I stayed through Thursday but had to leave Atlanta before my enthusiasm meter absolutely exploded: such was the cumulative effect of my four day promotional tour for the Academy.
I visited for 90 minutes with Matt Flemming and Anna Florence Carter. He is a PhD student teaching homiletics at Columbia Theological Seminary and she is the professor of homiletics at the same school. They were thrilled with the Festival plans and promised to have a half-dozen of their best students at the Festival, then invited me to relocate the entire Academy to their beautiful campus on the east side of Atlanta.
Then to All Souls Episcopal Church in the center of town, to meet with Lewis Schueddig and Peter Wallace of the Alliance for Christian Media (which is the merger of the old Protestant Radio House, now Day1 , and the Episcopal Media Center. It was a splendid conversation opening up doors of opportunity for both the Alliance and the Academy. They also expressed interest in housing the Academy!
Finally: Morehouse College, the famous college for African American Men. I met with Dean of the Chapel Lawrence Carter and his staff (Sarah, Roy, and Terry), then with 30 students who are members of the Chapel associates; many were ministerial students, and 12 signed up as very interested in Preaching at the Academy. The Dean and I then talked over dinner for another two hours and, you guessed it, he also offered to find space for us on their campus!!
This infusion of interest and energy has come at a good time. We are struggling with a level of indifference in Louisville. Awakening to the enormous enthusiasm for the Academy of Preachers in other places has lifted my spirits and renewed my energy. My, what a little encouragement will do!!
We have one month remaining in the registration period and I anticipate a flood of young preachers rushing their material to us by the October 1 deadline. I predict we will have more young preachers from Atlanta than from Louisville!! Let ’em come!! God be praised!!