The Sermon Spring 1983

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Calvin Miller is a 6' 2" contradiction. A Southern Baptist far from Dixie, he quotes Shakespeare with a soft Oklahoma drawl. His cowboy boots match his affection for Kenny Rogers but belie his love for Charles Dickens. The many fantasy buffs who bought his Singer Trilogy (InterVarsity) and other recent books with titles like Guardians of the Singreale (Harper & Row) can hardly imagine him soaking wet in a baptistry or out knocking on doors every Monday night, calling on recent visitors to his church.

But he has been a pastor ever since he was a junior at Oklahoma Baptist University. He married a young woman from his first congregation, went on to finish his studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, and moved to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, in 1961. He and Barbara started a church there and also welcomed a daughter and a son to their home. Then in 1966, they came to Omaha to pioneer Westside Baptist Church, where they still serve.

Miller's great love is communication. He combines a flair for the artistic and literary with an intense desire to be understood. That is why LEADERSHIP editors Terry Muck, Dean Merrill, and Marshall Shelley invited him to Chicago to talk about the secrets of creative preaching.

With everything else going on in your life-writing books, overseeing a staff of six, calling on people, painting watercolors for exhibits-how do you find time to be a preacher, too?

Preaching is not a separate activity from the rest; sermons are drawn from life. My job is simply to observe life, to be aware, to notice how the Bible fits life and can be used to guide people. This is something that just goes on continually.

I do have times of intense preparation, of course. Every December I sit down, mark out ...

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