46779326

The Perkins Financial Literacy Program (FLP) works to empower students to make wise financial decisions. Initially funded through the Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Economic Challenge Facing Future Ministers Initiative (ECFFM), FLP provides fully transparent information about the cost of a theological education and connects students to financial resources. Students can then effectively take charge of their own financial path through graduate school and beyond. This year, the Perkins FLP is focusing on educating students through Saving Grace: A Guide to [...]

We are well into the fall semester.  Let me bring you up to speed on several items that have bubbled to the surface. Campaign Steering Committee The Perkins Campaign Steering Committee met in the Benefactors Room in Bridwell Library on October 5, hosted by co-chairs Julie Yarbrough and Joe Hardt.  President R. Gerald Turner, Provost Elizabeth G. Loboa, and Vice President Brad Cheves were in attendance.  I was pleased to report that the Perkins Campaign total has surpassed $27 [...]

The Perkins School of Theology Alumni/ae Council has selected Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. (M.Div. ‘97; D.Min. ‘09) as the 2022 recipient of the Perkins Distinguished Alumnus/a Award. Saenz, a native of south Texas and lifelong United Methodist, was elected bishop in 2016 at the South Central Jurisdictional Conference and assigned to the Great Plains Conference, based in Topeka, Kansas. In his role as episcopal leader in Kansas and Nebraska, Saenz has worked to unify three former conferences that came [...]

Members of the Perkins School of Theology community will gather for an Advent Evening Prayer service on Thursday, December 1 at 6 p.m. in Perkins Chapel on the campus of SMU. “We’re basing the service on the liturgical framework of evening prayer,” said Marcell Silva Steuernagel, Assistant Professor of Church Music and Director of the Master of Sacred Music and Doctor of Pastoral Music programs at SMU.  “We’re following a very simple structure in the United Methodist Hymnal, covering [...]

The inaugural William J. Abraham Memorial Lecture took place on October 17 at Perkins Chapel, with Dr. Frederick Aquino delivering the lecture. Bridwell Library (SMU Libraries) and Perkins School of Theology established the annual Memorial Lecture to bring a scholar to the SMU campus each year to engage in a topic related to Abraham’s work of the scholar’s choosing. At the event, Dean Craig Hill welcomed attendees, and Abraham’s daughter, Siobhan Abraham, offered greetings on behalf of the Abraham [...]

Youth ministers from around the U.S. return year after year to the Perkins School of Youth Ministry (PSYM) for inspiration, new ideas and fellowship. They can expect that again at the 36th annual event, scheduled for January 9-12, 2023. But this year’s gathering will also offer an expanded focus, according to Patrice A. Greer, Perkins’ new Coordinator of Youth & Young Adult Ministry Education. In a conversation with Perkins Perspective, Greer shared plans for the 2023 event as well [...]

Until recently, leaders described Perkins’ Baptist House of Studies as a “spiritual, rather than a physical, house” for students from Baptist and other Free Church traditions at Perkins. But this fall, the Baptist House acquired its own space as well as a new full-time staff person: the Rev. Annette Owen, Coordinator of the Baptist House. Owen, an ordained American Baptist minister, served in a variety of ministerial contexts before coming to Perkins. Perkins Perspective talked with Owen about her [...]

When he looks back at his path to ministry, Courtney Mitchell thinks of the story of Peter’s call to ministry in Luke 5. While preaching, Jesus asked Peter, a fisherman, to take him out on his boat so that he can better reach the crowd. “For the longest time, I thought of myself as a devoted layperson,” he said. “Jesus uses Peter’s own profession, and his boat, and changes lives. We’re all called to ministry wherever we are.” Later, [...]