Category: May 2019

It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of the fall 2019 recruitment season. Our Ministry Discernment Associates – also known as recruiters! – have been road warriors, traveling to numerous colleges and universities, fairs, campus organizations, camps, churches and other gatherings to meet with prospective students who are discerning a call to ministry, or have an interest in pursuing theological education for deeper spiritual formation. We now begin to analyze our recent activities and strategize for our approaching future recruitment season.

These efforts, however, encompass much more than the good work of our recruiters. They include:

• Our faculty who participate in important national and international conversations and speak regularly at local churches and faith gatherings.
• Faculty, staff, Executive Board members and alumni who recommend individuals who would benefit from a Perkins education.
• All who participate and provide hospitality for our on-campus events, to help make Inside Perkins as well as individual visits successful.
• The Development Office, which keeps a constant eye securing funding for scholarships.
• Public Affairs, which promotes the incredible stories of Perkins.
• Administrators and staff who continue to infuse Perkins with a keen sense of creativity.

We thank you for your support and for understanding that recruitment is everyone’s responsibility. Please continue to pray for prospective students who are considering Perkins, and for those who have made commitments to come our way.

We’ve included our travel schedule below. If you know of a prospective student, or someone we should connect with at one or more of these destinations, please contact John, Caleb or Stephen.

With deep appreciation,

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

May Travel Schedule

John Lowery (jclowery@smu.edu)
Arkansas Annual Conference
May 29 – June 1

Kids Across America (MO)
May 30

Caleb Palmer (calebp@smu.edu)
Oklahoma Annual Conference
May 28-30

Stephen Bagby (sbagby@smu.edu)
Texas Annual Conference (Houston)
May 26-29

Keys to Enrollment Success at Perkins

1. Dean Hill’s leadership;
2. School-wide commitment to recruitment;
3. High expectations for recruitment personnel;
4. Well-defined enrollment management strategies; and
5. Maintaining enrollment as a high priority at all levels of the school.

As an incoming student at Perkins, I am looking forward to learning and growing within a context of appreciation for diversity. Conformity is not the purpose; love is.
–Student beginning study in fall 2019

Here’s something we often hear from our students: “My friends and I would not be able to attend Perkins if it were not for donors – most of whom I will never meet – who provided scholarships.”

Similar sentiments come from prospective students. As Margot Perez-Greene, Associate Dean for Enrollment Management, notes, “Financial aid is the greatest determining factor as to whether a student can or cannot come and enroll as a student at Perkins.”

Ministry Discernment Associate John Lowery echoes that.

“I don’t believe it’s an exaggeration to say that for 95% of the students with whom I interact, financial aid is the subject of the first question that is asked,” he said. “Indeed, I have never had a conversation with a prospective student in which the topic was not discussed.”

Lowery adds, “I have been repeatedly told that the decision about whether or not the student will enroll at Perkins is based on how much financial aid we offer. Just last week a high-achieving student was waiting to hear back from us about financial aid, and he told me that the decision between another seminary and Perkins hinged on our financial aid offer.”

Similarly, Director of Recruitment and Admissions Stephen Bagby said, “The desire to attend seminary is there for so many people, but money is the big challenge. However, since I came on last summer I have been impressed by the support from the school and the United Methodist Church in helping these students attend seminary.”

It is hardly surprising that financial aid is the key. Many prospective students explain that, after accruing a fair amount of debt in undergraduate studies, the prospect of significantly adding to that debt load in order to go into ministry (not a lucrative career!) feels extremely daunting. One student at a nearby college currently has a 3.91 GPA but is still reluctant to apply to Perkins because of the stress and difficulties he has endured due to accumulated undergraduate debt. Insufficient financial aid is keeping some extremely qualified people out of ministry.

As the end of the fiscal year approaches, Perkins still has financial needs. Many of you are aware that Perkins is emphasizing current-use giving through an initiative called Pony Power. As I write this, Perkins is still $184,000, or 7 percent, short of our $2.5 million goal. We need your help.

Every dollar helps! We need your support to fund the SMU Fund for Perkins, which is the dean’s discretionary fund, and the Student Financial Aid fund. Please take a minute and click here to ensure that qualified students can come to Perkins and complete their studies. A gift of any amount is important and appreciated.

John A. Martin
Director of Development
Perkins School of Theology

As sacred spaces go, Perkins Chapel has always been rather austere and stately. But on May 20, 1959, it showed it could swing.

That day Perkins Chapel hosted the first-ever jazz liturgical service.

Ed Summerlin, an accomplished saxophonist doing graduate studies at North Texas State College, wrote the music. He led a nine-piece jazz band from that school, and together, with the help of Perkins faculty who read Scripture and preached, they crossed a cultural boundary.

The boldness and novelty of the event, and the poignant circumstances that inspired it (more about that later), attracted national news coverage. “Jazz goes to church” was one headline for an Associated Press story that ran in newspapers across Texas and beyond.

Over the decades, and perhaps inevitably, memories of the historic service faded. That was true even at Perkins.

But a passionate jazz expert from afar, Derick Cordoba of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, knew all about the service. Cordoba had done his 2017 doctoral dissertation on Summerlin and the origins of jazz liturgy.

Feeling the service’s 60th anniversary should be observed, he reached out to Perkins last fall with the idea of reprising it in the original venue.

“It was quite a nice surprise to hear from Dr. Cordoba,” said Mark Stamm, professor of Christian Worship and Chapel Elder. “He said, ‘Would you like to do this?’ I said, `Yeah.’”

Cordoba coordinated with Stamm and, especially, Marcell Silva Steuernagel of Perkins’ Master of Sacred Music Program.

On April 24, Perkins Chapel again was enlivened by a nine-piece jazz combo from the University of North Texas (as the school is now known), this time directed by Cordoba, and playing for a jazz liturgy service that closely followed the original.

Steuernagel offered a stirring homily (drawing on Jesus’ singing of a hymn with the disciples at the Last Supper), and he and Perkins’ Margot Perez-Greene led the readings. The artwork for the program, done by Margaret Rigg, had originally appeared in the fall 1959 issue of Perkins Journal.

Cordoba praised the young musicians afterward and said how personally meaningfully it had been for him to lead them in playing Summerlin’s music, and in the very place where jazz liturgy debuted.

“Ed Summerlin passed away in 2006, so I never got to meet him,” Cordoba said. “I feel like I have a point of connection now.”

In a lecture at Perkins after the service, Cordoba shared how the first service came to be.

Summerlin was, in 1959, an experienced professional jazz player, composer and arranger, pursuing a doctoral degree in music at North Texas State. But he and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Summerlin, were also grieving the death of their infant daughter, Mary Jo, from a heart defect.

The Rev. Bill Slack Jr., assistant pastor of First Methodist Church in Denton, had counseled the couple through the tragedy. A few weeks afterward, Slack suggested Summerlin consider writing music for a church setting.
Summerlin agreed to think about it, and soon got busy writing jazz intended for a worship service but also as a memorial to his daughter.

Various steps ensued, but the result was the May 20, 1959, service at Perkins Chapel.

Perkins faculty member Roger Ortmayer, who taught Christianity and the arts, had commissioned Summerlin’s effort and worked with him on integrating the music with the liturgy. Schubert Ogden and J. Paul Sampley served as ministers, with Sampley giving the sermon. A choir (which the 2019 service did not have) joined the jazz band in providing the special music.

The service drew on The Wesley Orders of Common Prayer – which Stamm explains was essentially the 1662 Book of Common Prayer – and included the hymns “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” and “God of Grace and God of Glory.”

Crucial to the service were Summerlin’s own instrumental compositions, including one that Slack would later describe as his friend’s attempt to evoke Mary Jo’s brief life.

Ogden, for one, felt that this experiment in drawing on jazz for worship had great significance. On the day of the service, the famed Perkins professor wrote Summerlin: “I am delighted to think that the tragic separation between the church and the life of our time – which is the bane of both our existences – may have been dealt a heavy blow by this joint effort.”

The considerable press coverage included a lengthy televised segment titled “A Requiem for Mary Jo.” It aired on NBC’s “World Wide ‘60” program, hosted by Chet Huntley. Summerlin led other performances of the service in a range of settings, and did a recording, “Liturgical Jazz,” that earned a rave review in DownBeat magazine.

He would have a long career that included founding the jazz program at City College of New York and writing other liturgical jazz works. He also composed and arranged for – and performed with – some of the biggest names in jazz.

But Summerlin remains a rather obscure figure, not nearly as identified with sacred jazz as Duke Ellington, John Coltrane and Mary Lou Williams, all of whom wrote major works on religious themes.

Cordoba had never heard of Summerlin and the Perkins service until he read the great jazz bassist Ron Carter’s account in a book. For Cordoba, himself an accomplished guitarist, that sounded like a dissertation subject. And eventually it became his.

One main task was to determine that Summerlin really did make history at Perkins Chapel on May 20, 1959.

“This is the first complete service of worship that was jazz,” Cordoba said. “I spent a lot of time, actually, researching to make sure I could make that claim.”

Among the musicians who worked with Cordoba in recreating the service was Colleen Clark, a drummer who recently defended her own dissertation at The University of North Texas. She teaches jazz history, and the chance to honor Summerlin’s contribution thrilled her.

“What a historical moment, to be able to celebrate this in the place where it originally happened,” she said. “I’m so proud we could all do this together.”

Perkins’ May 18 Celebration of Degrees and Academic Achievements to be live-streamed at 2 p.m. CST via webcast at hpumconline.org/perkins.

May is a bittersweet season, when we say goodbye to graduates and wish them well in their new beginnings. Perkins School of Theology will honor graduating seniors with a variety of events, culminating on Saturday, May 18, with the University-wide Commencement Convocation and Perkins’ Celebration of Degrees and Academic Achievements.

Eighty-seven students are scheduled to receive their SMU diplomas from Perkins, including 12 December graduates, 71 May graduates and four summer graduates.

The series of graduation events begins with a Sending Forth Service at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 8, at Perkins Chapel. Preaching at this service will be Evelyn Parker, associate dean of Academic Affairs and Susanna Wesley Centennial Professor of Practical Theology. At this event, graduating Perkins seniors will be recognized and will receive a blessing; a senior class luncheon will follow at 12:45 p.m. in Kirby Parlor. Families are welcome.

On Friday, May 17, the Senior Class Worship Service will take place in Perkins Chapel at 5 p.m., followed by the Senior Class Banquet at 6:30 p.m. in the Great Hall at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Graduating seniors attend free of charge.

Graduation Day is Saturday, May 18, with the University-wide Commencement Convocation taking place at 9 a.m. in Moody Coliseum. The event will feature Doug Parker, chairman and chief executive officer of American Airlines, and will be live-streamed at smu.edu/live. Students must obtain tickets for themselves as well as their guests for this event. Details are here. Each candidate may obtain up to four tickets for guests. Seating is limited and is first come, first served. A ticket does not guarantee a seat.

Tickets may be requested beginning Wednesday, May 8, at 9 a.m. at smucommencementtickets.com. Logon by providing your secure SMU logon credentials. Only participating students are eligible to request tickets. Candidates are allotted four tickets for the Commencement Ceremony. All candidates must have an entry ticket to participate in the morning ceremony.

Following the Commencement, there will be a lunch at 11 a.m., a Senior Class Photo at 12:45 p.m. on the steps of Perkins Chapel and a Celebration of Degrees and Academic Achievements at 2 p.m. in the Highland Park UMC sanctuary. Preaching at this program will be Paula Dobbs-Wiggins, a psychiatrist in private practice and adjunct professor of the Practice of Pastoral Care at Perkins School of Theology.

Note that the sanctuary is typically very crowded for this program; doors open at 1 p.m. There is no limit on the number of guests that graduates may invite. Diplomas will be awarded at this event. This program will be live-streamed via webcast at hpumconline.org/perkins.

Immediately following the presentation of diplomas during the Celebration of Degrees and Academic Achievements, a reception for Perkins graduates will take place at 3:30 p.m. in the Great Hall of Prothro Hall. The reception is free for graduates and their guests, as well as Perkins faculty, staff and students.

Click here for more information about SMU Commencement. For a map of the SMU campus, visit smu.edu/maps.

As Annual Conferences convene in Texas and nearby states later this month and in June, members of the Perkins community will be in attendance. Perkins faculty, staff and alumni will be participating in the proceedings, reconnecting with Perkins alumni and friends, preaching and reaching 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.”

Some plans are still in flux, but here is the current list of Annual Conferences and Perkins community members who plan to attend:

The Texas Annual Conference meets Sunday through Wednesday, May 26-29, at the Hilton Hotel Americas in Houston. Participating from Perkins: Craig Hill, John Martin, Jim Lee and, tentatively, Hugo Magallanes and Dallas Gingles. Stephen Bagby will represent the Office of Enrollment Management.

An alumni/ae event is planned for Tuesday, May 28. View the invitation here..

The Oklahoma Annual Conference meets Tuesday through Thursday, May 28-30, at Oklahoma City University’s Freede Center in Oklahoma City. Attending from Perkins:  Caleb Palmer and Andy Keck.

An alumni/ae event is planned for Wednesday, May 29. View the invitation here.

The Great Plains Annual Conference runs Wednesday through Sunday, May 29 ­­– June 1, at the Kansas Expocentre in Topeka, Kan. From Perkins, Bridget Anderson will attend.

An alumni/ae event is planned for Wednesday, May 29. View the invitation here.

The Arkansas Annual Conference meets Wednesday through Saturday, May 29 – June 1, at Hot Springs Convention Center in Hot Springs, Ark. Craig Hill and John Lowery plan to attend.

An alumni/ae event is planned for Thursday, May 30. View the invitation here.

The North Texas Annual Conference meets Sunday through Tuesday, June 2-4, at Christ UMC in Plano.  Craig Hill, Connie Nelson, John Martin, Jim Lee, Stephen Bagby and Bridget Anderson will attend.

An alumni/ae event is scheduled for Tuesday, June 4. View the invitation here.

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/ae event is planned on Wednesday, June 5. View the invitation here.

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

An alumni/ae event is scheduled for Thursday, June 6. View the invitation here.

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

An alumni/ae event is scheduled for Friday, June 7. For more information email Bridget Oswald Anderson.

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/ae event is scheduled for Sunday, June 9. View the invitation here.

The Central Texas Annual Conference runs Sunday through Wednesday, June 9-12, at Arlington Convention Center in Arlington, Texas. Craig Hill, John Martin, Andy Keck and John Lowery will attend.

An alumni/ae event is scheduled for  Monday, June 10. Central Texas 2019.

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 Oswald Anderson.

An alumni/ae event is planned for Tuesday, June 11. View the invitation here.

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 (tentative) will attend, as will Josh Kouri.

An alumni/ae event is planned for Friday, June 14. New Mexico 2019.

The Desert Southwest Annual Conference runs Thursday through Sunday, June 13-16, at Mesa Convention Center in Mesa, Ariz.

An alumni/ae event is planned for Thursday, June 13. View the invitation here.

For more information on Perkins Annual Conference events please contact Bridget Oswald Anderson, Associate Director of Public Affairs and Alumni/ae Relations at boswald@smu.edu.

Applications will open May 10 for churches interested in participating in the Reboot Youth Ministry Initiative, a program designed to strengthen congregational ministries with youth through programmatic innovation.

The program originated with a five-year, $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to Perkins School of Theology announced in December. Co-directors of the grant are the Bart Patton, Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry Education, and Dr. Priscilla Pope-Levison, Associate Dean, Office of External Programs.

Reboot will select and resource a cohort of congregations within a 300-mile radius of Dallas without a paid full-time youth worker.  Beginning with the application process opening May 10, an initial cohort of 18 congregations—the “Starter Cohort”—will be selected to undergo a discovery process to determine the viability of ministries with youth in their communities and will be introduced to current innovation models for youth ministries.  From this cohort, 12 congregations will be selected as the “Innovation Cohort” to apply for resources provided by the grant to build and sustain an innovative model for congregational ministry with youth.

The final objective is to share the findings, including processes, youth ministry models and stories derived from the cohort congregations and other project participants through public venues including online and print resources, the Perkins School of Youth Ministry, and a Finale Innovation Lab Symposium.

According to Patton, the project’s co-director, the rapidly changing face of youth ministry in both rural and urban congregations was the impetus for this project.

“Youth ministry is at a significant juncture right now,” said the veteran of more than two decades as a youth worker.  “It’s our hope that this new endeavor will provide useful resources to congregations as they navigate ministry with adolescents in their communities.”

Shifting the focus from a full-time paid youth worker to a more comprehensive model in which the entire congregation sees itself as the center of ministry with youth is the key to this innovative project, according to Dr. Pope-Levison.

“The financial and personnel resources that this grant makes possible will lead the way in rebooting youth ministry from the lone ranger approach of the paid youth worker to centering youth ministry as a congregational initiative and endeavor,” she said.

Applications will be available May 10 through July 10, 2019 at smu.edu/perkins/reboot . To be eligible, churches must be within 300 miles of Dallas, must not have a full-time paid youth minister, and be ready to innovate. Churches of all denominations are eligible.

For more information about the initiative, visit the website at smu.edu/perkins/reboot or contact staff at reboot@smu.edu.

Walk by Jaime Clark-Soles’ office, and you might overhear her on the phone, saying something like, “Sure, I’ll do Evil.”

That’s because she’s often asked to tackle the topic of evil at panel discussions and other gatherings. To many students on campus, she’s best known as the professor who teaches the course “Evil, Suffering, Death and the Afterlife.”

But as professor of New Testament and Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor at Perkins, Jaime Clark-Soles’ sphere of influence expands well beyond the campus.

She averages about three speaking gigs a month, locally, nationally or internationally, ranging from lectures at other universities (a recent one was at Belmont University in Nashville), to leading clergy workshops, to laity education in churches of various denominations. She recently finished recording a series of videos about the Book of Glory, the second half of the gospel of John, as part of a Lenten study at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Houston.

“I’m out speaking, teaching and preaching to anybody and everybody interested,” she said. “Have Bible, will travel.”

That fast travel pace may slow just a bit in the coming months as Clark-Soles finishes up two new books: a six-lesson study of 1 Corinthians for Abingdon Ministry Resources, and a “massive” volume on women in the Bible as part of the Interpretation Commentary series, to be published in 2020 by Westminster John Knox Press.

“I know, there are already many books about women in the Bible, so I’ve identified eight ways this particular book will serve the readers,” she said. “One goal is to lift up those women in the Bible who’ve been ignored in the past but are crucial to our tradition.”

Another is to recover women whose person or legacy has been erased from Christian tradition. For example, there’s Junia, a female apostle who appears in Romans 16. Translators added an “s” to change her name to the masculine, Junias.

“She literally got erased from history by an ‘s,’” she said. “I address those translation moves that demote or erase women. They were political moves.”

A third goal entails correcting misinterpretations of women in the Bible, such as the Samaritan woman, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Jesus.

With help from David E. Schmersal, reference and digital services librarian at the Bridwell Library, Clark-Soles’ book will note where each woman’s story appears in the Lectionary – or not. The goal is to help pastors and teachers connect the material to the Lectionary – but also to understand that many of these stories were omitted from the Lectionary.

She’s also preparing to co-teach a hybrid course this fall at Houston Methodist Hospital as part of Perkins’ Houston-Galveston program. The subject is “Disability, the Bible and Theology.” Portions of the course will be open to chaplains, nurses and other health care professionals.

On top of all this work, she also serves as the founding director of the Baptist House of Studies at Perkins. The “BHS,” as it’s called, provides the opportunity for Baptist students to receive a stellar ecumenical education while being distinctively formed and professionalized in the Baptist tradition. This includes coursework, ordination preparation, internships and connections within the various trajectories of the Baptist family. Clark-Soles, an ordained Baptist minister, is spearheading events such as a campus visit on October 3 by Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, and hosting the Baptist-affiliated Shurden Lectures at Perkins in the spring of 2020.

Clark-Soles is also an avid traveler but is most proud of the four Global Theological Immersion Trips she has led in recent years with Perkins students and laypeople to Palestine and Israel, which includes a curriculum she calls “Dead Stones and Living Stones.”

“Certainly, we visit meaningful places from the Bible, but we also spend time on current life in the Holy Land, including residing in the West Bank and visiting refugee camps,” she said. “We’re there to learn and hear firsthand about the conflict from both Jewish and Palestinian presenters.”

Teaching Specialties

Johannine literature (Gospel of John; 1-3 John; Revelation); evil, suffering, death and afterlife; New Testament ethics; disability and the Bible; Koine Greek; Israel/Palestine Cultural Immersion trips

Research Interests

Johannine literature; evil, suffering, death and afterlife; Disability Theory and the New Testament; the use and authority of Scripture; women in the Bible; gender and the Bible

Favorite Bible Verse

John 10:10 – I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. “That’s how I decide if something is Christian or not. Does it promote life for all of God’s creation? Or does it not?”

Book on Her Nightstand

The Anatomy of Peace – Resolving the Heart of Conflict by The Arbinger Institute

Fantasy Dinner Party

“I’d invite some of the people I’ve been studying and writing about all my life: Mary Magdalene, Mary, Mother of Jesus, the Samaritan Woman, Paul and Jesus. I would really love to sit around a table and just ask them to tell me what life was really like for them. I’d ask, ‘What made you laugh?’ You have to imagine they had some kind of joy.”

Pets

A rescue dog named Connor. “We adopted him thinking he’d swim with my son and run with me,” she said. “He doesn’t do either. He has taught us a lot about the fact that everyone comes with a backstory that shapes them and they are not here to be what we want them to be. Luckily, he has accepted us as we are as well, with enthusiasm. He’s been a learning experience in the meaning of love.”

Hobbies

Running, racquetball, paddleboard, biking, lifting weights. “I like to be physically active,” she said.

Favorite Travel Destination

“Italy. I am a military brat and went to high school there. It feels like a home base. And the food can’t be beat!”

Perkins’ Black Seminarians Association hosted the third annual Seven Last Words service on Good Friday, April 19, at Salem Institutional Baptist Church in South Dallas.  Following an African-American tradition, the Good Friday worship was woven around the last utterances of Christ before his death on the cross. Many students, faculty and staff from Perkins were in attendance as well as members of the community.

Seven preachers – all Perkins students or recent alumni – each offered a seven-minute sermon on each of the Seven Last Words, concluding with a message from the Rev. Todd Atkins (’07 M.T.S.), a Perkins alum and senior pastor of Salem Institutional Baptist.

“In 2016, a few seminarians believed that it was important for black seminarians, who have been called to preach, to be given the opportunity to preach,” said the Rev. Bryant Phelps (D. Min. ’17), pastor of Church of the Disciple in DeSoto. “We figured that if no one was going to invite us into their pulpits, we were going to make a pulpit all by ourselves.”

Phelps helped initiate the event in 2017 as an officer of the BSA while at Perkins.

“And, here we are three years later, still at it,” said Phelps. “Amen!”

The service included somber moments as well as elements are rooted in the “homegoing experience” – the celebratory, sometimes revival-like funeral tradition of the African-American church. Musical groups and praise dancers from St. Luke’s “Community” United Methodist Church participated as well.

This year’s worship celebration was coordinated by Christian S. Watkins (MDiv, ‘19), 2018-19 BSA President, assisted by LaTasha Roberts (MDiv, ‘20) and Justin Carter (MDiv, ’19.) The inaugural Seven Last Words service in 2017 took place at St. Luke “Community” UMC, and the second at Hamilton Park UMC in Dallas in 2018.  However, this year’s location at Salem Institutional Baptist was chosen “to highlight the fact that the south of Dallas needs attention,” Watkins said. “The venue change was strategic, because of the need for greater ecumenical support by our black non-Methodist seminarians and the recent establishment of Perkins’ Baptist House of Study.”

Worshippers responded to each of the seven preachers enthusiastically and with words of encouragement. The program featured a lively sermon by the Rev. Joyce Brooks (’18 M.Div., and ’20 D.Min. candidate), senior pastor of St. Paul AME Church in Beaumont, Texas, who preached on Jesus’ words to the criminal on an adjacent cross, in Luke 23:43: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

“Even when Jesus was nailed on the cross, God was still in control,” she said. “If we as a crucified people would come together with one kingdom focus, then perhaps we will see salvation today … in the here and now and not just in the great by-and-by.”

The Rev. Enid Henderson, an expected 2019 M.Div. graduate and executive pastor of Jones Memorial UMC in Houston, reflected on Jesus’ words in Matthew 27:46: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

“At noon, darkness came over the whole land,” she said. “For three hours, darkness filled the sky. For three hours of suffering and darkness … the crowd owned the conversation. They instigated the infliction of pain.”

But during those same hours of suffering and darkness, she said, “The light of the world consumed darkness so you and I could live in the light. Perfection consumed all the imperfections of humanity.”

Others preaching during the service included the Rev. Lisa Bozeman, an expected 2019 M.Div. graduate and an intern at Hamilton Park UMC; Justin Carter, an expected 2019 M.Div. graduate and intern at Light of the World Church of Christ; the Rev. Sharon Larkin, a D.Min. candidate, expected graduation 2020, and pastor of administration at St. Luke “Community” UMC; the Rev. Dr. Ervin D. Seamster, Jr. (D.Min.), senior pastor at Light of the World Church of Christ; and the Rev. Todd Atkins.

Dean Craig Hill spoke briefly to worshippers at the close of the service.

“What a joy,” said Dean Craig Hill. “It makes everything worthwhile to watch God raise up new people to minister the word. Thanks be to God.”

Watch a video of the service here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P5PUH8LTE0