Mike Woodruff
All the above. We have events. We have fellows, people who are going to commit to spending three hours on Sunday afternoon for an academic year, reading and doing more rigorous work. We have tours, we have publications. We came out with our first book. I came to this kicking and screaming, but I agreed to write a book that somebody could read on a flight. It’s 90 pages which rankles me a little bit. I want to say no, you need to read a long book, and you need to get the intellectual rigor back to do that. I’ve had people throw that my face and say, you need to read Dostoevsky in Russian!
David Capes
That’s not going to happen!
Mike Woodruff
That’s not going to happen. I’m going to lead a book study on that. And again, that would be the kind of thing that Lakelight would do. We would say, let’s reflect on some of the Christian themes that Dostoevsky is trying to dive into. Obviously, I’m not going to preach on that because that’s not scripture, but it’s also not where we think our small groups need to be. But we wanted to create a venue for people who wanted that. So, it’s events, it’s publications. There’s a big web presence. Lots of people take classes online.
David Capes
If people want to know where this is on the web, where would they need to go?
Mike Woodruff
Lakelight.com will get you to our website, and you can see some of the things that we’ve got coming up. Dr. Vanhoozer is going to teach a class on the work of Christ. I do a lot of interviews. We’ve got a talk coming up with Nancy Ortberg in a couple of weeks. We had Robert George from Princeton out for a longer discussion on freedom and Western Civ and higher ed. Those are the kinds of things that you’ll see it on the website.
David Capes
As I looked on the website, there’s a lot of people that I know, people like Collin Hansen, Peter Williams, Vince Bacote, and others too, that have been a part of this with you over the time. So down the road, do you see this as an ongoing work of the ministry of the church, or is this something that’s eventually going to break away, have its own energy, have its own focus become more than local. Become more national?
Mike Woodruff
We’ve got a very gifted younger leader, Ben Dockery, who is the president of Lakelight. And I think that this is bigger than Christ Church. Now the people who are at Christ Church will have more opportunities as Lakelight grows, but we’re trying to be a resource to more than just our congregation, for sure, and I could see it outgrowing the footprint that it’s got right now. I chair the board, and so I’m watching this and as you said, raising money for this. Ben and his team have done really good work. And I said, wow. Ben is setting up the chess board. He is making early moves. When you understand what he’s doing, you see this is being positioned very strategically.
David Capes
So he has a long game in mind.
Mike Woodruff
You know, we’re in a crisis. As you know, institutions are suffering. Trust is down across the board for the media, government, the church, and big business. Every institution is being challenged. Higher Ed is, of course, being challenged. That doesn’t mean institutions are not good things. They are, and we need good institutions. I’m saying, let’s build something that is playing the long game. I think it’ll be bigger than Christ Church. That’s my prayer, and that’s my effort to that end.
David Capes
What I really appreciate as I read some of the material that you guys have created is how you are trying to fire the Christian imagination. Get people to think bigger and broader and greater and grander along the way. That includes what you mentioned earlier about faith and work integration. That includes reading these great books, whether it’s about politics or it’s about literature or it’s about media.
And one of the things I was reading there, and I was fascinated by, is the dangerous arena we’re in right now with technology, and what technology is doing to us. How we’ve become so enthralled with it, and it’s so much a cornerstone of our life, and yet we are missing some of the weightier things, the most important things along the way. But you guys seem like you’re making a great contribution, so I applaud what you’re doing.
I’m hoping that you inspire other churches in other cities and communities to do something similar in their own environments. Not everyone is going to become a Lakelight, but at least they can realize what we can do to be more than just, first year Bible study and sermons. We can have something that goes deeper and weightier. Get people to think about loving God, not only with their whole heart, but loving God with their whole mind as well.
Mike Woodruff
We want to be a resource for that. There’s a couple different ways that that can play out. One is look at us and copy it. But do your own thing. I put out this Friday update. I say to pastors all the time, I’m going to send you this newsletter. Plagiarize it at will. But you need something like this or just forward it out to your people. Use it however it serves you. I could see other churches starting institutes like Lakelight. I could see a lot of other churches just saying, you guys just had a class on C.S. Lewis; how could we do that class? And we say here’s how we can help you. It could be a Lakelight class. It could be on your own. Let us help you do that.
I taught a class at Lakelight. We’ve got a class on Christianity in the Arts. We just did a survey of the Old Testament. We’ve got Dr Vanhooser teaching his second class on theology. We do a variety of different classes. And again, that’s a venue, that is one option among others. Do a talk on C.S. Lewis, which was invaluable. And this talk that Dr George gave. I ran into an Ivy League lawyer a couple days ago, and he said he listened to that Lakelight talk. I’ve convened a bunch of attorneys; I’ve invited them to a luncheon. I’m just going to play that talk, because it was so good. So, we’re trying to create those resources and put them out there and say to people, use them.
David Capes
Come get them. Come get them. Use them. That’s a great gift to the church. It’s a great gift also to the academy, as will, which is what we hope to do here at the Lanier Theological Library. Mike Woodruff, thanks so much for being with us today on “The Stone Chapel Podcast.”
Mike Woodruff
Thank you, David, great to be with you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
