Moderator's Town Hall

Thursday, March 18th

Annual Conference Moderator Paul Mundey is excited to announce the next Moderator’s Town Hall on March 18, 2021, at 7:00 PM EDT. The featured resource person will be Dr. William H. Willimon, a highly respected church leader who has served as a pastor, seminary professor, university chaplain, and bishop.

The focus of the Town Hall will be “Peacebuilding When We’re So Divided.” As both church and culture continue to fracture, many are discouraged, groping for ways to address the divide. We will explore practical peacebuilding skills, drawing on current best practices, along with insights from scripture, theology, and church history. The emphasis will be on hope while acknowledging the necessity of realism and lament.

Will Willimon is currently Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke Divinity School. He served eight years as Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church, where he led the 157,000 constituents and 792 pastors of that judicatory. For twenty years prior to the episcopacy, he was Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Christian Ministry at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

A graduate of Wofford College (B.A. 1968), Yale Divinity School (M.Div. 1971), and Emory University (S.T.D. 1973), he has served as pastor of churches in Georgia and South Carolina. Since 1976, he has served in various roles at Duke Divinity school, including Assistant Professor of Liturgy and Worship, Director of the Ministerial Course of Study School, and Presiding Minister in the Divinity School Chapel. He has been awarded honorary degrees from thirteen colleges and universities including Wofford College, Lehigh University, Colgate University, Birmingham-Southern College, and Moravian Theological Seminary.

Bishop Willimon has given lectures and taught courses at many pastors’ schools and at colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. These include the Belden Lectures at Harvard as well as lectureships at Princeton, Vanderbilt, Pepperdine, and Oxford. In 1998, he served on the theological faculty of the University of Bonn, Germany and in 1991, he was Distinguished Guest Professor at the University of Muenster, Germany.

He is the author of roughly one hundred books. His book Worship as Pastoral Care was selected as one of the ten most useful books for pastors in 1979 by the Academy of Parish Clergy. Over a million copies of his books have been sold. In 1996, an international survey conducted by Baylor University named him one of the Twelve Most Effective Preachers in the English-speaking world. A 2005 study by the Pulpit and Pew Research Center found that Bishop Willimon is the second most widely read author by mainline Protestant pastors. His Pulpit Resource is used each week by thousands of pastors in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

To register for the Town Hall, please access the blue button below or use the following link: tinyurl.com/ModTownHallMar2021

You are encouraged to sign up early, as the event is limited to the first 500 registrants. The Town Hall will once again feature a Question & Answer format. You are invited to submit your questions for Dr. Willimon during the Town Hall, or you can send them in advance. To send your questions prior to the Town Hall, please email: cobmoderatorstownhall@gmail.com. Though we cannot commit to answering every question, we’ll do our best to use what is submitted.

Questions or issues related to registering for the Town Hall can be emailed to cobmoderatorstownhall@gmail.com.

Register for Town Hall