Global Conference Day Two

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Dean G. Blevins

IMG_20140324_090425_209Day two of the conference began once again with DSC00861exuberant worship but moments of serious prayer and scripture. It seems amazing how the body of Christ responds to God’s word and our DSC00863words of praise, petition, and intercession regardless of the language.

 

DSC00878Regional Education Coordinator Dr. Ruben Fernandez introduced our second senior scholar tasked with summarizing and synthesizing papers addressing the question “how did we get here?” a historical investigation of the church.
Dr. DSC00890Floyd Cunningham opened by noting the papers, while historical in nature, were also shaped by practical concerns and some came with specific suggestions. Cunningham organized the papers as they discussed not only the past but also the present and a hoped-for future. Cunningham (whose paper alongside the panelists is located on Didache: Faithful Teaching), concluded these observations.

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Posted in Clergy, Culture, Discipleship, Global Theology, Leadership, Pedagogy, Practical Theology, Theological Education, Theology | 1 Comment

Global Theology Opening Day

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Dean G. Blevins

DSC00743We launched into our global theology conference today to the praise of the NTC Muldersdrift student-led worship.

DSC00748The opening devotions included prayers and DSC00746scripture reading from some of the emerging scholars in our midst. The scriptures and prayers were read or prayed extemporaneously in the languages of the IMG_20140324_091829_234participants, signaling both IMG_20140324_092019_359the necessity and promise of a diverse church in harmony with our common commitment to holy love manifested in the grace of God, the person and work of Jesus and the constant presence of the Holy Spirit.

DSC00755The opening session set the stage for the conference. Greetings were given by our co-chairs,  Dan Copp and Carla Sunberg. Dr. Sunberg opened the session by reminding attendees of the challenge of our task, to raise issues of ecclesiology with a global context, understanding that both the study of the DSC00756church (ecclesiology) and the diversity of our global setting were “necessarily interwoven.” She stated that our dealing with the church must involve a variety of voices rather than doing theology merely in light of one or several historically powerful settings. Dr. Sunberg stressed our making room at the table for all voices to be heard, both in expanding the table and relinquishing power (where needed) to insure all voices are heard.

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Posted in Clergy, Culture, Discipleship, Global Theology, Leadership, Practical Theology, Theological Education, Theology, Uncategorized, Wesley | Leave a comment

South Africa and Apartheid

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Dean G. Blevins

PietersDSC00602How does one deal with the failures within one’s own history? Scripture often recounts stories of human unfaithfulness, perhaps as often as it celebrates obedience to God’s faithfulness. What about our own history?

DSC00580As a part of a meeting with the International Course of Study Advisory Committee of the Church of the Nazarene (ICOSAC) the group had the opportunity to visit the Apartheid Museum that recounts the struggles with Apartheid across South Africa.

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Posted in Clergy, Culture, Discipleship, Global Theology, Pedagogy, Practical Theology, Race, Religious Education, Theology, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Global Theology Conference

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Dean G. Blevins

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For the next few days I will be attending an important gathering of global theologians around the theme “Issues in Ecclesiology” I will be busy with the conference but hope to post some observations. To begin you can find the conference papers (Vol. 13:2)  at the website
Didache: Faithful Teaching  http://didache.nazarene.org/

You can also follow the conference on Twitter at #gtciii

Posted in Clergy, Continuing Education, Discipleship, Global Theology, Leadership, Practical Theology, Scholarship, Theological Education, Theology | Leave a comment

The Spirit of Stewardship and the Entrepreneurial Economy

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Dean G. Blevins

IMG_20140104_185513_586Every once in a while you realize that blogging is an imperfect process for academics. Tonight was a great example. Normally, at the end of a conference, the brain is saturated by information overload and you are ready to “coast” to the end. Unfortunately Greg Forster’s final presentation was more like sitting in front of a fire hydrant with a tin cup, trying to find just the right information hang onto.

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Posted in Clergy, Discipleship, Economics, Leadership, Practical Theology, Vocation | Leave a comment

Pastoral Pathways

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Dean G. Blevins

IMG_20140103_170717_372Day two of the Oikonomia Network retreat. Today’s focus revolves around the pastoral pathways that seek to express the emphasis on faith, work, IMG_20140104_082157_106economics. Kern acknowledges that the dissemination of this vision requires a collaboration between seminaries and local congregational ministry so established a model of “pathways” that reflect  different pastoral practices. The organization provides a rationale in their Economic Wisdom Project

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Posted in Clergy, Discipleship, Economics, Leadership, Mission, Practical Theology, Vocation | 1 Comment

Gospel Entrepreneurship

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Dean G. Blevins

IMG_20140103_164812_681This evening’s series of presentations revolved around the theme of entrepreneurship. IMG_20140103_185550_522Greg Forster opened the presentation using Gallup Chairman and CEO Jim Clifton’s argument that the greatest challenge facing the country is job creation.

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Posted in Clergy, Culture, Discipleship, Economics, Leadership, Practical Theology, Vocation | Leave a comment