Category: October 2019

James 4:13-15

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”

Romans 1:11-15

For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as I have among the rest of the Gentiles

If you are familiar with the book of Acts, you probably already know where this is heading. Paul had a plan. Well, not exactly. That is claiming too much specificity, too much certainty. Paul had a hope, maybe even an expectation, that he would someday go to Rome and preach in the great capital city. He admits in Romans that that hope had already been frustrated.  Yet we know from Acts that the goal was indeed fulfilled, albeit in an entirely different manner than Paul anticipated.  He got to Rome—as a prisoner.  “Through a glass darkly,” indeed.

It is interesting that the New Testament author who actually does talk quite a bit about “plans” is Luke, especially in the book of Acts.  My guess is that that is because Acts is written retrospectively, where the plan of God is far easier to discern.  Isn’t that the case in your life?

Almost every step along the way, my own vocation has come as a surprise. For example, I never intended to become a professional academic. I had other plans. Lots of other plans, in fact. Nevertheless, every appointment I have had over the past thirty years has come as the result of an unexpected external call. The things I have thought to engineer on my behalf have nearly always fallen flat. I do not suggest that as a norm, but it seems to be a fairly typical story, especially for those in ministry.

Perkins recently welcomed a large group of new students, nearly all of whom are taking a significant step forward into an uncertain future. My message to them is this: If your goal is to serve God and to meet human need, there is nothing and no one that can stop you. Your success is assured. There is always more good work to be done, and so there is always the need for capable, well-equipped and well-motivated servant-leaders. That does not necessarily mean, however, that you will serve where and how you expect. While we might control our preparation, we exercise little control over our opportunities.

As a Methodist, this brings to mind the first part of Wesley’s Covenant Prayer:

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

To be honest, while I deeply admire that prayer, I am not saintly enough to repeat it without reservation.  Who wants to suffer, to be brought low or laid aside?  Moreover, I do not believe anyone truly is dis-employed from the work of God. Nevertheless, our notion of what such employment looks like is—and probably will be—subject to Divine revision.

Our students’ studies will surely enrich them. It is likely that their Perkins degree will open doors. But I have been around long enough to know that God’s ways are not our ways.  They are mysterious and yet wonderful to behold, though most often in retrospect.

So, it is our obligation to prepare ourselves, but it is God’s to determine to what end. Persons who flourish in ministry are those with clarity about the why and openness before God as to the what, the where, and the how.

Dear Friends:

I write this brief article filled with gratitude to God for a marvelous team of staff, faculty and administrators serving Perkins School of Theology. This fall, we are experiencing robust classes, community energy, a boost in Chapel presence, a swell of conversation and laughter at meal times in the Refectory, an upsurge of participation in CHAP (Community Hour at Perkins) and high levels of enthusiasm from both our Dallas and hybrid Houston-Galveston Extension Program new students.

Here’s a look at this year’s incoming students. Overall, ages range from 21-79, with 61% female and 37% male. The Master of Divinity degree program is the most sought-after program (no surprise there). We welcome eight international students from South Korea, Liberia, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Chad; and, our representation of religious traditions is vastly diverse: UMC, CME, Lutheran, Anglican, Church of Christ, Presbyterian, Quaker, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal bodies and Assembly of God. With the advent of the Houston-Galveston program, we are seeing students from as far as Florida, Arkansas, New Mexico and Louisiana. In Dallas, students are coming from Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Oklahoma, Delaware, Missouri, Tennessee, Oregon, North Carolina and, as is usually the case, the majority hailing from Texas.

In this climate of change and uncertainty, I’m elated to report an increase of 21.3% over last year’s fall new student headcount, thanks be to God. (This translates into an increase of 16 % in credit hours taken, in large measure likely due to a bump in younger students taking full-time classes and more full-time students in the Houston-Galveston hybrid program.)

Headcount Comparisons (includes Doctor of Ministry and Doctor of Pastoral Music degree programs)

Increase in incoming headcount from Fall 2016 to Fall 2019: 135 %

We are filled with hope for various reasons: new faces; more faces; God’s faithful call on individual lives to vocational ministry; renewed energy; enthusiastic community; and a continuing confirmation of our purpose and mission as a school of theology that is preparing leaders for the church and beyond. We humbly ask for your continued prayers.

Sincerely,

Rev. Margot Perez-Greene, Ph.D.
Associate Dean of Enrollment Managemen

“This group has presence…they join in on everything! I love ‘em!”

Second-year student about the incoming class

This fall, Perkins welcomed a third cohort of Perkins Scholars.  The Perkins Scholar designation is given to students who have distinguished themselves in their undergraduate studies, have leadership abilities, and are enrolled in the Master of Divinity program leading toward ordination.  Ten M.Div. students from each entering class make up each year’s cohort.  Those students receive a three-year scholarship totaling $21,000, spread over three years, in addition to other scholarship awards they may receive.

In the spring of 2017, the Perkins Executive Board took up the challenge to put this project in motion.  The Executive Board members, an advisory board to the Dean, care deeply about Perkins School of Theology and the student body.  Ten awards were pledged by members of the Board, with each pledge at $21,000.  Several members pledged more than one scholarship!

The first cohort of Perkins Scholars has completed two years of M.Div. studies and are currently enrolled in their last year.  The second cohort of Perkins Scholars began M.Div. studies last fall and have become acclimated to life at Perkins.

The newest cohort of 10 Perkins Scholars, funded by Executive Board members, was welcomed to the Perkins family this fall.  The new Perkins Scholars are:

Anne-Marie Berg	Rhonda Chambers	Allyson Drummond	Melissa Garza	Christina Hardy
Julian Hobdy	David Kemp	Sean McDonald	Julie Paulick	Clelia Pena

A special thanks goes out to the generous donors who have contributed to this special scholarship program! If you or your church would like to participate in the Perkins Scholar program, please let me know.

John A. Martin
Director of Development

“Reboot: The Congregation as Youth Worker,” a new initiative of Perkins School of Theology designed to equip entire congregations to serve in ministry with youth, announced the selection of 18 diverse congregations to form its initial (starter) cohort. They include two African Methodist Episcopal churches, three Baptist churches, two Presbyterian (PC USA) churches, an Episcopal church, and 10 United Methodist churches of varying ethnic backgrounds, all without a full-time, paid youth worker and within a 300-mile radius of Dallas. Read the announcement here.

When worshippers arrive for the Advent worship service on December 5, they’ll see some changes at Perkins Chapel: new lighting and newly refinished floors and pews, the result of renovation efforts this fall. And they will hear some changes, too.

“We have a new sound system that will make it much easier to hear sermons and prayers,” said Duane Harbin, Assistant Dean for Technology, Planning & Compliance. “I think we will really hear a difference in the spoken word in the chapel.”

The improvements are part of a $1.7 million, two-phase renovation project initiated after a steam leak in January 2018 damaged paint and plasterwork and the Chapel’s organ.  Since the Chapel hadn’t been renovated since 1999, Dean Craig Hill and SMU administration decided to authorize some upgrades in addition to the repairs. Insurance paid for some of the renovations; other funding came from a bequest of $931,000 from Dr. Mark Lemmon, Jr., the son of the architect who designed Perkins Chapel in 1951.

The first phase of renovations last fall repaired the damage, an elaborate restoration process involving several different shades of paint and repair of the dentil molding around the upper walls.  Then, the renovations were paused.

“Because the chapel is heavily booked for weddings the rest of the year, the fall term is the only window we have to do this kind of major work,” said Harbin.

When work resumed this fall, the Spring Valley Construction Company replaced and upgraded all of the lighting, refinished the floors and the pews, replaced the sound system and installed a new video system.

“The new video system is fairly elaborate,” said John Martin, Director of Development at Perkins. “There’s a screen that may be raised out of the floor in the upper chancel, which will allow lecturers to use PowerPoints visuals. Also, the system gives us the capability to livestream events out of the Chapel.”

The new sound system also relocated the tech booth to the nave, so that the sound technician will hear what the congregation hears and thus can better adjust the audio.  Gone are the reinforcement speakers on the backs of the pews, which tended to knock knees and hadn’t worked properly in recent years.

New Organ

Another big change underway: a new organ for the Chapel.

The January 2018 steam leak also damaged the Chapel’s Aeolian-Skinner organ; plans are underway to replace it with an older, but more classic instrument.

SMU has purchased a 1927 E.M. Skinner organ, Opus 563, from the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Manhattan. The E.M. Skinner organ is currently in a storage facility near Boston, awaiting restoration. (The previous Chapel organ, the Aeolian-Skinner, will soon have a new home at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Dallas.)

Stefan Engels, Professor of Organ and Chair of the Organ Department at the Meadows School of the Arts, says the Skinner Organ Company is widely regarded as America’s finest organ builder from 1905 until 1932, when the company merged with the organ department of the Aeolian Company to form Aeolian-Skinner.

“The period of 1924-1932 is further regarded as the zenith of the firm’s work in that period, mechanically and artistically,” Engels said.

The Orthodox congregation in New York acquired the organ in 1953 when it purchased the building from the Fourth Presbyterian congregation.  Because Orthodox worship does not typically include organ music, the organ essentially went into storage. With almost no use over the past 60 years, Engels said, “the instrument is a pristine example of a company in its prime – a diamond in the rough.”

The timeline for bringing the new organ to Perkins Chapel is not yet clear; an additional $2 million in funding is needed to complete the restoration of the instrument and the installation in Perkins.

“Once the restoration and installation of this instrument in Perkins Chapel is completed, we expect that it will attract international attention, serve many generations of organists in their goal to achieve artistic excellence, and be an inspiration to the daily needs of the SMU community,” said Engels.

Perkins School of Theology has established a partnership with the nonprofit Project Transformation National to provide a preferred pathway for Project Transformation interns and alumni considering a graduate theological education at Perkins. Craig C. Hill,Dean of Perkins, and Eric Lindh, CEO of Project Transformation National, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Wednesday, September 18 at Perkins. Read the news release here.

On a Saturday morning, before a solemn crowd, the words of Hal Recinos’s poem “Rising” voiced the agony of people at the border, punctuated by interludes of dissonant and dolorous music:

we are the hungry,
the lame, the naked, the sick,
the women, the widows, the
Gay and the unnamed leaving
Christ speechless in church.

As the words and music conveyed, those in the borderlands live precarious and chaotic lives. Others in the Latinx community fear deportation and hatred or struggle with poverty. What sustains them? What gives them hope in the face of despair?

More than 200 theologians, artists, musicians, scholars and community members grappled with those and other questions at a two-day conference, “The Art of Resilience – Latinx Public Witness in Troubled Times.”  The sold-out event took place Friday and Saturday, September 20-21, at Perkins School of Theology and Meadows School of the Arts on the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU).

This event gave participants the opportunity to interact with outstanding Latinx scholars, local artists, and religious and community leaders to reflect deeply on race, gender and immigration as matters of moral and faith concerns, said Isabel Docampo, Director of The Center for the Study of Latino/a Christianity and Religions at Perkins, which presented the program.   Her welcome included this prayer, “May the God of Hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, in spite of our troubled times, that we are, indeed, alive with the hope that is needed to build a flourishing future together. “

As part of the program, the Meadows School of the Arts hosted an art exhibit and a performance by New York Latina playwright Jessica Carmona of her original work, “Elvira: The Immigration Play.” Headsets were available for Spanish-speaking attendees who needed translation.

Special music performed during the weekend was composed by Ars lubilorum, a Latin-American collective of composers that research the intersection of Christian liturgical traditions and new music.  Marcell Silva Steuernagel, director of Perkins’ Master of Sacred Music program, is a member along with Marcio Steuernagel and Lucas Ferreira Fruhauf.

The two-day event kicked off on Friday, September 20, with the Roy Barton Lecture featuring Dr. Fernando Segovia, Oberlin Graduate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Vanderbilt Divinity School.  Dr. Segovia spoke of the struggle in academia to maintain and support centers such as The Center for the Study of Latino/a Christianity and Religions at Perkins.  Without these centers, he said, “the needs of non-white student populations may go unmet, especially in light of the upsurge of white supremacy and xenophobia and increasingly unjust economic realities.”¹ He spoke of the hope that centers such as the one at Perkins offer.

Day One: September 20

The focus of the first day was on how current events on the U.S. – Mexico border impact women, with a keynote by Dr. Daisy Machado, professor of church history at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

“The unfortunate reality for millions of Latinx people is that we are under siege,” she said. “It began in 2016 when Donald Trump disparaged Mexicans as ‘drug dealers, criminals and rapists,’ and unfortunately has only intensified.”

Dr. Machado also highlighted the concept of “Lived Religion,” which examines the connection of religious beliefs and practices in daily life.

“Lived Religion cannot be neatly separated from the practices of everyday life, from the desires and hopes of people, from the spaces people inhabit, from daily realities and struggles,” Machado said. By paying attention to Lived Religion among suffering people in the Latinx community, she added, the church is better able to help them see clearly the Divine at work in their lives and bring hope.

Machado described devotional practices in the borderlands related to Santa Muerte, a Mexican folk saint condemned by the Roman Catholic Church but venerated by many laypeople. Santa Muerte “gives meaning without judgment, speaking to the concerns of the social outcast, to people in prison, to the poor and dispossessed,” Machado said.

Three panelists reflected on Machado’s keynote. Maria José Recinos, Director of the Oscar Romero Center for Community Health and Education, said that faith is an important resource for her clients, mostly women and children, struggling with trauma, mental illness or unimaginable loss and grief.

“As a psychotherapist, I always ask, ‘What is the strength?’” she said. “Often, it’s the community and the religion. It’s important to respect all of these symbols.”

Mayra Picos-Lee, Senior Lecturer in Counseling at Palmer Theological Seminary, noted that death is a reality that Americans try to avoid at all costs, but in the borderlands, it’s a constant reality for many.  Folk saints like Santa Muerte, who is depicted as a skeleton, help people cope.

“I think of my Mexican roots, and the celebrations of the Day of the Dead, and how we have contemplated death as part of life,” she said.

“This is not a time for hopelessness or despair,” said panelist Maria Pilar Aquino, Professor Emerita of Theology and Religious Studies, University of San Diego. “Another world is possible. People around the world are no longer passive or indifferent. They have moved from survival to resistance.”

Day Two: September 21

The second day’s program focused on racism and the rising nativism in the U.S. as it’s shaping faith, culture, politics and economics.  Dr. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, James B. Duke Professor of Sociology at Duke University, presented the keynote. He described how “racialized emotions” against Latinx and all persons of color affect elections and public dialogue.

“Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Latinx people were not part of the community that would Make America Great Again,” he said.  “Trump validates whites’ fears about the browning of America. He’s redirecting aggression against immigrants, who were falsely accused of being responsible for their economic hardships. But we can’t assume Trump supporters are prodigals beyond redemption.”

Responding to Bonilla-Silva’s address were panel members Bishop Minerva Garza Carcaño of the California-Nevada Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church; George Martinez, Immigration specialist and Professor of Law at SMU; and Neil Foley, historian and the Robert H. and Nancy Dedman Chair in History at SMU.

Trump did not come into power in a vacuum, Carcaño noted. Millions were deported during Obama years, and the treatment of migrant children has been substandard for years. “We have not been able to deal with our institutional racism as a society,” she said.

Foley described how nativism and racism have been part of the United States since its founding. “One of the first laws to pass was the 1790 Naturalization Act,” he said. “That said that the only people who could become American citizens were those who were free and white.”

Martinez sounded an alarm, noting laws like Arizona SB 1070 (the “papers please” immigration law, which also outlawed Mexican American studies there) specifically targeting Latinx people.

“I think some rational legal machinery is being put into place for some potentially very serious matters,” he said. “I want to make a plea for urgency.”

Closing Worship

The event concluded with a worship celebration led by Marcell Steuernagel and Hal Recinos, Professor of Church and Society at Perkins, with Bishop Minerva Carcaño preaching. The service featured Latinx music, including “Tenemos Esperanza” (We have hope) the first worship piece written in the style of tango.

Bishop Carcaño’s message centered on Psalm 23, a passage often read at funerals.

“This Psalm was never about the end of life for we Christians,” she said. “It’s a mighty witness for a good and faithful shepherd. And no one is able to give faithful witness to this more than one who suffers.”

Carcaño shared the story of a woman who was lost in the desert while trying to migrate to the U.S., hungry and dying of thirst. At one point, when she was nearly unconscious, she found a bottle of water nestled in the sand. For this woman, Psalm 23’s promises are real.

“We may become discouraged by the hopelessness because of the present evil that is among us,” Carcaño said. “But God is faithful, and we should not despair.”

——————————————————————————————

Read Hal Recinos’s poem “Rising”

Footnotes: 1. Aldredge-Clanton, J. (2019, September 23). The Art of Resilience: Latinx Public Witness in Troubled Times [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://jannaldredgeclanton.com/blog/?p=8560

Lauren Sandstedt looks back and sees moments when God seemed to be pulling her toward ministry over the past 17 years.

“And that’s a lot, because I’m only 24,” she said. As a child, she’d memorize the communion liturgy – the officiant’s portion – and daydreamed about how she’d look in a minister’s robe.

But ministry wasn’t the path she pursued on as an undergraduate at the University of Missouri.  Sandstedt majored in business and headed to the corporate world, winning a lucrative job at AT&T when she graduated in 2017. That path began to change, however, on a trip to Israel led by a pastor at her church, St. Andrew United Methodist in Plano.

“I can’t explain it, but I felt called to go, even though I didn’t know one person on the trip,” she said. In the Holy Land, a series of experiences convinced her she was encountering God in a clear and obvious way.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, she began to pray, “Not what I want, but what you want, Lord.”

“It was as if God was saying, ‘Now that I’ve got your attention,’” she said. “I realized the brevity of life and I began wondering if all the things I had thought I wanted – the good job, the apartment, the nice car – were worth it.”

Sandstedt returned home determined to pursue a path toward ordination as an elder in the United Methodist Church.

“Before coming home from the trip, I called my boyfriend and said, ‘You have 24 hours to break up with me, because I think I’m being called to ministry,’” she said.

Her boyfriend didn’t break up with her. He wasn’t even surprised. Having watched her growing involvement in church and her passion for God’s word, he had wondered when her calling would become obvious to her. “He is my teammate and best friend in this new life phase,” she said.

To explore her options after returning from the Israel trip, Sandstedt attended an Inside Perkins event last November with Scott Engle, Ph.D., teaching pastor at St. Andrew.

“It became obvious after the first 30 minutes at Perkins,” she said. “I knew this was exactly what God had in store for my life, and this was the place to make it happen.” She had also heard good things about Perkins from Engle and from her senior pastor, the Rev. Dr. Robert Hasley (M. Th. ’77, D. Min. ’78) as well as from associate pastors at her church who are alums, including the Rev.  Allison Jean, the Rev. Jimmy Decker and the Rev. Kim Meyers.

Even though she’d missed the application deadline for the 2019-20 school year, Sandstedt met with Margot Perez-Greene, Associate Dean of Enrollment Management, and was able to obtain an extension.  Things fell into place, and here she is.

It’s just a few weeks into the semester, but Sandstedt feels at home.  She’s enjoying her coursework and joined the Order of Worship Committee led by Dr. Mark Stamm. She’s continuing to work part-time in the corporate world, as a national account manager for Reflect, a software company.

With this busy schedule, Sandstedt makes time for journaling and quiet time each day to keep herself centered. She calls Isaiah 55:8-9 her “daily mantra” – the passage reminds her “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”  She also often turns to 2 Corinthians 5:17: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”

“That’s how I feel,” she said. “The old Lauren is gone. My whole life is totally different than it was a year ago. But thank God.”