While Avyi Hill stood alone in front of our congregation this past Sunday, her first time preaching wasn’t a solitary act. After three weeks of preparation, four sermon drafts, and an unknown number of hours wrestling with theological commentaries, the advice and guidance from Blacknall staff helped the Seminary Intern finalize ideas for a 21-minute sermon that she’ll always remember.
Insights from Pastor Goodie Bell, Director of Youth Ministry Kat Burgett, and fellow Seminary Intern Suzanne Pape helped Avyi find a new way to share the word of God — a distinct shift from writing essays for her graduate classes at Duke Divinity School.
“I'm used to pouring my heart into something, submitting it to a professor, and it’s gone,” Avyi said. "But I found out I really like public speaking. And this whole process felt like a communal creation. It was very personal but shaped by the people around me.”
Avyi’s sermon, structured around the tension between belief and behavior found in 1 John 2:28-3:10, focused on three thematic pairings:
Because Christ will appear in glory in the end times, we practice purity.
Because Christ appeared in the flesh to take away sin, we renounce sin.
Because Christ makes us children of God, we practice what is right.
Avyi said Goodie helped by providing commentaries on 1 John to consider, while Kat and Suzanne were pivotal in the writing and editing process to make sure her preaching would stick personally and experientially.
"She built her words around two of my favorite themes: Learning that leads to a deeper, heartfelt, day-to-day connection with Jesus that leads to changed thoughts and action, and looking forward to the restoration of all things as a reality that brings hope every day, not just a distant event divorced from our lives," said Blacknall member Ron Manila. "I'm so glad God brought her into this role for the summer."
Serving as a Seminary Intern and getting a chance to preach was helpful in reorienting her connection to Scripture from a more intellectual pursuit during the school year, Avyi said. Seeing how academic knowledge can thrive in a faith-filled church allowed her to feel the Holy Spirit in new ways.
"Being at Blacknall challenged the assumption you can only have deep thought in academic settings or deep spiritual formation in a church,” Avyi said. “But I'm surrounded here by people who are deeply thoughtful about their faith and also deeply unafraid to ask hard questions.”
Among all these discoveries, God saved a special surprise on Sunday. Unknowingly, two friends from Avyi’s undergrad years at Wheaton College were in Durham for the weekend and came to Blacknall to hear her sermon. It was the first time in four years they had reconnected in person — they knew her as a math major back then — and they approached Avyi in her communion line.
“My jaw dropped,” Avyi recalled with a smile. “‘What a career change’ they said.”
Watch Avyi’s sermon: