The Travels of Dwight A. Moody: Friday, and back in Owensboro, meeting with Kent Lewis, campus minister at Kentucky Wesleyan College. Largely because of the earlier endorsement by the Kentucky Conference of the United Methodist Church, Kent pledged the cooperation of the College and gave me a list of seven students who are candidates for the Festival.
At the end of the week my energy was almost gone: but one last meeting, with a gathering of Baptist people at Third Baptist Church. I set up a small table with posters and folders, one of which I handed to the guest preacher, from Atlanta.
On the way home, I heard the Forensics Department of Western Kentucky University advertise an event; and a visit to their web-site alerted me to their eight national championships! and I wondered whether their program, or any university forensics program, was attracting young people who aspire to preach. [A note is needed here; forensics is the art of public speech and persuasion, not the science of solving crimes and finding criminals.]
It was Saturday afternoon when I arrived home, having driving 800 miles, eaten way too many meals in restaurants, and slept far too fitfully in strange beds; but it was a good trip: winning friends at Lipscomb University, Kentucky Wesleyan College, and Lifeway Christian Resources, taking videos at Fisk, Vanderbilt, Trevecca Nazarene, and Oakland City, and arriving home with a stack of interest cards from students at a half dozen institutions. It was a wonderful trip, but it will have to last me a while; I need to rest!
Thus is ended this brief narrative of my road trip, throughout which, I might confessed, I was accompanied by a constantly-playing recording of Willie Nelson singing, among other things, “On the Road Again.”
Thursday found me in Owensboro, my old stomping ground. Friend John Williams took me on a tour of the riverfront development and I took him on a tour of the reconstructed Third Baptist Church. Then off to Evansville, where I had a long two-hour lunch with Kevin Fleming, pastor of First Presbyterian Church and, after our conversation, a member of the Board of Advisors for the Academy of Preachers.
On my way north on U. S. Route 41 I received phone confirmation that Kyle Idleman, Teaching Minister at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, had accepted our invitation to be the keynote preacher at the opening worship service of the Festival of Young Preachers in January. I made an appointment to see him in June.
Then on to Oakland City, where I hosted a pizza supper for faculty and students of the University and School of Theology. Thirteen came, including four professors and nine students; seven gathered on the sidewalk in front of Amore’s and made a video that will, in due time, be posted on the Facebook site. So thanks to Preston, Nathaniel, David, Lauren, Jonathan, Randy, and Matt for their on-screen success.
Wednesday I began the day with breakfast at Panera (which is the renamed St. Louis Bread Company) across the street from Vanderbilt University. My companion was Rich Voelz, PhD student at Vanderbilt, who is writing a dissertation on the rhetoric of youth preaching to youth; he will be one of the preaching coaches at the Preaching Camp this summer.
A walk around the University campus brought me to the Baptist Campus Ministry building where Matt, the campus minister, confessed that the BSU contained not a single student planning to preach as a vocation; then on to the Ryker House and a conversation with the University Chaplain, Gay, who promised to display our poster; then to St. Michaels Episcopal where Mark, a staff minister, talked about the young people in their network exploring vocations in ministry.
I got confused about the time change, Eastern to Central, even though I had been in town for more than two days; I therefore missed an important noontime conversation with Joe Tribble, Fisk graduate and Vandy student, who is completing his registration for the Festival.
I did not discover my time confusion until I arrived an hour early for my next appointment, with Linda Osborne. She directs the Collegiate Ministry section at Lifeway, the Southern Baptist ministry center in Nashville. She supervises, in a sense, all 42 of the state Baptist Campus Ministers for Southern Baptists; and she requested 42 of our information folders to distribute to her state leaders.
Finally, out of Nashville after a very fine three days, and on to Owensboro, where I spoke to the gathered congregation where, almost 18 years ago, I was called to serve as pastor: Third Baptist Church. Along the way, I was informed that the mail in Louisville delivered another Festival registration: Jeremy Kramer, of Trevecca Nazarene University.
Tuesday I located Freewill Baptist Bible College on West End Boulevard, surely one of the most pleasant areas of Nashville, and (without an appointment) stopped in for a visit. Dr. Terry Forrest was kind enough to receive me and bemoan to me the decline in ministry students and, more broadly, the resistance of many of their ministers to pursue education.
I then spent more than an hour at Woodmont Baptist Church with 13 pastors, hosted by Dr. Bob Byrd, Professor of Preaching at Belmont University. Included in the group was Dr. Frank Lewis, of First Baptist Church, whose congregation is sponsoring Young Preacher Scott Claybrook for the Festival in January.
Not more than two miles away is Lipscomb and my first visit there left me quite impressed: large, well-kept campus, new buildings (including the Bible, Religion and Ministry department), and two hospitable professors: John York and David Fleer. They are eager to get Lipscomb engaged with the Academy.
Then across town to Trevecca Nazarene University, on Murfreesboro Road. Here I met with five students: C. J. Childs (member of the Leadership Team and registered for the Festival), Jeremy Kramer (“I sent in my registration yesterday,” he said), Jered Welden, Carli Jenkins, and Robert Simmons. We made a video that will, hopefully, find its way to our Facebook site (“Academy of Preachers” where we now have 65 Fans!).
And, as on Monday, word came late in the day from Louisville that we had received the Festival registration of Steven Rhodes, associate minister in Cincinnati and student at Asbury Seminary. A complete list of Festival registrants is maintained elsewhere on this web site.
Monday morning I turned my yellow PT Cruiser southwest from Lexington, headed down the Bluegrass Parkway, picked up Interstate 65, and two hundred plus miles later rolled into Nashville and headed toward Fisk University. No campus community in my nine month promotion of the Academy of Preachers has been more hospitable than the good people at Fisk.
Junior student, and Assistant Dean of the Chapel, Winterbourne Jones is a member of the Young Preachers Leadership Team. He and I went to lunch, then drove through Scarritt Bennett Conference Center (where I will stay the next time I make this trip), visited Downtown Presbyterian Church (with its Egyptian Revival Architecture), stopped at Lifeway Bookstore, then headed back to Fisk.
I met for a long time with Dean of the Chapel Gwen Felder, who also serves on our Board of Advisors. “I have five students who want to preach at the Festival of Preachers,” she said, “and this Sunday we are having a ceremony to license some of them as preachers.” She promised to have their registration forms complete by the end of the school term.
Dean Felder talked with me about designing and launching a chapter of the Academy for the Nashville area. Of all the cities I have visited, Nashville certainly has the most institutional resources for gospel preaching. Then, when I discovered she is friends with Bishop Vashti McKenzie of the AME church, I asked her to call the Bishop and invite her to be the final keynote speaker of our Festival in January.
Before leaving I took two Flip video clips, one of her and the other of two students, promoting the Academy and the Festival. When I have time and opportunity, perhaps Tuesday, I will upload these to our Facebook site.
And finally: Susan Boyer sent me a message that C. J. Childs, a freshman female student at Trevecca Nazarene University sent in her Festival registration. These days, we receive each day either an institutional endorsement or a Festival registration. Things are moving nicely; and Tuesday will be a busy day!