The Preacher of the Week
At the heart of our Worship and Religious Life Program is the Preacher of the Week. Every summer, The Bay View Association invites outstanding preachers and lecturers from around the country to live in residence with us. Each week, a different preacher will bring their message to our Assembly Worship Service (Sunday at 10:45 am) and provide spiritual enrichment through our Religion and Life Lectures (Monday – Thursday at 10 a.m. in Voorhies Hall). All of these events are free and open to the public.
Online audio recordings of the Religion and Life Lectures are free and available to everyone: https://soundcloud.com/bayviewaudio/sets
To view past Assembly Worship Services visit our YouTube channel @BayViewMichigan here.
Pre-Season – Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett: June 8, 2025
The Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett is the Director of Worship and Religious Life at the Bay View Association. Raised in Berkeley, California, she received an undergraduate degree in World and Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University and holds graduate degrees from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (M. Div.) and Pacific School of Religion (D. Min). Her Doctor of Ministry thesis, Telling Stories: Narrative Approaches to Congregational Studies, explores the power of stories to shape a community’s sense of who they are and what they believe is possible for them. Prior to retiring from full-time parish ministry, Dr. Barrett served in settled pastorates and interim settings in southeastern Pennsylvania for 33 years. She and her husband, Rob Scarrow, reside in suburban Philadelphia in the off-season. They have one adult son named, Sam (and a black Lab named, Sophie).
Week 1 – Bishop David Alan Bard: June 15 – 19, 2025
Bishop David Alan Bard is the presiding bishop of the Michigan Conference and jointly serves as bishop of the Illinois Great Rivers Area of The United Methodist Church. Bishop Bard also served the Minnesota Annual Conference as interim bishop 2021-2022.
Before arriving in Michigan in September 2016, Bishop Bard had served at First United Methodist Church in Duluth, Minnesota, since 2005. He was elected to the episcopacy on July 13, 2016, at the North Central Jurisdictional Conference in Peoria, IL. He has been in ministry for more than 30 years and served in many roles within the Minnesota Annual Conference and the General Church.
Bishop Bard received a BA from the University of Minnesota, Duluth in 1981; his Master of Divinity was earned at United Theological Seminary, Twin Cities 1984; and in 1994 he received a Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University with a focus on Christian ethics
Bishop Bard has a wife, Julie, three adult children, and two grandchildren. In his free time, he enjoys music, reading, baseball, and walking outside.
Sponsored in part by the William J. Howell Family Lectures and by your generous contributions to the Worship program.
Week 2 – Brian D. McLaren: June 22 – 26, 2025
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. McLaren is a faculty member for the Center for Action and Contemplation and a podcaster with Learning How to See. He is an Auburn Senior Fellow and is a co-host of Southern Lights. His newest books are Faith After Doubt (January 2021), Do I Stay Christian? (May 2022), Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart (May 2024).
A frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs, he has appeared on All Things Considered, Larry King Live, Nightline, On Being, and Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. His work has also been covered in Time, New York Times, Christianity Today, Christian Century, the Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN.com, and many other print and online media.
Sponsored in part by The Robert and Bettirae Kimes Lectureship Endowment and by your generous contributions to the Worship program.
Week 3 – Rev. Dr. Mary Luti: June 29 – July 3, 2025
Rev. Dr. Mary Luti is a retired minister and professor. For twenty-two years before her retirement, Luti taught the history of Christianity, Christian worship, and preaching at the former Andover Newton Theological School (now Andover Newton Seminary at Yale). Ordained in the United Church of Christ, she also served First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as its sixteenth minister since 1633 and the first woman to occupy that historic pulpit. Her most recent publication is Do This: Communion for Just and Courageous Living, from Pilgrim Press (Stillspeaking Writers Group). Mary Luti is a long time seminary educator and pastor, author of Teresa of Avila’s Way and numerous articles, and founding member of The Daughters of Abraham, a national network of interfaith women’s book groups.
Mary Luti grew up in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in a family of Italian Catholics, with a dose of Irish tossed in for good measure! Steeped in pre-Vatican II Catholicism, with its emphasis on ritual and mystery, she was in college when the Council’s reforms broke upon the Catholic world. Her subsequent Catholic life, including 19 years as a member of a women’s religious community, was shaped by the intellectual and spiritual challenges stirred up by the transition from one kind of Catholic Church to another. She studied theology with the Jesuits at Boston College, earning a Ph.D in the late 1980s. At the same time she began teaching at Andover Newton Theological School, where her relationships with UCC faculty members and students helped her clarify nagging questions about her religious commitments. She joined a UCC congregation in 1990. In 2000, she accepted a call to First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, UCC, and was ordained that same year. Mary served as senior minister of First Church for eight years, until she was called back to Andover Newton to be Visiting Professor of Worship and Preaching and the Director of the Wilson Chapel.
Sponsored in part by a generous grant from the Woman’s Council and by your contributions to the Worship program.
Week 4 – BIG SUNDAY – Rev. Dr. Trygve Johnson: July 6, 2025
Rev. Dr. Trygve Johnson is the CEO of The PreachFor Foundation, an organization working to identify and empower a new generation of talented young leaders through experience, education, and mentorship, to help churches reach their full potential, and make a positive impact in their communities. Trygve is ordained in the Reformed Church in America, with a Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews, where he studied within The Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts. Trygve served for 18 years as the Dean of the Chapel at Hope College, and three years as the Chaplain at Northwestern College. Trygve is a Fellow in The Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination at Western Theological Seminary, and preaches and lectures nationally in churches, non-profits, and collegiate settings. He is the author of numerous articles and chapters on a theology of ministry and leadership, as well as the book The Preacher as Liturgical Artist. Trygve is married to Dr. Kristen Deede Johnson, who serves as the Principal of Wycliffe College, in Toronto Canada. Together they have two children, Trygve Johnson, Jr., and Ella Johnson.
Sponsored in part by the Christian Fellowship Class and by your generous contributions to the Worship program.
American Experience 2025 – Jefferson Cowie: July 7 – 11, 2025
Each lecture will take place at 10am in Voorhies Hall.
Monday and Tuesday, July 7 & 8
Freedom’s Dominion – American freedom is typically associated with the fight of the oppressed for a better world. But for centuries, some Americans have also used that language to justify their freedom to dominate others. These talks consider American freedom, federal power, states’ rights, and their inter-relationships from the early Republic through Reconstruction to the present day.
Wednesday, July 9
The New Deal Era: The Promise and Limits of American Reform – Where does the New Deal fit in the big picture of American history? In the period between the Great Depression and the 1970s, the United States government used its considerable resources on behalf of working Americans to achieve a unique level of equality. What happened to the economic equality it once engendered, and what does this tell us about our era?
Thursday, July 10
Key Words in American Political History – American politics often hinges on the partisan ownership of key words, such as freedom, democracy, faith, and patriotism. In this lecture, Professor Cowie will take these terms as his jumping off point to share insights from his new project on the idea of narrative, how historians think, and the connections between interspersed events in American history,
Friday, July 11
Johnny Cash: The Many Redemptions of an American Soul – This talk, based on Professor Cowie’s forthcoming biography of Johnny Cash considers how this existential pop loner was really a product of several key collaborations that redeemed his art throughout his life.
Week 5 – Marilyn McEntyre: July 13 – 17, 2025
Marilyn McEntyre is a steward of words. She has taught courses on English and medical humanities and has written or edited over twenty books. Since leaving undergraduate teaching at Westmont College, Marilyn McEntyre taught writing at the UCB-UCSF Medical School and now coaches writers and teaches in programs at New College Berkeley, Western Seminary, and the Oblate School of Theology and offers writing workshops and retreats around the country. Her books include Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies; Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict; Word by Word: A Daily Spiritual Practice; When Poets Pray; Dear Doctor; Where the Eye Alights; and The Mindful Grandparent (with co-author Shirley Showalter) as well as several volumes of poetry. In all her work she seeks ways to connect writing, spirituality, and healing, and to offer a wide embrace to the seeking and the curious.
Sponsored in part by the Worship Endowment and by your generous contributions to the Worship program.
Week 6 – Rev. Grace Imathiu: July 20, 2025
The Rev. Grace Imathiu is Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church – Evanston, IL. She has also served churches in Kenya as a church planter; a superintendent minister overseeing 68 rural churches in Nkubu; and an urban minister to an ecumenical congregation in Nairobi with strong outreach to the neighboring slums of Kawangware. Pastor Grace is intimately familiar with the Church in its many theological expressions and social locations.
For Rev. Imathiu “the world is her parish”. As an African who is married to a European and is raising an American son, Grace is committed to advocating for the inclusion of all people. She has preached in Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Togo, Liberia, Denmark, Australia, Malaysia, Brazil, and all throughout the United States. Grace is married to David Hay Jones and together they are the parents of one child.
This is Rev. Imathiu’s third visit to Bay View.
Sponsored in part by the Worship Endowment and by your generous contributions to the Worship program.
Week 6 – Enneagram Retreat with Rev. Clare Loughrige: July 23, 2025
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 23, 2025 Uncover new pathways to faith, hope and love in this one-day retreat. Pastor, spiritual director, and Enneagram author, Rev. Clare Loughrige, will guide participants to new awareness through the Enneagram principles.
Your $40 registration fee includes coffee and pastries, boxed lunch, and a wine and cheese closing reception from 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Have you heard of the Enneagram? This ancient map, represented by a circle inscribed with nine points, reveals the personality patterns hardwired within us. And do you know Ignatius Loyola? This great saint taught the importance of living an integrated life by attending to the motions of the soul.
Rev. Clare Loughrige, (crossroadssoulresources.com) is a skilled facilitator, spiritual director, pastor, Enneagram author, and internationally accredited teacher, who blends these two transformative tools—the Enneagram and Ignatian spirituality—to help you move beyond your hardwiring and uncover new pathways for a journey of faith, hope, and love.
Practical Application
Moving beyond information to transformation, this retreat offers time to practice what you’re learning with moments of reflection and engaging three-centered intelligence practices: IQ (Head), EQ (Heart), and GQ (Gut). Whether you’re seeking personal renewal, aiming to harmonize and regulate your team, or guiding others as a helping professional, this retreat equips you with practices and tools to enrich your life and relationships.
Retreat Schedule
- 9:30 AM – Gathering (with coffee and Danish)
- 10:00 AM – Retreat Begins
- 12:30 PM – Lunch Break
- 1:00–4:00 PM – Retreat Sessions
- 4:00–5:00 PM – Wine & Cheese Gathering (hosted on a beautiful porch overlooking Bay View, offering fellowship or a meaningful conclusion to the retreat)
Important Note: If you’re new to the Enneagram or unsure of your number/style, we strongly recommend taking the Enneagram Inventory before joining us to maximize your experience. Click here to take the $15 inventory
Bonus: Clare’s books will be available for purchase at the retreat.
Join us in the serene beauty of Bay View for an enriching day of soul work, fellowship, and transformation.
Week 7 – Rev. Dr. William H. Willimon: July 27 – 31, 2025
Willimon is Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at the Divinity School, Duke University. He served eight years as Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church, where he led the 157,000 Methodists and 792 pastors in North Alabama. For twenty years prior to the episcopacy, he was Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Christian Ministry at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
Dr. Willimon is the author of roughly one hundred books. His 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.
Willimon’s articles have appeared in many publications including The Christian Ministry, Quarterly Review, Plough, Liturgy, Worship and Christianity Today. For many years he is Editor-at-Large for The Christian Century. He has written church curriculum materials and video for youth, young adults, and adults. His Pulpit Resource is used each week by thousands of pastors in the USA, Canada, and Australia. 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.
Sponsored in part by the Bishop Emerson and Jane Colaw Lectures and by your generous contributions to the Worship program
Week 8 – Ann Voskamp: August 3 (preaching) & 4 (Q & A), 2025
Ann Voskamp is wife of one good farmer, mama to seven exuberant kids, and author of the four New York Times Bestsellers, The Broken Way, The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas, and One Thousand Gifts: Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, a New York Times 67 week bestseller which has sold more than 1.5 million copies, and is translated into more than 20 languages.
Named by Christianity Today as one of 50 women most shaping culture and the church today, and a partner with Compassion International as a global advocate for needy children, Ann’s a regular loser of library books, usually has a sink full of soaking pots, sees empty laundry baskets rarer than a blue moon, and believes that the sky and fresh mercy over the farm is large and all is grace. Her blog is one of the top 10 Christian blogs on the web and has become a daily well for the weary and soul-thirsty: https://annvoskamp.com/blog/
Sponsored in part by the Bailey, Edman, Jones Lecture Endowment and by your generous contributions to the Worship program.
Week 8 – Robin Wall Kimmerer: August 7 (keynote address), 2025
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing, and her other work has appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. In 2022, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults was adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith. This new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us.
Sponsored in part by the Worship Endowment and by your generous contributions to the Worship program.
Week 9 – Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery: August 10, 2025
The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery is the Dean of Duke University Chapel and Professor of Homiletics and African and African American Studies. He holds faculty appointments in Duke’s Divinity School and the Department of African and African American Studies in the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. A national leader in the theological study of the art of preaching (homiletics), Dean Powery regularly delivers sermons at Duke Chapel as well as churches throughout the United States and abroad. He is often a keynote speaker and lecturer at educational institutions, conferences, symposia, and retreats.
Prior to his appointment at Duke, he served as the Perry and Georgia Engle Assistant Professor of Homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary. He received his Bachelor of Arts in music with a concentration in vocal performance from Stanford University, his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and his Doctor of Theology from Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto.
Sponsored in part by the Butterfield-Thomas Endowment and by your generous contributions to the Worship program.
Post-Season Week 1 – Rev. Aaron Tredway: August 17, 2025
The Rev. Aaron Tredway is the lead pastor of Fellowship City Church and vice president of Ambassadors Football International. He was the founder and executive director of the Cleveland City Stars, a professional soccer team, and is the author of Don’t Miss Your Life: The Secret to Significance, To Who: A Competition for Glory and Outrageous: Awake to the Unexpected Adventures of Everyday Faith. A sought-after speaker and world traveler, Aaron has mentored thousands of athletes and coaches around the world. Aaron and his wife, Ginny, live in Cleveland, Ohio, with their son, Noah.
Sponsored in part by the Solms Endowment and by your generous contributions to the Worship program.
Post-Season Week 2 – Julie Greyerbiehl: August 24, 2025
Rev. Dr. Julie Greyerbiehl is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and serves as the pastor of Petoskey United Methodist Church. She has an academic background in science, holding a Bachelor of Science and a Ph.D. in Botany and Plant Pathology from Michigan State University. After completing her studies in the sciences, she felt called to ministry and went on to earn a Master of Divinity from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.
Julie combines her scientific background with her ministry, fostering a thoughtful approach to faith that values both knowledge and spirituality. She currently serves Petoskey United Methodist Church, where she seeks to create a church environment where questions are welcome, faith is nurtured, community is formed, and faith is lived out in everyday life.
Sponsored in part by the Worship Endowment and by your generous contributions to the Worship program.
Post-Season Week 3 – Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett: August 31, 2025
The Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett is the Director of Worship and Religious Life at the Bay View Association. Raised in Berkeley, California, she received an undergraduate degree in World and Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University and holds graduate degrees from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (M. Div.) and Pacific School of Religion (D. Min). Her Doctor of Ministry thesis, Telling Stories: Narrative Approaches to Congregational Studies, explores the power of stories to shape a community’s sense of who they are and what they believe is possible for them. Prior to retiring from full-time parish ministry, Dr. Barrett served in settled pastorates and interim settings in southeastern Pennsylvania for 33 years. She and her husband, Rob Scarrow, reside in suburban Philadelphia in the off-season. They have one adult son named, Sam (and a black Lab named, Sophie).
Bay View Worship invites people of all ages to explore and grow their faith through a variety of worship services, worship music, Bible studies, Sunday School classes, and prayer groups. The Worship Endowment supports these efforts to explore and nurture faith for all ages. Would you consider investing in the future of faith at Bay View by adding the Worship Endowment to your will or estate plan? To learn more about how to leave your legacy, contact Giving@BayViewAssociation.org.