Categories
February 2025 Magazine Landing News Standalone Top Story

Priscilla Pope-Levison to be Honored with Wesleyan Theological Society Lifetime Achievement Award

Perkins faculty member Priscilla Pope-Levison has been selected as the recipient of the Wesleyan Theological Society’s annual Lifetime Achievement Award. She will receive the award at a Society banquet on Friday, March 14, at Baylor University. Dr. Pope-Levison is Research Professor of Practical Theology at Perkins School of Theology at SMU, and she is the third woman to earn this honor.

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals for outstanding service to the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition over a lifetime. Since its inception in 1994, the award has been given to distinguished scholars and theologians, including Randy Maddox, Billy Abraham, William Greathouse, James Earl Massey, and Donald Dayton. Any Wesleyan Theological Society member can be nominated, then the recipient is chosen by the Executive Committee under the direction of the Society’s president.

Society leaders cited Pope-Levison’s leadership in the organization as well as her contributions to the field of Wesleyan-Holiness scholarship as reasons for her selection for the award.

“Priscilla’s impact has made this year’s selection an easy decision,” said Justus H. Hunter, PhD, (GPRS, 2015), Society president and Associate Professor of Church History at United Theological Seminary. “She served on the Executive Committee and as president of the Society in 2018. She has made major contributions to both Women’s Studies and Evangelism, alongside extensive service to the church and academy.”

During her three-year term in executive leadership of the Society, Pope-Levison led the planning for one annual meeting and presided over another meeting in which she also gave her presidential address, titled “Negotiating ‘Andromania’ and Other Disputed Borders in the Wesleyan Deaconess Movement.”

“This is the second time the Society has honored Priscilla,” said Steven Hoskins, the Society’s promotional secretary and Professor of Church History at Trevecca Nazarene University’s School of Theology and Christian Ministry. “Her book, Building the Old Time Religion: Women Evangelists in the Progressive Era (NYU Press, 2014), won the Society’s Smith-Wynkoop Book Award in 2015 and remains a standard in the field.”

Hoskins also noted that Pope-Levison has delivered several landmark papers and is recognized as a leading scholar in Wesleyan-Holiness studies.

This is the second career-spanning award for Pope-Levison, who also received the Distinguished Service Award in 2022 from the General Commission on Archives and History for her ground-breaking research into the lives of the United Methodist denomination’s pioneers, especially women in evangelism, and for significant academic contributions to the ministry of memory of The United Methodist Church.

Pope-Levison joined Perkins School of Theology in 2015 as Associate Dean for External Programs and Professor of Ministerial Studies. Since 2019, she has served as co-Principal Investigator of two initiatives, the Thriving Congregations Grant and the Strengthening Congregational Ministries with Youth Initiative Grant, both supported by grants totaling nearly $2 million from the Lilly Endowment Inc. She is also the author of Models of Evangelism (Baker Academic, 2020) and the upcoming No Man’s Land: The International Methodist Deaconess Movement, 1874-1918 (Wesleyan and Methodist Exploration Series, Cascade Books).

Pope-Levison expressed deep appreciation for the award, noting the Society’s unique role in uniting Wesleyan scholars across denominational lines.

“It’s the one organization where the entire Wesleyan family participates across denominations—including the Salvation Army, the Church of the Nazarene, Church of God (Anderson, Indiana), the United Methodist Church, and the Global Methodist Church,” she said. “It fosters friendships and academic collaboration among scholars who otherwise might not be connected. I’m extremely honored to receive this recognition from such a distinguished and inclusive group.”

Categories
February 2025 January 2025 News Standalone Top Story

Testimony HQ: Embedding God Stories into the Heart of Congregational Life

 

The Testimony HQ initiative at Perkins School of Theology has made a lasting impact on congregations by helping them embrace testimony—sharing personal stories that reflect God’s work—as a central part of their church communities. Through three cohorts, congregations of all sizes, contexts, and denominations within a 350-mile radius of Dallas have learned to use testimony as both a spiritual practice and a way to engage with their wider communities.

A Look Back: Stories of Transformation

Churches that participated in the second cohort experienced remarkable growth and connection:

  • South Dallas Ministry Expansion: “Testimony HQ helped us become more visible in our South Dallas community. People who joined our Testimony/Prayer Circle events even started attending Sunday worship. Our church is becoming a beacon of light, especially for the unhoused and unemployed.”
  • Stories of Gratitude Event: “One of our most impactful events welcomed friends from the Afghan refugee and Turkish communities, with over 150 people gathering for ‘Stories of Gratitude.’ Held the week before Thanksgiving, the event created space for sharing heartfelt stories of thankfulness.”
  • Testimony Night Success: “At our Testimony Night, over 115 people came together. After dinner, we reflected in small groups on where we’ve seen God at work, especially through acts of service. The energy was inspiring, and we’re committed to weaving testimony into all aspects of our church life, from life groups to community events like Fall Fest and Back to School Bash.”

Celebrating the Journey: Testimony HQ Café 2025

In January, leaders from more than twenty congregations gathered at Grace Avenue UMC in Frisco for the Testimony HQ Café. This event marked the culmination of the initiative, bringing together participants from Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. It was a time of worship, reflection, and sharing stories about how testimony has transformed their churches.

A highlight of the event was the Testimony HQ Story Gallery, where churches showcased their journeys through creative displays—videos, collages, and written testimonies. This gallery captured the spirit of the initiative, showing how testimony can deepen faith and strengthen communities.

Reflections and Looking Ahead

While the application period for the third and final cohort has closed, the impact of Testimony HQ will continue to resonate in congregations across the region. The lessons learned, relationships built, and stories shared will inspire churches to keep testimony at the heart of their ministries.

“Testimony HQ got started because we saw the incredible value of testimony in building community,” said Rev. Dr. Priscilla Pope-Levison, co-principal investigator. “Community and connection flow out from a thriving congregation’s practice of testimony into the world around it.”