Windows Summer 2010

A USTIN P RESBYTERIAN T HEOLOGICAL S EMINARY

SUMMER 2010

LOOKING OUTWARD

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The President’s Preaching and Speaking Engagements August 22, Preacher and Teacher, Covenant PC, Charlotte, North Carolina September 8, Partnership Lunch, North Dallas September 17-19, Preacher and Teacher, Spiritual Enrichment Weekend, Spanish Fort PC, Spanish Fort, Alabama September 21, Host, Evening with the President, Kerrville, Texas September 26, Preacher, First PC, Norman, Oklahoma September 28, Host, Evening with the President, Austin September 30, Luncheon Speaker, Austin Women’s Club October 3, Teacher, Highland Park PC, Dallas October 4, Host, Evening w/President, Corpus Christi, Texas October 6, Partnership Lunch, Harlingen, Texas October 10 & 17, Teacher, Faith and Life Class, University PC, Austin October 15, Preacher, Trinity Episcopal Church, Columbus, Ohio October 21, Host, Evening with the President, Tulsa, Oklahoma

his edition of Windows brings news of transitions here at the Seminary. Most notably, we have joyfully celebrated a new class of graduates in three degree programs, and that moment of graduation is always one that reminds us, lest we stray in our attentions, that our students are always the centerpiece of who we are and what we are about.

We have also celebrated on campus the recent news of Michael Jinkins’ election as the next president of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He led well in the Dean’s Office here, and now we wish him and Debbie all the best as they embark upon a new challenge in Louisville.

That transition suggests another one, as we have now begun the search process for a new dean. Cynthia Rigby is chairing the advisory committee that has already gone into high gear placing ads in various periodicals, thinking out loud about our particular needs and hopes at this juncture, and gathering suggestions for candidates. Eventually, her committee will advise me on a candidate whose name I will in turn recommend to the board—hopefully at its November meeting.

At its spring meeting, the board voted to proceed with the quiet phase of a comprehensive campaign, and that certainly was a significant transition. This campaign has five major values in view—the enhancement of the library, Phase Two of much-needed new student housing, several new endowed faculty chairs, the completion of the endowment of the College for Pastoral Leaders, and a boatload of new fellowships and scholarships that will enable us to offer deserving students a theological education without concern for how they will fund it. Stay tuned for more information about this outstanding committee and its work ahead.

At the heart of all of our activity—our searches for personnel, our campaigns for bold new initiatives, our buildings and committees and the whole nine yards—at the heart of all of this are our students. They are the centerpiece of who we are and what we are about, and in the pages ahead, you will hear them in their own words. This Windows offers a glimpse at our students being themselves, of our campus in its day-to-day life being itself. And, lest we forget those whose faithfulness undergirds all that we do here, at the very heart of this issue lies our Annual Report and Honor Roll of Donors.

So, I invite you to immerse yourself in the lives of these students and be encouraged by what they are now and will soon be offering to this church that we love!

Faithfully yours, Theodore J. Wardlaw President

CONTENTS BOARD OF TRUSTEES Cassandra C. Carr, Chair Karen C. Anderson Thomas L. Are Jr. Susan Beaird F. M. Bellingrath III Elizabeth Christian Joseph J. Clifford James G. Cooper Marvin L. Cooper James B. Crawley Consuelo Donahue (MDiv’96) Elizabeth Blanton Flowers G. Archer Frierson Richard D. Gillham Walter Harris Jr. Bruce G. Herlin Roy M. Kim J Carter King III (MDiv’70) James H. Lee (MDiv’00) Michael L. Lindvall Catherine O. Lowry Blair R. Monie Lyndon L. Olson Jr. B. W. Payne David Peeples Jeffrey Kyle Richard Teresa Chávez Sauceda (MDiv’88) Anne Vickery Stevenson Karl Brian Travis John L. Van Osdall Sallie Sampsell Watson (MDiv’87) Elizabeth Currie Williams

Trustees Emeriti Stephen A. Matthews Max Sherman Louis Zbinden

Publisher & Mailing Statement

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What’s it like being in seminary?

Matt Falco • Stella Burkhalter • Doug Frietzsche • Denise Pierce • Jeff Saddington • Clare Lozano • Kelly Updegraff • Sally Wright • Bart Smith Read more student essays online at www.austinseminary.edu/visit

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Community news The Class of 2010

Center

Faculty news Alumni/ae news The 2009-2010 Honor Roll of Donors

W I N D OW S Summer 2010 Volume 125 Number 3

EDITOR Randal Whittington

CONTRIBUTORS Channing Burke Deborah Butler Shuhan Chan Nancy Reese Lana Russell

Cover: Senior student Heather Lee in her Anderson House apartment.

Photography by Jody Horton.

Windows is published three times each year

by Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

ISSN 2056-0556 Non-profit bulk mail permit no. 2473

Austin Seminary Windows Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary 100 E. 27th St. Austin, TX 78705-5797 phone: 512-472-6736 e-mail: windows@austinseminary.edu fax: 512-479-0738 www.austinseminary.edu

Theological Education Fund (1% Plan)

The theological schools of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) no longer receive funding from the basic mission budget of the General Assembly. Churches are asked to contribute 1% of their operating budgets to the fund, which is then distributed to the seminaries.

No really, they can ask us anything! like a buzzing rattlesnake

Words.

We are a community immersed in words—of ancient language and modern syntax. We read them. We write them. We preach them. All with the purpose of

I will plantAustin Jesus!

Seminary’s school year began just after dedicating Anderson House, whose giving voice and meaning to the capital “W” Word.

Can’t put a dagesh in a resh

entrance bears these Latin words etched in stone: Praedicatores taediosi nobis non mittendi sunt. A rough translation of John Anderson’s dictum, “Send us preachers

Aaah … hammock time!

who aren’t boring,” it serves as a reminder of our mission to educate men and

I definitely did not feel in control

women to communicate in a compelling way Christ’s words of salvation.

It was a year in which Dean Michael Jinkins and Bob Lively (MDiv’73, DMin’79), a regular columnist for the Austin American-Statesman newspaper,

team-taught the course, “Don’t Bury the Lead.” The class engaged students in writing workshops to create essays, short non-fiction, and op-ed pieces that make complex theological messages accessible to general audiences. The result was so

these bills are placed in the g-strings of strippers

successful that four essays were published in the Statesman and one, by Jane Petit (MDiv’10), is being considered for publication in Guideposts magazine.

God had been loving me all day

And it was a year in which Mary Elizabeth Prentice-Hyers, the editor of the student newspaper, Karios (an ancient Greek word signifying the “right

moment”), weekly invited her fellow students to express in their own words the

American materialism, fatherlessness, and poverty

depth and richness of their seminary experiences.

breathtaking to behold

So at the conclusion of this year, we offer several of these essays with the expectation that their words will both enlighten and inspire. Read on.

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—RW

You are not even abnormal

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In it Together

BY MATT FALCO

“No really, we go on the floor and they can ask us anything!” I said again.

I could try all evening to explain what this was about, but unless you have been steeped in the process, this conversation always ends in the same place— with this question.

“When are they going to trust you?” my good Unitarian friend asked incredulously.

Yes, he just called on Presbyterians to have faith.

It’s not as though I or any other candidate for ministry in our denomination have not asked ourselves this question.

Often, it’s as we walk out the door after our second annual review. Did they really just ask me for my college transcript after having been in seminary for two years? How can I begin to have faith in this process?

On the off chance we haven’t given ourselves permission to ask the question, or we are still stuck in that stage known as denial, certainly our spouses, families, or friends have asked it for us.

They see all the hoops. Hearing our call story has become for them like watching a movie they love from childhood. It still has a good plot, but the special effects are dated and the lead actor or actress is decidedly overrated. They watch us spend hours on statements of faith that reveal not only how deeply we have been dipped into the waters of systematic theology but also how thinly we veil the sharply honed axes we continue to grind. They watch us fret over sermons that we preach to a select few in conference rooms so plain that even our newly beloved Calvin would be left wondering if this could be remotely related to worship.

As someone closer to the end of the process than the beginning, I have come to realize that the gauntlet is not without purpose. By this point in the process, having drawn close to graduation and well into searching for a call, the threat of this inquisition, as it appears from the outside, seems minimal. Maybe even invited.

Don’t get me wrong; the horror stories are enough to WINDOWS / Summer 2010

make anyone pick up their OT Intro text to dust off the mental cobwebs. However, I would argue that going on the floor of presbytery to be questioned by our peers is exactly what we felt called to do when this process began, even if we didn’t realize it then.

Throughout the process, we anticipated gaining keys to the Bible that had been hidden all our life. Perhaps we expected that after seminary we would be able to provide pastoral counseling to those challenged with the myriad of difficulties in life. Some of us dreamed of rising into a pulpit week after week to bear forth the Word of God. We could all envision delivering the hope that had been so graciously given to us through Sunday school teachers, deacons, prayer circles, and friends. The passion that runs deep in the heart of the seminary student is rarely the question.

More often, what is at question is whether we realize that we cannot and will not ever do this thing called ministry alone. If we bristle at the thought of another meeting with our preparation committee, how can we even fathom the many evenings around fake wood tables in uncomfortable folding chairs solving the mundane issues of congregational life that lie ahead of us? If we are stunned that our committee would want us to spend time in a hospital setting during seminary, can we really contemplate sitting by the bedside of a dying congregation member whom we’ll never begin to fully know in the way that Christ calls us to?

So, by the time that we go to the floor of some strange presbytery to be examined by that pastor from the small town who has been there forever and rises to ask the same question they have asked every candidate before us and will continue to after us, we must have faith that they, like our Lord, rise to be with us, not against us.

Go ahead—ask us anything.

Pennsylvania native Matt Falco (MDiv’10) is seeking a call in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

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The Fourth I Love You

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BY STELLA BURKHALTER

It snuck up on me, for it was so unexpected. I had just done something deliberately silly at the church dinner and in response, one of the teenagers laughed and said, “I love you, Stella!” Just like that. Matter of fact. She barely knows me. Plus, what I had done wasn’t all that funny. I had spent most of that day in the depths of a pity party, and that “I love you” from such an unlikely source finally jarred me out of it.

I thought about it for a minute and I realized that wasn’t the first time that day someone had said, “I love you” to me.

Earlier I had gone to campus to meet my spiritual direction group and I hung around afterwards, reluctant to leave my indispensable source of strength. As I walked away, Lisa called out, “I love you!”

My daughter thinks it’s weird that we say “I love you” to each other in seminary. She heard me say it as I hung up the phone with a classmate once, and it caught her attention. “I didn’t know you were talking to Dad,” she had said. “I wasn’t,” was my reply. When I realized she wanted an explanation, I said, “That’s just the way we are with each other in seminary.” I had forgotten how countercultural that is.

When I remembered Lisa’s farewell, I remembered that I had seen Shane on campus and he had noticed that I was having a rough day. He had changed course and veered from the sidewalk, deciding a wave from afar was not sufficient. “I love you,” he had said as he hugged me, as if we had been best friends forever instead of people who had had one class together last year. I was grateful for the person he is.

“That’s three ‘I love you’s in one day, not counting the ones from my husband and kids,” I thought to myself. And then I remembered there had been another.

The drama of the day had prompted a phone call to the pastor who had been my SPM supervisor. I had called to ask for her advice, and as usual, she had ended the call by saying, “I love you.” Coupled with Lisa, Shane, and my

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SPM supervisor, the young woman from church made four “I love you’s.” I had been hearing “I love you” all day long.

I don’t know what it was about that fourth “I love you,” but when I heard it from that young woman, I finally got it. God had been loving me all day long, carrying me through the whatever thing I had blown up and made bigger than it should have been, sustaining me through self-doubt and anxiety, faithfully grounding me as I moved through the day unaware.

The unbelievable love of God is radiated to us through the slightly more believable love of our fellow human beings and through all of creation— and we are rarely awake enough to receive it.

I’m working on a directed study project this semester examining the theology of evangelism in the Methodist Church. I’ve been trying to understand how we are to bring others to Christ in our postmodern era, and I’m concluding that we do that best by inviting others into Christian community. At first I had wondered why we’re starting new churches when the current ones aren’t full, and I questioned the point of evangelism as simply inviting people to church as if it were just another club. As I read and think and pray and watch, I see that inviting people into community is everything. Because I am enmeshed in Christian community, I am surrounded by people who are living instruments of grace. Because I spend my days in Christian community, I got to hear God say “I love you” out loud four times today.

How blessed we are to be in these kinds of communities. How blessed we are to be called to build them.

Stella Burkhalter (MDiv’10) is associate pastor for children's ministry at Covenant United Methodist Church in Austin.

On-Call

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BY DOUG FRITZSCHE

My pager went off like a buzzing rattlesnake. It was the Friday of my first weekend of the January-term chaplaincy experience program at St. David’s Hospital, and my first weekend on call. The page included a phone number and a cryptic message about a blind patient hallucinating demons who wanted to talk to a chaplain.

I called the nurse, who added details elaborating the story, and I climbed back into my truck, equipped with some random things: a copy of Daily Prayer, a wonderful book called Psalms for Praying, and a few others. My wife, a psychotherapist, offered me some potentially useful advice as I headed out the door.

Equipped with my meager things, some advice and exactly two partial days of supervised interaction with patients, I drove to the hospital. The first week of the JanTerm was occupied largely with learning my way around the hospital and very little of the ins and outs of chaplaincy.

I was a little surprised that I was not anxious, not trying to over-imagine what lay ahead. And that I was generally comfortable with the role I was playing and the situation I approached.

There was even something compelling about being called out in the night to aid someone struggling with demons—that, in this still early fraction of the 21st century.

More than any other single experience, the January term chaplaincy internship pulled two-and-a-half years of seminary into sharp focus. Different than a church internship, which is demanding but in a familiar way, the hospital environment tosses the preparation we get at seminary into a cauldron of emotion, trauma, and urgency.

There isn’t really time to reflect and dissect, to theologize and sermonize—nor is there the need. But the two things that stood out in raw relief were these:

WINDOWS / Summer 2010

Out in the world—I am a commuter student and not surrounded by the reinforcement of an alwayspresent faith community (although sometimes I envy those who are)— when people learn I am in seminary, I am likely to hear such comments like: “I’m not sure I believe in God.” Or any of the similar shibboleths of contemporary culture. At the hospital, it mattered that someone was there to represent the hope that a God—by any name—existed and cared.

I learned that I did not need to be too fussy about my own faith orientation when the need was to pray with someone whose understanding was different.

The other learning point was that theology was a wonderful thing to have in my back pocket—it provided the framework that let me go through the many varied interactions—but that it could just stay in my back pocket. The theological question was “Why?” And my best answer was “I don’t know, but I can be here with you.”

Our supervisor, Rev. Rebecca Gurney, defined it in terms of Story, Prayer, and Presence.

At the end of my first semester of seminary, I sent my friends back home in Albuquerque an e-mail talking about my troubled state at that time. The heavy load of biblical criticism and reconsidering some faith matters I had just taken for granted left me aching for some of the certainty I brought with me to seminary.

The e-mail had a happy ending, which involved my observation at the end of a pensive stint in the choir loft at Shelton Chapel. I concluded that the thing my faith rests on is not the accuracy of any document (not even one so authoritative as the Bible), but on the way I have seen the awakening to faith transform the lives of people.

To find that ratified in the hospital experience was wonderfully comforting to me. That I had the awareness and skills to approach this encounter with a sense of faith Continued on page 7 5

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What I’ve Learned in Seminary

BY DENISE PIERCE

As a lifelong member of the Missionary Baptist Church, I came to Austin Seminary determined to learn how to create ecumenical bridges. Frustrated by the lack of impact that Christianity appears to be having on the social ills of American society, I came desiring to design strategies for uniting the body of Christ so that together we might more profoundly combat American materialism, fatherlessness, and poverty. It seemed that if we could eliminate racial and denominational segregation within the body of Christ, we might be able to stand

I now approach my call to the ministry with a truism I learned in Dr. Babinsky’s class: Throughout the church’s life and within each sect of Christianity, believers try to faithfully live out their faith in God through Jesus Christ.

And so it is with us.

We 21st-century Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Unitarians are all trying to live out our faith in God the best as we can. There’s no need to give up our denominational identities and theological convictions for the purposes of joining the universal mega church I had in mind. Instead, the task is to align ourselves on the simple and profound principles of Christianity on which we can agree. In particular, as children of God brokenhearted by the human condition, we must work harder to bring alliances between our denominational organizations so that the good news of Jesus is proclaimed more boldly and the society in which we live is transformed by that good news.

Denise Pierce is a senior in the MDiv program and a merit scholar. She works full-time as an attorney while attending seminary part time.

together to transform our society into the reign of God that Jesus came to establish.

Now having studied here for three years, I have altered my expectations. While I still hold onto a desire for Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Unitarians, and others to work together to improve the human condition, I don’t expect for racial or denominational lines to disappear within the church. After reflecting on the history of the church (under Dr. Ellen Babinsky) and the history of the mission and evangelism (under Dr. Arun Jones), I appreciate greatly how the church, across the centuries, has been shaped by the experiences of each era.

Each denomination’s respective history and the life experience of its respective founders have shaped how scripture is read, how the cross is interpreted, and how the mission of God is carried out.

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On Call Continued from page 6 that I would be “good enough” to do the work is a testament to the dedication and enthusiasm of the men and women on the seminary faculty who have labored so diligently to provide them to me. Good things to have handy when the night is interrupted by a summons from someone struggling with a demon.

Doug Fritzsche is a senior MDiv student under care of Santa Fe Presbytery. In the photo on page 6 he practices administering the Sacrament of Baptism in Barton Springs Pool.

Strength for the Journey

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BY JEFF SADDINGTON

I fall into an unofficial category of student here at Austin Seminary, easily labeled “a second-career” person. That is very obvious when you see me. I was fortunate to have spent thirty-five wonderful, challenging years as a Johnson & Johnson executive.

I had at least fifteen distinct assignments within six of J&J’s 180-some companies around the world. These assignments were exciting opportunities, and my business career could have continued. But it began to occur to me about ten years ago, in a very slow process, that my life might be undergoing a shift that wouldn’t be satisfied with more corporate moves.

In no way did I understand this shift at the time.

“What is happening to me?” I said on many occasions.

Outside of my business experience, I have been influenced significantly over the past forty years through volunteer work with the homeless and hungry, prisoners having no hope, and with international adoption of children who have no families to love them.

I definitely did not feel in control about all of this “call evolution,” but it has been an exciting time. Strength for the Journey is the title of a book of sermons authored

by Peter Gomes, professor at Harvard University. His sermons, rich in imagery, humor, and insight, directed toward the students in that university, began to work in my heart and mind in the late 1990s about my own vocational journey and the discernment that I knew I desperately needed.

So, is this a “second call” for me? Or is it merely “Act II” to the same play, started immediately after a short retirement “intermission” consisting of a single Labor Day weekend in 2008? While the characters in this play are a little older, a little heavier, and a lot slower than they were in Act I, I will not pull the wisdom card at this point because I do not feel very wise.

How much continuity is there in my life between the years covering 1969 to 2008 and now? Surprisingly, I believe it will have much similarity. Being a chaplain or in congregational ministry will certainly not have the same smells, sights, and sounds of the production lines of baby powder and Band-Aid®s, but my industry career, in hindsight, was remarkably pastoral in the sense that I cared for thousands of employees who had constant turmoil in their lives when not at work and had tension and conflict to deal with in the workplace.

In order to have efficient work processes, managers need to be concerned about and keenly aware of all this

WINDOWS / Summer 2010

turmoil and conflict, since good management is really just an effort to empower people to manage themselves by providing them listening ears, adequate resources, training, expectations, direction, and feedback.

The employees working for me needed to know that I cared about them and their families 24/7, not just when we were at work together. They needed to know that they were capable of solving most of their own problems, and that their relationships with those around them were primarily their own responsibility. It now feels somewhat pastoral, although it did not at the time.

Author Parker Palmer in Let Your Life Speak describes vocation as “not an act of will … but at its deepest level it is something I can’t not do, for reasons I’m unable to explain to anyone else and don’t fully understand myself but that are nonetheless compelling.”

That is exactly how both my Act I and Act II feel to me. I am excited to learn and prepare for Act III, regardless of its set design, and I feel so blessed to be in this place called Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. I pray for strength for the journey, for me and for my loving family who support me!

Jeff Saddington is a senior MDiv student under care of Mission Presbytery.

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Mosi-oa-Tunya

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BY CLARE LOZANO

When I traveled with fellow seminary student Melea White to Zambia last summer, we had the chance to take a short get-away on our own. We spent our first day visiting Victoria Falls. Mosi-oa-Tunya (The Smoke that Thunders) is one of the largest waterfalls on the earth and is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is breathtaking to behold. After seeing the falls up close, we decided to walk up the road to the bridge that stretches over the gorge, nearly 430 feet above the Zambezi River. The views of the Falls from this location were incredible and I found myself just wanting to stand there marveling at the work of our Creator.

Yet, this bridge was a somewhat busy place. On one side there was a bungee jumping operation. While it was entertaining to watch tourist after tourist hurtle off a platform towards the waters far below, it did make it hard to focus on our surroundings. The bridge also marks the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. There were probably about fifteen men from both countries wandering around the bridge with handcrafts they had brought to sell to tourists. As we moved away from the bungee jumping station to a quieter spot on the bridge, one of these men approached us with copper bracelets he had for sale. He was a persistent salesman and even though we weren’t all that enamored with the bracelets, in the end his determination won and we ended up each buying one from him.

However, the second our wallets came out we were suddenly surrounded by a larger group of men, each trying to get us to buy bracelets that looked exactly like the one we had just purchased. As they showed us their bracelets they also spurted out pieces of their story— there were children to care for, a long journey to make, homes that needed repairing, and pangs of hunger to assuage. It wasn’t long before Melea and I had been separated and were each surrounded by several pleading people. It was overwhelming. We had money to buy a bracelet or two, but not enough to buy something from them all. The need was great, and it highlighted both our privilege as well as our profound limitation to respond.

As I stood there not knowing what to do, the frustration began to boil up within me. I had come to see the Falls, to experience their beauty, to connect with God in the midst of creation. I hardly had time to do any of that.

I quickly tried to snap a few pictures, while Melea and I worked to extricate ourselves from the situation. As we were walking away and began to start processing what we had just experienced, we were aware that when poverty characterizes the reality of the majority of a country’s people, there is no escaping it. No matter where you go, even if it is to one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the reality of poverty is ever present.

As I look back on that afternoon now, I realize that while I was so desperately trying to connect to God through the creation that surrounded me, I failed to recognize Christ standing right beside me. God reaches out to us in so many different ways and we are called to respond. Sometimes, it is hard to know what the best response is, or we feel like our response is inadequate, or question if it will make any kind of difference. Yet, we are called to try.

In the midst of the chaos that day, I bought a carved elephant. It is a beautiful piece of woodwork that I will always cherish, not only for its artistic merit, but for what I am reminded of when I see it. I think of that day, those uncomfortable minutes on that bridge, the beauty of the Falls, the faces of the men I met there, the stories they told, the ways God becomes incarnate in this world, and how those experiences of incarnation change us, how they challenge us, and how they call us.

Clare Lozano is a senior MDiv student under care of Mission Presbytery. She is pictured here with the first two women to be ordained in the Reformed Church of Zambia.

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What I Learned About Jesus From a 9-year-old Buddhist

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BY KELLY UPDEGRAFF

The year was 2008. The place was First Presbyterian Church Shreveport, Louisiana. The church was buzzing with those three letters that send pastors into a frenzy during the summer months … V B S. It was finally here and since I would be leaving for seminary in just one month, I was determined to be the best drama leader the church had ever seen. My sister Amy and I piled into the car, ready to somehow connect faith and the rainforest, as the curriculum suggested. On the way we picked up my cousin Molly and her new stepsister, Jamie.

Nine-year-old Jamie, her mother, and older brother had recently arrived in the United States from Laos. Her English was minimal, and she wore a fleece hoodie, because she found the sweltering Louisiana heat to be unbearably cold. She’d chosen the name Jamie to sound more “American.” We enjoyed her exotic looks, her accent, and her obvious wonder at her new surroundings.

At VBS the children arrived ready to hear about our story of the day, “Jesus and the Parable of the Mustard Seed.” Jamie enjoyed activities immensely, but seemed at times a little confused. Then Molly decided to share a crucial fact: Jamie was a Buddhist and back in Laos everyone she knew was a Buddhist. She’d never been to a church and Christianity was an entirely new concept.

Energizers suddenly felt inappropriate. But when Jamie climbed into the car for the ride home she was all smiles and talking excitedly about returning the next day.

“And when I’m home,” she announced holding up her souvenir mustard seed, “I will plant Jesus!”

WHAT? Oh No. Somehow, “the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed,” had become, “plant this in your backyard to enjoy the spiritual equivalent of sea monkeys!” This kid had no idea who Jesus was. I tried to explain.

“No Jamie, Jesus was a man … err … God … Jesus was part of God. But he’s God’s son.” Amy slapped her hand to her forehead in exasperation.

I tried again. “Jesus died. He was murdered.” Did I really want to focus on death here? I thought. It didn’t seem like the right way to start.

“But he came back to life!” Amy chimed in.

“How’d he do that?” Jamie asked, looking bewildered. “Can we get sno-cones?”

I wanted to yell, “No, we cannot stop for treats because you are failing to grasp the most important concept in the world because I am a failure and going to be the worst pastor ever! And the Admissions Office at WINDOWS / Summer 2010

Austin Seminary is going to find out that I can’t explain Christianity to a child and revoke my acceptance letter!!!!” But I didn’t.

“Can I still plant it?” she asked.

“Yes, you can plant it and grow a mustard tree,” I humbly replied.

“Will Jesus make it grow?” She held up her All Things Grow in Christ sticker. I nodded. She smiled.

“Can He make people grow?”

“Yes,” Now we’re getting somewhere. “Jesus makes us grow in lots of ways. We can grow up but we can also grow to be better people.” But that was the end of it, because we’d arrived at her home. She ran up the driveway and my sister gave me a look.

“You are really bad at that,” Amy laughed.

“It’s not my fault! Who doesn’t know who Jesus is?”

Umm … apparently me.

So—what I learned from a nine-year-old Buddhist is that you have to figure out who Jesus is because one day someone is going to ask. The answer you give a committee, or in a statement of faith, full of colorful language and rich metaphors, is not going to cut it for someone starting at step one.

In case you’re curious, Jamie is now a ten-year-old Presbyterian, and next time I have to explain to someone who Jesus is, I’m starting with, “Jesus is proof that God loves us, and this is why …”

Kelly Updegraff is now a senior MDiv student under the care of Presbytery of the Pines.

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Danger Ahead: Simple Questions Become Existential Crises

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BY SALLY WRIGHT

I once had a professor tell me that being a middler, or second year seminary student, is dangerous.

“Dangerous,” I thought, “shouldn’t junior year have the label ‘Dangerous’?” Junior year is when you are first introduced to historical criticism and theological language.

Junior year is also the year when Professor Cindy Rigby makes you examine your theological beliefs or when Professor John Ahn tells you your beloved Bible was redacted.

As I have grown into middler-hood, I now fully understand how dangerous this liminal time truly is. The year when I already have one year of theological formation under my belt but I remain thankful that there is still more pastoral formation to come.

It is in the middler year when seemingly simple questions and thoughts can, without warning, suddenly turn from innocuous questions to life changing existential crises. As a middler, I have all this theological language running around in my head and I seek ways to fit this new language into my already held beliefs and previous life experiences.

More often than not during this middler year I have awoken to questions like, “Is this Jesus guy really God?” and then I am greeted by friends who see the concern on my face and inquire how I am doing and discover they, too, are discerning the same questions.

Unlike junior year for me, these questions are not merely intellectual exercises in class, but rather, these questions in my middler year have hit me in my gut, at my foundation, and seeped into the place of safety I never thought could be accessed. I find myself questioning my call, or struggling with church denominations, and sometimes even my religious affiliation.

So, how do middlers make it to being seniors and eventually (hopefully) to ordination?

We succeed only due to God’s unfailing pursuit of God’s people and the Austin

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Seminary community. I would not still be here if it had not been for my friends and professors in this community.

I share my times of doubt and questioning with them and they do not label me a heretic (like the voices in my head are calling me.) “You are not even abnormal,” they assure me. I can walk up to a friend and say, “I don’t think the Christian paradigm is working for me” or, “today Jesus for me is a moral exemplar not a substitute for atonement.”

Instead of being taken into the principal’s office for a lesson in “correct doctrine,” my professors and friends engage me in conversation and debate. They give me book titles and authors to read. But, most importantly, they hold me up in prayer as I grow painfully.

My middler year has definitely been one of struggle, growth, and discernment. On one hand, I wish the wrestling, the pain, the anxiety upon no one. But, on the other hand, I have come to a whole new relationship with God. God knows there are things that I cannot accept at the moment and instead of telling me I not good enough to minister to God’s people, God tells me, “I am not done with you yet.” (I pray God never will be done with me.)

God may not, and probably will not, answer all of the questions and doubts. However, I now know, truly know, that it is ok to live with these questions and to continue to seek God. It is in seeking God in, with, and through these questions that my fellow seminarians and I come out ready to lead congregations.

Sally Wright survived her middler year at Austin Seminary under care of New Covenant Presbytery. In this photo she appears with other Austin Seminary “cheerleaders” on Austin Seminary Day.

Little Reminders

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BY BART SMITH

Seven seminarians walk into a church building and sit down at the table in the middle of a Sunday school room. Starkly present at the center of the table are large piles of money, all one dollar bills.

Perhaps the ushers hadn’t counted last Sunday’s offering and handed it in to the treasurer for deposit? But this being Friday morning, that hypothesis seems a little weak. Upon closer inspection, the dollar bills all appear to be marked in some way: names, cartoons, drawings, and words unbecoming an article in a seminary publication adorn the currency. After the gathered group glides through the standard introductions and get-to-know- you’s, the conversation finally arrives at the beckoning stacks of money.

“Do you know what this is?” asks the pastor.

“Drug money?” I blurt out.

“Guess again.”

No one seems to be able to produce a viable answer.

“On Friday night, these bills are placed in the gstrings of strippers at the club down the street. On Sunday morning, they wind up in my offering plate,” pronounces the pastor in a tone colored with a “there goes the neighborhood” kind of certainty.

This was “Exhibit A” of our group’s introduction to the plethora of ministry of a small United Methodist congregation in Northern New Mexico. Addiction support groups, needle-exchange programs for individuals experiencing substance abuse, bridge building with local Pueblos, and inventive liturgies for Protestant celebrations of the traditionally Roman Catholic Quinceañera are just the tip of the iceberg for this little precinct of the Kingdom of God. Led by a creative and dedicated pastor, this congregation works tirelessly to bring a very real sense of solidarity and hope to an area ravaged by drugs, crime, gambling, and other spawn of extreme poverty.

Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico offered us many encounters of this type through its Cross-Cultural WINDOWS / Summer 2010

Ministries January-term course where we seminarians saw a variety of churches getting their hands dirty in service to the world in the name of the Risen Christ. In countless imaginative ways the churches and other organizations surveyed through the course reach out across socioeconomic and ethnic boundaries to make the love of God concrete for their communities.

Thanks be to God for refreshing reminders of why I felt called to ministry in the first place, even if those little reminders are dollar bills with checkered pasts.

Bart Smith is a middler MDiv student under care of Greater Atlanta Presbytery. He is at the right (wearing a hat) in the photo above, taken at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Santa Fe, during his Jan-Term experience in New Mexico.

Read more student essays online: www.austinseminary.edu/visit

Our Advent Devotional will be available in November in a text and audio version at www.austinseminary. edu/advent If you would like to place a group order for a printed version at 50¢ per copy, please place your order online or by calling 512-404-4886.

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COMMUNITY NEWS

New graduates to fulfill call into ministry

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uring Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary’s commencement exercises held Sunday, May 30, five graduates received the Master of Arts (Theological Studies) degree; twenty-nine, the Master of Divinity (including two dual degree students who also received the MSSW from The University of Texas School of Social Work); one, the Diploma; and six, the Doctor of Ministry degree. Reverend Thomas L. Are Jr., the senior pastor of Village Presbyterian Church, Prairie Village, Kansas, and vice-chair of Austin Seminary’s Board of Trustees, gave the commencement address.

Several awards were announced during the ceremony: The Charles L. King Preaching Award, given annually to honor the former pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Houston, and a distinguished denominational leader, was given to Ken White.

Jose Lopez received the Rachel Henderlite Award, named for a former Austin Seminary professor and given to a graduate who has made significant contributions to cross-cultural and interracial relationships while at Austin Seminary.

The John Spragens Award, honoring a former Austin Seminary professor, is given each year to an outstanding graduate for additional study in the field of Christian education. The award this year went to Kate Loveless.

The Hendrick-Smith Award for Evangelism and Missions was established by William Smith Sevier in memory of William Swan Smith, James Hardin Smith, John

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Henry Hendrick, Edwin Eugene Hendrick and in honor of John Robert Hendrick, Austin Seminary professor emeritus of evangelism and mission. Given to a graduate who has demonstrated a commitment to the field of mission and evangelism, this year’s

recipient was Mike Clawson.

The Donald Capps Award in Pastoral Care is an award established to honor Professor Donald Capps, the William Harte Felmeth Professor of Pastoral Psychology at Princeton Theological Seminary. Given in recognition of a student’s gifts for and commitment to the church’s caring ministries, The Capps Award goes to Nikki Stahl.

Additional awards included the following: The Ada and Adams Colhoun Award was granted to Jane Pettit, the Carl Kilborn Book Award went to Matt Falco, and the Chalice Press book award was granted to John Dearman.

2010 Commencement: from the top, DMin graduate Nina Reeder shows off her shepherd’s crook to Professor John Alsup; MDiv graduate Jennifer Lee and family members; Daniel Harrington, Norris Atkins, and Mindy Baker await the moment their Master of Divinity degrees are conferred.

The Class of 2010

• MATS • Master of Arts (Theological Studies) • MATS • Studies) • MATS • MDiv •

Martin Newmann UMC (Southwest Texas Conference); Pastor, Muldoon United Methodist Church, Muldoon, Texas, and Winchester UMC, Winchester, Texas

Mindy Baker PCUSA (Grace Presbytery); will seek a call upon completing candidacy/ecclesial requirements

Stephanie Cripps United Pentecostal Church; seeking a full-time teaching position in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, area; will pursue further graduate studies at Louisiana State University

John Dearman PCUSA (Mission Presbytery); seeking a call

Michael Clawson Church of God General Conference, Midwest Conference; will pursue a PhD program at Baylor University in Religion/Church History

Stella Burkhalter UMC (Southwest Texas Conference); Associate Pastor for Children’s Ministry at Covenant United Methodist Church, Austin

Paul Harris United Methodist (Southwest Texas Conference); Pastor, Cedar Creek United Methodist Church, Cedar Creek, Texas

Paul Dubois UMC (Southwest Texas Conference); Pastor, First United Methodist Church, Weimar, Texas

Allen Noah United Methodist (Southwest Texas Conference); Pastor, Jones Chapel United Methodist Church, San Antonio, Texas

Jamye Dunlap PCUSA (Grace Presbytery); Chaplain Resident, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas

Ramon Nunez Congregacion Brasis, Monterrey, Mexico; Ministerial Staff, Centro De Estudios Superiores Y Transformacion

Kathy Escandell PCUSA (Mission Presbytery); Director of Education for Children and Youth, Central Presbyterian Church, Austin

Norris Atkins Nondenominational; seeking a call in the area of campus ministry

Matt Falco PCUSA (Huntingdon Presbytery); call pending

WINDOWS / Summer 2010

• MDiv • Master of Divinity • MDiv • Divinity • MDiv • Master of Divinity • MDiv • Divinity • MDiv •

Diploma

Key to Masters degree entries: graduate’s name and denomination (presbytery or conference under care); first call / placement or future plans.

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Debbie Garber PCUSA (Cascades Presbytery); yearlong CPE residency program in Seattle, Washington Daniel Harrington UMC (Southwest Texas Conference); Associate Pastor, Manchaca United Methodist Church, Austin

Brandon Miles PCUSA (Sheppards and Lapsley Presbytery); Summer Chaplain, Highland Presbyterian Camp and Conference Center in Estes Park, Colorado.

Jane Pettit PCUSA (New Covenant Presbytery); Pastoral Care Associate, Grace Presbyterian Church, Houston, Texas, while seeking a call

Lindsay Hatch PCUSA (New Covenant Presbytery); seeking a call

John Pflug PCUSA (Grace Presbytery); Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Winnsboro, Texas

Dedurie Kirk National Baptist; continuing to work on ministry staff at Greater Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Austin, while pursuing an MCPC at Seminary of the Southwest

Kaci Porter PCUSA (Grace Presbytery); Director of Campus and Young Adult Ministries, University Presbyterian Church, Austin

Jose Lopez PCUSA (Grace Presbytery); completing CPE requirements at Seton Hospital, Austin

Isabel Rivera-Velez PCUSA (New Covenant Presbytery); seeking a call

Jennifer Lee PCUSA (Mission Presbytery); Children’s Ministry Christian Educator, Austin Korean Presbyterian Church, Austin

Robert Quiring PCUSA (Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery); Associate Pastor, High School Youth and Young Adults, Knox Presbyterian Church, Naperville, Illinois

Kate Loveless PCUSA (Grace Presbytery); Associate Pastor, Trinity Presbyterian Church, Topeka, Kansas

Glenn Sampayan PCUSA (Grace Presbytery); seeking a position as a hospital chaplain

Crystal McCormick Youth Director, Edwards United Church of Christ, Davenport, Iowa; PhD program, Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago

Debra (Deb) Schmidt PCUSA (Presbytery of Southern Kansas); seeking a call

MDiv • Master of Divinity • MDiv • Master of Divinity • MDiv • Master of Divinity • MDiv • Master of Divinity • MDiv

MDiv • Master of Divinity • MDiv • Master of Divinity • MDiv • Master of Divinity • MDiv • Master of Divinity • MDiv

COMMUNITY NEWS

Nikki Stahl United Christian Church; while completing candidacy/ecclesial requirements, will work in a medical social worker setting

Ken White United Christian Church; Associate Pastor, United Christian Church, Austin

Lisa Straus UMC (Southwest Texas Conference); PhD program in New Testament and Hebrew Scriptures at Boston University

Melea White Nondenominational; Social Worker at Integrative Health Services, Williamsburg, Iowa

Jason Webster PCUSA (Mission Presbytery); completing a year-long chaplain residency in August; will pursue a PhD in biblical studies and seek a call

For photos of Commencement, go online to www.austinseminary.edu Click on “Media Gallery,” from the arrow at right select the channel “Community Life,” then “Commencement 2010.”

• MDiv • Master of Divinity • MDiv •

• MDiv • Master of Divinity • MDiv •

The Class of 2010

Stephen (Steve) G. Castle

Nina P. Reeder

James E. Janecek

Joe Wesley Warren

Ray L. Reed

Richard M. (Rich) Wright

Pastor, Moyock United Methodist Church, Moyock, North Carolina; “Facilitating Forgiveness in a Church Recovering from Trauma”

Installation Chaplain, Moron Air Base, Spain; “Ameliorating Melancholic Grief: Utilizing Elegiac Narrative Therapy with Emerging Adults in the Air Force Suffering From Complicated Loss”

Pastor, Russell Memorial United Methodist Church, Wills Point, Texas; “Where There Is No Vision, the People Perish: Adopting a Visionpath at Russell Memorial United Methodist Church for Reaching and Empowering the Youth of Their Community”

Pastor, The Lawrence Road Presbyterian Church, Lawrenceville, New Jersey; “The Meal of the Kingdom: Congregational Engagement with ‘Mea’” as Metaphor through Reflection and Praxis.”

Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Athens, Texas; “Moving Ecclesial Leaders Toward Self-Differentiation”

First United Methodist Church, Hinesville, Georgia; “Rebuilding Relationships: A Caring Ministry for Inactive Members at Lakeland United Methodist Church”

Doctor of Ministry • DMin • Doctor of Ministry

Doctor of Ministry • DMin • Doctor of Ministry

Key to Doctor of Ministry degree entries: graduate’s name, current position; title of doctoral project

Picture yourself on these pages.

Austin Seminary’s Discovery Weekends are a time to spend thinking about your own call to ministry.

You will meet current professors and students, tour the housing, and get to know a bit about the quality of life in the city and on the Austin Seminary campus. We hope to see you there … and here!

Discovery Weekends - October 29-31, 2010, and February 18-20, 2011 WINDOWS / Summer 2010

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COMMUNITY NEWS Board approves $44 million campaign plan

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tudent fellowships, faculty chairs, library modernization, student housing, The College of Pastoral Leaders, and the annual fund will be the focus of a $44 million comprehensive campaign for Austin Seminary, approved by the board at its spring meeting.

Charged with prioritizing a broad list of potential funding options, the Campaign Planning Committee, chaired by John Hartman, met numerous times over a fourteen-month period.

Through a process of research, analysis and debate, the committee reached a unanimous conclusion about the campaign priorities.

“The support we got from the administration, the answers to our questions and helping us think through some of these things, and the very practical advice we got from the campaign consultant all contributed to [the Committee’s] unanimity and the spirit of oneness,” says Hartman.

Following their initial winnowing of campaign initiatives, personal interviews were conducted with dozens of the Seminary’s constituents to garner valuable feedback. Armed with that insight, the Committee refined the recommendation they presented to the board this May. “We narrowed the program

down to the five initiatives, all of which received strong support from those who were interviewed.

Number one was student fellowships. For both the group interviewed as well as our team, it was clear we needed to make room for that and for the complementary initiative of additional faculty chairs,” says Hartman. The amount allocated to library and housing were reduced, but, “we felt that in both cases some very significant improvements could be made for lesser amounts than had originally been proposed.” Two task forces made up of students, faculty, and administrators are working to flesh out the details of those funding priorities; they expect to report their findings to the board in November.

Reflecting on the work of the Planning Committee, Hartman says, “I think everybody on the committee really felt the desire to come up with something that could make a difference in the future …

The thing that bound us together and provided the inspiration to all this was a shared love for the institution and a feeling that Austin Seminary has a role to play in the Kingdom of God, educating the next generation of pastoral leaders and church leaders. That was such a bond and source of energy for everything we were doing.”

In April students pursued a variation on the usual Spring Fling motif: Highland games with a Mexican flavor. The resulting party, “Juegos Altiplanos,” featured a taco bar, the wearing of the tartan, a watermelon spitting contest, and a tug of war between the classes (the juniors won both rounds).

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Jinkins called to lead Louisville Seminary

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ichael Jinkins (DMin’83), Austin Seminary’s academic dean since 2004, has been called by the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary’s Board of Trustees to become its next president, effective September 1, 2010.

Jinkins has been a member of the faculty of Austin Seminary since 1993, having previously served congregations in Texas and Scotland. In his teaching career, Jinkins made significant contributions to the church’s understanding of the practice of ministry, pastoral identity, and the theology of Christian leadership. As academic dean, he wrote successful grant applications that resulted in: the founding of the College of Pastoral Leaders; support of faculty development for the improvement of teaching, curriculum renewal; and a faculty research project to determine what church leaders and congregations expect of seminary education today. He led the faculty through its first thorough curriculum review and revision since 1971 and oversaw its successful re-certification of accreditation. He also developed the course “Entry into Ministry,” providing students a practical look at entering ministry.

Said President Theodore J. Wardlaw, “Austin Seminary has been blessed mightily by Dean Jinkins’ vision, energy, discipline, and inspiring leadership.” An advisory committee, headed by Professor Cynthia Rigby, has initiated a search for Jinkins’ successor.

Seminary’s beloved friend Ed Vickery dies

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ongtime supporter of Austin Seminary Edward D. Vickery died on April 29. He served on the Seminary’s Board of Trustees from 19761995 and as chair of the board from 1983-1985 and 1989-1994.

“Ed Vickery was a force of nature,” said President Theodore J. Wardlaw. “In addition to his wife, Dorothy, his beloved family, and his church, his fondest passions were The University of Texas and Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He loved this school and its history, and he made it better through his deep involvement. The Seminary gives thanks to God for Ed’s life and witness.”

Vickery was a partner in the Houston law firm Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams, specializing in litigation in the areas of admiralty and maritime law, insurance coverage, and personal injury cases. Throughout and beyond Vickery’s lengthy service on the Austin Seminary Board, he helped make possible the fully endowed Nelson Chair of Christian Education through a major gift in January 2002. The purpose of the professorship is to support those who wish to serve God by becoming “teachers of teachers.” Vickery contributed the funding for The Dorothy Vickery Chair of Homiletics, established in 2007 in memory of his wife, and made possible the Vickery Atrium in the McCord Community Center on the Seminary campus.

Ed Vickery is survived by his daughter, Anne Vickery Stevenson, a current member of the Seminary’s Board of Trustees, and his son, Downy Vickery. The family has asked that memorial contributions be sent to Austin Seminary.

Family and friends celebrated the life of Ed Vickery (center, front) at a luncheon in his honor at Austin Seminary in 2007.

WINDOWS / Summer 2010

Board acts regarding faculty, admissions

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ustin Seminary’s Board of Trustees took the following action with respect to faculty at its spring meeting: • Commended Lewis R. Donelson, The Ruth A. Campbell Professor of New Testament, for his continued outstanding service to the Austin Seminary community and to the guild and church at large; • Promoted Allan H. Cole Jr. to be the Nancy Taylor Williamson Professor of Pastoral Care; • Granted tenure to David F. White, The C. Ellis and Nancy Gribble Nelson Associate Professor of Christian Education; • Promoted Monya Stubbs to Associate Professor of New Testament; • Reappointed C. Ellis Nelson as Research Professor of Christian Education; • Awarded Professor Emeritus status to retired Professors Ellen Babinsky and Ismael García.

• Approved a recommendation that the faculty choose annually from among its tenured members a representative to be an ex officio member of the board of trustees.

• Affirmed the faculty’s recommendation that at least four of the next five tenure-track faculty hires be racial ethnic minority persons and that at least three of the next five tenure-track faculty hires be women.

With reference to other matters, it also reaffirmed the Seminary’s current standards and processes for admission of student applicants from non-Christian traditions and faiths and elected five new trustees to be inducted at the fall meeting of the board.

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FACULTY NEWS

Ethics professor García retires

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smael García, Austin Seminary’s professor of Christian ethics for more than two decades, retired in July following a year-long sabbatical. García became a member of Austin Seminary’s faculty in 1986.

García was the long-time chair of the faculty’s Program of Study committee, responsible for the on-going excellence of teaching and learning.

There and in the classroom, according to colleagues, “he lives out the subject matter of his book Dignidad, most especially on campus in his advocacy for students and junior colleagues.

Ismael’s concern to meet students where they were powerfully influenced his pedagogy.” One student, referring to García, called him, “along with Stan Hall, one of the great lights of my seminary education.”

Says Seminary President Theodore J. Wardlaw, “Ismael has made profound contributions to the Ismael García enjoys a gathering with field of Christian ethics—contribucolleagues and friends, including Professor Jennifer Lord, to celebrate his tions that have benefited his academic contributions to Austin Seminary. guild, certainly, but also contributions that have produced strides in social justice and the empowerment of those on the margins. Because of the practical impacts of his witness and passions, this world is a better place.”

García’s positive influence has been felt on hospital ethics committees and on the boards of the National Council of Churches, U.S.A. and the World Mission Board of the United Church of Christ. He is a member of the Committee on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) of the Association of Theological Schools and has received fellowships from the Association of Theological Schools, the University of Chicago Divinity School, and the Ford Foundation. He was for many years a leader of the Hispanic Summer Program and other national initiatives aimed at supporting the theological education of Hispanic students across the United States.

García is the author of Dignidad: Ethics Through Hispanic Eyes and Introducción a la Ética Cristiana (Abingdon Press, 2003) and served as the editor and major contributor to Diccionario Ilustrado de Intérpretes de la Fe: Veinte Siglos do Pensamiento Cristiano (Editorial Clie, España, 2004). He was associate editor of Westminster Dictionary of Theologians (Westminster John Knox, 2008).

Reared in Puerto Rico, García earned a BA in political science from the University of Puerto Rico then the MA and PhD from the University of Chicago. Prior to his appointment to Austin Seminary he taught Christian ethics at McCormick Seminary. As he moves back to Puerto Rico later this summer, Ismael García’s presence on the Austin Seminary campus will be deeply missed. As a colleague noted at his retirement fete, “With Ismael, there’s no disconnect between what he says and what he does. His life mirrors his speech and his actions often speak more powerfully than his words.”

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FACULTY NOTES John Ahn, assistant professor of Old Testament, was one of two Korean-Americans representing North America in the Jubilee Celebration (50th Year) of the Korean Old Testament Society (KOTS) in Seoul, South Korea, May 28-30. Ahn’s paper was called “Second Generation Assimilation Theories in the Cadre of Second Isaiah.” Ahn was the conference keynote speaker at PSALMS: Lament to Praise, Korean Conference on Worship and Music, July 12-15, at Columbia Theological Seminary.

The Sunrise Beach Federated Church provided a potluck celebration after worship on June 6 to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Professor John Alsup and his wife, Carole. Former student ministers along with current members, students, and family gathered to make it a very special occasion.

Comparative Religion Professor Whit Bodman served as moderator at the international symposium, “Islam, Salvation, and the Fate of Other.” The conference, sponsored

by University of Illinois Department of Religion, was held April 16-17. Bodman travelled to Tehran, Iran, in July to present a paper at the International Conference on Multiculturalism and Global Community. Organized by the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, the goal of the conference was to bring together professors, researchers, and scholar students to exchange and share their experiences and research about the conference’s themes and to discuss cultural challenges and practical solutions.

Allan Cole, the Nancy Taylor Williamson Professor of Pastoral

Care, published an article, “What Makes Care Pastoral?” in the journal Pastoral Psychology. He also wrote a chapter on loss, grief, and mourning for The Church Leader’s Counseling Resource Book: A Guide to Mental Health and Social Problems (Oxford University Press), for which he served on the editorial board.

Dave Jensen, professor of constructive theology, is the editor of a new book series from Fortress Press, “Compass: Christian Explorations of Daily Living.” The series explores everyday practices and their connection to Christian faith and doctrine. He also taught a workshop on “The Bible, Theology, and Human Sexuality” in Bella Vista, Arkansas, on July 23 and began serving as Austin Seminary’s Interim Academic Dean on July 1.

David Johnson, director of ministerial formation, participated in two conferences on seminary student spiritual development at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota: one funded by a grant from the Lilly Foundation, the other sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (USA).

David Jones, director of the DMin program, led retreats for Indian Nations Presbytery Council and for the Mo-Ranch Men’s Retreat in April.

Timothy Lincoln, associate dean for seminary effectiveness and library director, published an article “How Master of Divinity Education Changes Students: A Research-Based Model” in the journal Teaching Theology & Religion.

Homiletics professor Jennifer Lord contributed two “Living by the Word” columns in the June 29 issues of The Christian Century. In April she was the keynote speaker WINDOWS / Summer 2010

Jones honored by professional colleagues Dr. David Lee Jones, director of the Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program, received the 2010 Distinguished Leadership in Doctor of Ministry Education Award from the Association for Doctor of Ministry Education (ADME). This is ADME’s highest award and Jones is only the fourth recipient in the Jones, center, with his family and mother: Jennifer, organization’s twenty- Morgan, Faith, and Mildred. year history to receive the award. Jones has been a member of ADME since 2003; he served on its executive board since 2006 and as president since 2008. Austin Seminary hosted the annual ADME conference, April 22-24, 2010. for the 2010 College of Pastoral Leaders annual conference and presented five lectures on the “Maintenance of Divine Worship” for the Presbytery of Arkansas’ Annual Retreat for Ministers, Educators, and Commissioned Lay Pastors.

K.C. Ptomey, The Zbinden Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Leadership, was the preacher at the Worship and Music Conference at Mo Ranch, sponsored by The Presbyterian Association of Musicians, June 20-24.

W C Brown Professor of Theology Cynthia Rigby spoke on “Providence and Play” at the Logos 2010 Conference at Rutgers University on May 13. The interdisciplinary conference of philosophers and theologians was sponsored by the Center for Philosophy of Religion at Rutgers and the Department of Philosophy at Notre Dame University. Rigby preached

at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York on May 16.

Kristin Saldine, assistant professor of homiletics, was presenter, preacher, and instructor at PC(USA) Academy of Missional Preaching in June. She led the Commissioned Lay Preaching Colloquy For Presbytery of Plains and Peaks at the Highland Presbyterian Camp and Retreat Center in August and will be the keynote speaker, preacher, and workshop leader at a Santa Fe Presbytery training event on August 21 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Christian Education Professor David White was the keynote speaker for Youth Workers Gathering 2010, at St. Paul’s School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri, in April. He also led a breakout session, “Fanning the Sparks of Adolescent Interest Into the Flames of Lifelong Vocation.”

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austin seminary’s alumni/ae portal

ASAP

ALUMNI/AE NEWS

Check out your new Alum Portal, now available off the Seminary’s main web site: www.austinseminary.edu

There you’ll find: • class book lists and recommended reading from the Seminary’s faculty • a place to post news and notes • ministry resources Watch the mail for your secure log-in, or email

alum@austinseminary.edu 20

WELCOME … to John Robertson Maybry, son of Leah and Luke H. Maybry (MDiv’06), born on April 13, 2010. to Annora Rose Stutzman, daughter of Jacob and Phyllis L. Stutzman (MDiv’05), born on July 1, 2010. to Serene McCormick, daughter of Adam and Crystal McCormick (MDiv’10), born June 24, 2010.

ORDINATION Rebecca Chancellor (MDiv’08) ordained July 4, 2010, to serve Valley Community Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon.

James B. “Brady” Johnston (MDiv’08) ordained in June to serve Bethesda United Methodist Church in Weatherford, Texas Paul Gadke (MDiv’08) ordained July 11to serve San Pedro Presbyterian Church in San Antonio Texas Laura R. Grice (MDiv’08) ordained on June 26, 2010, to serve Faith Presbyterian Church in Baytown, Texas Krista D. Ingram (MDiv’09) ordained in June to serve First United Methodist church in Italy, Texas Carrie M. Finch (MDiv’09) ordained on July 24, 2010, to serve First Presbyterian Church in Greenville, North Carolina Kenneth L. White (MDiv’10) ordained June 27, 2010, to serve United Christian Church in Austin, Texas

CLASS NOTES 1950’s Gilbert Deaume (Ecumenical’58‘59), a minister in the United Church of Zambia, served as an interpreter for the Word Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Council in June 2010.

1990’s David Siegenthaler (MDiv’95)

completed a PhD in systematic and philosophical theology at the Graduate Theological Union in May 2010. His dissertation was “The Human Role in Nature: A Case Study Analysis of Yosemite Planning Processes Employing H. Richard Niebuhr’s Symbol of Responsibility.”

Bernice Wells (Diploma’98) retired as pastor of Webster Chapel United Methodist Church, Victoria, Texas,

NECROLOGY Jesse L. Leos (MDiv’52), Kingsville, Texas, April 27, 2010 Henry E. Moore (MDiv’56) Fort Smith, Arkansas, April 16, 2010 Leslie G. Andrew (MDiv’81), Bella Vista, Arkansas, January 22, 2010 Linda K. Reinhardt (MDiv’96), Canyon Lake, Texas, May 27, 2010

after thirteen years of ministry for the United Methodist Church in the Southwest Texas Conference.

Holly J. Hasstedt (MDiv’99) wed Scott Hoppe on May 22, 2010, in Shelton Chapel.

… to employ its resources in the service of the church; and to promote and engage in critical theological thought and — Austin Seminary “Mission Statement” (excerpt) research…

2000’s Brett Hendrickson (MDiv’02) received his PhD in religious studies from Arizona State University in the summer of 2010.

Kate Loveless (MDiv’10) wed Lee McGee on June 12, 2010.

Call for nominations If you wish to honor an Austin Seminary alum who has made a significant contribution to the life of the church, please consider nominating him or her for the Austin Seminary Distinguished Service Award. Criteria for consideration may be found on the Austin Seminary website at: www.austinseminary.edu/nominat ion. Winners of the award will be honored at the 2011 ASA Banquet.

The Austin Seminary Association Board has the responsibility for directing, guiding, and planning matters which advance the interests and concerns of the Seminary and its Association members. Our board reflects the geographic, denominational, racial/ethnic, gender and decade diversity of our 1700 plus living alumni/ae who are serving in forty-eight states and twenty-two countries around the world. Terms of service are three years. Expectations of board members can be found on the website at www.austinseminary.edu/asaboard Deadline for all nominations is September 8; nominations can be made by mail, online, or emailed to alum@austinseminary.edu.

Program expands in scope and audience

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t Austin Seminary, the teaching and learning don’t end the moment diplomas change hands. We continue to provide opportunities to our graduates that equip and strengthen them to be leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ.

This year we are expanding our Austin Seminary on-the-road model to include events for congregations as well as our alumni/ae and their colleagues. We will be asking the critical “So what?” questions as we explore creative ways to preach, teach, and think about being the church in the world.

In the fall of 2010, Austin Seminary will be on the road around the Synod of the Sun engaging lay and clergy audiences with the question, “What’s next for mainline churches?” In the spring we will be in churches across Texas. We hope to see you along the way.

September 26-27, First PC, Norman, Oklahoma

Sunday morning -Worship led by President Ted Wardlaw Sunday afternoon - Lecture by Dr. David Jensen, Professor of Constructive Theology and Interim Academic Dean Monday noon - Clergy Workshop for alumni/ae and their colleagues with Professor David Jensen October 11, Second PC, Little Rock, Arkansas

Monday noon- Clergy Workshop for alumni/ae and their colleagues with Dr. Cynthia Rigby, W.C. Brown Professor of Theology November 14-15, First PC, Shreveport, Louisiana

Sunday morning -Worship led by President Ted Wardlaw Sunday afternoon - Lecture by President Wardlaw Monday noon - Clergy Workshop for alumni/ae and their colleagues with The Rev. Lana Russell, Director of Alumni/ae and Church Relations

Austin Seminary Partnership Luncheons

Fall & Spring 2010-11

WINDOWS Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary 100 East 27th Street, Austin, Texas 78705-5797 Address Service Requested

Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Austin, Texas Permit No. 2473

September 8, 2010

North Dallas October 6, 2010

Harlingen

Summer 2010

November 11, 2010

Albuquerque March 8, 2011

Little Rock April 13, 2011

Shreveport May 12, 2011

Oklahoma City For more information or to attend one of these events call: (512) 404-4802 AUSTIN SEMINARY ASSOCIATION (ASA) BOARD Belinda Windham (MDiv’91), President Richard Culp (MDiv’93), Vice President Patti Herndon (MDiv’93), Past President Judy F. Baskin (MDiv’02) Charles W. Edwards Jr. (DMin’89) Gerald Goodridge (MDiv’02) David Green (MDiv’95) Aquanetta Hicks (MDiv’08) Kathleen T. Hignight (MDiv’95) Dorothy C. “Dolly” Hunt (MDiv’03) Ryan M. Kemp-Pappan (MDiv’08) Brian L. Merritt (MDiv’98) Nancy Mossman (MDiv’88) A. Catherine Robinson (MDiv’86) Karen H. Stocks (MDiv’85)

“Remembering him every day.”

Sutton Lange, 9, designated John Anderson as his hero for a class project because he “helped build my house.” The second grader is the son of student Melanie Lange whose family was among the first to live in the new student apartment Anderson House.