In “Changed Eyes: Pandemic, Protests, Proclamation,” released last year, Joel Huffstetler, the rector of two-plus decades at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland, Tennessee, published sermons he delivered in a time of tumult and radical change.
An alum of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, Huffstetler once served as assistant pastor at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Chattanooga, where it was among his tasks to organize the lenten season’s Thorne Sparkman School of Religion. Now in its 51st installment, the school has been recast as a lecture series and kicks off Wednesday with a talk from the author and historian Jon Meacham.
Huffstetler is slated to speak March 13. In an interview Friday, edited for concision and clarity, he discussed becoming more comfortable in his skin, the role of the sermon in a difficult time — and his own process for writing one.
Q: There are different schools of thought on what makes a good sermon. What school of thought do you most closely adhere to?