FTE Christian Leadership Forum Information

FTE CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP FORUM June 3 - 7, 2014 Garrett-Evangelical Seminary & Northwestern University

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2014 Christian Leadership Forum Inspiring Leaders to Shape the Future Table of Contents

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Church Partners Track

Schedule……………………………………………………...………..…2 Participants…………………………………………………………..….5 Leadership………………………………………………………..………8

Doctoral Students Track Schedule………………………………………………………………….11 Participants……………………………………………………………..16 Leadership………………….………………………………………..…54

Doctoral Education Partners Track

Schedule…………………………………………………………………61 Doctoral Education Partners…………………………………….64

Young Adults Track Schedule…………………………………………………………………65 Exploration Lab & Plenary Descriptions…………………….68 Participants…………………………………………………………….70 Leadership………………………………………………………………78 FTE Staff………………………………………………………………………………….…….85 Area Maps……………………………………………………………………………………..87 FTE’s Social Media………………………………………………………………………..92 Reimbursement Guidelines and Form………………………….…………….93 Internet Access……………………………………………………………………………..95

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Church Partners Track Schedule

Wednesday, June 4 — Gathering the Community 2:00 – 4:00 pm

Registration Hilton Orrington, Lobby

3:00 – 4:30 pm

Leadership Team Meeting Hilton Orrington, James

6:00 - 8:00 pm

Christian Leadership Forum Opening Dinner and Plenary Hilton Orrington, Grand Orrington Ballroom

8:00 - 8:30 pm

FTE 60th Anniversary Dessert Reception Hilton Orrington, Grand Orrington Ballroom

Thursday, June 5 — Listening to Another (Different Stories/Perspectives) 7:00 - 8:30 am

Breakfast Hilton Orrington, Heritage Ballroom

8:30 am

Shuttle to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

9:00 - 9:30 am

Community Worship Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful

9:30 am

Shuttle to Northwestern University Chapel/Religious Center

10:00 am

Introductions & Arc of the Day Northwestern University Chapel/Religious Center, Parkes 122

10:30 am

Café Conversations

11:30 - 11:45 am

Break

12:00 pm

Harvest Insights from Café Conversations

12:30 pm

Lunch Northwestern University Chapel/Religious Center, Parkes 122

2:00 pm

Discussion Labs Northwestern University Chapel/Religious Center, Parkes 120, 122, 204

3:30 - 3:45 pm

Break

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4:15 pm

Harvest the Day Northwestern University Chapel/Religious Center, Parkes 122

5:00 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

6:30 pm

Shuttle to First Presbyterian Church of Evanston

7:00 pm

Evening Prayer and Community Dinner First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Roy Hall

8:30 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

Friday, June 6 — Learning Together* * All of Friday’s proceedings, unless otherwise noted, will take place in the Hilton Orrington, Grand Orrington Ballroom 7:00 - 8:30 am

Breakfast Hilton Orrington, Heritage Ballroom

8:30 am

Community Worship

9:00 am

Community Reflection

10:00 – 10:15 am

Break

10:15 am

Exploring the Leadership Needs of our Time: The Church as a Living System

12:00 pm

Lunch

2:00 pm

The New Work of Christian Leadership Stephen Lewis, President Forum for Theological Exploration

2:30 pm

Prototyping our Shared Futures: Open Space Design Studio

5:00 pm

Harvesting Insights

5:30 – 6:00 pm

Break

6:00 pm

Shuttle to First Presbyterian Church of Evanston

6:30 pm

Evening Prayer and Community Dinner First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Roy Hall

8:30 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

8:30 – 10:00 pm

Performance Café First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Roy Hall Hosted by the Wild Goose Festival

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10:00 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

Saturday June 7 — Sending the Community Forth* * All of Saturday’s proceedings, unless otherwise noted, will take place in GarrettEvangelical Theological Seminary, Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful 7:00 - 8:15 am

Breakfast Hilton Orrington, Heritage Ballroom

8:15 am

Shuttle to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary w/ luggage

9:00 am

Learning Out Loud

9:45 am

FTE Resources and Partnership Opportunities

10:15 am

Forum Feedback

10:30 – 11:00 am

Break

11:00 am

Closing Worship Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman, Assistant Research Professor of Black Church Studies Director of the Office of Black Church Studies Duke Divinity School

12:00 pm

Lunch and Departure Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Room 205

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Church Partners Track Participants

Glenn Balzer Glenn@DOORnetwork.org Executive Director Denver, CO

Christopher Coble Lilly Endowment Inc. Vice President, Religion Indianapolis, IN

Jack Barden jbarden@austinseminary.edu Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary Vice President for Admissions Austin, TX

Gilberto Collazo gcollazo@hopepmt.org Hope Partnership President Indianapolis, IN

Tim Bomgardner Tim.bomgardner@asphome.org Appalachia Service Project Director of Spiritual Programs Johnson City, Tennessee

Elizabeth Conde-Frazier econde-frazier@esperanza.us Esperanza College of Eastern University Vice President of Education and Academic Dean Philadelphia, PA

Laura Book lbook@tlsohio.edu Trinity Lutheran Seminary Director of Admissions Columbus, OH

Cristian De La Rosa cdlrosa@bu.edu Boston University School of Theology Director of Contextual Education and Community Partnerships Boston, MA

Melvin Bray III melvinbray@gmail.com Wild Goose Festival Program Director Overland Park, KS

Mark A. Dennis Jr. markadennisjr@msn.com Second Baptist Church Senior Pastor Evanston, IL

Ernest Brooks III ernestbrooks@gmail.com Morehouse College Assistant Dean of the Chapel Atlanta, GA

Julian DeShazier julian@universitychurchchicago.org University Church of Chicago Senior Minister Chicago, IL

Arrington Chambliss arrington@diomassintern.org Life Together Community: Diomass Intern Program Executive Director Boston, MA

Susan Dewey sgdewey@disciplespswr.org Pacific Southwest Region of Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Regional Minister Altadena, CA

Kelly Chatman kchatman@visi.com Redeemer Lutheran & Redeemer Center for Life - Minneapolis Pastor & Executive Director Minneapolis, MN

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Jessicah Duckworth Lilly Endowment Inc. Program Director, Religion Indianpolis, IN

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(Participants continued) Rodolfo Estrada restrada@labi.edu LABI College Academic Dean La Puente, CA

Callid Keefe-Perry Callid@theopoetics.net FTE and Homebrewed Christianity Member of Advisory Team for FTE and Cohost for Homebrewed Christianity Jamaica Plain, MA

Elizabeth Flomo eflomo@lutheranvolunteercorps.org Lutheran Volunteer Corps Program Operations Manager Washington, DC

Grace Ji-Sun Kim gjskim@hotmail.com Georgetown University Visiting Researcher Bethlehem, PA

Shonda Gladden revsgladden@gmail.com Allen Temple AME Church Pastor Marion, IN

Ross Lockhart revrosslockhart@gmail.com St. Andrew's Hall, University of British Columbia, Director of Ministry Leadership & Education Vancouver, BC

Jamie Haskins jamie.l.haskins@gmail.com Westminster College Chaplain, Director of Spiritual Life & Instructor of Religious Studies Fulton, MO

Rimes McElveen rimes@mcforum.org Mere Christianity Forum Executive Director Travelers Rest, SC

Lee Hinson-Hasty Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Theological Education Coordinator, Theological Education & Seminary Relations Louisville, KY

Geri McKenzie gmckenzie@wilshirebc.org Wilshire Baptist Church Pathways to Ministry Administrator Dallas, TX

Jennifer Ikoma-Motzko jikoma@gmail.com Japanese Baptist Church Senior Minister Seattle, WA

Fernando Tamara fernando@mirandacenter.org The Jesse Miranda Center for Hispanic Leadership Director and Research Assistant Costa Mesa, CA

Hyepin Im hyepin@gmail.com Korean Churches For Community President and CEO Los Angeles, CA

Alex Molozaiy pastoralex@communityprotestant.org Community Protestant Church UCC Pastor Mundelein, IL

Hierald Kane-Osorto hkane-osorto@lutheranvolunteercorps.org Lutheran Volunteer Corps National Program Director Washington, DC

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Karen Oliveto koliveto@glide.org Glide Memorial Church Senior Pastor South San Francisco, CA

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(Participants continued) Richard Pak agape.uic@gmail.com Agape House, Chicago Executive Director Chicago, IL

Andrew Stephens-Rennie andrew.rennie@gmail.com Huron University College Online Education Developer London, Ontario, CA

Suzii Paynter spaynter@thefellowship.info Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Executive Coordinator Decatur, GA

Candace Thompson cmt0403@hotmail.com Cathedral of Hope Member Dallas, TX

Nathan Penner nathanp@mennonitemission.net Mennonite Mission Network MVS Director Elkhart, IN

Romal Tune Romal@RomalTune.com Romal Tune Author Los Angeles, CA

David Ramos dramos723@gmail.com Latino Leadership Circle Founder and Facilitator Old Bridge, NJ

Br. Lawrence Whitney lwhitney@bu.edu Boston University, Marsh Chapel University Chaplain Brookline, MA

Erik Samuelson erik.samuelson@tlc.edu Trinity Lutheran College Campus Pastor Everett, WA Annie Selak annie.selak@gmail.com Boston College Ph.D. Student Notre Dame, IN Meiying Shi mayeeshi@hotmail.com Columbia Theological Seminary Full time MATS Student Decatur, GA Frank Sims FTE Board of Directors Atlanta, Georgia

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Church Partners Track Leadership

Karen Oliveto Pastor, Glide Memorial UMC San Francisco, CA

Rev. Dr. Karen Oliveto is a scholar, activist and pastor. She is the senior pastor of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church (UMC) in San Francisco and has been a leading voice in the UMC for LGBTQ equality. Born on Good Friday and raised in Babylon (NY), she credits her local church for nurturing her call to ministry by cultivating her gifts as a youth. She preached her first sermon at 16 and, after being sent to a summer high school camp at Westminster Choir College, became the choir director of a junior high choir at the church. She holds a B.A. and Ph.D. in Religion and Society from Drew University. Her Master of Divinity is from Pacific School of Religion (PSR). Rev. Oliveto has served campus and local church ministries in rural and urban settings in NY and California and has been the associate dean for academic affairs at PSR. She continues to teach at PSR as adjunct professor of United Methodist Studies.

David Ramos Founder, Latino Leadership Circle Newark, NJ

Rev. David Ramos is a staff minister at Faith Fellowship Ministries where he serves as the chancellor of Faith International Training School and as the director of Covenant Ministries International, Inc. Rev. Ramos worked in varying vocational and ministerial capacities. He served as the director of strategic initiatives for the American Bible Society, a policy educator for the Beck Institute on Religion and Poverty at Fordham University, an assistant professor at the Kings College, as the director of case management for the Upper Manhattan Task on AIDS in Harlem, New York, and as a hospital chaplain.

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Rev. Ramos is the founder of the Latino Leadership Circle, a ministry that provides venues for theological reflection, pastoral support, policy advocacy and educational forums. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Baruch College, a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Master of Social Work degree from Rutgers University. Rev. Ramos’ passions are education, pastoral care, public policy, as well as urban and global ministries. He is dedicated to assisting pastors and local leaders by equipping them with vital tools and resources to conduct ministry in creative ways and address the challenges emerging in complex and difficult contexts.

David has conducted missionary initiatives in Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, India, Panama, Philippines, Spain, Turkey, Venezuela and Zambia. David and his wife Gigi live in Old Bridge, New Jersey.

Erik Samuelson Campus Pastor, Lutheran College Everett, WA

Rev. Erik Samuelson serves as campus pastor and director of spiritual and vocational formation at Trinity Lutheran College in his hometown of Everett, Washington. He holds an M.Div. from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, and an M.A. in Systematic Theology (Lutheran Confessions) from the Graduate Theological Union. Rev. Samuelson is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and previously served a mission redevelopment in Spokane for 5 years. He also tends a bar occasionally at Scuttlebutt Brewery.

Rev. Samuelson was an FTE Ministry Fellow in 2002, and has been connected to FTE’s work ever since, serving as a workshop leader, small group facilitator, mentor pastor, and collaborator on several FTE projects. Community organizing methods have informed his ministry from the very beginning, and he has been subtly (and not so subtly) teaching community organizing to his students to engage the wider community and prepare them for their vocations. He is a member of the ELCA’s “Organizing for Mission Cohort”, and has been involved in leading and training with the cohort, and through that work in several congregational and Synodical contexts.

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Lawrence A. Whitney University Chaplain for Community Life, Boston University, Marsh Chapel Boston, MA

Br. Larry is a professed member of the Lindisfarne Community, an ecumenical neomonastic religious order based in Ithaca, New York. The Lindisfarne Community ordained him to the diaconate in 2006 and to the priesthood in 2009. A book about the community, Secular Monasticism: A Journey, concludes with a chapter by Br. Larry on secular monasticism and university chaplaincy. Br. Larry oversees the ministry department of Boston University’s Marsh Chapel, including a team of associate chaplains, the Servant Team, and the Interfaith Council, and is responsible for the programmatic ministry of the chapel.

In 2005, Br. Larry completed his undergraduate studies in Music Education (Clarinet) with a minor in Religious Studies at Ithaca College and received a Bachelor of Music Degree. In 2009 he completed the Master of Divinity degree with a specialization in ecumenical systematic theology at the Boston University School of Theology, with a Certificate in International Mission and Ecumenism through the Boston Theological Institute (BTI). He is presently pursuing the Doctor of Theology degree at Boston University School of Theology majoring in philosophical theology and minoring in liturgical studies. His academic research interests include religious language, comparative theology, ritual theory, religion and science, ontology, metaphysics, semiotics, American Pragmatism, and philosophical cosmology. He has recently published in the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue, the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, and the Bulletin of the North American Paul Tillich Society, and served as editor of the recent edition of the Spirituality, Medicine, & Health Bibliography.

Br. Larry was an Undergraduate Fellow, Ministry Fellow, and a Pastoral Internships grant recipient with the Forum for Theological Exploration and presently serves on their advisory board and writes for their blog. He is a member of the National Association of College and University Chaplains, the Association of College and University Religious Affairs, the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA), the American Academy of Religion and the American Philosophical Association.

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Doctoral Students Track Schedule

2014 FTE Summit for Future Theological Educators hosted in conjunction with the 2014 FTE Christian Leadership Forum

Tuesday, June 3 — Gathering the Doctoral Community 11:30 am

Shuttle to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (Faculty)

12:00 - 4:00 pm

FTE Summit Faculty Lunch & Orientation Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary President’s Dining Room

4:15 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington (Faculty)

1:00 - 5:00 pm

Arrival and Registration Hilton Orrington, Lobby

6:00 - 8:00 pm

Opening Dinner FTE Summit for Future Theological Educators of Color Conversations from the Field: Emerging Challenges in Theory and Practice Hilton Orrington, Heritage Ballroom

Wednesday, June 4 — Gathering the Community * * All of Wednesday’s proceedings, unless otherwise noted, will take place at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary 7:00 - 8:30 am

Breakfast Hilton Orrington, Heritage Ballroom

8:30 am

Shuttle to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

9:00 am

Opening Plenary Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Room 205

9:15 am

Nurturing Voices and Identities 1st Year- Room 208 Faculty Mentors: Eboni Marshall-Turman, Eric Barreto, Reginaldo Braga 2nd Year- Room 207 Faculty Mentors: Shanell Smith, Teresa Delgado Pre-Dissertation- Room 108 Faculty Mentors: Brian Bantum, Rosetta Ross

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Dissertation- Room 107 Faculty Mentors: Anne Joh, Dale Andrews 10:30 am

Learning and Skill Building- Part 1 1st Year What does My Program Require of Me? What Do I Require of It? 2nd Year Pursuing Questions in One’s Institution and Broader Networks Pre-Dissertation Transitioning from Coursework to Writing: Politics, Practices, Mentoring and Mindset (pt.1) Dissertation Becoming an Emerging Scholar: Writing and Research Inside and Outside the Guild

12:00 – 2:00 pm

Lunch and Break

2:00 pm

Learning and Skill Building- Part 2 1st Year Discerning Your Voice in Your Institution and the Ecology of the Academy 2nd Year Exploring Teaching and Learning Pre-Dissertation Transitioning from Coursework to Writing: Politics, Practices, Mentoring and Mindset (pt.2) Dissertation Engaging the Academic Job System(s): Strategically Negotiating Call and Livelihood

3:30 – 3:45 pm

Break

3:45 pm

Walk and Talk: Checking our Learning, Recasting our Challenges Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Room 205

4:45 pm

Closing Reflections

5:00 – 6:00 pm

Break

5:00 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

6:00 - 8:00 pm

Christian Leadership Forum Opening Dinner and Plenary Hilton Orrington, Grand Orrington Ballroom

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8:00 - 8:30 pm

FTE 60th Anniversary Dessert Reception Hilton Orrington, Grand Orrington Ballroom

Thursday, June 5 — Listening to Another * * At this point the schedule for the FTE Summit for Future Theological Educators integrates with the FTE Christian Leadership Forum 7:00 - 8:30 am

Breakfast Hilton Orrington, Heritage Ballroom

8:30 am

Shuttle to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

9:00 am

Community Worship Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful

9:30 am

Travel to Cohort Sites

9:45 am - 5:00 pm

Cohort Gatherings Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Doctoral Students Doctoral Education Partners First United Methodist Church Young Adults Northwestern University Religious Center Church Partners

9:45 am

Learning and Skill Building- Part 3 1st Year, Room 208 Connecting Vocational Identity to Philosophy of Teaching and Learning 2nd Year, Room 207 Designing Learning Events that Teach and Transform Pre-Dissertation, Room 108 Exploring Possibilities in Writing and Becoming: A Look at the Dissertation Process Dissertation, Room 107 Exploring Your Emerging Vocation with Multiple Communities

12:00 - 2:00 pm

Lunch and Break (with Doctoral Education Partners) Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful

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2:00 pm

What Now, What Next?: Participant’s Panel and Collective Visioning Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Room 205

5:00 – 6:30 pm

Break

6:30 pm

Shuttle to First Presbyterian Church of Evanston

7:00 pm

Evening Prayer and Community Dinner First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Roy Hall

8:30 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

Friday, June 6 — Learning Together* * All of Friday’s proceedings, unless otherwise noted, will take place in the Hilton Orrington, Grand Orrington Ballroom 7:00 - 8:30 am

Breakfast Hilton Orrington, Heritage Ballroom

8:30 am

Community Worship

9:00 am

Community Reflection

10:00 – 10:15 am

Break

10:15 am

Exploring the Leadership Needs of our Time: The Church as a Living System

12:00 pm

Lunch

2:00 pm

The New Work of Christian Leadership Stephen Lewis, President Forum for Theological Exploration

2:30 pm

Prototyping our Shared Futures: Open Space Design Studio

5:00 pm

Harvesting Insights

5:30 – 6:00 pm

Break

6:00 pm

Shuttle to First Presbyterian Church of Evanston

6:30 pm

Evening Prayer and Community Dinner First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Roy Hall

8:30 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

8:30 – 10:00 pm

Performance Café First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Roy Hall Hosted by the Wild Goose Festival

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10:00 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

Saturday June 7 — Sending the Community Forth* * All of Saturday’s proceedings, unless otherwise noted, will take place in GarrettEvangelical Theological Seminary, Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful 7:00 - 8:15 am

Breakfast Hilton Orrington, Heritage Ballroom

8:15 am

Shuttle to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary w/ luggage

9:00 am

Learning Out Loud

9:45 am

FTE Resources and Partnership Opportunities

10:15 am

Forum Feedback

10:30 – 11:00 am

Break

11:00 am

Closing Worship Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman, Assistant Research Professor of Black Church Studies Director of the Office of Black Church Studies Duke Divinity School

12:00 pm

Lunch and Departure Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Room 205

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Doctoral Students Track Participants (Listing and Profiles)

Charlotte Augustine Claremont School of Theology Comparative Theology and Philosophy

Marlene Ferreras Claremont School Theology Practical Theology

Vince Bantu The Catholic University of America Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literature

Earle Fisher University of Memphis/Rhodes College Religious Studies, Rhetoric and Communication

Charrise Barron Harvard University African American Studies

Yara Gonzalez-Justiniano Boston University School of Theology Practical Theology

Grace Boakye-Agyeman McGill University Religious Studies, Christianity and Culture

Faye Herring Interdenominational Theological Center Pastoral Counseling

Jamall Calloway Union Theological Seminary, New York Systematic Theology

SueJeanne Koh Duke Divinity School Theology and Ethics

Christopher Carter Claremont School of Theology Ethics and Society

Georgette Ledgister Emory University Religion, Ethics and Society

Paul Chang University of Chicago History of Christianity

Duane Loynes, Sr. Marquette University Theology

Leonard Curry Vanderbilt University Religion, Race, Gender and Sexuality

Roberto Mata Harvard Divinity School New Testament

Maziel Dani Brite Divinity School Biblical Interpretation, New Testament

Heather McLetchie-Leader Harvard University New Testament and Early Christianity

Ericka Dunbar Drew University Biblical Studies

Elyse Minson Drew University Christian Social Ethics

Sarah Farmer Emory University Religious Education

Hyemin Na Emory University Homiletics and Liturgics

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(Participants continued) Ada Williams Graduate Theological Union Interdisciplinary Studies

Oluwatomisin Oredein Duke Divinity School Theology and Ethics Joi Orr Emory University Ethics and Society Altagracia Perez Claremont School of Theology Practical Theology Xavier Pickett Princeton Theological Seminary Religion and Society Timothy Rainey Emory University American Religious Cultures Erica Ramirez Drew Theological Seminary Religion and Society Justin Reed Princeton Theological Seminary Hebrew Bible Monica Rey Boston University Religious Studies, Hebrew Bible Christopher Thé Fuller Theological Seminary Practical Theology Eric Thomas Drew University New Testament and Early Christianity Ekaputra Tupamahu Vanderbilt University New Testament and Early Christianity Lis Valle-Ruiz Vanderbilt University New Testament and Early Christianity Michele Watkins Branch Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Theology

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Charlotte Augustine

Area of Interest: Comparative Theology and Philosophy School: Claremont School of Theology Email: cy.augustine@gmx.com

My pursuit of a Ph.D. in Religion and my academic research come from my own search for a broader conceptualization of God. The answers I had been given in the early years of my faith were being quickly eclipsed by my mounting questions. Who was this Christian God that many people claimed to know so well? How much could I, or anyone else, really know regarding God? These questions led to my current doctoral studies goal, which is to follow the work of Jean-Luc Marion in examining an understanding of God through the lens of an apophatic phenomenology of religion, known as apophatic, or negative theology. This theology rejects thinking of God as having human-like characteristics; it rejects delimiting claims such as defining God, dogmatically demarcating God's truth, or delineating God's favor. In a turn towards the affirmative, the apophatic allows for openness and tolerance of other opinions and interpretations. I find Marion's apophatic methodology to be very relevant to interreligious dialogue, as well as comparative religion/comparative theology, because his approach promotes opportunities for meaningful dialogue and openness from a Christian perspective with a remarkably diverse collection of voices, including potentially fruitful interactions with the growing voices of Black humanism and atheism, which I feel to be a rather neglected area of dialogue to this point.

My vocational goals are grounded soundly in making quality education available to all, especially since the current environment emphasizes for-profit institutions, and an overreliance on online education to the detriment of students. I also place a high vocational priority on being an advocate for students and a mentor for younger scholars and colleagues. In addition, I seek to influence others as a public scholar to fight globally for underrepresented families, communities, and societies.

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Vince Bantu

Area of Interest: Christian Near East Studies School: The Catholic University of America Email: 82bantu@cardinalmail.cua.edu

Vince Bantu is a doctoral student at The Catholic University of America in the department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. A native of St. Louis, MO, Vince received a B.A. from Wheaton College in theology, an M.Div. from GordonConwell Theological Seminary's Center for Urban Ministerial Education, a Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary in church history, and an M.A. from The Catholic University of America in Semitic and Egyptian languages and literatures. Vince is currently writing his dissertation on ethnic identity development in Coptic literature from the Council of Chalcedon through the Islamic Conquest. Vince's primary research interests include Near Eastern Christianity, asceticism, World Christianity, and early Christian ethnography.

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Charrise Barron

Area of Interest: African American Studies, Religion, Ethnomusicology School: Harvard University Email: cbarron@fas.harvard.edu

Since her childhood, Charrise Barron has had a passion for the work of the local church, especially the ministry of music. She began playing piano regularly in church while in middle school. Before graduating from high school, she was effectively serving as a minister of music. Departing from her hometown of Houston, Texas, Charrise set out to study computer science at Harvard University. Working as a senior business systems analyst after college took her around the world. For many months of her time in Europe, she could be found playing keyboard at an Afro-Caribbean Pentecostal church in London. Then something life-changing happened: Charrise acknowledged her call to ordained ministry. The corporate, jet-setting lifestyle was replaced with a graduate dormitory at Yale Divinity School and Yale's Institute of Sacred Music. She graduated with a Master of Divinity summa cum laude in 2010. During her time at Yale, Charrise pastored of The Black Church at Yale (BCAY), a fully student-run campus church founded in the early 1970s by black Yale students and alumni. After her pastorate at The Black Church at Yale concluded in May, 2010, Charrise returned to Harvard University where she devoted her scholarly attention the study of African American Christian music.

Charrise is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in African American Studies, with a primary field of concentration in religion and a secondary in ethnomusicology. Her dissertation explores the last twenty years of contemporary African American gospel music and its marked shifts away from previous eras of gospel.

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Grace Boakye-Agyeman

Area of Interest: Religious Studies, Christianity and Culture School: McGill University Email: gboakye@yahoo.com

Currently I am pursuing a Ph.D. in Religious Studies, in the area of Christianity and Culture.

I have a background in Social Work and community organizing. My Master in Social Work (MSW) degree research was on "Reunification Experiences of Immigrant Mothers and their Children in Canada." I founded the community groups McGill Student Parent's Network (MSPN) on campus for students with children, and Simonet, an organization in Montreal that caters for the needs of single mothers and new immigrants, most of whom are people of color.

My research for the Ph.D. builds on my community work and previous interest in the MSW research on immigrant women, but with a Christian social justice approach. For that purpose, I am working on the topic: "Exploring Friendship between Christian and Muslim Women.� My goal is to find creative ways of establishing friendship relationships (or answer the question posed by the Lord Jesus Christ, who is my neighbor?) in the global world of multiculturalism, through an interfaith platform where both Muslims and Christians can freely discuss matters of faith on both academic and practical levels. The early stages of my research have begun in an effort to bring both Muslim and Christian families to work together as volunteers in the Simonet food bank.

The overall intention is that, out of this, many people will come to know Christ because in this era of multiculturalism, creativity is needed for missional work.

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Jamall Calloway

Area of Interest: Systematic Theology School: Union Theological Seminary, New York Email: jamall1906@gmail.com

Jamall Andrew Calloway is from Oakland, CA, and he is a summa cum laude graduate of Tougaloo College, Jackson, MS, where he earned a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Humanities. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School in New Haven, CT and is currently pursuing his Masters of Sacred Theology degree at Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he will begin his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology in the Fall. Jamall's interests are in Modern Theology, Continental Philosophy, Russian Literature and African American Literature. More specifically, Jamall is interested in the intersections between early 20th century Black Literature and Modern Theology. Using primarily Paul Tillich and Richard Wright, Jamall aspires to construct a black theology of hope that counters nihilism and afro-pessimism. Jamall is also the current summer minister at The Church of Christ (UCC) in Mt. Washington, MA.

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Christopher Carter

Area of Interest: Ethics and Society School: Claremont School of Theology Email: Christopher.carter@cst.edu

Greetings! My name is Christopher Carter and I am a 5th year Ph.D. student in the "Religion: Ethics & Society" program at Claremont School of Theology. I am a pastor in the United Methodist Church, and I most recently served as the Senior Pastor at First United Methodist Church of Compton. My career goal is to teach in a university or seminary setting, where I hope to equip students with the ability to constructively address complex ethical issues through the prism of religion. My research interests are in the fields of Christian Social Ethics, Eco Theology and Ethics, and Black Studies. My dissertation, "Eating Oppression: Faith, Food, and Liberation," explores the relationship between food, religion, and cultural identity among African Americans by examining the United States food system and the impact that current policies and traditional practices have on black people.

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Paul Chang

Area of Interest: History of Christianity School: University of Chicago Email: paul.h.b.chang@gmail.com

My research focuses on Christianity in China, especially during the 19th and 20th centuries. My research takes place within the wider discourses of World Christianity and the History of Christianity or the History of Christian Thought. I am currently writing a dissertation on two of the most profound and prolific thinkers in Chinese Christian history, Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. The dissertation aims to place their thought in the larger contexts of the Christian tradition and Chinese history. I will also be studying the development of what I call the "Local Church Movement," the fellowship of thousands of local churches that Nee and Lee founded, which is now represented by thriving nativeled congregations on every continent. It is a story that spans the globe, beginning with a British missionary, taking root in China, continuing in Taiwan, and flowering into an international movement from the United States where Lee spent the last thirty years of his life. I feel a vocational calling toward ecumenism, a term for which I am still refining my own definitions. At its basis, I have always found my life and work enriched through diverse fellowship with other Christians. At the same time, I am repeatedly fascinated by almost every figure and movement that has ever adopted the name "Christian." I have recently begun taking courses in the Hebrew Bible after completing qualifying examinations on the New Testament, Medieval Christianity, Early Modern Christianity, and Modern Christianity. In my own reading of these traditions, one of the recurring themes is the tragic, almost insurmountable difficulty of achieving intra-Christian unity (not to speak of interfaith unity)! Since the contemporary movements of World Christianity are probably the most dynamically and willfully fractious in Christian history, my research and vocational interests frequently intersect in unexpected ways.

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Leonard Curry

Area of Interest: Religion, Race, Gender and Sexuality School: Vanderbilt University Email: lcurry33@gmail.com

I am interested in building bridge discourses between the academy and the black church around the relationships between race, sexuality and religion. I am interested in the possibilities created when the realm of the prophetic is expanded to include gender and sexual difference with commitments to abolish prisons, fight poverty and hunger, speak against war and militarism, and to take care of and heal the sick. My academic interests include various North American Womanisms and feminisms, contemporary Marxist thought, black church studies, and queer theory/gay and lesbian theology. I am interested in dialoging with black transnationalisms, North American and global postcolonialist thought, Native American and Indigenous religious thought, and in "provincializing Europe" generally.

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Maziel Dani

Area of Interest: Biblical Interpretation, New Testament School: Brite Divinity School Email: maziel.b.dani@tcu.edu

Maziel is a native of Puerto Rico and an ordained minister through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. She is focusing her doctoral studies on the New Testament, with a minor in the fields of homiletics and hermeneutics. She is particularly interested in the significance of the created order in the synoptic gospels. Through the lenses of ecological hermeneutics, intertextuality, and imperial critical methods, Maziel will analyze the function and role of land, sea, and animals in the Gospel of Matthew.

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Ericka Dunbar

Area of Interest: Biblical Studies School: Drew University Email: erickad@ufl.edu

My interest in scholarship is Biblical Studies, Hebrew Bible. I am a recent graduate of the Interdenominational Theological Center where I received a Master of Divinity degree and Candler School of Theology at Emory University where I received a Master of Theology degree. I conduct most of my research using narrative and ideological critical methodologies raising questions of the text concerning the minimal presence, or altogether absence of, and treatment of women in Biblical texts. I also highlight implications for 21st Century relevance and impact on women (highlighting women in ministry and in the Academy).

One particular area that concerns me is violence against women. Research and dialogue engaging narrative criticism may be an effective way for scholars to help humans in general and women in particular, make meaning out of human daily experiences, especially as it concerns our relationship with God. I would like to participate in research that focuses on biblical narratives and incorporate narratives of the reader, to interrogate, comprehend as well as provide structure, meaning, and morality for human experiences.

Narrative Criticism produces a conceptual framework that aides in our understanding of loopholes and gaps in biblical narratives that may contribute to moral, ethical, and theological understandings of the treatment of women. It is essential that biblical interpreters reclaim and reinterpret texts that solicit negative attitudes towards women and pronounce disparaging and disapproving judgments on us. Both women and men have to create the space and opportunities for women to reclaim our identities and render our own self-definitions. My core commitments and aspirations as a theological educator are personal and institutional integrity, spiritual growth and maturation, intellectual fortitude, creativity, self- motivation, efficient and effective preparation, acceptance of diversity, openness to communicate, to teach and to learn from all humanity.

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Sarah Farmer

Area of Interest: Practical Theology, Religious Education School: Emory University Email: sfpoole@emory.edu

Sarah is a doctoral candidate in the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University with a concentration on Person, Community and Religious Life. She received her B.A from Berea College (cum laude) in 2001 and her M.Div from Candler School of Theology in 2008. Her experiences on the staff of Youth Hope-Builders Academy and teaching in women prisons have contributed to her vocational identity and research trajectory. She is currently working on a dissertation entitled, "Hope in Confinement: Exploring Art in Critical Emancipatory Pedagogy." Sarah's research examines the concept of hope as it is operationalized in the lives of marginalized populations, particularly those who experience "confinement." Her research also seeks to gain insight about the ways the practice of art within critical emancipatory pedagogies helps become a conduit of personal and social transformation. Other research interests include psychosocial identity formation, community building and social change and transformative pedagogy.

During her tenure at Emory, she was a Community Building and Social Change fellow as well as a Religious Practices and Practical Theology fellow. Furthermore, she has been a fellow in the Black Women and Ministerial Leadership Program at Interdenominational Theological Center. Sarah boasts of the incredible privilege of being the mother of Elisha and Micah Farmer and the wife of Ronnie Farmer.

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Marlene Ferreras

Area of Interest: Practical Theology School: Claremont School of Theology Email: marlene.ferreras@gmail.com

I am the daughter of a single parent mother who immigrated to the United States from Cuba during the 1970s Freedom Flights. I was born, raised and educated in southern California. I have undergraduate degrees in Spanish and Religious Studies from La Sierra University. I also have two graduate degrees; a Master of Science degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Loma Linda University and a Master of Arts degree in Theology with an emphasis in Biblical Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. I am currently in my first year of Ph.D. coursework at Claremont School of Theology.

I specialize in spiritually integrative psychotherapy. My area of academic research interest is the function of religion and theology in societal systems and human relationships, and their implications for social justice and constructive change. As a practical theologian my work is directly engaged with human experience and communities of faith. My hope is to study the experiences of Latinas within communities of faith and biblical understandings of "abundant life" (John 10:10). I plan to contribute to theological education, scholarship and the church by contributing to the field of practical theology.

In the words of Maria Pilar-Aquino, my purpose for studying practical theology and Latina experience is "to understand, discern, interpret, and accompany women and men's experiences of God in order to construct new social models free of patriarchal domination, exploitation, inhumanity, and violence." I am interested in how theological ideas are challenged by the every day experiences of the Latino/a community. As a result of my work, I hope to offer revisions to church doctrine and practice in order to promote relationships that are mutually beneficial.

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Earle Fisher

Area of Interest: Religious Studies, Rhetoric and Communication School: University of Memphis/Rhodes College Email: fishere@rhodes.edu

I am an Adjunct Instructor of Contemporary Theology at Rhodes College as well as a Religion and Humanities professor at several local colleges in Memphis. Most of my work focuses on the rhetoric and impact of black preaching, Hip-Hop theology, and young-adult spirituality. I plan to become a tenured professor in the Religious Studies department while continuing to serve as Senior Pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church (Memphis).

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Yara González-Justiniano

Area of Interest: Practical Theology School: Boston University School of Theology Email: yara.gonzalez@yahoo.com

Yara González-Justiniano, originally from Puerto Rico, is a first year Ph.D. in student in Practical Theology at Boston University. She decided to pursue doctoral studies because for her it was a step forward to achieving part of her vocational goals, teaching. Her areas of interest are gender studies, Latino/a theologies, cultural identity, postcolonial theory and popular religion. She is seeking ordination in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ and hopes to go back to Puerto Rico to teach and do ministry.

I focus my research on the Puerto Rican population in and outside of the United States. I analyze how Puerto Rican theologies mirror the United States after over a hundred years of being U.S. territory; and how this intervention has shaped Puerto Rican religious and theological views.

Part of the focus that I would like to give to my research is investigating how this initial resistance of acculturation in the first generations of immigrants and this subsequent ideological and religious transformation manifests in newer generations. I am interested in articulations of theologies in the Latin@ communities in the diaspora (focusing on Puerto Ricans) studied from a perspective of gender and identity through the lenses of popular culture. I am influenced by the work of Ada MarÖa Isasi-DÖaz and Mujerista theology, especially the former's research approach and the particularities of Latina theologies portrayed by these first generation migrants. I plan to explore how acculturation and macro-cultural views have changed or solidified those theologies.

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Faye Herring

Area of Interest: Pastoral Counseling and Psychotherapy School: Interdenominational Theological Center Email: fherring54@yahoo.com

I am a graduate of Florida State University, where I received both a B.S. and M.S. in Speech Communication, After a long career of teaching on an undergraduate level and serving in positions of associate director and assistant dean at major Universities, I entered the seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC), where I received an M.Div. in Pastoral Care and Counseling. I was licensed as a Minister in the Full Gospel Baptist Fellowship, where I serve as Co-Director of Pastoral Counseling and Financial Secretary for the Ministerial Alliance. As I now pursue the Doctorate of Theology in Pastoral Counseling and Psychotherapy at ITC, my clinical work is conducted at the Care and Counseling Center of Georgia, where I am a resident counselor. Research in progress includes the development of a theology of divorce and determining how African American mothers can positively impact their African American sons. My doctoral emphasis is in African American Pastoral Counseling: How the single African American mother can positively impact the separation/individuation process of the African American male. I recently contributed an Afterword to a Westbow publishing on counseling couples, which is being utilized by one of ITC’s professors in her Counseling African American Couples' class. My plans are to teach courses in Pastoral Care and Counseling at a seminary, college or university and counsel clients. I am presently preparing to be licensed as an LAMFT.

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SueJeanne Koh

Area of Interest: Theology and Ethics School: Duke Divinity School Email: suejeanne.koh@duke.edu

SueJeanne is a doctoral student in theology and ethics at Duke Divinity School, with interests including systematic theology, feminist and womanist theologies, and critical theories. Her dissertation project enters into the contemporary debate on the ethics of sacrifice by exploring the relationship between sacrifice and memory. She is a member of the PC(USA) and lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Georgette Ledgister

Area of Interest: Religion, Ethics and Society School: Emory University Graduate Division of Religion Email: georgette.ledgister@emory.edu

Georgette is a Ph.D. student in the Ethics and Society course of study in the Graduate Division of Religion. Her research interests focus on the intersection of religion, violence and peacebuilding, and evaluating the ethical impact of humanitarian development in sub-Saharan Africa. She is preparing to collaborate on a research project in the summer of 2014 with Dr. Elizabeth Bounds, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia, in which they will review statements taken by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and identify the role religion played in fostering reconciliation in post-war Liberia. Georgette was previously Program Coordinator at Emory's Institute for Developing Nations (IDN). Her responsibilities included coordinating IDN's communications, organizing academic events and providing support for the IDN-CIPA scholarship program. She has also interned with the Democracy Program at The Carter Center and supported their first pre-election assessment mission in the DRC in advance of the 2006 presidential elections. She received her Masters of Divinity degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, with a concentration in Leadership in Church and Community, and her bachelor’s degree in International Studies and French Studies from the Undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences at Emory University. Georgette is committed to addressing issues of poverty and governance, and specifically using faith-based approaches to conflict transformation both locally in Atlanta, and globally in Africa.

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Duane Loynes, Sr.

Area of Interest: Theological Methodology, Critical Studies, Philosophical Theology School: Marquette University Email: duaneloynes@gmail.com

I am interested in the methodological and philosophical manuevers that North American theologians have made that have served as a precondition for racism and its theological justification. In particular, I am interrogating the ontological and epistemological concepts embedded in our theology that subversively justify a racial-theological logic. I am also interested in William R. Jones' challenge to black theologians to place theodical considerations at the forefront of our theological method. My immediate goal is to obtain a teaching/research position at a four-year institution where I can continue to develop and apply a liberative methodology to cultural and theological questions in the pursuit of social and individual transformation.

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Roberto Mata

Area of Interest: New Testament, Early Christianity School: Harvard Divinity School Email: rmata@mail.harvard.edu

Roberto Mata is a doctoral candidate in New Testament/Early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, where he also completed a Master of Divinity and was admitted as William’s Fellow, an honorary distinction for academic achievement. His research explores the intersection of imperial power, wealth, and identity in the Book of Revelation. In his reconstruction of the ancient text, Roberto uses Jewish literary works from the Second Temple period along with epigraphic materials from the Greco-Roman world. In order to map the power relations inscribed in these materials, Roberto integrates critical race, borderlands, and postcolonial theories in his analysis. His work on Revelation also intersects with a broad range of topics including: voluntary associations, imperial cults, martyrdom, sacrifice, slavery, race/ethnicity, and manual labor. As someone who is passionate about his teaching practice, Roberto is also interested in exploring alternative pedagogical methods of instructions, such as border pedagogy. Due to his commitment to student success and innovative methods of instruction, Roberto received the Derek Bok Center award for teaching excellence from Harvard University.

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Heather McLetchie-Leader

Area of Interest: New Testament and Early Christianity School: Harvard University Email: Hmcletchieleader@gmail.com

Heather McLetchie-Leader is a Ph.D. candidate in the study of religion at Harvard University. Her research, which focuses on marriage in Greco-Roman antiquity, engages questions of social justice, as well as the politicization of difference and experience.

Heather is also a freshman proctor and resident academic advisor at Harvard. She has worked in residential programs at Dartmouth College and Phillips Andover, and has taught at the K - 12 level and in several adult and executive education programs. She has also held corporate roles as the Director of Research and Evaluation at Citizen Schools and as a management consultant at Bain and Co., Inc. Heather holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Dartmouth College and the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School. She spends her free time dispensing both solicited and unsolicited advice, contemplating the social symbolism of the Marvel Universe and other sci-fi cultural production, and working on her perpetually evolving yoga practice.

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Elyse Ambrose Minson

Area of Interest: Christian Social Ethics School: Drew University Graduate Division of Religion Email: eambrose@drew.edu

Elyse Ambrose Minson is a rising second-year Ph.D. student at Drew University, studying Religion and Society: Christian Social Ethics, and concentrating in Women and Gender Studies. Elyse is also a candidate for ordained ministry as a Deacon in the United Methodist Church. Her work explores the intersections of contemporary communal moral and ethical constructions with cultural, social, and intellectual history.

Committed to a liberationist ethic, Elyse sees the value in exploring and rethinking the authoritative voice of sacred text as it contributes to both liberating and oppressive discourses. Her approach to Christian Social Ethics is interdisciplinary as she gives special attention to the contexts (historical, cultural, social) in which ethics are formed by communities. She examines institutional power relations, and institutions' (particularly the African American Church's) ability to subjugate knowledges, to make meaning, and to construct and perpetuate harmful histories while continuing to be a viable force in their communities. Of particular interest, utilizing a womanist theoretical lens, is an examination of the production of patriarchal and limiting sexual and gender constructions that lead to the exclusion and maligning of same-gender loving persons, and further attempts the subjugation of women. As a future theological educator, Ms. Ambrose Minson is committed to bridging the gap between the academy and the church, so that each can be mutually enlightened and refined by one another's presence, critique and concerns. These academic commitments are also reflected through her advocacy and activism. To seek justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with her God are Elyse's guiding principles.

Ms. Ambrose Minson is from New Orleans, Louisiana. She received her Master of Divinity in Ethics and New Testament Studies from the Interdernominational Theological Center (Atlanta, Georgia) and her B.B.A. from Howard University (Washington, DC). She is the proud spouse of Rev. Eugene A. Minson, III.

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Hyemin Na

Area of Interest: Homelitics and Liturgics School: Emory University Email: hyemin.na@gmail.com

A cradle Methodist, Hyemin has experienced the consistent nurture of the Church even as her living environments changed every few years. She hopes the Church can be a place of welcome and transformation for the next generation--a place of belonging and genuine grace. Her Ph.D. question is: What does preaching and worship look like for the growing generation of the "nones"? She is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church.

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Oluwatomisin Oredein

Area of Interest: Theology and Ethics School: Duke Divinity School Email: ooo8@duke.edu

My name is Oluwatomisin Oredein. I am a Th.D. student at Duke Divinity School with a focus in the area of Theology and Ethics. I am Nigerian American, born in Lagos, Nigeria, and raised in Maryland and Virginia. My cultural inheritance both from my Yoruba identity and from life within the American context contribute to my curiosities around theology, race, ethnicity, culture and gender. My interests include, but are not limited to, offering articulations of black theology and racial reconciliation through the narrative, particularities, and unique theological voice and position of the African immigrant in America. In giving attention to voices such as hers, I hope to continue the fabulous tradition of contributing nuanced thinking around race, ethnicity, gender and culture to Christian thought, practice and tradition.

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Joi Orr

Area of Interest: Ethics and Society School: Emory University Email: joiorr@gmail.com

I am interested in an interdisciplinary investigation in sociology of religion and practical theology: specifically, the relationship between faith-based nonprofits and interfaith communities in modern social movements. Particularly, I am curious about how the religious culture and identity of interfaith and ecumenical social justice networks and nonprofits determine their efficacy in regards to community change and progressive policy.

I would like to conduct an ethnographic study that examines how, if at all, the articulated theologies of religious organizations relate to their ability to bring about social change.

Additionally, I hope to conduct a comparative analysis of "grassroots" and "grasstops" mobilization efforts and also gain the skills to conduct compelling quantitative research around progressive and conservative faith-based organizations.

41

Xavier Pickett

Area of Interest: Religion and Society School: Princeton Theological Seminary Email: xavier.pickett@ptsem.edu

Xavier Pickett has worked for several Fortune 500 companies in various industries holding positions in many areas, such as finance, telecommunication, and marketing. He is the founder of a faith-based non-profit organization. He has also served at a Baptist church in Atlanta, GA as Lead Sound Engineer, Teacher and Marketing Director of the College & Career Ministry. He has led several campus groups and activities with various national organizations. He was an Interim Youth Pastor in Atlanta as well as Church Planting Intern at a Presbyterian church in Virginia. Moreover, as a church planter in Atlanta, Xavier was one of the founding elders, where he served as the Overseer of Christian Education.

My research examines the role of the African American literature in Black theology. My focus on African American literature stems from my desire to attend to the complex and conflicting ways religion is taken up by Black literary writers. Within the Black literary tradition, we do not find a monochromatic picture of religion. In fact, it is not difficult to find a shattered picture of religion in which criticism, doubt, and skepticism are the colors. This has critical methodological consequences for Black theology because one of the significant sources for its theological drawings is African American literature. Given Black theology’s methodological commitment to African American literature, to what degree does Black theology paint with the full range of religiously interested colors found in Black literary buckets? How does the canvas of Black theology reflect the mosaic of religious concerns found in Black literature? How might more attention to the religious criticism, doubts and skepticism within Black literature open up Black theological possibilities?

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Timothy Rainey II

Area of Interest: American Religious Cultures School: Emory University Email: tmraineyii@gmail.com

Beginning both of my academic experiences with warnings not to let "too much learning ruin my spiritual power", I received the advice of my favorite church mother, with intellectual suspicion and a deep appreciation for the earnestness in which she spoke.

Her comment evoked the sacrosanctity of spiritual matters in black religious communities and the equally profound fear that one's faith might be sullied in light of pluralistic thinking within academia. Reared in a Baptist culture defined by how it set itself apart, sanctification remains operative in how I imagine religious identity. In light of the intellectual tensions I confronted within an insular and often xenophobic Southern conservative context, my academic interests are guided by a desire to understand the ways human agents have historically transgressed the boundaries of how religious experience is defined. My academic interests focus on the manners individuals have managed these boundaries with respect to the types of language and definitions that delineate who is in and who lies outside of sacred space. Similar to Jon Butler, Catherine Albanese and Gary Laderman, I take interest in how non-traditional forms of spiritual practice emerged within early American culture. I am particularly interested in the ways religious experiences among African Americans in the 19th century led them beyond the church and into public spheres in ways that expanded the scope of their religious imaginations. Finally, my career objectives are to perform research in the field of American Religious Studies, write prolifically and train undergraduates in the areas of American religious history and religious studies theory.

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Erica Ramirez

Area of Interest: Sociology of Religion School: Drew University Email: erica.ramirez@gmail.com

Born and reared in San Antonio, Texas, I am in my third year of doctoral work in the Sociology of Religion. My focus is in women's religion, with particular interest in religious ritual as everyday practice. My current work on Pentecostal feminist practices reflects my long years in the tradition, including my B.A. in Church Ministries/Psychology from Southwestern Assemblies of God in Waxahachie, Texas. My graduate work at Wheaton College was in Church History, concentrating in Religion in American Life. My personal experience and social science background enable me to critically appraise a fast growing demographic: Hispanic women who identify as Charismatic or Pentecostal. I work at the intersections of ethnicity, gender, and politics, using postcolonial and feminist lenses.

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Justin Reed

Area of Interest: Hebrew Bible School: Princeton Theological Seminary Email: justin.reed@ptsem.edu

My main research interest includes inner-biblical exegesis in the narrative texts of the Hebrew Bible and the history of consenquences of biblical texts. In addition to my research in the university, I am passionate about exploring creative ways to share what I learn with those that are not in the academy. In this capacity, I have experimented with a number of media from short stories to brief, online video Bible studies. My favorite (and most extensive project) was creating a 250 page graphic novel on Samson that incorporates the history of interpretation and scholarly research into my creative decisions.

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Monica Isabel Rey

Area of Interest: Religious Studies, Hebrew Bible School: Boston University Email: monica.isabel.rey@gmail.com

M. I. Rey is an upcoming second year Ph.D. student within the Text and Traditions track in the Graduate Division of Religious Studies program at Boston University. Current research interests include examining archaeological theories on ethnogenesis in the ancient Near East, sociological approaches on intersectionality and how this impacts foreign women within the biblical narrative, and the literary construction of ethnic identity in the ancient Near East. She is also interested in the application of feminist hermeneutics and intercultural criticism. Rey holds an S.T.M. in Hebrew Bible from Boston University School of Theology (2012), an M.A. in Old Testament from GordonConwell Theological Seminary (2011), and a B.A. in Religious Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University (2009). Rey has presented papers at the New England & Eastern Canada Regional Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (2012; 2013; 2014), and was a 2012 recipient of The American Schools of Oriental Research Heritage Fellowship at which time she excavated at Khirbet Qeiyafa in Beit Shemesh, Israel. This summer (2014) Rey will excavate again, this time as Assistant Square Supervisor at Tel Akko, Israel thanks to the Boston University Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies David Carney Fund Award. Rey is currently a Hispanic Theological Initiative Fellow, and serves on the Journal of the American Academy of Religion Book Review Staff as a book review assistant editor.

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Christopher Thé

Area of Interest: Practical Theology School: Fuller Theological Seminary Email: the@fuller.edu

Christopher Thé (pronounced 'tay') is an American-born pastor and practical theologian of Chinese-Indonesian descent, currently completing his first year of training in the Center for Advanced Theological Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, CA). His main research interests include Asian-American ecclesiology, intergenerational faith transmission, network building, and liturgical studies. A native of Southern California, Chris is in the early stages of cataloging Indonesian ethnic/immigrant congregations in the Greater Los Angeles area, with aim to compare their histories with those of other ethnic/immigrant churches.

Chris is married to Jessica (née Archer); they have two wonderful children, Leona (age 4) and Jameson (age 3). Chris serves as Associate Pastor [English Ministry] at Family Harvest Christian Fellowship (Hacienda Heights, CA) and is involved in coordinating the O.N.E. multi-church network.

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Eric Thomas

Area of Interest: New Testament and Early Christianity School: Drew University Email: Ethomas623@gmail.com

Eric A. Thomas is entering his second year of study in New Testament & Early Christianity at Drew University - Graduate Division of Religion. His research involves the development of an approach to biblical studies that elevates the lived experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer people (LGBTQ) in the African diaspora into discourses that include African American biblical interpretation, LGBT and queer biblical hermeneutics; Africana as well as Cultural Studies.

His work (in-progress) looks to queer concepts of blackness and blacken concepts of queerness. He foregrounds the social location of LGBTQ African descended people both as readers of scripture and as legitimate members of the Black Church, African American community and African diaspora. This project will contribute to theological education by addressing the traditions in African American, post-colonial, and Africana areas of scholarship that frequently presume their subjects are heterosexual, male, and able-bodied. On one hand he wants to address the erasure of the historical, social and cultural contributions of Black LGBTQ people nationally and globally, while on the other hand, develop a hermeneutics of transformation. Instead of seeking to naturalize or normalize this particular category of "the disinherited," a hermeneutic of transformation allows its subjects the potential for transcendence and self-determination.

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Ekaputra Tupamahu

Area of Interest: New Testament and Early Christianity School: Vanderbilt University Email: ekaputra.tupamahu@vanderbilt.edu

I am currently a Ph.D. student in New Testament and Early Christianity at Vanderbilt University. Before coming to Vanderbilt, I worked among Indonesia immigrants in Southern California. This experience had a profound impact on the way I approach Scripture. I began to see the importance of reading the Bible from one's social location.

The act of interpretation is no longer a mere academic exercise, but a dialectical conversation between the text and the struggle of the people. The text should be put and read within the real human life context. So, my research interests are mainly in postcolonial, racial/ethnic, and materialist theories in conjunction to the interpretation of biblical texts. After finishing my Ph.D. studies, I hope to find a teaching position in a university or seminary the U.S., and continue to work closely among Indonesian immigrants. Not only that, I plan to also work with people in Indonesia to produce academic works that are oriented toward social justice.

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Lis Valle-Ruiz

Area of Interest: Homiletics and Liturgics School: Vanderbilt University, Graduate Department of Religion Email: valleruizlis@gmail.com

I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. My friends describe me as a creative preacher. I have served as teacher, lawyer, theater director and producer, actress, Christian education writer, stewardship educator, event planner, manager and workshop leader in acting, liturgical dance, and Christian Education. I moved to the continental United States in 2008 and have lived in Kentucky, New Jersey, and Tennessee. I am currently enjoying very much being a Ph.D. student in Homiletics and Liturgics at Vanderbilt University. My research interests lie in the intersection of preaching, performing arts, and gender issues.

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Michele Watkins-Branch

Area of Interest: Theology School: Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Email: michele.watkins@garrett.edu

Michele Watkins-Branch is studying Theology with Dr. Stephen G. Ray, Jr. at GarrettEvangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL. Her dissertation research is places Greek patristics in conversation with Womanist theologians in order to formulate a more holistic Christian soteriology that can be meaningful in a context of desacralization, particularly the desacralization of Black bodies. This research is particularly unique as it will be informed by ethnographic field research with Black Protestant Christians on the South-Side of Chicago, IL. Michele holds a Master of Divinity degree (Theta Alpha Kappa) from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary; Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Howard University in Washington, DC (Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude); and a Certification in Executive Clergy Leadership and Non-Profit Management from Garrett-Evangelical and Kellogg School of Management joint program at Northwestern University.

In June 2014, Michele will be commissioned as a Provisional Elder in the United Methodist Church. Prior to her ministerial endeavors, Michele worked for over 8 years as a community organizer under her mentor, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and spend the last two years of her tenure at Rainbow PUSH as the National College Director for PUSH Excel.

Michele has served as the Youth Pastor at Morgan Park UMC in Chicago, as an educator and later as an administrator in the DC Public Charter Schools.

Michele is married to Rev. Marlan D. Branch whom she proudly confesses as her soul mate and life partner in ministry. Michele is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

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Ada RenĂŠe Williams

Area of Interest: Interdisciplinary Studies School: Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley Email: awilliams@ses.gtu.edu

A scholar and activist, Ada ReneĂŠ Williams is committed to connecting faith and social justice. An ordained Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a first year doctoral student in Interdisciplinary Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Ca., where she brings into discourse Africana Studies, Black Religion and Literary Theory. A combination of disciplines which deeply roots her work in the African American Studies & African Diaspora Department at one of their partner institution the University of California at Berkeley. Williams' scholarship engages slave and neo-slave narratives to query how the entities of the invisible realm and religious phenomenology are constructed-particular to the phenomenology of Black religion and black embodiment-and are voiced within these genres through black feminine discourses. In an effort, to scrutinize the intersectional nature of race, gender and sexuality within the historical production of the category of "blackness," not as a form of essentialism but as epistemology (ies) in black materiality, principally as it pertains to the black body feminine. It is Williams aim that by engaging in a project of Black Religious Studies her scholarship will help readers, academic faculty members and clergy persons of African descent, interpret "unresolved ambiguities" of Black life to recuperate black subjectivity, both historically and contemporarily. Williams holds a Master of Divinity from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, certificates in Black Church and Africana Religious Studies and Women's Studies in Religion from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley and is a Stanford University Medical Center & Clinics trained chaplain.

Williams' tutors underserved children in reading, is an avid reader, enjoys creative writing, time with her family and is #GirlTrek enthusiast.

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Doctoral Students Track Leadership

Dale P. Andrews Distinguished Professor of Homiletics, Social Justice and Practical Theology Vanderbilt University Divinity School Nashville, TN d.p.andrews@vanderbilt.edu

Dr. Dale P. Andrews joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion in 2010 as Distinguished Professor of Homiletics, Social Justice, and Practical Theology. Previously he served on the faculty of Boston University School of Theology as the Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology. Dr. Andrews earned his M.A. and Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University and M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. He was a visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford and has conducted two international study tours in Guatemala and Brazil. An ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Dr. Andrews has served AME Zion churches in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.

Dr. Andrews has received numerous fellowships and awards for his studies. In addition to multiple chapters in diverse edited volumes and journal articles, he is the author of Practical Theology for Black Churches: Bridging Black Theology and African American Folk Religion (Westminster John Knox-WJK Press, 2002). He also co-authored Listening to Listeners: Homiletical Case Studies (Chalice Press, 2004) and New Proclamation: Advent through Holy Week, Year A, 2004-2005 (Augsburg Fortress Press, 2004), and is coeditor of a multivolume lectionary commentary series,Preaching God’s Transforming Justice (WJK Press, 2011, 2012, 2013). Dr. Andrews formerly served as co-editor to the journal Family Ministry, and now serves as co-editor of the journal Homiletic.

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Brian Bantum Associate Professor of Theology, Seattle Pacific University Seattle, WA bantum@spu.edu

Brian Bantum comes to Seattle Pacific after spending 10 years in Durham, N.C., with his wife, Gail, and three children. Dr. Bantum received his Ph.D. in theology from Duke University and a master's of theological studies from the Divinity School at Duke University.

Dr. Bantum's teaching and research focuses on the intersection of theology and identity exploring how the foundational claims of the Christian church serve to illumine the challenges and possibilities of discipleship in the modern world. His dissertation, Mulatto Theology: Race, Discipleship, and Interracial Existence, narrated the challenge of discipleship in a modern world fundamentally formed by race, and radically re-imagines Christian discipleship through Christ's body as both human and divine, a union of flesh and divinity that remakes the lives of disciples into a new people, a holy "mixture" of flesh and Spirit.

While at SPU, Dr. Bantum teaches courses in theology and University Foundations courses in Christian doctrine and Christian formation.

Eric Barreto Luther Seminary Assistant Professor of New Testament St. Paul, MN ebarreto001@luthersem.edu

The Rev. Dr. Eric D. Barreto is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul. He was ordained by Peachtree Baptist Church (CBF) in 2006. After completing a bachelor of arts degree in religion at Oklahoma Baptist University and a

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master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, he earned a doctoral degree in New Testament from Emory University.

His research interests range from the Acts of the Apostles to ancient and contemporary questions about race and ethnicity. In 2010, he published his first book, "Ethnic Negotiations: The Function of Race and Ethnicity in Acts 16." He is also a regular contributor to WorkingPreacher.org and EnterTheBible.org.

Reginaldo Braga Assistant Professor for Christian Education, Interdenominational Theological Center Atlanta, GA rbraga@itc.edu

Dr. Reginaldo Braga was New Minister for Multicultural Ministries at West Park Presbyterian Church, New York City, where his ministry involved the transition from a mono-ethnic/mono cultural church to become a multicultural/multiethnic community. Until 1994, Dr. Braga was also a full-time professor at Seminario Teologico Congregacional do Recife, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. Dr. Braga has an interest on /Education and Multiculturalism, Education and Contemporary Liberation Theologies, Critical Theories and Christian Education, Postmodern Philosophies and Education. He specializes in Freirean Studies.

Teresa Delgado Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Iona College New Rochelle, NY 10801 tdelgado@iona.edu

Teresa Delgado is Director of the Peace and Justice Studies Program and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College (New Rochelle, NY). She received her

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doctorate in systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary in 2005, under the guidance of womanist theologian Dr. Delores S. Williams. Her interests and scholarship are interdisciplinary in method and scope, utilizing the experience of women, particularly Latinas, to articulate a constructive theological vision, both grounded in and critical of Latino culture and the Roman Catholic theological tradition.

Her publications include, “Dead in the Water...Again,” in Reinterpreting Virtues and Values in the U.S. Public Sphere: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness in Twentyfirst Century United States, Mary McClintock Fulkerson, Rosemary Carbine and Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, eds. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013); “A Delicate Dance: Utilizing and Challenging the Sexual Doctrine of the Catholic Church in Support of LGBTIQ Persons” in More Than a Monologue: Sexual Diversity and the Catholic Church, vol. 1: Voices of Our Times, ed. Christine Firer Hinze and J. Patrick Hornbeck II (Fordham University Press, 2013); “This is My Body: Theological Anthropology Latina/mente,” in Frontiers in Catholic Feminist Theology: Shoulder to Shoulder. Susan Abraham and Elena ProcarioFoley, eds. (Augsburg Fortress, 2009); "Freedom is Our Own: Towards a Puerto Rican Theology of Identity, Suffering and Hope,” in Creating Ourselves: African Americans and Latinos/as, Popular Culture, and Religious Expression. Benjamín Valentín and Anthony Pinn, eds. (Duke University Press, 2009); and “Prophesy Freedom: Puerto Rican Women’s Literature as a Source for Latina Feminist Theology,” in A Reader in Latina Feminist Theology: Religion and Justice. María Pilar Aquino, Daisy Machado and Jeanette Rodríguez, eds. (University of Texas Press, 2002).

She is currently working on a manuscript entitled, “Loving Sex: Envisioning a Relevant Catholic Sexual Ethic,” through a grant from the Louisville Institute. Teresa serves on the Board of Directors for WESPAC Foundation (Westchester Peace Action Coalition), the leading force in Westchester County for peace and justice work for over three decades.

She lives in Mount Vernon, NY with her husband, Pascal Kabemba, their four children and two dogs.

Eboni Marshall Turman Assistant Research Professor of Black Church Studies, Duke University Divinity School Durham, NC eturman@div.duke.edu

The Reverend Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman is currently Director of the Office of Black Church Studies and Assistant Research Professor of Black Church Studies at Duke University Divinity School. She has taught theology and ethics at Hood Theological Seminary (2012-13) and Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (2010-12).

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Dr. Turman earned the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (Phi Sigma Tau) from Fordham University, Lincoln Center, NYC in May 2002. She was awarded the Master of Divinity Degree in Social Ethics (2005), the Master of Philosophy Degree in African American Religion & Social Ethics (2008), and the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.

Dr. Turman is the youngest woman to be licensed and ordained to the Gospel Ministry by the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in the City of New York (2005 and 2007, respectively). In 2004, Dr. Turman began serving at Abyssinian as Intern Minister for Christian Education & Youth under the tutelage of Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III. Shortly thereafter she joined the ministerial staff as Assistant Minister for Youth and became the second and youngest woman to preside over the ordinances in Abyssinian’s 204-year history. Prior to joining Abyssinian’s ministerial staff, Dr. Turman served as Intern Minister at Union Baptist Church in Montclair, NJ (2003-04) under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Walter L. Parrish, III. Dr. Turman is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In March 2012, Dr. Turman was featured in a segment entitled “The Gender Gap in Christian Leadership” on Odyssey Networks. In 2011, she was also featured speaking about Christian marriage on a 2011 PBS segment of “Need to Know.” Dr. Turman was awarded the 2010 Rebirth Renaissance Award by the New York Urban League Young Professionals. In 2009, she was named one of The Network Journal’s “40 Under Forty” for her outstanding leadership in the African American community. She was also featured in EBONY Magazine’s April 2009 Issue as one among Young Leaders under 30 Serving God and the community.

Dr. Turman was a 2009-10 Dissertation Fellow for the Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE) and was the recipient of the 2007-08 and 2008-09 North American Doctoral Fellowships for FTE, as well.

Rev. Dr. Turman is a native New Yorker and currently resides in both Manhattan and Durham with her husband, Rossie E. Turman, III, Esq.

Rosetta Ross Professor of Religion, Spelman College Atlanta, GA rros@spelman.edu

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Rosetta E. Ross is Professor of Religion at Spelman College where she led renewal and transformation of the institution’s study of religion. As a teacher and scholar she constructs womanist theory by investigating religion and identity in black women’s experiences and public practices. She is author of Witnessing and Testifying: Black Women, Religion, and Civil Rights, the first book-length study of religion in the lives of black women civil rights activists. An ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, Ross serves as convener of the Denomination’s Women of Color Doctoral Scholars Program.

In addition to her other professional obligations, she serves as convener of the Women of Color Doctoral Scholars Program for the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. This program provides scholarship support and mentoring for women of color pursing the Ph.D. or Th.D. in religion. The WOC Program is deliberate in providing a supportive and critical mentoring context that challenges scholars to think constructively about their intellectual identities and contributions as women of color.

Anne Joh Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Evanston, IL

My parents immigrated to the U.S. in 1976. I became a translator early in my life and that has shaped the many perspectives that have informed my formation as an Asian American feminist theologian. I'm a theologian teaching in a United Methodist seminary. I'm committed to academic activism and to teaching and research. As a teacher, I believe that transformative praxis begins with each of us in our everyday lives.

Theological reflection is crucial because the meaning of our lives is often understood through the prism of religious experience. Therefore, theological reflection must be bold and imaginative as well as grounded in the material reality of history of peoples' lives.

Furthermore, theological reflection is constructive as it examines the conditions of our present reality even as we dare to construct and hope in conditions that would be emancipatory for all. This means that theological reflection be in conversation with one another. I believe that we learn best from one another through listening and what Gayatri Spivak refers to as "non-coercive rearrangement of desire." My hope is that through this learning from one another, our own desire for change emerges from within each person.

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Shanell Smith Assistant Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, Coordinator for the International Ph.D. Program, Hartford Seminary ssmith@hartsem.edu

Becoming a professor was never a dream of mine. I didn’t have visions of me standing before a class, getting “high” off higher education as I watched the intellectual atmosphere get saturated with fresh thoughts and new insights. I never fantasized about waking up in the middle of the night to write an intriguing question or idea before it slipped away. I would have never guessed that being a New Testament Studies and Early Christianity scholar would be part of my self-description. Yet as I reflect upon these notions (and how they’ve all come to pass) and the fact that I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, I begin to realize that although this path may not have started as a dream, it is undoubtedly a calling.

As an African American woman, I find that I am uniquely positioned to bring new perspectives, and more importantly, new questions to critical New Testament study, beyond traditional, feminist, and African American (male) hermeneutical inquiry. As an African American woman, however, my marginal status is tempered by remembering my place of privilege in comparison to my Third World sister-scholars, and those in these United States without access to scholarship.

I remain dedicated to creating and maintaining a safe space for intellectual dialogue, critique, and analysis in the classroom, enhancing the status of women in the profession, mentoring students by helping them recognize, embrace, and capitalize on their potential, and publishing works that will further New Testament scholarship by inciting others to engage.

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Doctoral Education Partners Track Schedule

Wednesday, June 4 — Gathering the Community 12:00 - 4:00 pm

Doctoral Education Partners Arrival and Registration Hilton Orrington, Lobby

6:00 - 8:00 pm

Christian Leadership Forum Opening Dinner and Plenary Hilton Orrington, Grand Orrington Ballroom

8:00 - 8:30 pm

FTE 60th Anniversary Dessert Reception Hilton Orrington, Grand Orrington Ballroom

Thursday, June 5 — Listening to Another * 7:00 - 8:30 am

Breakfast Hilton Orrington, Heritage Ballroom

8:30 am

Shuttle to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

9:00 - 9:30 am

Community Worship Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful

9:30 am

Travel to Cohort Sites

9:45 am - 5:00 pm

Cohort Gatherings Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Doctoral Students Doctoral Education Partners First United Methodist Church Young Adults Northwestern University Religious Center Church and Community Partners

Doctoral Education Partners Cohort * All of Thursday’s proceedings for Doctoral Education Partners, unless otherwise noted, will take place in the President’s Dining Hall Room at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary 9:45 am

Opening Remarks and Introductions

10:00 am

Listening to the Field: Exploring Shared Challenges and Opportunities

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11:45 am

Listening to the Future: Preparing for Engagement with Students

12:00 - 2:00 pm

Lunch and Break (with Doctoral Students) Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful

2:00 pm

What Are We Hearing?: Reflecting on Dialogue

2:45 pm

Clarifying Themes and Design Challenges

3:15 – 3:30 pm

Break

3:30 pm

Practicing Possibility: Designing a Shared Future

5:00 pm

Harvesting Learning and Possibilities

5:30 pm

Adjourn

5:30 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

6:30 pm

Shuttle to First Presbyterian Church of Evanston

7:00 pm

Evening Prayer and Community Dinner First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Roy Hall

8:30 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

Friday, June 6 — Learning Together* * All of Friday’s proceedings, unless otherwise noted, will take place in the Hilton Orrington, Grand Orrington Ballroom 7:00 - 8:30 am

Breakfast Hilton Orrington, Heritage Ballroom

8:30 am

Community Worship

9:00 am

Community Reflection

10:00 – 10:15 am

Break

10:15 am

Exploring the Leadership Needs of our Time: The Church as a Living System

12:00 pm

Lunch

2:00 pm

The New Work of Christian Leadership Stephen Lewis, President Forum for Theological Exploration

2:30 pm

Prototyping our Shared Futures: Open Space Design Studio

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5:00 pm 5:30 – 6:00 pm

Harvesting Insights Break

6:00 pm

Shuttle to First Presbyterian Church of Evanston

6:30 pm

Evening Prayer and Community Dinner First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Roy Hall

8:30 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

8:30 – 10:00 pm

Performance Café First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Roy Hall Hosted by the Wild Goose Festival

10:00 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

Saturday June 7 — Sending the Community Forth* * All of Saturday’s proceedings, unless otherwise noted, will take place in GarrettEvangelical Theological Seminary, Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful 7:00 - 8:15 am

Breakfast Hilton Orrington, Heritage Ballroom

8:15 am

Shuttle to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary w/ luggage

9:00 am

Learning Out Loud

9:45 am

FTE Resources and Partnership Opportunities

10:15 am

Forum Feedback

10:30 – 11:00 am

Break

11:00am

Closing Worship Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman, Assistant Research Professor of Black Church Studies Director of the Office of Black Church Studies Duke Divinity School

12:00pm

Lunch and Departure Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Room 205

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Doctoral Education Partners Track Doctoral Education Partners

Edwin Aponte Christian Theological Seminary Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Faculty

Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore Boston University Dean of the School of Theology, Co-Director of the Center for Practical Theology

Janice Edwards Armstrong The Association of Theological Schools Director, Leadership Education

Gail O’Day Wake Forest School of Divinity Dean

Dwight Hopkins University of Chicago Divinity School Professor of Theology

Lalsangkima Pachuau Asbury Theological Seminary Dean of Advanced Research Programs

Alice Hunt Chicago Theological Seminary President

Lalene Rector Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary President

James Kay Princeton Theological Seminary Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs

Luis Rivera Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Vice President of Academic Affairs, Academic Dean

Jeffrey Kuan Claremont School of Theology President

Joanne Rodriguez Hispanic Theological Initiative Director

David Mellot Lancaster Theological Seminary Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dean of Seminary

Love Sechrest Fuller Theological Seminary Associate Professor of New Testament Frank Yamada McCormick Theological Seminary President

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Young Adults Track Schedule

2014 FTE Summit on Christian Leadership hosted in conjunction with the 2014 FTE Christian Leadership Forum

Wednesday, June 4 — Gathering the Community 2:00 - 4:00 pm

Registration Hilton Garden Inn, Lobby

3:00 - 4:30 pm

Leadership Team Meeting Hilton Orrington, James Room

5:30 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

6:00 - 8:00 pm

Christian Leadership Forum Opening Dinner and Plenary Hilton Orrington, Grand Orrington Ballroom

8:00 - 8:30 pm

FTE 60th Anniversary Dessert Reception Hilton Orrington, Grand Orrington Ballroom

8:30 - 9:30 pm

Small Group Discussions Hilton Orrington Cummings Room, James Room, Rogers Room, Northshore Room, Have Room, Mulford Room, Holgate Room & Evans Room

9:30 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Garden Inn

Thursday, June 5 — Listening to One Another (Different Stories/Perspectives) 7:00 - 8:30 am

Breakfast Hilton Garden Inn

8:30 am

Shuttle to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

9:00 - 9:30 am

Community Worship Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful

9:30 am

Shuttle to First United Methodist Church of Evanston

10:00 am

Welcome & Introductions First United Methodist Church, Dining Room

10:15 am

Café Conversations First United Methodist Church, Dining Room

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11:45 am – 12:00 pm Break 12:00 - 1:30 pm Lunch Presentation: “Spiritual Practices for Leaders and Communities” Dr. Elaine Heath, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Missional Wisdom Foundation 1:30 - 1:45 pm

Break

1:45 pm

Exploration Labs First United Methodist Church of Evanston, Glenna Hall, Rooms 32, 33, 34 & 37

3:00 - 3:15 pm

Break

3:15 pm

Small Group Discussions First United Methodist Church of Evanston, Glenna Hall, Rooms 32, 33, 34 & 37, Conference Room, Tittle Chapel

4:15 - 4:30 pm

Break

4:30 pm

Harvest the Day First United Methodist Church of Evanston, Tittle Chapel

5:00 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Garden Inn

5:00 - 6:30 pm

Free Time

6:30 pm

Shuttle to First Presbyterian Church of Evanston

7:00 - 8:30 pm

Evening Prayer and Community Dinner First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Roy Hall

8:30 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Garden Inn

10:30 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Garden Inn and Hilton Orrington

Friday, June 6 – Leaders Learning Together * All of Friday’s proceedings, unless otherwise noted, will take place in the Hilton Orrington, Grand Orrington Ballroom 7:00 - 8:15 am

Breakfast Hilton Garden Inn

8:15 am

Shuttle to Hilton Orrington

8:30 am

Community Worship

9:30 am

Community Reflection

10:00 – 10:15 am

Break

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10:15 am

Exploring the Leadership Needs of our Time: The Church as a Living System

12:00 pm

Lunch

2:00 pm

The New Work of Christian Leadership Stephen Lewis, President Forum for Theological Exploration

2:30 pm

Prototyping our Shared Futures: Open Space Design Studio

5:00 pm

Harvesting Insights

5:30 - 6:00 pm

Small Group Check-ins Hilton Orrington, Meeting Rooms TBD

6:00 pm

Shuttle to First Presbyterian Church of Evanston

6:30 pm

Evening Prayer and Community Dinner First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Roy Hall

8:30 - 10:00 pm

Performance Café First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, Roy Hall Hosted by the Wild Goose Festival

10:00 pm

Shuttle to Hilton Garden Inn

Saturday, June 7 – Leaders Sent to Serve the Community * All of Saturday’s proceedings, unless otherwise noted, will take place in GarrettEvangelical Theological Seminary, Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful 7:30 am

Shuttle to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary w/ luggage

8:00 - 9:00 am

Small Group Breakfast Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Rooms 107, 108, 203, 207, 208, 210, 211 & 311

9:00 am

Learning Out Loud

9:45 am

FTE Resources and Partnership Opportunities

10:15 am

Forum Feedback

10:30 – 11:00 am

Break

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11:00 am

Closing Worship Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman, Assistant Research Professor of Black Church Studies Director of the Office of Black Church Studies Duke Divinity School

12:00 pm

Lunch and Departure Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Room 205

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Young Adults Track Exploration Lab & Plenary Descriptions

I Didn’t Choose This Life, This Life Chose Me: The Ministry of Community Organizing Eric Brown, Children’s Defense Fund What is ministry? Has God called me to fill a void that will make me unpopular? Do I understand who I am as I try to understand my ministry? This exploration lab is an interactive workspace to discuss how God’s call does not always assume full-time pastoral ministry.

This lab seeks to open up the possibility of seeing God’s love outside the four walls of the church building. Through storytelling, collaborative activities and discussion, this lab seeks to push participants on how their experiences, conflicts and identity push them to be involved in a ministry that might seem unusual.

Effective Christian Disability Outreach as a Guiding Framework for All Ministerial Initiatives Samuel Caraballo, Toda Habilidad, Inc. The “lab” will help participants identify key elements of successful Disability Ministry initiatives. Participants will also have the opportunity to explore ways in which those elements can be integrated into their current ministry practices.

Reckless Imagination: The Ministry of Start-Ups John Helmiere, Valley & Mountain Fellowship/ The Collaboratory Faced with a lack of imagination and risk-averse instincts in much of the church, emerging Christian leaders with gifts of vision, creativity and entrepreneurship have a choice – complain loudly, leave quietly or demonstrate viable alternatives. In this lab we will ask the questions: How do you identify and refine vision to the point of bringing it life? Who do you partner with and how much do you need to have in common? What would the church of the future look like if you were allowed to be recklessly unrealistic for a minute?

Vocation as Bricolage Emily McGinley, Urban Village Church (Hyde Park | Woodlawn) Do you ever feel like you have a toolbox full of resources and experiences, but aren't sure how they fit together? Does it seem like the systems and institutions that you are part of don't have a path for you? Bricolage is the artistic process of pulling together seemingly unrelated, but available, resources to create something new. This is one of the most necessary attitudes for thriving in the landscape of this day and age. We may not always encounter straight lines and predictable paths, but that’s not such a bad thing if we're cultivating a deep creativity and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit! Join Rev. Emily McGinley for a conversation about the art of vocation as bricolage and how to think about carving your path in a changing world.

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From the Block to Behind Bars: Understanding and Mentoring Youth Involved in Gangs and the Criminal Justice System Amy Williams, A Hope Dealer Youth in gangs and in the criminal justice system tend to plan their funerals and not their futures because of a lethal absence of HOPE. So how do we move these youth from hopelessness to walking in their purpose? This lab will discuss strategies on how to impact the lives of these youth.

Participants will explore: • Factors that contribute to the “hopeless” mentality our youth believe and eventually perpetuate • Systems set in place to help our youth fail unless intervention happens • The role of the “church” (the BODY of Christ) in reaching high-risk youth (What has worked? What needs to change? How do the youth view our faith/the church and why they believe it?)

• Strategies on how to reach, engage and build impactful relationships using mentoring that matters

Plenary: Practices that Sustain Leaders and Their Communities Elaine Heath, Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University In this session we will explore the power of a common set of spiritual practices around prayer, hospitality and justice to form the kind of leaders that the church and the world needs today. These practices were in many ways, Jesus’ rule of life. Leadership teams that follow a wise rule of life together with covenant accountability for the practices, discover in them a framework to support and cultivate personal and communal growth, shared leadership and authenticity.

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Young Adults Track Participants

Kenenna Amuzie Kenamuzie@gmail.com

David Black dblack@bennington.edu

Esmerelda Castellon Butterflyezzy@gmail.com

Christian Cheairs Cheairs.christian@gmail.com

John Chun johnsj@chun@gmail.com

Chelsea Cornelius ccornelius@wisc.edu

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Joe Davis jdavis@redeemercenter.org

Sonny Duncan duncan.sonny@gmail.com

Frank Elavsky frank.elavsky@tlc.edu

(Participants continued)

Arlicia Etienne Etennia09@gmail.com

Chelsea Forbrook chelsea.forbrook@gmail.com

Cassidhe Hart cassidhe.p.hart@gmail.com

Mark Anthony Ferrer markaferrer@yahoo.com

Sandra Gonzalez sandy970743@hotmail.com

Angel Huang huangel@gmail.com

Andrew Flanigan Aflanigan.16@westminster-mo.edu

Carmen Gonzalez-McKernie carmen.gonzalez@duke.edu

Amanda Huels Amanda.huels@ptsem.edu

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(Participants continued)

John Paul Ilarraza pastorjp@gracepointgospel.org

Saralyn Jones jonescoffee@gmail.com

Robert Lee robert.w.lee.iv@gmail.com

Sheryl Johnson sherylhejohnson@gmail.com

Cora Koehler Koehco42@newschool.edu

Gabriel Lopez gabrieldjlopez@gmail.com

Amy Jones amyejones2009@gmail.com

Rhee-Soo Lee rhee.soo.lee@gmail.com

Siobhan Lopez siobhanmlopez@gmail.com

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(Participants continued)

A.J. Mendoza Ajmendoza1990@gmail.com

Natasha Patterson Tashp0610@gmail.com

Trevor Persaud persaudtrevor@gmail.com

Wesley Morris wesleyjmorris@gmail.com

Victoria Perez victoria.perez1756@gmail.com

Allison Purves alisonpurves@gmail.com

Jessica Morrison jfm.success@gmail.com

Erin Perry eperry.17@westminster-mo.edu

Margie Quinn Margiequinn3@gmail.com

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(Participants continued)

Anthony Ramos Ruiz aramos@eastern.edu

Marisol Rosado mrosado@northwestleadership.org

Mistead Sai mesai90@gmail.com

Jennifer Renouf jennrenouf@gmail.com

Michael Rotolo michael.rotolojr@ptesem.edu

Angela Siegel angelafsiegel@gmail.com

Darci Rodenhi drodenhi2010@gmail.com

Jaleh Sadravi jsadravi@gmail.com

Joe Song joe.song@mail.utoronto.ca

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(Participants continued)

Rob Stephens rs3420@utsnyc.edu

Jeffrey Wallace jeffrey.m.wallace@gmail.com

Tiont Williams tiontw@gmail.com

Demarius Walker djwalker@bu.edu

Kimberly White white.kimberlyd@gmail.com

Jessica Young jessyoung.tw@gmail.com

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Volunteers Exploring Vocation (VEV) Cohort

Tim Hass Tih92529@bethel.edu

Cooper McCullough Coop.mccullough@gmail.com

John Rogers Johnrogers28@gmail.com

Kendall Kalantzis Kendall.batten@gmail.com

Kiva Nice-Webb Kiva.shiri@gmail.com

Sara Salzwedel smprende@gmail.com

Sarah Martindell slmartindell@gmail.com

Pedro Reis Presi1987@gmail.com

Carter Sapp Carter_sapp@baylor.edu

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(Participants continued)

Sarah Wildt Sarahjwildt@gmail.com

Amy Zimbelman amymariespaulding@gmail.com

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Young Adults Track Leadership

Jennifer Bailey Minister, Social Justice Advocate, Storyteller Nashville, TN FTE Small Group Leader

Rev. Jennifer Bailey is a minister, social justice advocate, and storyteller. An ordained deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, she believes that faith communities can serve a catalyst in creating a world in which difference is celebrated, and all people have access to the resources they need to live lives of health and wholeness. Previously Rev. Bailey served as the the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Outreach and Advocacy Coordinator at Community Food Advocates, a Nashville-based non-profit with the mission of ending number by creating a healthy, just, and sustainable food system. Under her leadership, the program grew and now reaches over 16,000 low-income Tennesseeans each year. She has also served on the staffs of Interfaith Youth Core and as a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Washington, D.C. Hearing the personal stories of struggle in her community inspired Rev. Bailey to work tirelessly to ensure the voices of those pushed to the margins of society are heard. She currently serves as the Advocacy and Solidarity Coordinator for the World Christian Student Federation, North America and manages the region’s advocacy and social justice initiative. Rev. Bailey is a Master of Divinity candidate at Vanderbilt University Divinity School where she focuses on the intersection of gender, race, class, and theological ethics. Rev. Bailey is a Truman Scholar, Ministry Fellow with the Forum for Theological Exploration, a Sojourner Truth Transformational Leadership Fellow and was selected by Auburn Seminary in 2014 as one of Today’s Religious Voices.

Eric Brown Lead Organization Children’s Defense Fund Nashville, TN FTE Small Group & Exploration Lab Leader

Eric Brown joined the Children’s Defense Fund’s Nashville team in January 2013. He is also the Youth Advisor of Jefferson Street Missionary Baptist Church’s Youth

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Department and Director of Young Ministers for Action in the Nashville City District Association. Brown is a member of A. Philip Randolph Institute, Urban League’s Young Professionals and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. He graduated from American Baptist College in Nashville and earned master’s degrees in theological studies and ethics from Vanderbilt University. Brown was raised in Nashville.

Samuel Caraballo Founder and President Toda Habilidad, Inc Chestnut Hill, MA FTE Small Group & Exploration Lab Leader

Samuel Caraballo is a first-generation Puerto Rican bi-vocational minister. In the secular sphere, Samuel has served as a Program Director at the Center for Community Health Research and Services at Northeastern University. He also had the honor of teaching High School Biology & Forensic Science at Boston Public Schools. In March 2014, Samuel was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick to the Massachusetts Interagency Coordinating Council (ICC) to advocate for families of children receiving early intervention services in the state.

In the ministerial realm, Samuel has been heavily involved in music and chaplaincy ministries at several congregations, as well as juvenile detention facilities in the state of Massachusetts. Through the birth of his first daughter Natalia Luz, who is dually diagnosed with Down syndrome and Autism, Samuel has reoriented his ministerial vision towards disability theology and advocacy. His passion for ecclesial inclusion and accessibility for people with disabilities led him to create Toda Habilidad, Inc. – a ministerial initiative that foments acceptance and participation of individuals with disabilities in their respective faith communities. Samuel’s newly founded ministerial adventure is called “Cruz de Paz” and attempts to blend his passion for acoustic worship music, disability theology and the arts. Samuel earned a Master of Public Health from Boston University. He is also a graduate of Yale Divinity School, where he earned his Master of Divinity in 2013. He is deeply in love with his wife Miriam and three kids, Natalia, Esteban and Antonio, who are his endless source of inspiration and joy. You can find more details about Samuel’s upcoming presentations and music engagements at www.cruzdepaz.com.

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Dr. Elaine Heath McCreless Professor of Evangelism Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX FTE Plenary Speaker

Dr. Elaine Heath is a visionary leader and theologian, a mystic, an instigator, and passionate believer in the power of the Holy Spirit. Elaine is the initiator of New Day and the Epworth Project, which are networks of new monastic, missional communities in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. She holds a B.A. in English from Oakland University, a Master of Divinity from Ashland Theological Seminary and a Ph.D in Theology from Duquesne University. Dr. Heath is the McCreless Professor of Evangelism at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University and an elder of the United Methodist Church.

Edwin Estevez Pastoral Resident Fourth Presbyterian Church Chicago, IL FTE Small Group Leader

Edwin Estevez hails from New Jersey. His family was born and raised in Guatemala, and some, like his father, chose to leave Guatemala during the repressive Civil War years of the late 1970s. Edwin was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, once the vacation oasis dubbed the “Queen City” on account of visiting presidents and the well-to-do. Now the Plainfield area joins a long list of struggling urban communities, a community where Edwin was deeply involved.

He studied politics in undergrad, spending time both in D.C. and the UK, and went to seminary for his M.Div and an MA in Religious education. He spent nearly a year in Guatemala on a fellowship to learn K’iche’, a Mayan language and the second-mostspoken language in Guatemala, and to learn about Mayan anthropology and further his theological studies. He is deeply excited about people's dreams, passions, and call.

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John Helmiere Convener and Founder Valley and Mountain Fellowship/The Collaboratory Seattle, WA FTE Small Group & Exploration Lab Leader

Rev. John Helmiere is the Convener of Valley & Mountain Fellowship (UMC), a new church start at the intersection of Jesus’ spirituality, social justice work, community building and creative expression. John started Valley & Mountain in his south Seattle living room in late 2010 and in 2013 his congregation partnered with an arts coalition to create The Collaboratory in their neighborhood. The Collaboratory is a non-profit, cooperative multi-purpose “social change incubator” that builds community and equips change-makers.

The space serves as a drop-in center for vulnerable folks to find warm welcomes and hot meals, the church's meeting space, an arts center, a coworking office for grassroots organizations, a learning kitchen, an urban farm and sensory garden. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Divinity School, John has served at Glide in San Francisco, and been a fellow with the FTE (2007) and Beatitudes Society (2013). John is married to Frederica Helmiere, a professor at the University of Washington and Seattle University, and a pioneer in exploring the intersection of spirituality, ecology and international development. John enjoys hiking, traveling (having visited 39 countries on 6 continents), making puns and eating any possible combination of cheese and bread.

Emily McGinley Church Planter, Pastor Urban Village Church (Hyde Park | Woodlawn) Chicago, IL FTE Small Group & Exploration Lab Leader

Emily McGinley serves as a church-planting pastor at Urban Village Church (Hyde Park | Woodlawn), a new faith community on the south side of Chicago that seeks to bold, inclusive, and relevant. She comes to ministry with a background in graphic design and ministry among young adults of color. An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with roots in the non-denominational, Evangelical, tradition. Emily hails from

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Seattle where she grew up among mountains, pine trees and poor snow removal systems.

Besides Jesus, Emily loves to tell bad jokes, eat good food with friends, and spend time with her partner in life and ministry, Rich Pak. In all that she does, Emily brings a commitment to racial reconciliation, radical hospitality, and creative authenticity.

Tuhina Rasche Associate Pastor St. Paul Lutheran Church Oakland, CA FTE Small Group Leader

Tuhina Verma Rasche serves as the Associate Pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Oakland, CA. She grew up in a devout Hindu family, but she believes that she was fated to be a Lutheran as she was born in a Lutheran hospital just outside Denver, Colorado.

When a friend invited her to a free meal with Lutheran Campus Ministry while she was an undergraduate student at Clemson University in South Carolina, her life radically changed. Fifteen years after that first meal, she was ordained as a Lutheran pastor.

At St. Paul Lutheran Church, Tuhina has a passion for adult faith formation. She is currently leading an adult catechumenate program at the congregation, as well as teaching adult Christian education forums.

With a background in an eastern faith tradition and as a second generation IndianAmerican, Tuhina hopes to find a way to encourage dialogue not just within denominations, but also between different faith traditions. As a pastor of color within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), she is also interested in communication with cultural sensitivity while lovingly sharing the good news of the Gospel. Part of this communication includes listening to people’s stories; Tuhina believes that part of her call is to facilitate storytelling to promote greater communication and understanding within her community.

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Jocelyn Sideco Spiritual Director, Retreat Director, Chaplain San Francisco, CA FTE Small Group Leader

Ms. Sideco graduated from Santa Clara University (Santa Clara, CA) and the Jesuit School of Theology (Berkeley, CA). She fell in love with Ignatian Spirituality while attending these Jesuit schools and working the Jesuits in subsequent years. She has ministered at 3 Jesuit university campuses (University of San Francisco, Marquette University, Loyola New Orleans), 1 parish (St. Agnes, San Francisco, CA), and 1 Province (New Orleans Province). After Hurricane Karina hit the Gulf South on August 29, 2005, Ms. Sideco began volunteering as a relief worker and eventually moved to New Orleans to commit her life to the area's recovery.

She helped coordinate the Jesuit relief efforts and connected multiple schools and parishes to the needs of the people in the Gulf South. Inspired by prayer and retreat experiences amidst the difficulty of the current reality, she co-founded an urban retreat house called Contemplatives in Action. Here she worked to create a space for thoughtfulness and reflection for locals and for students and faculty on immersion or service trips.

Ms. Sideco blogs for the National Catholic Reporter as well as for In Good Company at ingoodcompany.net.co. She is a trained Psychiatric and ICU chaplain as well as Diversity and anti-bias Trainer. Ms. Sideco is now a Spiritual Director, Retreat Director, Chaplain, and High School teacher in the Bay Area.

Amy Williams Gang Intervention Specialist/Youth Advocate A Hope Dealer Chicago, IL FTE Exploration Lab Leader

Amy Williams, a 19-year youth ministry veteran, follows her passion to minister to teens involved in gangs, youth on probation/parole and those lost in the criminal justice system

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– at the core of which life-on-life mentoring is her key strategy. As a certified Gang Intervention Specialist, she heard God’s call to move into a Latino gang neighborhood in Chicago’s Humboldt Park community to be a “Hope Dealer” doing street outreach and walking life with young people on her block.

Amy has pursued her calling as a youth pastor, reentry coordinator for paroled youth, youth mentor, speaker and a national trainer for other youth workers.

She has been involved in youth ministry at the local church level, with Urban Young Life and as the former co-founder of Community IMPACT and the Christian Basketball Academy. She has been published in various magazines and projects including Crossway Publishing’s Urban Devotional Bible. A DeVos Urban Leadership alumni and North Park University Center for Youth Ministries Studies (CYMS) Advisory Board Member, Amy mentors other leaders across the country sharing her passion to reach as many youth with the message of HOPE through Jesus Christ. She is changing the hood one kid at a time!

Jessica Schell-Williams M.Div. Candidate Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX FTE Small Group Leader

Jessica Schell-Williams is currently a Master of Divinity candidate at Southern Methodist University emphasizing my degree in feminist studies. Her research interests include the effects of patriarchy on young girls in the Churches of Christ (her tradition), queer responses to the 21st century evangelical "purity culture," and process theology. She lives with 30 young men in the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity house where she serves as the "House Mom." Jessica also works as a CPE resident at Parkland, the Dallas county hospital system, specializing in burn and trauma.

She serves as a high school bible study teacher at her church home, Preston Road Church of Christ, and teaches other bible studies for young girls in the Highland Park area. Her latest endeavor is developing an art program for teenage girls at the Dallas County Juvenile Detention Center.

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FTE Staff

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Area Maps

Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary – 2121 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, IL 60201

Northwestern University Chapel/Religious Center – Alice Millar Chapel 1870 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, IL 60208

Hilton Orrington Hotel– 1710 Orrington Ave, Evanston, IL 60201

Hilton Garden Inn 1818 Maple Ave, Evanston, IL 60201

First United Methodist Church 516 Church St, Evanston, IL 60201

First Presbyterian Church1427 Chicago Ave, Evanston, IL 60201

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Second Floor

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MILBURN STREET

Wieboldt House (one block north) President’s Residence 2601 Orrington Avenue

ISABELLA STREET

Rocky Miller Park

Anderson Hall

ASHLAND AVENUE

Byron S.Coon Sports Center

LINCOLN STREET

2

Career Services

ASBURY AVENUE

Sharon J. Drysdale Field

Nicolet Football Center

Patten Gymnasium

Long Field (Recreation)

McGaw Memorial Hall/ Welsh-Ryan Arena Trienens Hall

Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois

Student Residences 1

5 12 Student 6 Residences 20

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COLFAX STREET

Ryan Field

14 Tennis Courts

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Norris Aquatics Center

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Henry Crown Sports Pavilion/ Combe Tennis Center

Student Residences

25 26

International Office

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DARTMOUTH PLACE

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13 CENTRAL STREET

NORTH

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CAMPUS DRIVE

Inset is one block north and 3⁄4 mile west

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Tennis Courts

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30 Frances Searle Building

TECH DRIVE

Inset is mile west

Silverman Hall GarrettEvangelical Theological Annenberg Seminary Hall

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GARRETT PLACE

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2020 Ridge

Sheil Catholic Center

SIMPSON STREET

NORTHWESTERN PLACE

Canterbury House

Swift Hall Cresap Laboratory

Shanley Hall

LIBRARY PLACE

Lunt Hall

Family Institute Blomquist Recreation Center Fiedler Hillel Center

HAMLIN ST

Ryan Hall

Shakespeare Garden

Dearborn Observatory

Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Pancoe-NSUHS Life Sciences Pavilion

Catalysis Center

Student Residences

1⁄ 3

Hogan Biological Sciences Building

Central Utility Plant

Allen Center CAMPUS DRIVE

SIMPSON STREET

Cook Hall

Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center

HAVEN STREET

33 GAFFIELD

Lakeside Fields

Mudd Library Technological Institute

Leonard B. Thomas Athletic Complex

CAMPUS DRIVE

Lutheran Center

SHERIDAN ROAD

ORRINGTON AVENUE

SHERMAN AVENUE

CTA to Chicago

MAPLE AVENUE

NOYES STREET

Owen L. Coon Forum Jacobs Center

FOSTER STREET

Arthur Andersen Hall SHERIDAN ROAD

37 Engelhart Hall

Deering Library

University Library

Searle Hall EMERSON STREET

38 Human Resources

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50 Student Residences 45 41 43 46 48 51

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Scott Hall

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Crowe Hall Student Residences

Weber Arch

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Music Admin.

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Millar Chapel

Student Residences

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Theatre and Interpretation Center Marshall Dance Center

Regenstein Hall

Louis Hall

Locy Hall Boathouse

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Fisk Hall

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University Police

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1201 Davis DAV IS

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Admission/ Financial Aid

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Lake Michigan

John Evans Alumni Center AVE N

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School of Continuing Studies

RIDGE AVENUE

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CTA to Chicago

CHURCH STREET

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McManus Living-Learning Center

Parking Office

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Hilton Orrington

Business Office

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CHIC AGO

Rebecca Crown Center

CHURCH STREET

Inset is 1⁄ 3 mile west

Levere Memorial Temple Parkes Hall

CLARK STREET

GTO

SHERMAN AVENUE

Music Practice

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1800 Sherman Avenue BENSON AVENUE

MAPLE AVENUE

1801 Maple Avenue

Lutkin Hall

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The Rock

Harris Hall

UNIVERSITY PLACE

McCormick Tribune Center

Kresge Centennial Hall

Cahn Auditorium

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Block Museum

Annie May Swift Hall

University Hall

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Northwestern University Chapel/Religious Center, Parkes Hall

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SHERIDAN ROAD

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McCormick Auditorium Norris University Pick-Staiger Center Concert Hall

Leverone Hall

CAMPUS DRIVE

Chambers Hall Foster-Walker Complex

Parking Campus access road Service road (authorized vehicles only) Bicycle/pedestrian path

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CTA el station Metra railroad station

DAVIS STREET

Emergency “blue light” telephone DAV IS

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City emergency “blue light” telephone (maintained by the city of Evanston)

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03/14

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TRAVEL EXPENSE STATEMENT PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY LOCATION: FROM PURPOSE:

CHECK PAYABLE TO:

TO _______________________

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PREFERRED MAILING ADDRESS:

Budget Code: ____________________________________________________ DATE:

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LODGING

MEALS

TIPS, ETC. GROUND

TOTALS

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INSTRUCTIONS: Please return within 10 days.

TOTAL

Movies, alcoholic beverages, checked baggage fees, wifi inflight and other personal expenses are not reimbursable.

SIGNATURE APPROVAL

Original receipts should be attached for lodging, meals (full receipts with specific charges, not just the credit card signature slip), auto rental, taxi, and airfare. We request the passenger receipt from the air ticket. If travel is by personal auto, charge $0.56 per mile and enter under Transportation, Ground. You will need to provide a map to show miles travelled as your receipt. Ground travel is not to exceed the cost of an air coach flight.

RETURN TO Forum for Theological Exploration 160 Clairemont Avenue, Suite 300 Decatur, GA 30030 Phone: 678.369.6755 Fax: 678.369.6757

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Internet Access

Hilton Garden Inn Code: Last Name & Room # Hilton Orrington Code: (Guest Rooms and Common Spaces) Last Name & Room # Code: (Meeting rooms/Ballrooms): hilton00 First Presbyterian Church Code: 1427chicago First United Methodist Church Code: fumcoewifi Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary See instructions below: 1. Choose the Guest-Northwestern SSID from the list of available networks on your laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

2. Enter your contact information and “Garrett” or “GETS.” 3. Read and accept the University’s acceptable use policy.

4. Select Register to connect to the network.

Wireless access is granted for seven days. Re-register every seven days, as needed.

Please note: “Guest-Northwestern” is an unsecured connection to the Internet and should not be used to send or receive sensitive information.

Code: (Meeting rooms/Ballrooms): hilton00

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