Mentoring with Morgan
Karen Schlack
Foreword by Alton B. Pollard III
Mentoring with Morgan
Copyright © 2020 Karen Schlack. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Wipf & Stock
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
paperback isbn: 978-1-7252-6488-5
hardcover isbn: 978-1-7252-6489-2
ebook isbn: 978-1-7252-6490-8
Manufactured in the U.S.A. 03/20/20
For Daniel, my beloved husband,
who has always supported this book
and patiently provided technical support
and videos of live sermons.
Sermon Videos
https://mentoringwithmorgan.com/resources/
Chapter 8
“Like Those Who Dream”
Chapter 10
“Hold On”
Chapter 11
“An Unhindered Kingdom”
Chapter 13
“The Gift of Diversity”
Chapter 14
“Work to Do”
“Always Remembered”
Sermon Manuscripts
https:// mentoringwithmorgan.com/resources
Chapter 4
“Back to Normal”
“Rachael Weeping”
Chapter 5
“Kept in Unity”
Chapter 6
“Love is Patient”
Chapter 7
“Welcome to Luke”
“In the Season of Our Hatred”
Chapter 8
“Like Those Who Dream”
Chapter 10
“Hold On”
Chapter 11
“An Unhindered Kingdom”
Chapter 12
“Be a Caretaker”
Chapter 13
“A Great Cloud of Witnesses”
“The Gift of Diversity”
Chapter 14
“Work to Do”
“Always Remembered”
Acknowledgments
A great cloud of witnesses has carried me on their shoulders to the place where I now stand . . . book in hand. After writing the early drafts of the manuscript, the following persons read the manuscript and offered comments, corrections, and encouragement:
Karla Bellinger
Lant and Amanda Davis
Margaret Grau
Jan Van Lear
Cally McKinney
Chris Palmquist
Alton Pollard
Dorothy Ridings
Judy Ryan
Daniel Schlack
Katie Shaw-Thompson
Lynne Smith
Pat Somers
Debby Walters
Also heartfelt thanks to:
My patient and talented husband Daniel, who filmed my sermons for over five years and provided technical assistance during the preparation of this book.
Mathan Chakarabarthi and Ian Miska for website design.
Louisville Seminary, a faithful seed bed (seminary) for me, providing provocative instruction and most of all, Morgan Roberts! Morgan carried my seminary education for fifteen years beyond my graduation. The seminary was also a receptive place when I first introduced this book to them during the President’s Roundtable in 2019.
First Presbyterian Church in Elgin, Illinois, full of faithful listeners to my sermons, week after week. They provided the context for my journey. The choir, the Sunday school, the session, and each member gave me their love and shared the precious moments of their lives with me.
Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton, Wisconsin, the place that provided a space for me to write and retreat. The prayerful, peaceful, and beautiful monastery grounds were the place I made the decision to write the book and the place where I wrote many of the words in this book.
Foreword:
The Music God Hears
There is in every person that which waits, waits, waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in herself. There is that in every person that waits—waits and listens—for the sound of the genuine in other people. And when these two sounds come together, this is the music God heard when God said, “let us make humankind in our image.”1
The world ever stands in need of good preaching. In this gem of a book, two ministers—one a fledgling preacher, the other a seasoned pastor, both of whose hearts hunger for God—take us on a melodic journey through fifteen years of sermonic inspiration, social engagement, self-discovery, and disclosure. The sacred saturates every page.
I first met Karen Schlack less than two years ago when she served on the presidential search committee for Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Hers was an attentive and inviting presence then. At present a member of our President’s Roundtable, she remains so still. This year, I was honored to spend time with celebrated pastor emeritus F. Morgan Roberts. I look forward to doing so again.
Reflecting on my own years of formation, I found a deep resonance with many of the experiences and insights shared by Karen and Morgan. Mentoring with Morgan is a compact tome and substantial testimony. It offers the reader-listener a litany of biblical, theological, and ethical insights, harmonic language, and homiletical wisdom.
The stories shared about sermon preparation and mentoring response accompany life’s passages for the two authors. Their stories intersect at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary as student and esteemed staff member. It is a covenantal relationship that continued to flourish cross-country, through weekly emails, by phone, and more. We journey with them, chapter by chapter, through techniques of sermon preparation and delivery, out into the daily walk of life.
More than a manual on preaching, Karen and Morgan present a thoughtful and captivating dialogue that grapples with the dilemmas, contradictions, and joys of the preaching moment. Creating what they have called the “mentoring room,” in which the give-and-take of insights is shared, they faithfully discuss a range of issues from preaching without a manuscript to social justice engagement and the transition to life as a retiring pastor.