The wisecracking bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church will be talking about his new book "Who Will Be Saved" during a visit to Durham on June 28, but his main reason for coming is to preach at the 11 a.m. service at Duke Memorial United Methodist on that Sunday.

This will be the first time the Rev. Will Willimon, former dean of Duke Chapel,will preach at a local Durham church since his election to the Council of Bishops in the summer of 2004.

Willimon fans will be happy to know that he's still making wisecracks and still living to regret some of them.

Before his election to the Episcopacy, he described the United Methodist Church's Council of Bishops as "the bland leading the bland."

"I've lived to regret that comment," he said in an e-mail interview this week, "though I have also lived to realize how right it was."

So what is the state of the church from the Bishop's perspective?

"The Methodist Church is indeed turning, responding at last to some of our challenges, but it's a bit like when the captain of the Titanic realized that he was headed straight for an iceberg. Turning around a church as far- flung as ours takes time."

Co-pastors at Duke Memorial, the Rev. Roger Owens and the Rev. Ginger Thomas, invited the Bishop to preach on this particular Sunday because Wesley, the six-month-old son of Willimon's daughter and son-in-law, Harriet and Garrett Putman, will be baptized. Willimon and his wife, Patsy, have three grandsons.

"We are thrilled that our family has found a vibrant church home there," Willimon said. "It is thrilling to see Roger and Ginger doing so many things right at this historic congregation. And Roger is a fabulous preacher."

Willimon will preach from the text Mark 5:21-43, the passage in which Jesus raises a little girl from the dead.

"I'm telling Wesley and the Duke Memorial congregation that whenever Jesus shows up in a life, or at church, hold onto your hats, Willimon said. "Jesus loves to raise the dead. He makes what otherwise could be a boring life or a dull church into an adventure."

He added that he will make an earnest attempt not to brag on his grandson, Wesley.

For those who are wondering if Willimon has been as much of a spark plug as a bishop as he was in the pulpit, the answer is yes.

"I had a group try to get me moved after my first four years, saying that I was not sufficiently respectful of older pastors," said Willimon, 63. "My reply was, 'You idiots' -- I said this in love -- 'I AM an older pastor.' When they resist change, I tell them to 'Take it up with Jesus.'"

Willimon will discuss his new book at 9:45 a.m. on Sunday in the Bradshaw Room at Duke Memorial.

"It's my reflections on the wonder that it is the nature of the God we meet in Jesus to save, not to wait until people come to him. He comes to them. Jesus saves. Not only that, Jesus tends to save people that nobody thought could be saved and we despise him for that. Jesus got into all manner of trouble for saving the wrong people! I wish I could get that book on Oprah's List."

Folks who follow the religious scene may have read Willimon's review of Bart Ehrman's new book, "God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer our Most Important Question -- Why We Suffer," in the Christian Century magazine. The online response has been tremendous, with what appears to be more stories about the Bishop's review than about Ehrman's book.

At the conclusion of his review, Willimon wrote: "I find it amazing that after the bloodiest century on record there is someone still arguing that humanity just might be able to get organized and straighten out what God almighty has messed up. This book seems an awful lot of fuss to reach so banal a destination."

"When I was at Duke Chapel, a dean emerged after one of my attempts at a sermon muttering, 'Just once I would like to hear an academic or intellectual appear in one of your sermons and not be an object of scorn or derision,'" Willimon said. "I love poking fun at self-important intellectuals. And I say that as a self-important intellectual. Takes one to know one."

The Willimons plan to retire to Durham in three years. "When the church is done with me," he said.

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