Willimon is a retired United Methodist bishop and serves as Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry program at Duke Divinity School. In 2021 he gave the Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School.

"What we need is a God who refuses to be trapped in eternity, a Creator who is not aloof from our time. We need a God who not only cares about us but is willing to show up among us and do something with us, here, now."