Pupil in the Pulpit

"Jesus steps into our 'Just fine, thank you' lives, and slaps us in the face. Look at where we're sitting. Duke Chapel: a place just teeming with those blessed poor. [Laughter]. We don't pronounce woe upon our rich and powerful. We bury them in the side chapel. We're Duke students, we're on the fast track to somewhere, we're plugged into the system. We hear Jesus, and we assertive, confident-dare I say-arrogant, students feel compelled to give this Jesus an answer..."

These words, drawn from a sermon delivered to inspire Christians to reject comfort for a more noble relationship with Jesus Christ, were never uttered by the likes of Billy Graham. Rather, they were spoken by Trinity sophomore Mark Michael last Sunday, when he addressed a congregation of people at the Chapel.

Michael, the first-place winner in the student-preacher contest organized by the Chapel, is on his way to ministerial greatness. Speaking at the Chapel, a privilege usually reserved for such figures as Chapel pastors and President Nan Keohane, is only a part of his plan.

Wise beyond his 19 years, Michael's descriptive hand gestures and crescendoing voice indicate that God is not simply a part of his life-God is his life.

"Christianity isn't a part of who you are," he explained. "You are first and foremost a Christian, and the way you look at everything is shaped by that."

Passionate about religion ever since his enrollment as a member of the United Church of Christ in his hometown of Clear Spring, Md., Michael first knew he wanted to be a pastor when he was in the first grade. Still, he said, "I didn't get a sense of calling until maybe three years ago when I started doing supply work [as a substitute pastor]."

Hailing from a small mountain town of about 400 people, Michael had the opportunity to develop strong bonds with the pastors to whom he looked for guidance.

"Everyone was always so good to me," he said. "I certainly hope I would never have to live anywhere else but the country."

Since matriculating at the University, Michael has began to make a name for himself, winning the student-preacher contest as a freshman. And although he was the sole candidate this year, the consensus is that Michael did not win by default-his talent and experience would undoubtedly have stood out from any field of undergraduates.

Basing this year's sermon for the contest on the three-year cycle of liturgical texts, Michael engaged the writings of St. Luke and the prophet Jeremiah.

"Basically," he said, "my sermon talked about this idea of what it means to trust in God, to depend on God, and how alien that is to our conceptions of the way we live our lives: We are taught to be independent, to do what we can, but not to radically trust."

"Our wealth, which Jesus so pities, is most often the product not of mere acquisitiveness but of a desire to be comfortable, to be secure, merely to trust in our own abilities to solve our own problems," Michael said during his Sunday sermon.

With the flexibility to engage the text in nearly any way that he chose, Michael said he "studied and read some commentaries and some sermons that had been written on the texts, and from that... drew out what I thought was the best interpretation and proceeded from there."

The prospect of speaking in front of a prodigious audience, Michael said, did not faze him. In fact, Michael did not practice his sermon at the Chapel, choosing instead to review his words in his room and work on revisions with friends.

And on Sunday, Feb. 15, Michael's experience with the ministry paid off.

"[The Chapel] is quite a place to speak-it's a little bigger than the setting I'd feel comfortable with," he explained. "You get nervous about dumb little things like whether your notes are going to fall off the pulpit or not, because I've had trouble with that when I've been speaking; I tend to throw my arms around a lot and knock things around, but it wasn't all that bad."

Dean of the Chapel Will Willimon, who preaches there each Sunday, praised Michael's talents.

"He's good, he's smooth, and he combines great intelligence with a great personality," Willimon explained.

As a mentor to Michael, Willimon suggested stylistic changes and worked on the text before the sophomore's big day at the Chapel. Michael attributes part of his success to his mentor. "It would always be wonderful to preach like [Reverend] Willimon," he said. "I see a man who has dedicated his life to making the gospel relevant to people."

For Michael, relating his sermon to his congregation is of the utmost importance. How does Michael make his sermons relevant? "A lot of prayer, a lot of study," he said. "Good illustrations are what really make sermons powerful for a lot of people."

And next on Michael's "to-do" list? After graduating in 2000, he said, "I will probably go to seminary, a three-year [experience] and then I will take a church wherever I feel God is calling me."

Michael, whose dream is to have "a rural church in the middle of nowhere," plans to return to the countryside later in life and hopes to have a charge of two or three churches in which to preach.

But for now, Michael said he is living in the present. He continues to follow his religious call at the University as an active member of the Presbyterian Fellowship and the Chapel Choir in addition to serving as a group leader for freshman Bible study in the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.

Michael said students have been receptive to his message. "Most students are very interested in Christianity-though some professors seem to think that Christianity is some kind of prop for capitalism or some system of oppression," he said. "They don't seek to truly understand."