Category: June 2019

After a wonderfully uplifting graduation service, I will be on the road visiting annual conferences and strengthening church connections over the next month or so. I am taking some summer reading with me and wanted to highlight a few items:

Where Do We Go from Here? Honest Responses from Twenty-Four United Methodist Leaders. Compiled by Kevin Slimp. Knoxville, Tennessee: Market Square Books, 2019.

This book includes essays from Perkins’ own Rev. Dr. Rebekah Miles, former Dean William Lawrence and Perkins alumni Bishops Farr and Ritter. Following the February 2019 session of the United Methodist General Conference, the authors share their response to the question, “Where do we go from here?” I am looking forward to learning from the varied perspectives and insights of colleagues.

Brooks, David. The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life. New York: Random House, 2019.

Continuing his insightful commentary into the intersection of culture and character, in this volume Brooks explores personal commitments that define meaningful lives and help us to maintain the social fabric. After attending a recent session with the author, we invited him to come to headline our Perkins Scholarship Luncheon next February 5, which he has agreed to do. Look for more information soon.

Steves, Rick. Travel as a Political Act. New York, NY: Nation Books, 2009.

Along with Célestin Musekura and Samira Izadi Page, Rick Steves will be a keynote speaker at the 2019 Perkins Fall Convocation on November 11-12. In addition to producing his television show, Steves has written numerous travel guidebooks. This volume includes essays on how travel has shaped his worldview and reflections on what we can learn from other countries and cultures.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community. Translated by John W. Doberstein. New York, NY: HarperOne, 2009.

This classic text by Dietrich Bonhoeffer speaks anew to our church and culture. Mark your calendars for Friday, February 14, when Perkins will be hosting a series of lectures and the performance at Meadows of Al Stagg’s one-person play on Bonhoeffer.

Whether in the company of these books or others, I trust that you will join me in renewing your mind and spirit over the summer.

Grace and peace,

Craig

Dear Perkins Friends,

The “call to ministry” does not always happen on our time schedule. It often comes quite unexpectedly and suddenly.

A case in point: a young lady who attended Inside Perkins twice and planned to enter Perkins in the fall of 2020. In the last four days, her life has been turned around, upside-down and every which way but loose. The tug we know as the “call to ministry” will not take leave of her. She would like to attend in the fall of 2019.

A second example is a young woman, currently enrolled in a master’s degree program at SMU, who has been praying and reflecting on her life’s journey. She doesn’t see herself working in the field she is now pursuing. Another application for fall 2019 is coming our way.

These cases occur every year, and, in our experience, life’s changes and “calls” often come outside of our planned window of deadlines. For that reason, we keep Perkins’ application and enrollment process as flexible as possible, to allow for changes that happen in people’s lives time and again.

Applications have increased by 17 percent to date, and admitted students are up by 35 percent. Requests to apply surface daily. Our team encourages inquirers to submit applications posthaste so that plans can be made to begin theological study. At this juncture, there is no time to waste. In these uncertain times for seminaries across the country as well as for  denominations, we can confidently say that we remain encouraged.

We ask for your help and your prayers. Ministry Discernment Associates are attending annual conferences (schedule below) and are ready to discuss and orient individuals toward a seminary education. We welcome you to email them, in advance, so that they can plan to meet individuals that you wish to nominate. We’re at the ready! Or, you can email me personally at margot@smu.edu, and we’ll get right to it. I’m sensing a good fall class for Perkins with one caveat: life does happen!

Sincerely,

By Rev. Margot Perez-Greene
Associate Dean of Enrollment Management

Application Deadlines Are Extended for Fall 2019
June 30 — Houston Galveston Extension Program
July 26 — Dallas Campus Program

Office of Enrollment Management staff will attend the following Annual Conferences:

• The North Texas Annual Conference, Sunday through Tuesday, June 2-4, at Christ UMC in Plano, Texas: Stephen Bagby
• The Rio Texas Annual Conference, Wednesday through Saturday, June 5-8, at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas: Margot Perez-Greene and Jon Herrin
• The Oklahoma Indian Missionary Annual Conference, Thursday through Sunday, June 6-9, in Preston, Okla.: Jazmin Cabrera
• The Central Texas Annual Conference, Sunday through Wednesday, June 9-12, at Arlington Convention Center in Arlington, Texas:  John Lowery
• The New Mexico Annual Conference, Wednesday through Friday, June 12-14, at Crowne Plaza in Albuquerque, N.M.: Margot Perez-Greene

Life is full of transitions.  As we successfully wrapped up the academic year, we said goodbye to our graduates.  We are pleased that they will be serving in many capacities, in a world that is desperate for leadership.

Let me fill you in on a number of end-of-the-year endeavors.

• The Perkins Executive Board rose to the challenge and we surpassed our goal for the SMU Fund for Perkins. Dean Hill can use this unrestricted fund to enhance our educational activities.

I can’t say enough about the women and men who comprise the Perkins Executive Board!  This group, made up of 46 people, is interested in Perkins prospering, in every sense of that term.  Coming from various walks of life, they serve as trusted advisors to the Dean.  Five are SMU Trustees, including three Bishops of the United Methodist Church.

At the Executive Board meeting in March, it was apparent that we were struggling to meet our financial goal for the SMU Fund for Perkins.  One member of the Board anonymously offered a $50,000 challenge gift, contingent on matching that amount, having every member of the Executive Board contribute.  I am happy to report Executive Board members did participate and we reached our goal!  I am thankful that our office can support such a wonderful group of people.

• Speaking of our office, I am grateful for the extraordinary abilities which Christina Rhodes supplies every day. Our mission is to treat each donor of Perkins with confidential and excellent service.  We believe that all gifts, of whatever size, are important and we assure you that Perkins carefully stewards our funds.

• 

  Over the next month-and-a-half, various administrators and faculty members will be fanning out to many Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church. At those yearly gatherings, we will be meeting hundreds of Perkins graduates in lunches, dinners, and breakfasts.  Dean Hill and others will give a brief update.  We love meeting with alumni/ae and friends.  Your accolades are great, but even more helpful are your constructive criticisms which will spur us on to do even more excellent work.

• The SMU fiscal year ended on May 31. You may be aware that we have now finished the second of three years which emphasize current-use giving.  These are funds that immediately can be used for operations.  I am pleased to tell you that our two-year goal of $4.9 million has been reached!  This is no small feat in view of the headwinds that we face on a variety of fronts.  Thank you to all who have had a part in supporting Perkins.  We ask for your regular support for next year.

• An “easy way” to support Perkins is to set up automatic withdrawals from your bank account or debit/credit card. I have found that to be very helpful in my regular giving.  Simply visit our website here and follow the instructions.  After putting in the appropriate dollar amount and the designation from the drop-down menu, you will click “next,” and will see a button for “recurring gift.”  It is simple and convenient and I encourage you to try it.  Your giving can be monthly, quarterly, or yearly.

Thank you for your interest in Perkins School of Theology.  Remember that Matthew 6:21 states, “Where your treasure is, there also is your heart.” Many of you have shown that your heart is with Perkins because you have entrusted us with some of your treasures.

For that, we say, thank you!

John A. Martin
Director of Development

The sanctuary of Highland Park United Methodist Church was filled to capacity as family members and friends gathered to honor the graduating class on May 18 at Perkins’ Celebration of Degrees and Academic Achievements.

Eighty-six students were scheduled to receive their SMU diplomas from Perkins, including 12 December graduates, 68 May graduates and six summer graduates. Degrees were conferred earlier in the day at the University-wide Commencement Convocation at Moody Coliseum, and diplomas were distributed at the celebration service.

In a sermon titled “Clay Jars: Handle with Care!” retiring faculty member Paula Dobbs-Wiggins, encouraged members of the Class of 2019 to practice self-care as they embark on careers in ministry. Dobbs-Wiggins, a psychiatrist in private practice and Adjunct Professor of the Practice of Pastoral Care, cited the biblical metaphor of jars of clay from 2 Corinthians 4:7: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

“Ordinary clay jars were very functional and durable but were also quite fragile,” she said. “God created all kinds of clay jars. There are male jars and female jars. Red, yellow, black and white jars. There are gay jars and straight jars; rich jars and poor jars; documented and undocumented jars; insured and uninsured jars; religiously conservative, centrist or progressive jars; summa cum laude, magna cum laude, cum laude and ‘thank you laude’ jars.”

But all have something in common: “If we are not handled with care, we will break. Unfortunately, religious professionals are not exempt. To the contrary, you are entering a profession that is recognized as one of the most stressful. Today, there are far too many talented, well-educated religious professionals who make the decision to leave their vocation because of stress.”

From her work with clergy, Dobbs-Wiggins offered three antidotes for preventing burnout: belief, balance and boundaries.

“Take care of your clay so that the treasure God has placed inside of you can bring out your unique gifts and graces so that you might be a blessing to us,” she said. “We need you. These are turbulent times.”

Following the sermon, attendees sang “We Are One in Christ,” with music written for the occasion by Marcell Steuernagel, who joined Perkins last fall as director of the Master of Sacred Music degree program, and text by John Thornburg.

Dean Craig C. Hill invited the graduates to thank all the friends, spouses, parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren at the ceremony who had supported them during their time at Perkins.

Dean Hill also presented the following awards for outstanding academic achievement:

The Charles C. Selecman Award in New Testament Greek

Seungli You

The Charley T. and Jesse James Bible Awards (Ranked)

1. Mara Morhouse
2. Seungli You
3. Victoria Sun
4. Karen Sherlock

The W.B.J. Martin Award in Homiletics

Courtney Reid Bond

The W.B. DeJernett Award in Homiletics

Damon Fraylon

The Paul W. Quillian Award in Homiletics

Nick McRae

The Robert Weatherford Prize for Internship Preaching

Damon Fraylon

Sandy Heard

The Bert Affleck Award

Thea Curry-Fuson

The Jerry W. Hobbs Award in Worship

Vicki Wood

The Fellowship Seminarian Award

Hannah Cruse

The Jane Marshall Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Leadership in Christian Worship

Deborah Creagh

The Hoyt Hickman Award for Outstanding Liturgical Scholarship and Practice

Kristina Roth

The Master of Sacred Music Award

Zachary Light-Wells

The Roger Deschner Prize in Sacred Music

Sarah Bilaye-Benibo

The Albert C. Outler Award in Theology

Amber Benson

The Phillip Schaff Prize in Church History

Damon Fraylon

The Karis Stahl Fadely Award

Josh Esparza

Sandy Heard

Randall Lucas

The B’nai B’rith Award in Social Ethics

James Calvert

Maria Soledad de la Cerda

The Harry Hosier Spirit Award

Donyale Fraylon

The Dr. and Mrs. Glenn Flinn Senior Award

Amber Oxley

Congratulations graduates, we are proud of you!

Photos from the Celebration of Degrees can be found here and graduate portraits can be found here.

A video of the service can be found here:

Perkins School of Theology will present “The Wit of Alyce McKenzie & The Wisdom of the Bible” at the two-day Houston Lay School of Theology, August 16-17, 2019, at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 5501 Main Street in Houston.

The event begins with a free evening lecture, “Advice We Wish We’d Taken! The Proverbial Wisdom of the Bible,” on Friday, August 16, from 7:30 to 9 p.m., followed by a daylong class on Saturday, August 17, “Wise Up! Four Biblical Virtues for Navigating Life” from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Presenting the lecture and class will be Alyce M. McKenzie, Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. Prof. McKenzie is the author of a new book, also titled Wise Up! Four Biblical Virtues for Navigating Life (Cascade Books, 2018).

Proverbs have been called “short sentences gleaned from long experience.” McKenzie’s Friday night lecture will place the pithy, pungent proverbs of the Bible, both of the Old Testament and of Jesus’ short sayings, side by side with common cultural sayings. It will explore how heeding the wisdom of biblical proverbs paves the way for a faith-filled, disciplined, compassionate life.

The daylong course will explore four virtues derived from the wisdom literature of the Old and New Testaments, including Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job and the short sayings of Jesus. The four virtues are faith, compassion, discipline and moral courage. Calling these virtues the awestruck attitude (fear of the Lord, or faith), the listening heart (compassion), the “cool spirit” (self-discipline), and the courageous voice (moral courage), McKenzie will lead participants in a look at each virtue as it appears in Scripture and offer practical ways to cultivate it in daily life. As one reviewer said about McKenzie’s book, this course will share wisdom that “soothes the soul and troubles the conscience … deepens faith, fires compassion, cools destructive desire and nudges the sleeping conscience awake.”

Registration is open now through August 9. Visit the website here.

Registration will also be available at the door. Advanced registration is $70 per person and includes lunch on Saturday; on-site registration is $80 per person. Continuing Education Unit (0.5 CEU) is available for an additional $15 fee per person.

For more information about the annual Perkins Theological School for the Laity in Dallas or the bi-annual Houston Lay School of Theology, call 214-768-3664 or email theoexternalprograms@smu.edu.

Annual Conference season is upon us! Members of the Perkins community have traveled to Annual Conferences convening in Texas and nearby states in May and will continue to do so through the month of June.

In addition to participating in the proceedings, conference season offers Perkins faculty, staff and alumni a chance to reconnect with Perkins alumni and friends, preach and reach out to prospective students.

“Annual Conference” has a dual meaning in the United Methodist Church. Each Annual Conference is a regional organizing body of the church. Once a year, representatives from that region gather for what is also called Annual Conference. It’s a time for fellowship, voting on key issues and ordaining new members of the ministry. Sending Perkins faculty and staff to the gatherings helps nurture Perkins’ ongoing partnership with the Annual Conferences in theological education. In addition, Perkins hosts display tables and alumni events at many of the Annual Conferences.

“Annual Conferences present an opportunity for us to share what’s new at Perkins and tell our story,” said Dean Craig C. Hill. “At the same time, it gives us a chance to hear the story of each annual conference: to hear about their most dynamic and effective ministries and to understand the kind of leadership needed now and in the future.”

Members of the community are planning to attend these conferences in June:

The Rio Texas Annual Conference runs Wednesday through Saturday, June 5-8, at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. Attending from Perkins are Craig Hill, John Martin, Margot Perez-Greene and Jon Herrin. An alumni event is planned on Wednesday, June 5.

The Northwest Texas Annual Conference will gather Thursday through Saturday, June 6-8, at Overton Hotel & Conference Center in Lubbock, Texas. Bridget Anderson and Bobby Wilson will attend. An alumni event is planned on Thursday, June 6.

The Oklahoma Indian Missionary Annual Conference meets Thursday through Sunday, June 6-9, in Preston, Okla. Jazmin Cabrera and Beka Miles will attend.

The Missouri Annual Conference runs Friday through Sunday, June 7-9, at Springfield Expo Center in Springfield, Mo. Craig Hill and Peter Norton will attend. An alumni event is scheduled for Sunday, June 9.

The Central Texas Annual Conference runs Sunday through Wednesday, June 9-12, at Arlington Convention Center in Arlington, Texas. Craig Hill, Dallas Gingles and Bridget Anderson will attend. An alumni event takes place Monday, June 10.

The Louisiana Annual Conference will gather Sunday through Wednesday, June 9-12, at Shreveport Convention Center in Shreveport, La. Attending from Perkins are Craig Hill, Dallas Gingles and Bridget Anderson. An alumni event is planned for Tuesday, June 11.

The New Mexico Annual Conference meets Wednesday through Friday, June 12-14, at Crowne Plaza in Albuquerque, N.M. Craig Hill and Margot Perez-Greene will attend, as will Josh Kouri. An alumni event is planned for Friday, June 14.

The Desert Southwest Annual Conference runs Thursday through Sunday, June 13-16, at Mesa Convention Center in Mesa, Ariz. John Lowery, Bridget Anderson and Louie Lyon will attend. An alumni event is scheduled for June 13.

Conferences that have already met in the past month include:

The Texas Annual Conference met May 26-29 in Houston. Participating from Perkins were Craig Hill, John Martin, Jim Lee, Hugo Magallanes and Dallas Gingles. Stephen Bagby represented the Office of Enrollment Management. An alumni event was held May 28.

The Oklahoma Annual Conference met May 28-30 in Oklahoma City. Attending from Perkins were Caleb Palmer and Ted Campbell. An alumni event was held May 29.

The Great Plains Annual Conference ran May 29 – June 1 at the Kansas Expocentre in Topeka, Kan. Bridget Anderson and Philip Clay attended from Perkins.

The Arkansas Annual Conference met May 29 – June 1 at the Hot Springs Convention Center in Hot Springs, Ark. Craig Hill and John Lowery attended, and an alumni event took place on May 30.

The North Texas Annual Conference met Sunday through Tuesday, June 2-4, at Christ UMC in Plano, Texas. Craig Hill, Connie Nelson, John Martin, Jim Lee, Stephen Bagby and Bridget Anderson represented Perkins. A Perkins alumni event took place Tuesday, June 4.

Evelyn L. Parker, Susanna Wesley Centennial Professor of Practical Theology at Perkins School of Theology, has been selected for a 2019-20 Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant. Parker will spend six months based at the University of Western Cape and the South African Faith and Family Institute in Cape Town, South Africa, working on a project titled Role of Religions Leaders in Preventing and Intervening in Teen Dating Violence in South Africa.

“The #MeToo Movement has raised global awareness of sexual harassment of women and girls,” Parker said.  “I’m looking to explore the role that religious leaders of multiple faiths in Cape Town, South Africa play in addressing teen dating violence through ecumenical and interfaith institutions.”

Why South Africa? Parker says that a good deal of research and scholarship has originated from South Africa on teen dating violence, which includes controlling, abusive, and/or violent behavior in adolescent romantic relationships.

“They are more progressive about having a conversation about this issue in South Africa,” she said. “I believe that community leaders in the U.S. who are concerned about teen dating violence can benefit from the experiences and knowledge of religious leaders there.”

In addition, she has developed a number of relationships with faith leaders in South Africa through her interfaith work with the World Council of Churches and by way of immersion trips she has led in South Africa with SMU students and others since 2008.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), teen dating violence affects millions of teens in the U.S. each year. Data from CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey indicate that nearly 1 in 11 female and approximately 1 in 15 male high school students report having experienced physical dating violence in the last year.

Parker will use qualitative methods of observation and interviews, to explore the nature of religious leadership in preventing the problem.

The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, a presidentially appointed 12-member Board, is responsible for supervising the Fulbright Program worldwide and approving the selection of all Fulbright recipients. Grants are made possible through funds appropriated annually by the U.S. Congress and, in many cases, by contributions from partner countries and the private sector. The Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries and is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. Fulbright alumni have become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, CEOs, and university presidents, as well as leading journalists, artists, scientists, and teachers. They include 59 Nobel Laureates, 84 Pulitzer Prize winners, 72 MacArthur Fellows, 16 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients, and thousands of leaders across the private, public and non-profit sectors. Since its inception in 1946, more than 380,000 “Fulbrighters” have participated in the Program.

Mohandas Gandhi’s famous words, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” inspire Emily Clark. Those words have guided her in her studies, her work and even in her choice of the place where she lives.

Clark is an M.A.M. student who expects to graduate in 2020, with a concentration in social justice and theology, including community organizing and process theology.

Clark’s spiritual journey – still in progress – led her to Perkins.

“I always had a lot of theological questions growing up but was never really satisfied with the answers I was getting,” she said. “I was always pulled to know more. I applied to Perkins, and now I’m here.”

A Dallas native, Clark earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Texas in Austin, with a major in sociology and a minor in philosophy. Her career plans are open-ended, but she’d like to work in community building, community organizing or faith-based intentional communities.

This past year, Clark worked part-time on campus for Robert Hunt, director of Global Theological Education (GTE), assisting with editing of videos for the Global Theological Education Virtual Visiting Professor project. The project aims to create a fully accessible and continually growing library of short classes coming from scholars worldwide and available across the globe.

“I’ve been teaching myself video production as we go,” she said. “The newest videos are so much prettier than the first videos we created. It’s been a learning process for both of us, but it’s been fun.”

Next year, Clark will intern at Grace United Methodist Church – located right next door to her home. Clark, along with her cat, Binx, lives in Bonhoeffer House, an intentional community adjacent to Grace. It’s a project of the Missional Wisdom Foundation. All residents are seminary students or recent graduates who practice a monastic discipline, living and worshiping together while pouring themselves into serving the poor in their neighborhood.

The three young women at Bonhoeffer host a community meal every Wednesday night, taking turns leading the program. “We open our home to people in the neighborhood and have a meal and prayer,” Clark said. “Before, when I lived alone, I felt a little isolated.” Living at Bonhoeffer, however, “feels more and more right.”

For personal spiritual practice, Clark enjoys writing and journaling. That dovetails nicely with her participation in the inaugural cohort of the Minister-Author-Scholar-Teacher (MAST) Program, launched as a pilot venture in the fall of 2018. MAST’s goal is preparing Perkins students to speak through alternative “pulpits” – books, blogs, film, music and other media.

The two-year program offers resources and training to students interested in writing or creating other media for the church and academy. The group gathers for four events per semester. Next year, students will participate in a capstone course, with the goal of creating and submitting a publishable work, such as a book, to a publisher or media outlet.

“I love to write; the MAST program is helping me to follow that interest and really develop it,” she said. “It’s wonderful to have a group of like-minded people – I call it a community of creative creators. They are a source of motivation and momentum.”

Summer’s here, and Roy Heller is heading to camp.

As he has for the past 13 years, Heller will spend the summer serving as chaplain of Camp O-AT-KA, an overnight camp on the shores of Sebago Lake in southern Maine. The 114-year-old camp is the oldest continuously run residential camp for boys in the United States.

O-AT-KA is not religiously affiliated, and Heller likes it that way.

“Being there at the camp makes me think more deeply, to ask, ‘What are those things at the core? What does it really mean to be a Christian?’” he said. Providing spiritual guidance to campers who are not religious, he added, pushes him to remember what Christian faith means at its most elemental level: compassion, service, being true to oneself.

The camp is just one way that Heller ventures outside the walls of Perkins. For the past seven years, he’s also been teaching a Bible study, Old Testament 101, on Sundays at the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas. “We’re meandering our way through the Bible,” he said. “It’s a class of about 70-100 people, and it’s wonderful and lifegiving. Teaching the class has given me the opportunity to share my appreciation of the beauty and literary depth of Scripture.”

In 2018, Heller published a book, The Characters of Elijah and Elisha and the Deuteronomic Evaluation of Prophecy: Miracles and Manipulation as part of The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies series.

Currently, he is easing into a new responsibility, as the new director of the Graduate Program in Religious Studies at SMU. Most students in the program aim for careers in academia, but he’s hoping to expose them to other career options as well.

“If there aren’t openings for someone with a Ph.D. in Medieval Theology, are there other ways they can use the skills they gained, perhaps working in libraries or museums?” he said. “I think there may be other ways to use that specialized knowledge, besides being a professor.”

Teaching Specialties

Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, Biblical Hebrew

Research Interests

Biblical Hebrew grammar and syntax, narrative criticism, rhetorical criticism, prophecy, ambiguity in literary texts

Favorite Bible Verse

The central theme Heller always comes back to is in Genesis 12:3 (NRSV), the call of Abraham, which says, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Says Heller: “The whole reason why God calls Abraham is so that all the families of the earth will be blessed.” The verse provides a criterion for weighing beliefs, doctrines and interpretation of Scripture. “If it does not lead me toward wanting to extend blessing to everybody, it is a wrong interpretation. That universal blessing of God, hinted at in the Abraham story – that’s the goal from the beginning.”

Book on the Nightstand

Heller keeps a copy of a lifelong favorite, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, by his nightstand and rereads it often. With its messages of redemption, transformation and forgiveness, he said, “If they ever re-open the biblical canon and we get to suggest new books, I want to add A Christmas Carol.”

Fantasy Dinner Party

Heller would invite just one person, Abraham Lincoln, to his dinner. “I would ask him: ‘What is most important in life?’” he said. “I would want to get behind the politics and the history. Lincoln was very political but extremely philosophical and religious in his own way. He lived through some horrible things, both with his family and as a leader, but he was an incredibly deep, thoughtful man. I would want to know how he was able to center himself.”

Family

Wife, Amy, and two children: Noah, 23, who recently graduated from SMU, and Anne, 19, who will attend SMU in the fall.

Something Most People Don’t Know About Him

Heller is a fifth-generation native Texan. His great-great-great grandfather came to Fayette County (between San Antonio and Houston) in what was then the Republic of Texas. “People are surprised, I think, because I don’t have a Texas accent,” he said. “When I was a child, I had a horrible speech impediment and did speech therapy for many years, and that’s why I learned to speak the way I do.”

Signature dish: “I make a mean meatloaf,” he said. (The secret ingredient? Gelatin.)

Question he’d ask at the Pearly Gates: Heller’s favorite movie is “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and he’d like to have a glimpse of his life similar to the one given to George Bailey. “I’d like to know: What difference did my life make, positively or negatively?” he said.

Personal spiritual practice: Heller walks his dog, Galahad, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, twice a day, 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. “It gets me outside. It’s a time to appreciate nature. I let my mind wander and wonder, which to me, is what prayer is.”