Calvin Miller had a message for Anderson University ministry students during his recent two-day visit to campus: Do what it takes to hold on to the excitement and urgency they feel about their faith in Christ.
Calvin MillerMiller, a best-selling author who has been a church planter, pastor and seminary professor, spoke at the Oct. 27 chapel service, then met with Christian studies students and faculty in an informal question-and-answer session. He spoke the previous evening to preaching students in AU’s master of ministry program.
In the chapel session, Miller challenged AU students to hear the voice of God, which he said people often block out with their attitudes and activities. Miller told students he heard God’s voice at two o’clock in the morning in 1975, when he said God began to give him the epic poem that would become the first volume of his best-selling “Singer” trilogy.
Later, speaking to a group of students and pastors, he was asked what he knows now that he wished he had known as a young minister. Miller urged students to maintain the vitality of their faith and their desire to share it with others. He said, “What I wish I could do is go back and feel like I felt in college. These young folks believe with all their hearts.”
Miller told the group how much he enjoys visiting campuses like Anderson. “Any time I see a group of young people serving the Lord, I get excited,” he said. He warned the students that he believes ministry will continue to get harder.
“You’ve got your hands full in the days that are ahead,” Miller said. “Some of the rules are getting rewritten every day about what it takes to be a Christian. Missions and evangelism are two things many people don’t accept anymore. It seems to be seen as increasingly wrong to try and change people. That makes the work of evangelism harder. God bless you as you take a stand for Christ and live out your life.”
Among the topics Miller addressed in response to questions:
Church planting: “When I was your age, I kept getting this feeling nobody was doing church right. That bothered me a lot. Somebody ought to do this different. I started my own church and said, ‘This is going to be different.’?”
Poetry: “I think there are great possibilities (with using poetry in sermons), especially if you write it and memorize it; I have a lot of my poetry memorized so I just stick it in. Preachers in the 1900s wrote poetry especially for their sermons.
Pulpits: “I spend a lot of time with my students on pedagogy, the way to move on stage, or movement in the pulpit. I generally don’t use a pulpit. It’s a wall that blocks out two-thirds of your body. Move out from behind it. Pulpits aren’t necessarily biblical.”
Megachurches: “I think every church should grow. It is no sin to be a small church, but it is a sin to not be a growing church and not to care about reaching people. We are to win the world to Jesus. A church has to grow. But I don’t necessarily believe in megachurches. There aren’t very many of them. I don’t think I’ve taught one student who is going to be Rick Warren. I like the notion that there ought to be room for everyone in the kingdom of God. I believe God has a plan for your life and you will be happy. If God gives you a congregation of 100 or 500, that’s okay.”
Ministerial education: “A pastor should know all you can. Be full of great information on God. One thing I find about evangelicals is we’re very one-dimensional. Why shouldn’t Christians know the best about art and literature and pull it all together? Learn the world. Be diverse. Learn and visit the great movies, read the great novels of every generation, read the classics, read the classics that are being read right now. Get it all together and keep sanctifying it.” – AU