Navigating Biblical Literacy in a Post-Christian Era

Dr Dwain Tissell—preacher, scholar, and teacher—joins Expositors Collective to share insights from his 38 years of pastoral ministry and his deep love for biblical literacy and preaching. Now an adjunct professor at Western Seminary, he teaches courses on Applied Biblical Leadership and C.S. Lewis’s insights on discipleship in a post-Christian world. In this conversation with Mike Neglia, Dwain reflects on his early preaching experiences, the importance of confident humility in the pulpit, and how imagination—shaped by C.S. Lewis—can enrich faith and biblical engagement.

Throughout the episode, Dwain highlights the power of the Word of God and encourages preachers to persist, grow, and love their congregations well. He also shares his research on C.S. Lewis, including work at Oxford’s Bodleian Library and the Marion E. Wade Center, as well as insights from his Christian history podcast, Holy History, which he co-hosts with his son.

This conversation offers thoughtful reflections on preaching, discipleship, and imagination, along with practical wisdom for those seeking to deepen their craft and stay faithful in ministry.

Dwain Tissell (D.Min., Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary; Th.M., Regent College) is Adjunct Professor at Western Seminary in the Masters of Applied Biblical Leadership (MABL) program, in Portland, Oregon. He also teaches a Doctor of Ministry course in “C. S. Lewis and Friends On Mere Discipleship In A Post-Christian Age.” Until 2023 Dwain was a pastor and preacher for 38 years, the last 30 years was spent in a church plant just outside Portland. Over those years he grew deeply in his love for the Bible, and God’s people. He also had the great privilege of studying preaching and communication under Haddon Robinson, at Gordon Conwell. 

     He is also a writer on C.S. Lewis.  As a pastor he sought to live into the tradition of the pastor-scholar.  As a result he has done extensive research at the Marion E. Wade Center in Wheaton, Illinois and at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, UK. He has had book notes in the Journal VII of the Marion E. Wade Center, as well as an article on C.S. Lewis’s most important idea in the 2024 volume of the C. S. Lewis journal Sehnsucht. In October of 2017 he conducted an oral history interview with James M. Houston on Houston’s experience of knowing C. S. Lewis for seven years as a colleague in Oxford from 1947-1954. 

     Dwain delivered two papers at The Undiscovered C. S. Lewis Conference, in September of 2024 at George Fox University in Newburg, Oregon.  One titled “On the Road with Jack and Warnie: Walking the Wye River Valley with the Lewis Brothers,” and the other “C. S. Lewis, James Houston, and the ‘Zernov Circle.’

     He and his son, Benjamin, also host the Christian history podcast, Holy History.

Resources Mentioned: 

 Holy History Podcast: The Good, the Bad and the downright Strange!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/holy-history/id1504391539 

 C. S. Lewis’s Most Important Message: The Abolition of Man as Lewis’s Self-conscious Struggle for the Value of Human Persons :  https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1467&context=cslewisjournal

The Bodleian Library:  https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/home

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