Journal: Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry
Volume: JBTM 19:1 (Spring 2022)
Article: Watch With Me: The Pastors Of Port William In The Writings Of Wendell Berry
Author: Jason P. Kees

Watch With Me: The Pastors Of Port William
In The Writings Of Wendell Berry

Jason P. Kees

Jason P. Kees serves as the associate pastor of discipleship at East Leesville Baptist Church in Leesville, Louisiana, and adjunct professor of Biblical Studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934) has lived and farmed on Lane’s Landing in Port Royal, Kentucky, since 1964.1 Educated at the University of Kentucky and Stanford University, he spent time in both Italy and France as a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in the 1960s, followed by a teaching stint at New York University’s University College in the Bronx.2 Upon returning to Kentucky, Berry taught at the University of Kentucky from 1964–1977 and 1987–1993 and, with his wife Tanya, purchased Lane’s Landing and expanded it for their farm to over 100 acres. During this time he has written poems, essays, and fiction, choosing not to specialize in one specific area but rather deciding that each genre functions in its own specific, and much needed, tool of choice.3 His most famous

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work—or infamous work, depending on the reader—is his 1977 book, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. In the book, Berry argues that, among other things, good farming is a community and spiritual discipline that the agribusiness of today does not and cannot replicate.4

Berry’s premise of community and agriculture are captured most pointedly in the fictional community of Port William. Port William, modeled after his hometown Port Royal, is a rural farming community that does not now remember “why it was built where it is, or when, or how.”5 The earliest document is a letter that Burley Coulter has which dates before the Civil War.6 With the rarity of early documents about the town, Caroline Perkins believes this theme “underscores the importance among the people of Port William of keeping alive the memory of their ancestors through stories and the passing on of cultural wisdom that has accumulated over many generations. The origins of Port William itself may be lost in time, but the people continue in the awareness of a deep historical context.”7 It is in this theme that Berry captures the importance of belonging and remembering in the people who make up the “membership.”

“The membership” refers to a group with...