Windows: The Doctor of Ministry (Winter 2016)

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

winter 2016

In this Issue New faculty | 3

The Doctor of Ministry | 8

MidWinters 2016 | 4

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AUSTIN

AUSTIN PRESBYTERIAN

PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGI C AL

THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

SEMINARY

winter 2016

features

President

The Doctor of Ministry 8 Drinking from the Firehose vs.

Theodore J. Wardlaw

Board of Trustees

G. Archer Frierson II, Chair James Allison Whit Bodman Janice Bryant (MDiv’01, DMin’11) Claudia D. Carroll Elizabeth Christian Joseph J. Clifford Katherine B. Cummings (MDiv’05) Thomas Christian Currie Consuelo Donahue (MDiv’96) Jackson Farrow Jr. Beth Blanton Flowers, MD Jesús Juan González (MDiv’92) John Hartman Ann Herlin (MDiv’01) Rhashell D. Hunter Steve LeBlanc James H. Lee (MDiv’00) Sue McCoy Matthew Miller (MDiv’03) Lyndon L. Olson Jr. B. W. Payne David Peeples Jeffrey Kyle Richard Conrad Rocha Lana Russell Lita Simpson Anne Vickery Stevenson Martha Crawley Tracey Karl Brian Travis Carlton Wilde Jr. Elizabeth Currie Williams Michael G. Wright

Volume 131 | Number 1

Sipping from Rivers of Living Water

By Jill Duffield (DMin’13)

8 Graduates of Austin Seminary’s Doctor of Ministry program share insights into the value of this in-ministry degree.

Illustrations by Shearry Malone; http://www. shearrymaloneillustration. com/

10

In Jesus’s Name We Play

11

The Elephant in the Pew

By Susan Schnelle (DMin’15)

12

Let the Children Come

By Joshua Stewart (DMin’15)

By Tom Nuckels (DMin’13)

& departments

7

Stephen A. Matthews Max Sherman Louis Zbinden

seminary & church

3

twenty-seventh & speedway

15 live & learn 16 faculty news & notes

19

Trustees Emeriti

2

19 alumni news & notes 21 teaching & ministry

Austin Seminary Association (ASA) Board Dieter Heinzl (MDiv’98), President Kristy Vits (MDiv’98), Vice President Barrett Abernethy (MDiv’13), Secretary Leanne Thompson (MDiv’06), Past President Timothy Blodgett (MDiv’07) Tony Chambless (MDiv’07) Sandra Kern (MDiv’93) Matt Miles (MDiv’99) Andrew Parnell (MDiv’05) Steve Plunkett (MDiv’80) Valerie Sansing (MDiv’00) Sheila Sidberry-Thomas (MDiv’14) Michael Waschevski (DMin’03)

Editor Randal Whittington

Contributors Lemuel García Grace Rich Claire Mathias Sharon Sandberg Mona Santandrea Adam Sweeney Daniel Williams

Windows is published three times each year by Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Austin Seminary Windows Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary 100 E. 27th St. Austin, TX 78705-5711 phone: 512-404-4808 e-mail: windows@austinseminary.edu fax: 512-479-0738 austinseminary.edu ISSN 2056-0556; Non-profit bulk mail permit no. 2473

seminary church

from the president |

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President’s Schedule Dec. 3 - Evening with the President, Shreveport, Louisiana Dec. 8 - Evening with the President, Little Rock, Arkansas January 25-27 - Preach, The Association of Theological Schools Presidential Leadership Intensive Conference San Antonio, Texas Feb. 7 – Preach, First PC, Fort Worth, Texas Mar. 1 – Evening with the President, San Antonio, Texas Mar. 6 – Preach, Howard Memorial PC, Tarboro, North Carolina Mar. 10 – Partner Lunch, Westlake Hills PC, Austin

here are many motivations fueling one’s decision to go for a Doctor of Ministry degree. For some, it’s the implied authority behind the “Dr.” in front of one’s name, or the status one imagines being automatically conferred by the three large velvet bars on one’s pulpit gown, or the sense that perhaps one will be a more attractive candidate for future congregations or other work settings. If these are the primary motivations, one’s chances of surviving the DMin program will be somewhere between slim and none.

Now: if you’re still reading this introductory column to this issue of Windows, please consider with me the deeper reasons for considering the DMin program at Austin Seminary. One such reason is that a DMin enables you to focus with new intensity upon some body of knowledge and skill which you have discovered a new interest in, or passion for, since your initial years in seminary. Jill Duffield, an experienced pastor and now the editor of The Presbyterian Outlook, writes in this issue of Windows of the way in which, after some years of ministry, the DMin degree here enabled her to revisit, but in a different way, prior knowledge encountered earlier in her MDiv degree program.

She lends us the image of “drinking from the fire hose”—an apt description of what it means to absorb quickly new realms of information, which is for many of us what our initial seminary degree was like. Then, she elongates that image into a deeper encounter that a DMin degree affords, especially after a chapter or two of ministry on the ground—the experience of “sipping from rivers of living water.”

Josh Stewart gives us a delightful description of the creativity—even playfulness— that a DMin offers us. Read his reflections on how he was inspired by serious material to articulate it through the vocabulary of game theory. Susan Schnelle demonstrates how a DMin project enabled her to look at the theology of baptism through the lens of the profound life experience of menopause. Who says that a DMin project has to be a strictly academic experience? Not Tom Nuckels! He describes his DMin work through his experience of pastoral encounters with grief—specifically the grief of children. All four of these writers illustrate how the Doctor of Ministry degree can stand alongside us in multiple ministry situations, and can assist us in complexifying, at the street level, the language of the church.

The pages that follow also offer recent updates regarding the life of the Seminary, its students, alums and constituents. Celebrate with us the board’s newest members, the entering class of Junior students, the recent publications of our faculty, the upcoming lecturers at the 2016 MidWinters, and all the other news from this winsome place. And, by the way, when you’re next in town, come see us!

April 5 – Evening with the President, Oklahoma City

Faithfully yours,

April 6 – Breakfast with the President, Stillwater, Oklahoma

Theodore J. Wardlaw President

April 9-11 – Preach and Teach, First PC’s Mullin Forum, Greensboro, North Carolina

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twenty-seventh speedway

Eric Wall to shape new position in sacred music

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ric Wall will become assistant professor of sacred music and dean of the chapel on January 1, 2016.

“Eric brings almost two decades of demonstrated experience in the scholarship and practice of church music,” said Austin Seminary President Theodore J. Wardlaw. “An accomplished musician, choral director, organist, clinician, teacher, liturgist, and music administrator, he meets all of the expectations we have as we inaugurate the sacred music position at Austin Seminary. Eric Wall, center, with President Wardlaw and Max Sherman, He will have a huge impact whose benevolence made possible the position in sacred music. upon his students and the shape of musical formation across the country. It will be a pleasure to work with Eric.”

Wall earned his undergraduate degree in organ performance, magna cum laude, and his master of music in choral conducting from Florida State University. He arrives in 2016 from North Carolina where he served as the conference center musician at Montreat Conference Center and as the director of music at First Presbyterian Church, Asheville.

“I am gratified by this amazing opportunity to come to Austin,” says Wall. “In my calling as a church musician, I have found unimaginable joys in the singing community, the partnership with colleagues, and the theological conversation of music in liturgy. In an iTunes age, the church needs our-tunes. What does it look like—and sound like—for the church to steward hymn books and downloads, to sing songs ancient and modern, for the sake of the community and the world? How can the heart-song of the church continue to deepen, expand, and welcome? What are God’s gifts of song to the church, and how can the leaders of the church help music to be a shaper of community rather than a divider of tastes? I look forward to Austin Seminary’s being a place where these questions can be explored.”

At part of the regular worshiping life of the congregation of First Presbyterian Church, Asheville, Wall directed the planning of worship, led congregational song, played the organ, and directed the choirs. He recently helped lead them through a campaign to remodel the church’s Gothic sanctuary and renovate its pipe organ. Wall is responsible for providing musical direction for Montreat’s programming: directing a choir of college-age summer staff, offering music for spring and fall adult conferences, participating in planning worship and arts conferences, being available as a resource musician for summer events, and engaging in the life of the conference center as a music and worship consultant.

“In the constellation of church music, Eric Wall is a shining star,” said Austin Seminary Academic Dean David H. Jensen. “He combines reverence for ancient musical traditions with innovative new refrains. His presence here will expand the Seminary curriculum and the worshiping life of this community. With Eric’s arrival in January, we sound a promising new key in the history of Austin Seminary.”

Eric Wall and his spouse, Mary, are parents to a college-age son, Tristan. v

Seminary launches new certificate program in Spanish

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companion to our English-language Certificate in Ministry (CIM) program, the courses in the Seminary’s new Certificado en Ministerio (CEM) will all be taught in Spanish. The first term of courses (January - March) will be taught by Professors Philip WingeierRayo and Gregory Cuéllar.

Designed for adult students with a wide range of educational backgrounds, these courses will focus on Christian history, theology, and biblical studies.

Each course will be designed by Spanishspeaking teachers and leaders in their fields of study.

“The CEM responds to a desire for theological education within a community we have underserved—people for whom Spanish is a first, if not only, language and whose ‘first culture’ is not the currently dominant Anglo culture,” said Vice President for Education Beyond the Walls Melissa Wiginton. “We have much to learn with and from CEM students as we share our resources in this new way.”

To earn the certificate, students must successfully complete seven courses; however, students may enroll for individual courses even if they choose not to follow the certificate program. Group rates are also available.

Learn more at AustinSeminary.edu/CEM or by calling Claudia Pompa at 800-241-1085. v Winter 2016 | 3

twenty-seventh speedway

Welcome to 2016 MidWinters, Feb. 1-3 Mr. Thomas Lynch is a funeral director, poet, and award-winning author. His book The

Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade won an American Book Award and his work has been the subject of two documentary films. He co-wrote, with Tom Long, The Good Funeral: Death, Grief, and the Community of Care.

CURRIE LECTURES: Chapter & Verse: The Manifest, Low-Hanging Grace of Being “I will endeavor to connect the stuff of Holy Writ and the holy work in words of poets, pastors, presbyters, and priests. I hope to examine first causes, present tenses and last things, the ever-present and the au courant, gratitude and begrudgery, the evident, abundant, and underserved favor of Whosoever is in charge here.”

The Reverend Cheryl Kirk-Duggan (MDiv’87) is professor of religion at Shaw

University and author of more than twenty books including Wake Up: Hip-Hop, Christianity, and the Black Church and The Africana Bible: Reading Israel’s Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora (co-editor).

WESTERVELT LECTURES: Ecclesiastes Moments: Engaging Trauma, Grief, and Loss

“Some of us will never be homeless and some of us will never be in the top 1% of our economy. Some of us have less than average capacity in most things, and some of us have a genius-level IQ. We have many things that separate us, that can keep us apart. These lectures will explore one factor we all share: the trauma of loss and its accompanying grief. We examine this experience through the lens of scripture, various music genres, and time.”

Dr. Craig Hella Johnson is the 2015 Grammy Award-winning conductor, composer,

arranger, and founder and artistic director of Conspirare, a choral ensemble with twenty albums and six Grammy nominations. Named the Texas State Musician in 2013, he is music director of the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble and Conductor Emeritus of the Victoria Bach Festival.

JONES LECTURES: A Personal Passion Journey: Your Life is Not About You

“In these presentations, I will share my personal journey in the creating of a new musical composition, a modern-day Passion setting, based on the life and last days of Matthew Shepard. I will share musical examples and a wide range of poetic texts from the work. The discussions of the piece will serve as entry into an exploration and inquiry into our own personal journeys of surrender, letting go, death.”

MidWinters Preacher The worship leader for MidWinters will be The Reverend head pastor of Burke Presbyterian Church in Burke, Virginia

Meg Peery McLaughlin,

Highlights of the 2016 MidWinter Lectures: • We will honor the 2016 Distinguished Service Award recipients: Dr. William O. Walker (MDiv’57) and The Reverend Rebecca Reyes (MDiv’79). There are special reunion events for the Classes of 1956, 1966, 1976, 1986, 1996, and 2006-2015.

• Ministry & Practice Luncheon discussion on Tuesday, February 2, with district judge Lora Livingston. The luncheon is free, but advance registration is required.

• ASA Banquet and Annual Meeting (tickets are $15, reservations are required) and McCoy House Groundbreaking

Register @ AustinSeminary.edu/midwin16 4 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Frierson assumes board chair; nine new members installed

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Archer Frierson of Shreveport, Louisiana, assumed the chair of the Austin Seminary Board of Trustees at its fall meeting, November 2-3.

Nine members were installed to the board, and Trustee Elizabeth Christian became vice chair.

Dr. Beth Blanton Flowers from Houston, Texas, is in private practice in psychiatry and is an associate professor at the Baylor College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. A ruling elder at St. Philip Presbyterian Church, her community involvement includes Presbyterian Children’s Homes and Services and The Gathering Place; she previously served on the Seminary Board for nine years.

The Reverend Dr. Thomas Christian Currie has been pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Shreveport, Louisiana, since 2013. He serves on the editorial board of the Scottish Parliamentary Review and is active in the Karl Barth Society of North America.

The Reverend Jesús González (MDiv’92) is stated supply of First Presbyterian Church in McAllen, Texas.

Previously he was organizing pastor to two Hispanic new church developments in North Carolina and Arkansas.

Mr. Steve LeBlanc, of Austin, Texas, is the founding partner of CapRidge Partners, a real estate operating company. Previously he managed a $45 billion portfolio for the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. He is the advisory director of the Real Estate and Finance Council and professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas where he led the creation of the Real Estate Certificate Program.

Ms. Sue B. McCoy worked as a counselor and administrator at the Pastoral Counseling Center in Dallas for thirty-five years. She has been a ruling elder at NorthPark Presbyterian and Highland Park Presbyterian Churches in Dallas. She has served on the Committee on Preparation for Ministry for Grace Presbytery and was recently elected to the Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church Foundation Board. Her late husband, John McCoy (MDiv’63), was a trustee emeritus of Austin Seminary.

The Reverend Matthew Miller (MDiv’03) became pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Albuquerque, in 2013; he previously served churches in Sioux City, Iowa, and Pulaski, Tennessee. He is involved with Albuquerque Religious and Clergy United, a multi-faith coalition aligned to speak out in response to officer-involved shooting deaths in Albuquerque.

Mr. Conrad M. Rocha, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is executive director of Law Access New Mexico and the stated clerk / executive of the Synod of the Southwest.

Deeply involved in the PC(USA), he was vice president at the Menaul School and served on the boards of the Board of Pensions, the General Assembly Council, the Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program, Westminster Gardens Retirement Center (California), and the Presbytery of Santa Fe. He served on the Platform Team of the 211th through 221st General Assemblies.

On November 2, President Wardlaw, front left, and Trustee James Lee (MDiv’00), front right, welcomed Archer Frierson and Elizabeth Christian (front center) as new executive officers of the board. New board members installed include (back, from left) Chris Currie, Mike Wright, Sue McCoy, Conrad Rocha, Matthew Miller, Martha Tracey, Beth Flowers, and Steve LeBlanc.

Ms. Martha Crawley Tracey, of Denver, Colorado, is vice president of Crawley Ventures. She serves as president of the Montview Foundation, an independent support organization for Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Denver, and she serves on the board of Opera Colorado. She is the daughter of former trustee James Crawley.

Mr. Michael G. Wright, of Dallas, Texas, is president of Medical Cities, Inc., which manages and leases Medical City Dallas. He is also a partner in Business Jet Center and Business Jet Access. He serves on the boards of TCU, Austin College, and Presbyterian Communities and Services, and he is a long-time member of Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church, Dallas. His parents, Mary and Robert Wright, established in 2013 the Blair Monie Distinguished Chair in Homiletics at Austin Seminary v Winter 2016 | 5

twenty-seventh speedway

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First year student Tyler Henderson, far left, led his seminary teammates to victory in the 2015 Polity Bowl annual flag football game with the neighboring Episcopal seminary.

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The entering class for 2015-16 includes a former AYAVA House member, a graduate of Justo Mwale Theological College, our sister school in Zambia, and a recent convert from the Muslim faith; the median age is 30.

6 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

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Presbyterian Church (U.S. A.) Moderator Heath Rada visits with students during a visit to campus on September 29.

Following the murder of nine members of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, an anonymous donor funded a shipment of Trustee Emeritus Max Sherman’s book Barbara Jordan: Speaking the Truth with Eloquent Thunder to every Presbyterian pastor in South Carolina.

Background image is Opening Worship for the new academic year; photo by Gary Mathews

Members of the Hispanic Student Association created a Dia de los Muertos altar honoring loved ones who have died, particularly Professor Gregory Cuéllar’s father and mother-in-law.

board actions | Austin Seminary Board of Trustees took the following actions at its fall meeting: • Approved the sabbatical report of Professor Jennifer Lord • Approved the sabbatical proposal of Professor David White, July 1, 2016 - January 1, 2017.

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• Accepted the following new endowments: The William J. Fogelman Merit Scholarship Fund

Opening worship included commissioning of new staff, including four permanent faculty members and Thomas White Currie III (far left), who is the Jean Brown Visiting Professor of Theology for 2015-16.

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The Charles and Marjorie Kilgore Endowed Fund The Grace Presbytery Endowed Fellowship Fund • Accepted a Resolution of Thanks for Trustee B.W. Payne • Amended language concerning student housing in a manner commensurate with state laws and federal court rulings

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Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke of the popular “Two Guys on Your Head” podcast had the audience in stitches during the 2015 Heyer Lecture.

On September 30, Vice President Jackie Saxon expressed the Seminary’s appreciation to sculptor Joe Kenney (left). He donated his bronze bust of Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native North American saint in the Catholic Church, recognizing Myra Weaver (second from right) for her ongoing support of her husband, Austin Seminary’s artist-in-residence C.D. Weaver.

• Amended language concerning the use of Shelton Chapel for services to reflect provisions of the Directory for Worship of the Book of Order • Installed Mr. G. Archer Frierson II as chair of the Austin Seminary Board of Trustees and Ms. Elizabeth Christian as the new vice-chair; installed nine new board members

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Winter 2016 | 7

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Drinking from the Fire Hose vs.

Sipping from Rivers of Living Water

By Jill Duffield (DMin’13)

M

My initial introduction to seminary was, like for many, a summer intensive Greek course. It was all Greek, all day, for however many weeks that I have mostly blocked from my memory. No doubt it was an efficient way to get the language requirement met so that we eager Master of Divinity students could jump into New Testament I in the fall of our first year. However, as one not particularly gifted in learning a foreign language, this academic boot camp set the tone for much of my seminary career. I constantly felt woefully behind the curve, anxious always that my lack of knowledge—biblical, theological, and exegetical—would be exposed and I would be sent packing. I worked hard and had grace-filled professors and friends, all of whom helped see me through, despite a several year hiatus between my second and third years of seminary.

Jill Duffield, editor of The Presbyterian Outlook, was an associate pastor of Shandon Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, while working on her Doctor of Ministry degree at Austin Seminary.

8 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Most of those three years felt like drinking from a fire hose. Lots of reading, lots of writing, lots of time spent memorizing flash cards and cramming for exams. I worried often that I wasn’t getting all that I needed in order to be equipped to serve the church well. Occasionally, over the past twenty-odd years, I glance over the shelves in my office and spot a book from that time in my life.

I will flip through it, see highlighted sentences, notes in the margins, and realize that I have not one recollection of a single idea from a text I clearly read closely. All my energy during that time was expended in staying standing in front of the torrent of material coming at me. Making that knowledge my own would come later.

I was recently introduced to the role of prior knowledge in learning. Education research has shown that what students come into the classroom knowing, or not, has a large impact on what they leave that class knowing, or not. One way in which this holds true is in making connections. In her piece “What They Don’t Know Can Hurt Them: The Role of Prior Knowledge in Learning,” Marilla Svinicki of The University of Texas writes, “One of the keys to learning and memory is the richness of the connections a bit of information has. The more connections, the easier it is to remember … This is why it is much easier to learn information that is in one’s existing field of expertise than to learn information in a brand new field. There are many more ways to access the system.”

The Doctor of Ministry (DMin) degree offers ministers the opportunity to make rich connections with the prior knowledge they learned in their MDiv program and while practicing ministry. Drinking from the fire hose transforms into sipping from rivers of living water. Entering the classroom with a passionate desire to learn— and equipped with much more prior knowledge—enables students to incorporate what is being taught in deep and meaningful ways. This is one of the great gifts a Doctor of Ministry degree offers to pastors and congregations alike.

Energy once expended on remaining standing can be applied to moving forward and Jesus’s admonition to “Be not anxious” can actually be heeded.

Revisiting Greek provides an example of this. My first experience of tackling this language was one of pure grit and determination, literally counting the days left in the class. I got much closer to Jesus that summer as I prayed without ceasing not to be called upon to read aloud. I made it. I passed. I continued to sweat and wrestle with declensions and vocabulary in New Testament I and New Testament II. Then I put Nestle-Aland and J. Gresham Machen, DD, LittD on my shelf like taxidermied trophies on a hunter’s wall. Relieved to have come out alive and with proof of that survival, there was no need to revisit the experience.

Years into ministry I embarked on my Doctor of Ministry degree. Proving that God does have a sense of humor, my first class would be a New Testament one that presumed some prior knowledge of Greek. Night terrors ensued (Not really, but close). I blew the dust off the Nestle-Aland, even purchased the newer edition with changes in the apparatus on the bottom, the one that necessitates a magnifying class to read, and, for good measure, dug out the life preserver that is the interlinear Greek New Testament.

I cyber-stalked the professor a bit; he looked kind. But, of course, he had studied in Germany, not usually a sign of warm, fuzzy flexibility.

I attempted to once again get to know participles, cases, and the alphabet. Soon the time came to get on the airplane and go. Packed with every Greek language resource I owned, my suitcase topped the fifty-pound limit. My arm strength would improve if not my exegesis.

I entered class that first day with an eerily familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach, certain the fire hose was about to be turned on. But something strikingly different happened. The professor, a gifted teacher to be sure, started with an introduction of what we were about to undertake, an adventure of discovery, an exploration to find wonder, an opportunity to use what we knew—whatever that was in the language, in our experience, in the Bible— and see where that knowledge might take us together. In essence he said: Here is the river of living water, drink as

Resurrection happened.

No longer did I wrestle with the text. My prior knowledge, and that of all the other students in that classroom, allowed me to dance with it.

Continued on page 13 Winter 2016 | 9

“In Jesus’s Name, We Play”

Applying game theory to ministry with youth

By Joshua Stewart (DMin’15)

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lay is no stranger to youth ministry. Many youth programs are known for high-energy games and playfulness in attempts to draw mega crowds of young people to megachurches, yet this approach often lacks a certain depth in terms of theology, pedagogy, and theory of practice. I believe play is transformative not only in group-building exercises but, also, in youth ministry teaching moments. Through my Doctor of Ministry project I began to imagine how to create a nurturing learning experience that moves toward a play-full engagement with prayer, scripture, and theology in the context of youth ministry.

My doctoral thesis is simple, fun, and controversial: Theology is a game. It is a game we play to stretch our faith muscles, to risk listening for God’s voice, and to wake ourselves from spiritual slumber on the deadly couch of boredom. Game designer Jane McGonigal says that good games help gamers experience an important “reorientation toward intrinsic reward” as opposed to a life that is focused on the extrinsic rewards that a hyper affluent-consumerist-workaholic culture seeks to provide.

In my theologically play-full project, with the help of theologians and specialists from a variety of fields, I maintain that cultivating a theology of play will enrich the church and help make the world a better place.

Using my youth group as a laboratory for a series of play-full and game-full experiments, I designed a class full of games around developing a theology of vocation. The doctrine of vocation is focused on God’s calling, which is concerned with the relationship between who we are and what we are called to do in this life. In designing a “Theo-

logical Playbook” for my high-school students, my goal was to value their identity (children of God, disciples of Jesus) and game-fully urge them to consider that who they are is just as important as what they do in life.

For the meat and potatoes of my class, I experimented with two play-full teaching methods involving art and drama. Blending the approaches of Walter Wink (Transforming Bible Study) and Peter Pitzele (Bibliodrama), I sought to liberate my students from the easy Sunday School answers by inviting them into various biblical narratives, challenging them to engage the stories by giving voice to characters. Using a circle of chairs with yours truly functioning as a theatre director (or referee, if you will), my students and their adult sponsors jumped in feet first, and we shared a place filled with imagination, wonder, humor, and beautiful play.

The hallmark of my project was inspired by the rapidly growing global community of gamers. McGonigal writes about alternate reality games which she defines as “a game you play in your real life in order to enjoy it more.” Reality games are creative and motivational, purposefully drawing in a “party of adventurers.” They also involve a balance of both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.

Inspired by this passionate game designer, I took a leap of faith. I invented my own reality game. I created rules to the game with a competitive point system. Combining the words theology and game, I named it “Theologame.”

Theologamers are awarded points for various church activities (participating in youth group, bringing a friend to church, attending worship, picking up trash, etc.). The biggest ticket item in the points department is something called “Homeplay Experiments,” challenges designed to engage students in daily acts of Christian discipleship.

For an experiment in empathy, the challenge is one week

My doctoral thesis is simple, fun, and controversial: Theology is a game.

Joshua Stewart is associate pastor for youth at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

10 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Continued on page 14

The Elephant in the Pew Menopause, baptism, and vocation

By Susan Schnelle (DMin’15)

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hen I began the Doctor of Ministry program it was unclear what the subject and scope of my doctoral project would be, but through the course work it became clear that it would include vocation and baptism. I knew that I could do a project with those two elements, and had I wanted to play it safe, I could have just left it at that. However, I was clearly being called to add the third element of menopause. My hope was to develop a practical project that could provide insights and pastoral care to women in the menopausal transition, a project that could help them to find their voice, their identity as daughters of God, and a deeper understanding of their vocation.

My Doctor of Ministry project has been a labor of love for me. I was privileged to walk with some amazing women who offered themselves completely to the project. Menopause is a life transition that will affect every woman who lives to the age of menopause. Understanding menopause

through the language of baptism, specifically death and resurrection, can be helpful as it offers hope and new life.

For my research project I recruited ten participants from my congregation, each of menopausal age. The project included an overnight retreat where the participants were able to relax and disengage from their daily responsibilities. During the first night of the retreat, a medical doctor gave a presentation about the life cycle of women and the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of menopause. This was very helpful for the participants who had expressed that they had little or no reliable resources and infor mation about their menopausal transition.

The second day of the retreat, the participants took a spiritual gifts inventory, received information about baptism and vocation, participated in a guided meditation, walked a labyrinth, and were introduced to some of the works of Joan Chittister and Parker Palmer. The retreat allowed time for the participants to get acquainted with each other and build bonds of trust.

Following the retreat the participants met every Tuesday night for six weeks. Each week I gave a presentation on a specific topic related to menopause, they met in small groups for discussion, and we finished each session in review of the evening’s topic. In addition to these regular meetings the participants agreed to daily prayer and journal writing.

I wrote a liturgy that we used in our closing worship on the evening of the sixth week. This liturgy celebrates the life that we have been given as women, acknowledges the end of our cycle, and celebrates the journey as postmenopausal women. The liturgy includes a remembrance of our baptism and a call to use our gifts in service.

Understanding menopause through the language of baptism, specifically death and resurrection, can be helpful as it offers hope and new life.

Susan Schnelle is pastor of Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Austin.

Continued on page 14

Winter 2016 | 11

Let the Children Come

Training lay chaplains to give effective pastoral care to children experiencing grief

By Tom Nuckels (DMin’13)

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these . . .

And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.”

Mark 10:14-16 (NIV)

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onnie Miller-McLemore was right when she said, “To welcome a child … is to welcome this Christ who so identifies with the child and gives himself as the ultimate gift of love.”

My Doctor of Ministry project was born out of the realization that our churches, at least in my faith group, do not take seriously Christ’s mandate when it comes to giving care to children in crisis. We do fairly well with attending to the educational needs of children through Bible classes, youth gatherings, and children’s church.

However, when it comes to ministering to their grief needs, providing a safe place for the Spirit to work in their lives during times of loss or serious illness, we neglect to give appropriate pastoral care to those young disciples of Christ among us.

My enthusiasm for this project grew out of a concern that I had for individuals I had encountered in church and hospital environs who seemed to have difficulty, as adult caregivers, addressing the needs of others experiencing loss, when they themselves had not dealt effectively with their own grief events. I have now learned, as John Savage correctly ob-

Tom Nuckels is director of spiritual care for Lifeline Chaplaincy of Central Texas.

12 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

served, “you can enter the pain of another only at the level you can enter your own.”

I provided the lay chaplain volunteers, who were part of my project, with training covering various aspects of children and grief. To test our work, three of us served as counselors with Camp Agape, a four-day grief camp for children ages 7-12. This gave the participants, and me as a participant observer, hands-on opportunities to implement the training and learn more about how to minister to grieving children.

One of the significant elements of the training encouraged participants to come to grips with their own unresolved grief; in this, I believe, the project was successful.

During the evaluation phase, one participant observed, “What I learned in the training helped me to reconnect with my deceased aunt’s daughter, with whom I am not close. I was able to break the ice and ask questions.” Another shared, “We need people in our churches who know the developmental stages that children go through so they can know how to help children where they are.”

Since a DMin project’s goal should be to serve the church, I developed training materials for an annual Bible teacher’s workshop of

Churches of Christ. I have also been able to develop and present curriculum at the undergraduate and seminary level. All have been well received.

Our tendency is either to protect grieving children from pain or suffering by not allowing them to attend a funeral of a grandparent or other relative, or we simply neglect to recognize their grief, thinking that “they are resilient.”

Worse, we tell them things like, “Big boys don’t cry,” or “You’re the man (woman) of the house now that dad (or mom) is gone.” Both, protecting and placing undue guilt or pressure on the child or adolescent will do more harm than good in the long run. Adults must be intentional in providing education, first for themselves, then for the children in their midst. There are numerous books, support groups, and bereavement camps available to help children address their grief.

By far the most important thing adults can provide is a listening ear. An important rule in relation to giving care to grieving children is “listening to understand, rather than listening to answer.” As Andrew Lester en-

courages clergy in his most helpful book, Pastoral Care with Children in Crisis, to add to the list of all the roles you have, “I wish you would add to this the image of holding the children in your arms and blessing them. Can you imagine the impact on a child who, having been gently lifted into your arms in the vestibule, hears you whisper in his ear, “I love you and God loves you too!”

Lester speaks of ministry that is intentional. Through accepting, welcoming, and paying attention to the needs of children who are experiencing grief, we not only help them find a means of expressing their loss, space for the Spirit to work, but we are mutually blessed in so doing. Through that intentional ministry to children, not only do we fulfill the biblical mandate to help those who are most vulnerable among us, but there is the serendipitous blessing of seeing the face of the divine in so doing. May God help us to be that kind of a church—a church that says by speech and action, “Let the children come … for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” v

One of the significant elements of the training encouraged participants to come to grips with their own unresolved grief.

Firehose Continued from page 9

much as you like.

The emphasis wasn’t on my or anyone else’s deficit of knowledge, it was on building upon the wealth of knowledge that was present in that room. And there was a wealth of knowledge around the table: pastors from all over the country, from a wide variety of ministry contexts, from different faith backgrounds. The Catholic brother had never had Greek, but he was gifted at Latin and knew Patristics backwards and forwards. The former Baptist could offer up the chapter and verse of pericopes, noting parallels and differences in the synoptic gospels.

The youth pastor helped us interpret the story through the eyes of adolescents, and the woman from California talked about the gift of new eyes that never-before Christians bring to her Bible studies. All kinds of connections were made, connections that made the Greek I thought I had killed and buried come alive again. Resurrection happened. No longer did I wrestle with the text. My prior knowledge and that of others, all of it validated in that

classroom, allowed me to dance with it.

There was a playful spirit that nurtured joy and allowed me to learn in ways I never had before. I was eager to share this gift of wonder at God’s living Word with the congregation I served. It was too good to keep to myself.

I didn’t want the conversations to stop when I left campus. I wanted to continue them on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. I wanted to make connections with others who had prior knowledge, too, ideas and insights that we could put together, endless living water from the hearts of believers that assures that none of us will ever be thirsty again.

When I graduated, the Doctor of Ministry degree in my hand and the red hood around my neck, I was grateful, yes, to be finished, but so much more to have made connections, deep lasting connections, with a gifted group of colleagues, with wise professors, with the patient congregation I served, all of them sources of living water that never cease to flow. v Winter 2016 | 13

Play

Elephant

Continued from page 10

Continued from page 11

of sleeping on the floor instead of a bed (in order to consider what life would be like for those who do not have beds/homes). For an experiment in gratitude, the challenge is one week of writing daily snail mail “thank you” notes. For an experiment in creative Bible reading, the challenge is one week of daily reading the Sermon on the Mount in a random or uncommon place (at the gym, in a busy hallway, on the bus, sitting in the middle of your backyard, etc.). Each week at a check-in time during youth group, the person with the highest point total was deemed the “beadle of the week” and awarded two prizes (a theology book and rights to sitting on a massive bean bag throne for the night).

I confess, I was most nervous entering the second week of Theologame for fear of it being an epic fail. However, when one of my quiet yet “cool” students spoke up about his experience of sleeping on the floor for a week, I knew I was onto something. In the end, I was greatly encouraged by the positive response to Theologame, resulting in launching a new and improved Theologame 2.0 version the following semester. Part of the downright fun of my doctoral research is the relevant, practical, and haunting nature of my entire project. Playing games with imagination and purpose is continuing to make me a better pastor and is making a positive impact in my ministry context. One of the beautiful characteristics of games is their convenience and accessibility. Anyone can play a game. No financial budget is needed. Only a play-full heart ready to seriously play is necessary.

Thanks to my wonderful doctoral advisors, Cynthia Rigby and David White, I believe I am holding a doctoral project with something meaningful to contribute both to the academy and the wider church. My goal is to move forward in creating spaces and games where youth can playfully practice courage and freely explore their Christian discipleship. My prayer today is this: Dear God, when we are tempted to seek comfort over challenge in this great adventure following Christ, grant us the strength to be more imaginative, to think deeper, and to jump higher. May church be a place of homecoming for today’s youth, a place where everyone is welcome and anything is possible. Help us embrace our calling to get in the game and participate in your work and play in this broken world, together witnessing to the One who created every person and everything in creation for the sheer joy of it. In Jesus’s name, we play. v

When I asked the participants why they agreed to participate in the project, one of them, Bubbles, said, “I wanted to do things with ladies at the church that were my own age who were going through the same thing that I was going through.” Another participant, Esther, said that she was intrigued by the subject, because menopause was not a part of her relationship with her mother.

She didn’t have anyone to learn from, and she was excited for the potential of learning about the process. Both were interested in the biblical connection to menopause and the possibility of engaging in Bible study with women of their own age and life stage.

Later, I asked Esther if participating in the project was all that she thought it would be, and she said, “It was so much more than I expected it to be. When I think of the last two years since I participated in the project I realize that I have grown in my vocation as a mother, a volunteer, and office manager, and I now have more confidence. Also, I now have a support system and people who have my back. I never really had that before. I was very reserved in taking risks because of the fear of failure.”

I asked her if the support system was her family or the group, or both, and she said, “Both, but mainly the group—just the fact that I could relate to this group of ladies, this fabulous group of ladies, from all different backgrounds, with different stories, who were willing to share themselves was amazing.” Esther added, “I learned through the project in both spiritual and physical matters that it is okay not to know answers. It is okay to be an adult and to learn and to see others’ perspectives as well.”

I asked Esther what she hopes for the future, and if this project influenced her future plans in any way. She replied, “With my mom not having that background I just want to be that person for my girls or my nieces or other women.”

In our culture and in our church we have not allowed women to openly talk about menopause. Certainly we have not explored menopause and its relationship to our spiritual growth. In my ministry context we have named the elephant in the pew, and we have invited her into the community. Through the Bible story of Naomi and Ruth women have been given hope and courage to embrace their baptismal call. Through the conception and birth of this project, new life has been given to our congregation and women are using their gifts in new and creative ways. v

14 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

live learn

upcoming from education beyond the walls

Spring 2016

“The Poetry of Holy Week” with Paul Hooker | February 18; $25 | Experience the arc of Holy Week as a pilgrim follower of Jesus by way of Servant Songs, the Exodus Passover narrative, and the reflections of poets, ancient and modern.

On this day, we seek primarily to nourish the soul of the pastor.| Recommended for pastors and church leaders.

“Growing into Tomorrow … Today” | February 20 - March 1; FREE | Planning for retirement can be

challenging. Explore steps to take today to prepare for the best retirement tomorrow. | Presented by the Board of Pensions of the PC(USA) Member Education Team| Recommended for mid- to late-career clergy and lay Board of Pension Plan members and their guests.

“Pilgrimage through Loss” with James Ellor, Linda Lawrence Hunt, and Kendra Koch | March 4; $60 (includes lunch) | When grief radically confronts the people we care for, how do we walk with them on their pilgrimage through loss? Join us as we explore grief work from a variety of perspectives.| In partnership with The University of Texas School of Social Work and Hospice Austin| Recommended for social workers, counselors, pastors, chaplains, and all other types of caregivers who work with persons experiencing grief.

“Dealing with Conflict in Hispanic Congregations” with Dionisio G. Salazar | April 8; $60 (includes lunch and a one-on-one follow-up consultation; scholarships available)| Conflict happens in all congregations and culture plays a part. Come and learn about conflict and culture, and take home a new skill to address conflicts in your congregation and to build consensus on important issues. | Recommended for pastoral leaders serving congregations in which Hispanic/Latino/a people are in the

majority. Ordained elders, Licensed Local Pastors, Certified Ruling Elders, and all priests and pastors welcome. Workshop will be in English and Spanish.

“National Service Chaplaincy: Faith in Action Training” with Wayne Meisel and Christopher Williams |

April 15; $50 (includes lunch) |Every year nearly 8,000 young adults are sent out to serve as AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers.

Often, they are left on their own to develop social and spiritual roots in the communities where they are placed. These passionate young adults have little support to help them through the challenges of their volunteer year. Are you being called to serve them as a national service chaplain?|In partnership with Center for Faith and Service|Recommended for AmeriCorps and other

young adult volunteer alumni, clergy, chaplains, and lay leaders of all faith traditions.

“Bridgeways: ‘Messiah of Israel’ in Judaism & Christianity” with Matthias Henze |April 18-19; $115 (meals included) | “Messiah of Israel” has different meaning for Jews and Christians and these differences influence the way each tradition reads its sacred texts. This two-day seminar will lead participants from reading texts to study to practice, engaging them in interfaith dialogue that fosters relationship, clarifies differences, and enriches leadership.|Recommended for rabbis and pastors, educators, students of theology and religion, and lay leaders of the Jewish and Christian faith traditions.

“Crossing the Border: Healing the Hurt” “Cruzando la Frontera: Sanando Las Heridas” with Philip Wingeier-Rayo and Gregory Cuéllar|April 23; $20 (meals included)|Explore a panorama of border evangelism

and current practices for healing families, communities, and the environment in the border region. |In partnership with the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest and the Seminary of the Southwest | Recommended for Hispanic pastors and church leaders.

Workshop is in Spanish and held at First Presbyterian Church, McAllen Texas.

“Preaching in the Era of #BlackLivesMatter” with Margaret Aymer and Carolyn Helsel|April 25; $60

(includes lunch) | Deepen your understanding of racism, explore how your identity has been shaped in a racialized society, and claim your gifts for preaching. |Recommended for clergy, educators, and other lay leaders.

Emerging Methodist Voices “Listening to All of God’s Children” with Tanya Marie Eustace and “Which Black Lives Matter?” with Jennifer Leath |May 3; $15 (lunch included)|Come and learn from scholar pastors

formed in the Wesleyan tradition who are leading the church into the future.| Presented by The Wesley Connection at Austin Seminary| For clergy and lay leaders of all denominations.

“Women Writing: The Art of Spiritual Memoir” with Donna Johnson| May 16-19; $200 (includes meals, lodging, and a copy of Holy Ghost Girl)|Come and write, reflect and rest to shift your own narrative and make peace with your story. | In partnership with the Collegeville Institute| Recommended for women pastors, writers, and would-be spiritual memoirists.

Learn more and register for all events at AustinSeminary.edu/ebwworkshops Winter 2016 | 15

faculty news notes

Professors Jensen, Aymer, and White publish new books

A

ustin Seminary’s Academic Dean David H. Jensen is the author of a new book, 1 & 2 Samuel: A Theological Commentary on the Bible (Westminster John Knox, 2015).

The commentary is one of the latest offerings from the series Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible. Building on a wide range of sources from biblical studies, the history of theology, the church’s liturgical and musical traditions, contemporary culture, and the Christian tradition, the noted scholars who contribute to the series focus less on traditional historical and literary angles in favor of theologically focused commentaries that consider the contemporary relevance of the texts.

Throughout his theologically rich treatment of First and Second Samuel, Jensen explores what makes these texts important for us.

He suggests that we read 1 and 2 Samuel because they reveal the complexities of the human person, the ambiguities of our social arrangements as nations, and God’s agency in a conflicted world.

Jensen notes that as we are shaped by and grapple with the biblical stories, we are invited to find our own stories within them. “As I immersed myself in the stories of 1 & 2 Samuel, I was drawn to the unforgettable human characters within them: David, Saul, Hannah, Bathsheba,” said Jensen. “These characters, who reveal all sorts of strengths and flaws, also show forth in their lives the hand of the living God—sometimes even in spite of themselves. The stories contained in these pages of the Bible are worth a lifetime of retelling.”

Jensen is academic dean and professor in the Clarence N. and Betty B. Frierson Distinguished Chair of Reformed Theology; he is the author of seven previous books.

+++ new collection of essays on reading the Bible from the perspective of persons on, from, and informed by islands is co-edited by Professor Margaret Aymer, associate professor of New Testament. It also features an essay by Aymer, “Islandness, Paul, and John of Patmos,” that considers the ways in which discourses of inclusion and insularity emerge from realities of island life and explores the application of that reflection for reading Paul of Tarsus and John of Patmos. Her piece was informed by her 2013 MidWinter Lectures at Austin Seminary.

Islands, Islanders, and the Bible is published by the Society for Biblical Literature as part of its Semeia Studies series on interdisciplinary approaches to biblical studies.

+++

A

D

avid White, C. Ellis and Nancy Gribble Nelson Professor of Christian Education and Professor in Methodist Studies, contributed to the new CEB Student Bible (Common English Bible, 2015).

White wrote discussions for the books of Ezekiel and Titus as well as articles for Ezekiel. The discussions include questions, activities, and “Reading Differently” exercises for youth groups and small groups.

Targeted toward students ages thirteen and up, the Bible includes multiple prayers and reflections written by and for students, more than 400 articles by a diverse group of biblical scholars and youth ministers from over a dozen different denominations, and numerous discussion questions and activities designed to help students engage with the text.v

16 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

faculty notes | Margaret Aymer, associate professor of New Testament, led worship for the Handbell Retreat of the Council Oak Bells of First United Methodist Church, Round Rock. She preached at First Presbyterian Church of Belton (Texas) for Theological Education Sunday and participated in the Theological Consultation on the Status of Women of the PC(USA) at McCormick Seminary in Chicago, October 1-3. She led an Education Beyond The Walls workshop on hospitality, introducing both biblical notions of hospitality and a hospitable method of doing Bible study.

She co-chaired The Feminist Hermeneutics section of the Society of Biblical Literature, and participated in a panel reviewing Thecla and the History of Women in the Early Church by Susan Hylen in November.

Bill Greenway, associate professor of philosophical theology, had an essay, “Eternally Incarnate: Advent in Genesis,” in the Advent 2015 issue of Journal for Preachers. His essay “Peter Singer, Emmanuel Levinas, Christian Agape, and the Spiritual Heart of Animal Liberation,” appeared in the Fall issue of the Journal of Animal Ethics.

Associate Dean Paul Hooker’s article, “Notes of the Church: An Effort toward an Ecclesiology for New Worshiping Communities,” was published in Call to Worship (September 2015). His poem, “At the Font,” appears in the September 28 issue of Presbyterian Outlook. He will make a presentation, “Gracious Dismissal Policies: Pros, Cons, and Things to Think About,” to the Committee on Ministry, Presbytery of South Louisiana in December.

David Johnson, associate professor of Christian history and spirituality, delivered the speech, “To Know the Difference: Aging Well Spiritually,” on Nov. 6 at the Texas Health Resources

Faith Community Symposium in Arlington.

good reads |

At the end of her academic sabbatical (2014-15), Jennifer Lord, The Dorothy B. Vickery Professor of Homiletics and Liturgical Studies, lectured on “Living with Liminality” for the congregation of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, San Anselmo, California; she was Spring Branch Presbyterian Church’s (Houston) preacher for Theological Education Sunday. She was a selected participant for the Association of Theological Schools Women in Advancing Leadership Development Conference, Pittsburgh, October 21-15, and will present a paper “Liminality: A Liturgical Hermeneutic?” for the North American Academy of Liturgy’s Liturgical Hermeneutics seminar group.

This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems by Wendel Berry (Counterpoint:

Blair Monie, professor in the Louis H. and Katherine S. Zbinden Distinguished Chair of Pastoral Ministry and Leadership, preached at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Dallas, on October 18 and taught an adult Bible study at First Presbyterian Church, Austin, in November. He will preach at the Presbyterian Fellowship Group in San Angelo, December 6, lead a workshop for Stewardship Kaleidoscope in San Antonio, March 2, and preach on Day1, March 13, 2016.

An essay by Associate Professor of Mission and Evangelism Phil Wingeier-Rayo, “Hope and Controversy Fill Pope Frances’ Visit to America,” appeared in The Presbyterian Outlook (October 2, 2015). He had a book review in Teaching Theology & Religion, October 14, 2015, and he lectured in Portuguese at the Sol Africa Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 27 - June 1. Read his blog on “Race and Tradition in American Christianity” posted in UM & Global, July 9, 2015: www.umglobal.org/2015/07/ phil-wingeier-rayo-race-andtradition.html v

Berkeley, 2013, paperback, 403 pp)

B

est known as a novelist, essayist, and environmental activist, Wendell Berry is first a poet of substance and stature. Since 1965, he and his wife, Tanya, have worked a small farm in Kentucky, and there the “Sabbath poems” in this collection have their birth. Every Sunday, Berry walks his farmland, where, “on the best of these Sabbath days, I experience a lovely freedom from expectations—other people’s and also my own” (Introduction, p. xxi). Ranging from 1979 to 2012 (some were published in 1998 as A Timbered Choir), Berry’s Sabbath poems form a kind of diary of the soul.

And such a soul! Berry can sit in rapt wonder at Creation, while silently critiquing our loss of that wonder: To sit and look at light-filled leaves May let us see, or seem to see, Far backward as through clearer eyes To what unsighted hope believes: That blessed conviviality That sang Creation’s seventh sunrise (p. 10)…

He can reflect on loved ones lost, with a grief that is somehow also joy: We follow the dead to their graves, and our long love follows on beyond, crying to them, not “Come back,” but “Wait!”…

And yet we all are gathered in this leftover love, this longing become the measure of a joy all mourners know.

An old man’s mind is a graveyard where the dead arise (p. 215).

Berry’s love of the land is everywhere in these poems, and he yearns to offer that love to

those who will follow him as its tenants: The need comes on me now to speak across the years to those who finally will live here after the present ruin, in the absence of most of my kind who by now are dead, or have given their minds to machines and become strange…

…To you, whoever you may be, I say: Come, meaning to stay. Come, willing to learn what this place, like no other, will ask of you…(p. 355).

But Berry is no bucolic saint; he is more than willing to condemn his own nation’s intoxication with false patriotism, as he does in this 2003 poem: This, then, is to be the way? Freedom’s candle will be snuffed out by freedom’s sworn defenders, chanting hourly the praise of freedom? Their praise will console the free waking in their prisons when the Bill of Rights has at last dissolved in the indifference of the great Self of force…(p. 244).

Berry’s poetry is traditional but not traditionalist; conservationist without conservatism. But the soul of Berry’s poetic range is his Christian faith, his sense that “the incarnate Word” underlies everything: The incarnate Word is with us, is still speaking, is present always, yet leaves no sign but everything there is. (p. 203).

Follow Berry as he roams his lands in these poems. See if you do not discover your own “lovely freedom from expectations.” See if, in fact, you do not hear the Word differently for the effort. v

—Written by Paul Hooker, associate dean for ministerial formation and advanced studies

Join the Austin Seminary Book Club AustinSeminary.edu/bookclub Winter 2016 | 17

faculty news notes Professor Emeritus George Heyer dies

G

eorge S. Heyer Jr., professor emeritus of the history of doctrine, died on October 10, 2015, at the age of 85. Upon learning of his death one former student posted, “Giant intellect, bigger heart. He gave so much and listened so well.”

Heyer began his teaching career at Austin Seminary in 1964, upon a recommendation from famed theologian H. Richard Niebhur. In 1975, Heyer gave the annual Gunning Lectures at the University of Edinburgh, which he later adapted for publication as Signs of Our Times: Theological Essays on Art in the Twentieth Century. Heyer retired from Austin Seminary in 1993; three years later Austin Seminary established the George S. Heyer Jr. Distinguished Lectureship to honor his career.

Heyer had a deep and lifelong interest in fine art, which included his service as vice-chair and chair on the Texas State Commission on the Arts and Humanities and as the chair of the Advisory Council for the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin.

A graveside service was held in Houston on October 20. The George S. Heyer papers are available for research in the Seminary Archives by appointment. v

Trustee Lana Russell participates in the “chairing ceremony,” November 3, during which Blair Monie was officially made a professor in the Louis H. and Katherine S. Zbinden Distinguished Chair in Pastoral Ministry and Leadership.

Professor David F. White joins leadership team of Yale’s “Theology of Joy and the Good Life” project

D

avid White, The C. Ellis and Nancy Gribble Nelson Professor of Christian Education, has been appointed to the Joy and Adolescent Faith and Flourishing (JAFF) Advisory Board of the Theology of Joy and the Good Life project based at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. The three-year research project is made possible by a $4.2 million grant from The John Templeton Foundation.

The JAFF Advisory Board will assemble some of the nation’s foremost scholars of youth ministry. As a member of the board, White will conduct research and direct the project in collaboration with the project’s principal investigator, Miroslav Volf, professor of theology at Yale Divinity School, and an extraordinary group of scholars and religious leaders from institutions around the globe, including Jürgen Moltmann, Jonathan Sacks, N. T. Wright, and Nicholas Wolterstorff.

“David White’s scholarship on youth has attracted international attention in both church and academy,” said Academic Dean David H. Jensen. “One of his most significant contributions in this realm is how he turns our eyes to beauty: the beauty of Christian faith, the beauty of adolescence.

David’s appointment to this cutting-edge project at Yale is testament to what he has already accomplished and to what is yet to come. I have already witnessed the joy that he brings to this work and am eager to see what lies ahead as this important project unfolds.”

White contributed to a 2014 planning project on the Theology of Joy, during which the fundamental questions of the Theology of Joy and the Good Life project were formulated.

As a major area of focus in the project, the Joy and Adolescent Faith and Flourishing sub-project will examine adolescence as a uniquely opportune and consequential phase of moral and spiritual development with profound implications for long-term prospects of a life of joyful flourishing. JAFF will conduct a three-year series of thirty-four lectures on the foundations of adolescent joy and flourishing and will publish scholarly articles, an anthology, a major theological monograph, and curricular materials on the foundations of joy and flourishing life and on the spiritual resources supporting resilience in the face of common sources of adolescent suffering.

“We are very excited to have Professor White’s leadership in this project,” said Volf. “We are working to identify the practices and attitudes that hinder and develop sustained joy in adolescence, so that we can offer resources that will enable adolescents to live lives of joyful flourishing. Having Professor White’s expertise in Christian education will provide crucial guidance to this important project.” v

18 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

alumni news notes

Alumnus honors his former professor with World War I memoir

I

n this centennial of the World War I years, many new books are hitting the shelves about one of the deadliest conflicts in history. One new book, The Crossed Hands of God (Resource Publications, 2015), is decidedly Austin Seminary-centric.

In 1917, The Reverend Eugene McLaurin (MDiv’16), left his pastorate at Allen Memorial Presbyterian Church in Edna, Texas, to volunteer with the 90th Division and serve in France and, after the Armistice, as part of the German occupation.

McLaurin was assistant to the battalion chaplain, acting as a stretcher-bearer and searching for and attending to the burial of the dead—both American and German. A diary he kept in the sixty-four days leading to the Armistice provides a vivid picture of McLaurin’s wartime experiences.

Eugene McLaurin returned to Texas and served Presbyterian churches until he was called in 1938 to teach systematic theology at Austin Seminary. When James McCord arrived in 1944, McLaurin began to teach his first love, biblical languages. In 1940 he had begun studies at the University of Texas toward his doctorate—a process that took twelve years. In 1952 he became the first Austin Seminary professor to earn the PhD; he was sixty-four!

For almost a century his diary and letters, as well as his uniform, gas mask, and more than seventy photographs he took of battlefields and destroyed villages, were housed in a family trunk.

In 2003, McLaurin’s son, Lock, showed

the diary to Jerry R. Tompkins (Dipl’55), a former Austin Seminary student, administrator, and long-time friend of Professor McLaurin.

What began as curiosity soon grew to a passion, and Tompkins began writing McLaurin’s biography and editing the diary and letters.

This spring, Lock produced an envelope containing what appear to be original photographs—many of which made it into the book that was published this fall.

With research assistance by Seminary Archivist Kristy Sorensen, guidance by James S. Currie (MDiv‘79, ThM’89), technical expertise from the Seminary’s Office of Communications, and an encomium written by President Ted Wardlaw, The Crossed Hands of God reaches across generations of the Austin Seminary community and preserves the story of this courageous, yet gentle, pastor/scholar. v Above, Jerry Tompkins holds the diary in front of a frame in the Stitt Library Reading Room containing Eugene McLaurin’s academic robes. At left is a close-up of one of McLaurin’s journals in which he recorded the name and death of every soldier he buried.

Austin area alums and students enjoy the Austin Seminary Association bar-b-q on September 21.

Winter 2016 | 19

alumni news notes

class notes |

was ordained at The Brick Presbyterian Church, New York, New York, and installed as associate pastor of pastoral care at The Village Presbyterian Church, Prairie Village, Kansas.

1980s David A. Leslie (MDiv’88) has been named executive director of the Rothko Chapel in Houston. The Rothko Chapel is a space for religious ceremonies of all faiths and hosts programs in support of the arts, spirituality, and human rights.

Taught by our resident faculty, the Doctor of Ministry program at Austin Seminary is designed to enhance your abilities in biblical and theological reflection and give you practical strategies to address your particular ministry goals.

Melissa Koerner Lopez and Clara Ruth

2000s

2010s

Marvin “Trey” Hegar (MDiv’07) was installed as pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, on January 1, 2015.

John R. Pflug Jr. (MDiv’10) became pastor at Windermere Presbyterian Church, in Wilmington, North Carolina, October 18, 2015.

Lisa and Mitchell Holley (MDiv’08) welcomed daughter Skylar McKenzie on September 24, 2015.

Laura Walters (MDiv’11) has been called to be pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Lake Travis in Austin.

Sarah Hegar (MDiv’09) became the Networking Associate for the Presbytery of East Iowa in September.

Kristi Click (MDiv’14) married Wes Blankman in Houston, Texas, on August 22, 2015.

Melissa Koerner Lopez (MDiv’09) and Jose Lopez (MDiv’10) welcomed daughter, Clara Ruth on April 17, 2015.

Alexander K. Cornell (MDiv’14) married student Kathy F. Lee, October 11, 2015.

ordinations | Len T. Carrell (MDiv’14)

Molly S. McGinnis (MDiv’14) was ordained at Central Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, Georgia, October 25, 2015.

Gregory D. Allen-Pickett (MDiv’15) was ordained at Wellshire Presbyterian Church, Denver, Colorado, October 4, 2015.

Michele R. Goff (MDiv’15) was ordained at First Presbyterian Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and installed as pastor at Aztec (New Mexico) Presbyterian Church, August 30, 2015.

in memoriam | J. Robert Durway (MDiv’48, ThM’49), Fort Worth, Texas, June 28, 2015 John M. McCoy Jr. (MDiv’63), Dallas, Texas, August 30, 2015 John R. Blue (MDiv’71), Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, July 11, 2015

Doctor of Ministry The

Application Deadline

February 2, 2016 Contact Paul Hooker for more information: phooker@austinseminary.edu

512-404-4880

A cluster of Austin Seminary friends were on hand to celebrate Molly McGinnis’s ordination (center): Kaci Clark Porter (MDiv’10), M Barclay (MDiv’12), John Russell Stanger (MDiv’12), Layton Williams (MDiv’14), student Kevin Henderson, Allie Utley (MDiv’13), student Katherine Atkins, Sarah de la Fuente (MDiv’15), student Austin Young, and student Daniel Williams.

20 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

teaching ministry

Seized by love: Teaching, ministry, and the teacher

By William Greenway, Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology

I

n Romans Paul says, with regard to those who “by their wickedness suppress the truth,” that, “what can be known about God is plain … since the creation of the world [God’s] eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things [God] has made.” If this is true of the wicked, “what can be known about God” must be even clearer to the faithful. Today God’s power and nature is indeed plain to a multitude of hearts, but modern rationality has clouded the minds of even many faithful.

Does Paul help clear away the haze?

Paul says all commandments are “summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Recently a host of celebrated philosophers have read in Paul’s summary a decisive break with Jesus, for Paul drops “love your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind.” Seizing upon this, they champion Paul for fellow atheists because he keeps love of neighbor but drops God. But without

God they read, “love your neighbor as yourself” backwards and upside down. Since the only love they know is eros (desire, perhaps desire for others to flourish, but still one’s own desire to desire other’s flourishing), all “love” must be at root “love of self.” But for Paul—this is why they champion Paul—you must decide to universalize this love, you must decide to love everyone just as you love yourself, and this decision to universalize love is faith.

These philosophers have good hearts (they are sincerely committed to universal neighbor-love), but their minds are clouded. Their reading is backwards because it starts with love of self. It is upside down because faith is now rooted in us (our conviction/ decision), not in God. It is insufficient, for they have no explanation as to why I would/should decide to love everyone as much as I love myself. Finally, their

reading is utterly contrary to common experience of agape.

Jesus unfolds “love your neighbor as yourself” with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The parable depends upon hearers discerning the plain truth of who proves neighbor. What inspires us has nothing to do with self-interest.

The essential dynamic is unfolded precisely by celebrated philosopher and Talmudic scholar Emmanuel Levinas (not an atheist) in terms of our being taken hostage to care for others. What we recognize as “neighbor” is the Samaritan’s having been seized by love for the wounded man.

by others, we are seized directly by love for others, we are seized by love, seized by agape, which is to say, since God is love, we are seized by God for others.

Thereby, says Jesus, when you surrender to having been seized by others and comfort, clothe, visit, or feed them, you comfort, clothe, visit, and feed God, for you are directly surrendering to agape (to God) for others. Insofar as you do not harden your heart but surrender, you are neighbor, faithful. Paul cites only “love your neighbor as yourself” because, in full accord with Jesus, he recognizes the spiritual unity of the two commands.

You love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind precisely by surrendering to agape for every other with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. In surrender to God you become neighbor, for you are surrendering to/receiving love for all—love for all others, and for yourself (“as yourself”).

Insofar as people, since the creation of the world, have been seized by concern for all others— —St. Augustine, The Teacher this reality is as real as horror over the suffering wrought by tsunami or exploitation, as real as joy for

Insofar as we do not harden our the laughing little girl—a dimension hearts, this is the love by which are of God’s eternal power and divine seized in horrific and also wondrous nature, invisible though they are, has circumstances. We see the survivors been understood and seen through all of the shooting, the tsunami, or the God has made. All this remains within earthquake; we see fearful, silenced bounds of what is generally considered immigrants laboring at dangerous jobs; reasonable and good. More about God’s we see desperate families crowding nature is equally plain—remember, boats to cross the Mediterranean, the Teacher’s teaching famously seizes and we are seized by concern for Saul the oppressor, therefore, “while we those others, our love immediately were yet sinners…” and all which that manifest in our grief and protest. Or entails. None of this general revelation, we see the little girl laughing happily however, is a matter of natural theology at her birthday party, or the smiling (inferring God from nature or reason). newlyweds descending the church steps, For it is not a matter of argument, and we are seized by love for those conclusion, decision, or assertion, but others, now manifest in our joy. These rather of openness and surrender to responses are not a product of our own the Word behind the words, awakening initiative, reasoning, or decision. We are to the Teacher who truly teaches when directly seized by love for others. Let me teaching is ministry. v be very clear, we are not seized directly

“… it is not I who teach him. He is taught not by my words but by the things themselves which inwardly God [the Teacher] has made manifest to him.”

Winter 2016 | 21

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