The Method to Becoming a Scholar
By Rev. Deena Marie Hamilton Featured Contributor
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ecause this conference invested in me, I was able to learn from some of the world’s greatest pastors and theologians. Their influence expanded my understanding of how to implement the Holy Club questions in the local church through a postmodern lens. Once I began to magnify my understanding of bridging theology to ministry in the church, I realized that these Oxford Holy Club questions were golden nuggets. This article is a thank you letter to the following people: Revs. Charles and John Wesley, Rev. Bob Crossman, Bishop David Max Whitfield, Rev. Ted Campbell, Rev. William J. Abraham, Dr. Roderick Smothers, Rev. David Lowes Watson, and The Arkansas Conference of The United Methodist Church. I’ve had the most magnificent honor of being a breakout session presenter at this year’s 2019 conference of the Academy of Evangelism in Theological Education (AETE). I was super excited about it because I was representing Philander Smith College as an adjunct religion professor. This conference was an international conference for evangelism professors. Past presidents include Holy Club Expert and Wesleyan historian, Rev. David Lowes Watson Ph.D. and Bishop Scott J. Jones. This year, the conference was hosted by the Theology Department of The University of Notre Dame. I was one of the presenters for the Theory and Practice of Evangelism. I presented the findings of my seven-year research project. I was able to prove and document 27 different ways
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the Oxford Holy Club questions could be used in pastoral ministry to evangelize, order the life of the local church, and create a discipleship community. I applied these questions in the local church while I was the pastor of McCabe Chapel, and I continued to apply the questions to a congregational model of evangelism that I developed with my Wesleyan Studies professor, William J. Abraham. This was done in multiple contexts in three conferences (Arkansas, North Texas, and West Texas/New Mexico Episcopacy). The applications of the Holy Club earned me the National World Communion Leadership Award from Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church, The MLK/Bishop Oscar Romero Scholarship at Perkins School of Theology, an Arkansas Methodist Foundation Scholarship, and the Bert Affleck Award for innovation and creativity in a pastoral internship for the 2017 graduating class of SMU/Perkins School of Theology. The journey started when I was still the pastor of McCabe Chapel. I was enrolled in course of study, and Bob Crossman was our Evangelism instructor. He gave us the Oxford Holy Club questions of personal reflection in a handout. John and Charles Wesley used these questions to disciple, evangelize, order the life of the church, and create an environment of self-reflection. This strict systematic catechesis resulted in the first rise of Methodism in 1729. When I read these questions, I realized something … these questions could be used as children’s sermon topics. It didn’t stop there. Once I read the questions several months later, I realized that these questions could be used to disciple youth, college students, and young adults.
ARKANSAS UNITED METHODIST
ARUMC.ORG
