  • Move the preacher’s heart toward goodness and away from evil;
  • Enliven his (or her) sense of life’s ironies—that, for example, good and evil often intertwine and even grow out of one another;
  • Tune the preacher’s ear for language, his first tool;
  • Sharpen the preacher’s recognition of ambiguity, a daily requirement in reading biblical texts;
  • Delight and mystify the preacher, who needs to experience delight and mystery in order to help hearers do it too;
  • Remove layers of domestic familiarity from preachers’ presentation of the Christian faith, and restore their sense of the holy strangeness of the faith, and of its supernatural character;
  • Supply preachers with the kind of wisdom required by anyone who presumes to speak to others about God’s world, and how creatures fit into it together.
Figure 12
Figure 12: Seminar Participants in Morning Session

The seminar participants and hosts helped each other to a wonderful degree. They made each other the best they could be for those two weeks—inspiring, deepening, and teaching each other. They gathered stories from each other, and strategized about ways of using them in sermons. They directed each other to continuing resources for preaching, aware that Sunday comes at the preacher no less than once a week and that preachers therefore need all the help they can get.

Participants were ministers from various churches and denominations, including The United Church of Christ, The United Church of Canada, The PCUSA, The Reformed Presbyterian Church, The United Methodist Church, independent churches in Philadelphia, Bangor, ME, and London, UK, and The Christian Reformed Church in North America.

 


Below are some of the comments made by those who participated in the 2008 Summer Seminar:

I love reading and to get to talk about our reading for two weeks was wonderful. I also really liked starting each day with worship.

It exceeded even my very high expectations. All this reading, and our discussions about it, will continue to feed my preaching and my ministry for some time to come.

I found the seminar to be very stimulating and inspiring. The group of participants and facilitators could not have been better. I felt very privileged to be a part of it. It was better than expected – more relaxed and less academically intense than I expected, and that was great!

I wasn’t sure what to expect but the last two weeks have been wonderful. Every day was enriching. My horizons were broadened, my well was deepened, my world expanded. Thank you!

I found the schedule to be stimulating and relaxing. I appreciate the morning prayers, especially that the liturgy was already set out for us – nothing to produce, much to receive. The seminar rekindled my desire to read in areas other than theology and refreshed my own spiritual life.

The design of sessions and quality of leading, discussing and interacting provided an experience of peer community and learning that was an amazing gift! Expectations exceeded!