Author Archives: willwillimon

I take now a break from reprinting tidbits from the blog’s WLWE?:PTCR archives to alert you to something UM Discipleship published of mine yesterday. It begins, “Two Sundays after the murder of George Floyd. Again, no mention of BLM, George, Ahmaud, or race from our pulpit,”she said. “I’m heartbroken. If the Christian faith has nothingContinue reading “Preaching Grace for an Anti-racist Church”

Back in in 2017, after Who Lynched Earle?  Preaching to Confront Racism was published, we had a wonderful day at Wofford College focused upon the issues of the book with many clergy, students, and scholar gathered there to explore the subjects of our racist past and our responsibilities for race and bias in the churchContinue reading “Racial Repentance”

Webmaster’s Note: I republish because the Zoom link has been added to the post. It will be the same address as for the prior series. Having closed out the Reading Barth Together series with Stanley on Karl Barth’s Dogmatics in Outline, all five sessions are posted on my YouTube channel for your viewing pleasure. Since they went so well, Stanley andContinue reading “Reading More Barth Together”

The Methodist magazine Catalyst recently published this article I wrote on preaching as daring to speak about and for God. You’ll find more along the lines of this argument in my forthcoming book Preachers Dare. Barth said that Christ is not only the content of faithful preaching, public speech about and addressed to Christ; ChristContinue reading “Preachers Dare”

I led a Bible Study this week for the Congregation at Duke Chapel on the psalms of creation, specifically the 104th Psalm. We talked about what it means to read and pray a psalm like this during our double pandemic of COVID-19 and racism. –Will

After Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri, my friend Dr. Willis Johnson invited me to speak at his church during their Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration. It was a great, humbling honor. I encouraged Willis to share his thoughts on antiracism, particularly addressed to white congregations like the ones I’ve served, and the result wasContinue reading “Take Responsibility”

Conrade Yap posted this five-star review of my recent book Aging: Growing Old in Church. He writes, This is one of the best books on aging that I have read. Filled with wisdom and insight, it is written by one who had seen many cultural shifts. With biblical insights, we are reminded once again notContinue reading “Review of Aging”

I’m reposting a series from back when I published Who Lynched Earle?  Preaching to Confront Racism in late February 2017. It turns out preaching (especially from white preachers) still needs to confront racism three years later: no surprise there. Who Lynched Willie Earle? opens with a lynching in my hometown when I was one yearContinue reading “Peculiarly Christian Talk about Race”

I spoke recently with Jason Barnhart of The Brethren Church about many of my usual topics: Barth, the Bible, the Church, the Spirit, etc. etc. etc. You can watch here on their website.