My sweet friend, Kenn Hermann, who had taught at our church several times, died on October 31. He was by far one of the most stellar teachers that I had the opportunity to be with personally and in the "classroom"[you can see his credentials at the bottom of this entry]. His memorial service was held November 7. I had the great privilege to share about Kenn at the service and here is what I had to say:
Kenn would ask this question when he would teach the church:
“By the way, how many of you are preparing for full-time Christian service?”
And then, he would wait until everyone in the room "got it".
The first time I had met Kenn was on a Thursday evening at Late Night Christian Fellowship at Kent State. Kenn was the featured speaker that evening and was teaching on the Kingdom of God in the Old Testament. I was given the opportunity to follow up the week after him and teach on the Kingdom of God in the New Testament so I thought it would be good to see how I could follow up after this teacher. But after sitting there for an hour listening to Kenn teach the Old Testament all I could do was think:
HOW IN GOD’S NAME AM I SUPPOSED TO FOLLOW UP AFTER THIS GUY!!!!
I was in awe at how Kenn brought the Old Testament to life. I stuck around afterwards and insisted on having breakfast so we could talk. So that I could sit and listen and learn and follow this guy.
Kenn talked to you not at you. He would listen and gather your thoughts and intents and gently re-shape them and hand them back to you in a manner that would not for one second demean your input but suddenly open your heart and mind to what it is that our King is truly offering.
Someone once said, “Anybody can make the simple difficult, but it takes a gifted teacher to make the difficult understandable.”
Kenn was that gifted teacher. Kenn had the ability to help you find yourself living in a story where God calls all the shots. Kenn ultimately helped you take delight in the fact that God has the last word on everything and the immense comfort and joy that that brings.
When the church first started some 2,000 years ago men and women came to believe that God was alive in them and amongst them and so everything suddenly became re-thought, re-centered, re-imagined... Kenn reminded us that God is alive and well in us today and that we too must suddenly find ourselves re-thinking, re-centering, re-imagining and how we too should be continuing to tell stories of Jesus as shared experiences.
It was crucial to me as a pastor to be able to sit under Kenn and patiently wait for whatever he had to offer. Except I didn’t have patience so I’d coerce him into having breakfast at the Wild Goat so that I could extract as much as possible from his storehouse of wisdom. I made every effort to have Kenn come and teach our community as much as possible.
At first, I was clueless to the high-caliber ability and gifting that Kenn truly was as a teacher and scholar because he never for one second made that something that you needed to know. You quickly learned it though by his passion when he talked of the things to come and of the Kingdom here and now. Heck, even the doubters and atheists around the city of Kent respect Kenn and appreciated him for being a stellar teacher.
When I was with Kenn it seemed that all of his accomplishments as a teacher and as an apprentice of Jesus were simply there as signs that consistently, coherently and conclusively pointed to Jesus. For example, the first thing he said to me after his first brain surgery was, “God has been so good to me.” And he wept tears of joy in the face of cancer.
But the most beautiful sign was by far his constant and absolute delight in his wife, Linda. I am forever moved and impacted especially by the moments in the last few weeks in which Kenn being unable to speak would clasp his hand in Linda’s and their fingers intertwined and locked and there I saw and not heard the most profound lesson. Love truly conquers all. I watched his eyes brighten up at every appearance of his daughters or at the sound of his sister’s voice. And Shae-Lynn... how he talked with great joy of his grand-daughter - you would've thought the sun was rising every time he mentioned her name.
I had only known Kenn for about 3 years but I would have followed him for another 30.
About Kenn:
Surrounded by his family, Kenn Hermann, 64, of Kent, died peacefully at home on October 31 (Reformation Day) following a courageous battle with brain cancer.
Kenn was born in Rochester, Minn. on January 16, 1945, to William Henry and Ruth Lois (Huff) Hermann. He earned his M.A. from Michigan State University and his Ph.D. in 19th Century U.S. History from Kent State University. In 1980, the family relocated from Urbana, Illinois to Kent, Ohio. His passion for teaching and inspiring college students to think christianly about university studies led to the founding of Radix Christian Ministries. His popular course, C-POL (Christian Perspectives on Learning) was taught through the Experimental Program in the Honors College at Kent State. Kenn wanted students to be critical thinkers. In his on-line course, Technology and Culture, students were challenged to think about how technology has influenced our culture. In addition to teaching at Kent State and the Univ. of Akron, he taught at several private colleges. Internationally, he taught for two years at Kosin University in Pusan, South Korea.
Books were an important part of Kenn's life. His personal library grew to thousands, requiring him to find alternate storage places. Thinking about retirement, he opened an on-line used bookstore for scholars and serious readers called Black Squirrel Books (www.blacksquirrelbooks.com)
Kenn is survived by his wife of 41 years, Linda Jo Ellen (Berg); daughters, Jennifer Hermann (partner Darryl Dieckman) of Cincinnati and Michelle Hilliard of Stow; granddaughter, Shaelynn (Shae-Shae) Hilliard; sister, Shari Pfeifer of Minneapolis, Minn.; step-mother, Lola Hermann of Bartlesville, OK; the Berg brothers-in-law and their spouses; and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents.
Kenn is a member of the Akron Christian Reformed Church which was integral in bringing him to Kent.
