Meet J Ellsworth Kalas

The Rev. J. Ellsworth Kalas is the Beeson Distinguished Preacher in Residence at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and has been a pastor in the United Methodist Church for nearly 40 years, in Watertown and Green Bay, Wisconsin—"Yes," he asserts, "I had several Green Bay Packers in my congregation!"—and Cleveland, Ohio. He also spent five years in evangelism with the World Methodist Council before accepting the call to be mentor and professor of preaching at Asbury.

As a result of what he refers to as "a continuing love affair with the Bible," Kalas has developed a curriculum series that will enable a person to read and study the whole Bible in 365 days, appropriately called The Grand Sweep.

In response to CBD queries, he writes, "I’ve written a variety of things [more than 15 books, including Parables from the Back Side and Ten Commandments from the Back Side] for which I feel some pride of authorship, but The Grand Sweep has a special place in my heart. Here’s why. When I was barely 11 years old and newly converted, a Presbyterian evangelist came to our little Methodist church in Sioux City, Iowa. He challenged me with the insistence that I couldn’t hope to be a preacher (I had felt my call) unless I had read the Bible through, and he gave me a method: three chapters each weekday and five each Sunday, and I would finish the Bible in a year. I believed him, and I did it—the King James Version, at that—as an 11-year-old. I also did it the next year, and the next, etc. Not every year since—but I did last year, and the Lord helping me, I will do it again next year."

As a result, Kalas has had a lifelong passion for every believer to read the Bible through at least once—catching a glimpse of the "grand sweep," from Genesis to Revelation. He has enhanced what has worked for him 30 to 40 times by adding a pattern of study that includes reading, writing, reflection, prayer, and more. It’s a 365-day trip through the entire Bible, and it can be made from your living room, a classroom, or a pulpit. It doesn’t matter whether you make the journey alone, with your family, or with friends. What matters is that you make the journey, and continue to have your own "love affair with the Bible."

Kalas' books include Jeremiah: Looking for a New Day, Christmas from the Backside, Seven Words to the Cross, The Thirteen Apostles, Through Suffering to Hope: Job, New Testament Stories from the Backside, Old Testament Stories from the Backside, The Grand Sweep, If Experience is Such a Good Teacher, Why Do I Keep Repeating the Course?, and Preaching from the Soul: Insistent Observation on the Sacred Art.

Kalas is married to Janet Stith, and his adult children have followed the two tracks of his own career—teaching and preaching. His daughter is an associate professor of French Language and Literature at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, and his son is a United Methodist pastor in Appleton, Wisconsin.