June 28th, 2004
 

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien personified the intelligent, imaginative and spiritually rich heritage we long to recover today. My extraordinary weekend with the C.S. Lewis Foundation this weekend allowed me to bask on the warmth and light of their collective literary suns with people of like mind and spirit.

We were guided on our tour by luminaries like Paul Ford, Peter Kreeft, Luci Shaw, Joseph Pearce, Jerry Root and Ben Patterson, all brought to us by a team led by the passionate, joyful Stan Mattson, President of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. Fernando Ortega and Anne Herring lifted our souls musically and actors Mark Jennings, Tony Lawton and the Lamb’s Players did the same dramatically with samplings of comedy and tragedy.

While all this was good, becoming acquainted with a kindred spirit was the high point of the conference for me. His name is Nigel Goodwin (foto above).

Nigel is the incarnation of the Culturally Savvy Christian, a man of deep faith immersed deeply in culture. He is “Monty Python meets C.S. Lewis and Tolkien.” An exceptional storyteller he grasps the essence of Biblical stories and tells them engagingly & humorously; he draws people beyond the superficial and takes them deep. Do you agree what people hunger for in a superficial age is depth, texture and substance in their feather-light lives? At his core is the blend of head, heart and gut, which expresses itself with dramatic flair and a lot of hugs.

Rooming with him gave me more access to a man who so many would love to access more. It was a gift at a time God is so actively shaping my own vision and calling.

Read more about Nigel at his website where am ong other things you’ll read this:

“Introducing Nigel Goodwin..... Nigel is the Founder and International Director of Genesis Arts. He trained as an actor and, worked in film., television and theatre before combining this experience with a theological training. His background enables him to understand and encourage those in the arts and media. After helping to found The Arts Centre Group in 1971 along with his wife Gillie, Genesis Arts Trust was set up to expand the international side of Nigel's work. Today the trust maintains close links with many arts groups and individuals around the globe. His calling is consultancy, international networking, training, conference speaking, counseling, preaching, lecturing, publishing articles etc.

Genesis Arts delves beneath the surface and meets with the people, known and unknown who carry our collective dreams and nightmares. With them, we seek to recognize and establish a Christian worldview, to know the reality and beauty of Jesus Christ in our lives, work and play.”

If you’d like to enjoy this sweet company of the C.S. Lewis crowd, mark your calendars for the big event next summer: July 24-August 5, 2005 - Oxbridge 2005 - The Good, the True, and the Beautiful: The Discarded Image in a Postmodern Age, Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

God is far too good to me with the gift of so many friends and I count you dear reader among them.

Yours for the pursuit of God in the company of friends, Dick Staub.

PS. And remember, “these are the best of times and the worst of times, but they are the only times we have.” (For Now).

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