Throughout the past spring semester students at Adrian College have had the opportunity to preach the parables of Jesus to their fellow students during weekly services held Wednesdays at noon in Herrick Chapel on campus.
The idea to have a student led series stemmed from conversations with the students of the Religious Life Council. Students signed up for a particular parable that interested or resonated with them and then set a date to preach it. After choosing their parable students would take several weeks to prepare their thoughts on the topic.
“Everyone has taken the task seriously and has “lived” with the parable for several weeks,” said the Rev. Chris Momany, supervisor for this project. “I encouraged the students to talk with me, but I don’t look over anyone’s shoulder with a preconceived expectation. By the time they drop by and talk with me, they have already done some serious praying and studying—often consulting scholarly sources on their topic.”
Throughout Momany’s experiences he has grown to understand and appreciate how difficult it can be to prepare teaching these parables, and has been impressed with the work these students have demonstrated.
“They [the students] have offered some of the best interpretation I have ever heard around these texts,” Momany said. “I don’t think anything I have heard or learned has been deeper or more principled than the work of our student this semester in chapel.”
The series began in January and will conclude this Wednesday with a lesson from AC senior Kyle Bucholz during the noon service in Herrick Chapel.
“I suppose I am most proud of the depth and insight shared by the students,” Reverend Momany said when asked what he was most proud about regarding the student preaching series. “They are all very different people, and they all have different styles. Yet each and every person has reached down and found something we would have missed as a worshipping community had they not been there to show us. Overall, I found it to be profoundly authentic—real in a way that is hard to describe.”
Reverend Momany attended Princeton Seminary, did his doctoral work at Drew University, and then studied at the nationally-selected post-doctoral preaching program with The United Methodist in Nashville, TN.
For more information please contact Momany at cmomany@adrian.edu.
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