Pumping Truth to a Disinclined World
An Interview with William Willimon
Marshall Shelley and Jim Berkley
April 1, 1990
In front of the fraternities and residence halls at Duke University stand creatively designed wooden structures that look like mini-bleachers. Students sprawl on them to enjoy the sunshine or to ogle the passing parade of coeds.
A short distance away stands the much more substantial Duke Chapel, impressive in its Gothic glory. Inside that chapel on Sundays, William Willimon preaches to the passing academic parade, trying to wrest their minds toward eternal matters.
An exercise in futility? Not on your life. In his puckish way, Willimon points their attention toward Christianity.
Willimon was called to Duke Chapel after pastorates in Georgia and his home state of South Carolina. His writing in The Christian Century and his more than twenty books have made him known to fellow pastors-many of whom can't quite figure him out.
What is the real Will Willimon like? And how does he preach to anybody in a college chapel students aren't required to attend?
To answer these and other questions, LEADERSHIP editors Marshall Shelley and Jim Berkley visited him on the Duke campus. There, serenaded by the massive chapel organ playing Bach, he talked about preaching to a disinclined culture.
Do people really listen to preaching anymore?
I remember from childhood that preaching was a kind of public entertainment-the spring and fall revivals. Time magazine featuring the ten best preachers of America. We may have lost some of that.
But I'd like to challenge the notion that people are less interested in preaching than two thousand years ago. People are as interested as ever in finding meaning for their lives. In fact, one could argue that Americans are eagerly grubbing around for meaning. I mean, people are actually listening to Shirley MacLaine! That's ...
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