Rev. Emily Nelms Chastain,
Instructor | History of Christianity
Emily Nelms Chastain jokes that she began her academic career began as a “professional Methodist.” Her passion for church history was sparked while she was working in the North Alabama Conference office of the United Methodist Church and teaching Methodist history and polity to youth, young adults, and college students to prepare them for Annual Conference.
“I had been a history major in college, and it just kind of melded together into this world that I didn’t realize existed, studying the history of Christianity,” she said. That led her to enter seminary in 2016, earning an M. Div. and an M.A. in Religion at Claremont School of Theology. She was commissioned in 2019 and ordained as a deacon in 2021 in the North Alabama conference. Now she’s teaching History of Christianity at Perkins while completing her Ph.D. at Boston University.
Her teaching specialties include American religious history, American Methodism, world Christianity, women’s religious history, feminist methodology and theology, feminism and women in religion, women’s ordination, and women and Methodism. In her dissertation, Rev. Nelms Chastain is examining the leadership pipeline from the International Association of Women Preachers that successfully mobilized women to work for women’s ordination in American Methodism.
Recently, she published an article in Wesley and Methodist Studies titled “Break[ing] the System: How the Methodist Student Movement Motivated a Generation into Challenging Their Denominational Polity of Segregation.”
In addition to history, Nelms Chastain discovered that she loves teaching students as they find and follow their paths to ministry.
“Some discover that Methodism isn’t the place for them, but for those who do identify and embrace Methodism, learning about the history empowers them,” she said. “It makes them even more excited about ministry. Getting to see students really understand their call and to enjoy the journey is a blast for me.”
Recently, she visited a former student she taught as as instructor at Perkins, who is now serving in the Metroplex.
“She’s done all these new programs, and she’s gotten promoted to be full-time,” Nelms Chastain said. “As a teacher, I get to meet seminary students when they come in, and then to see them launched into the world to begin really doing great things. Teaching puts me in a spot where God is moving. It’s so cool to be able to just experience this whole moment.”
Advice for Theological Students:
Hold onto your call. Theological studies will completely deconstruct a whole lot of stuff that you thought you knew, including who you are. But it’s also an opportunity to reconstruct. My advice is, hold onto that call, but build the community to help reconstruct that call because you can’t do it by yourself. That’s one of the things I love about the United Methodist Church. We believe in community discernment. So don’t do that work alone. It is never meant to be done alone.
Favorite Bible verse?
Ephesians 2:10. I grew up learning it when I was a kid in Bible Drill in a different denomination. I learned it in the King James Version; the verse has more of a pre-destination slant in that version. About a decade ago, I re-read it in the Common English Bible, where it says, “We are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.” I love that idea, that we are God’s accomplishment, especially as a United Methodist who believes in sanctification. Not only is God proud of us, God is still working on us too. Sanctification is my favorite reason why I’m a United Methodist.
Guests at her Fantasy Dinner Party:
I usually have way too many people for my fantasy dinner party. I’d want to invite all the women preachers who became preachers when there was no rule on whether or not they could actually preach, but they just did it anyway. I’d ask them why they were so motivated to preach when it was so unpopular. I would especially like to invite the four women I’m profiling in my dissertation: Madeline Southard, Georgia Harkness, Jeanne Audrey Powers, and Marjorie Matthews. These four women represent generational leaders among Methodist women who were fighting for women to have full clergy rights in the church.
Do you follow any spiritual practices?
I love communal, traditional worship. I love than saying creeds and singing together. There’s something very pure and very sacred in that communal moment. When I’m able to attend community worship on Thursdays at Perkins Chapel, I really cherish those moments together.
Favorite quote or mantra:
I don’t have a single favorite quote, but I do quote a lot of lyrics from ’90s music and lines from ’90s Saturday Night Live at random moments. “Lay off me, I’m starving!” is a favorite line from Chris Farley, my favorite SNL cast member of all time.
Tell us about your family:
I’ve been married to my husband, Ted Chastain, almost 13 years. We met in Bible Drill when we were kids, but we didn’t date until our thirties. (Actually, he was in his late 20s. He’s two years younger than me!) We have three cats: Rizzo, a gray and white ragdoll, and two kittens, Fitz and Kudzu, both adoptees from Eastlake Pet Orphanage. They keep us on our toes!
Anything else you’d like us to know about you?
I am an Alabamian, a Southerner, born in Alabama. My husband and I are rabid fans of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Blazers. I believe Alabama barbecue is the best barbecue. Alabama barbecue focuses primarily on pork and poultry, served with Alabama white sauce, which is made with mayonnaise, horseradish, vinegar, paprika, some smoky spices, and red pepper. I love ribbing folks in Texas about barbecue just because they get irrationally angry about it. But Alabama’s barbecue is the best. I will argue that all day long.