News Release
March 1999
Tex Sample will lecture on "Ministry in Three Cultures:
Oral, Literate, and Electronic" in the Bahnson Center for the Weber
Memorial Lectures on Friday, March 12, from 9:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
This series of lectures identifies the three different
cultures that make up a congregation, exploring the differences within
a group of worshipers on Sunday who at first appear homogeneous but
are really individuals that live in at least three different cultures.
"The Oral Culture: Living with Will Rogers, Uncle
Remus and Minnie Pearl," is the first lecture at 9:30 a.m. In this
lecture Tex Sample will identify how proverbs and stories influence
the oral culture.
The second lecture is at 10:45 a.m. "The Literate
Culture: Words, Words, Words—From Shakespeare to Billboards,"
describes the literate culture that trusts the written word. Then at
1:00 p.m. "The Electronic Culture: Logging On with Bill Gates and
His Friends," will explain how this group is suspicious of any
medium that doesn’t have a hard drive. The final lecture is at
2:15 p.m. combines all of these ideas into "Ministry in All Three
Cultures."
Tex Sample is the Robert B. and Kathleen Rogers Professor
of Church and Society at Saint Paul School of Theology, Kansas City,
Missouri. He is the author of U.S. Lifestyles and Mainline Churches:
A Key to Reaching People in the ’90s, Ministry in an Oral Culture,
and White Soul: Country Music, the Church and Working.
There is no cost for the lecture which is sponsored by
the Ecumenical Committee for Continuing Education and the Lay Academy.
The Weber Memorial Lectures were established in 1950 in memory of Rev.
Christian O. Weber and his wife, Dorothy Pfohl Weber, by their sons,
Herbert, Christian, and Bruce.
The lectures will be held in the Bahnson Center, 60 W.
Locust Street, Bethlehem. For registration information, contact the
Office of Continuing Education at Moravian Theological Seminary at (610)
861-1519.
