April 2004
Back Issues

Contents

• Emmanuel alumni serving in ‘megachurches’
• Spring phonathon receives positive response
• Byron Lambert 1923-2004
• Meditation: Empathy 101
• Book Review: A Lover’s Quarrel: My Pilgrimage of Freedom in Churches of Christ
• Clipnotes
• Faculty News
• Emmanuel on the Road
• DMin Quote of the Month

Emmanuel alumni serving in ‘megachurches’

The following Emmanuel alumni were recognized in the March 7 issue of Christian Standard for serving as ministers of “megachurches” for 2003.

• Ben Cachiaras (MDiv ’92), Mountain Christian Church, Joppa, Md.
• L.D. Campbell (’65, ’70), First Church of Christ, Burlington, Ky.
• Cam Huxford (’78-’84), Savannah (Ga.) Christian Church
• Greg Johnson (MAR ’78), First Christian Church, Tarpon Springs, Fla.
• Steve Moore (’88-’01), Cherry Lane Christian Church, Meridian, Idaho
• Clark H. Tanner (MRE ’75), Beaverton (Ore.) Christian Church
• Tim Wallingford (D.Min. Candidate ’04), First Christian Church, Johnson City, Tenn.
• Charles D. Wingfield (MDiv ’71), First Christian Church, Florissant, Mo.
• Shane Womack (MAR ’83), Knott Avenue Christian Church, Anaheim, Calif.

Spring phonathon receives positive response

Emmanuel’s annual Spring Phonathon is now complete, and contributions to meet the deficit in the general fund have been very generous thus far. Students from Emmanuel called over 2,400 supporters in the Eastern and Central time zones during the five-day Phonathon in early March. A total of $40,060 was pledged with a 40% overall positive response rate.

We are continually amazed and grateful for the way God works through His people to accomplish great things for the Kingdom. If you would like to participate in this effort to complete our fiscal year in the black, please send your gifts to the seminary before May 31 and earmark them for the general fund.

Byron Lambert 1923-2004

We are saddened to announce the death of Dr. Byron Lambert on March 16, 2004, in Hagerstown, Ind. Dr. Lambert served on Emmanuel’s Associates in Christian Education and was a noted scholar, teacher, preacher, lecturer, and writer. In May 1998 he was awarded the James A. Garfield Award, the highest citation bestowed by Emmanuel School of Religion. Dr. Lambert leaves behind his wife, Phyllis, their daughter Sharon and her husband, and three grandchildren.

Meditation:
Empathy 101

Objectives: When the student has completed the course, s/he will be able to:

1. Share the family grief of a newborn’s death
2. Eat small pieces of stale bread with the man whose job has evaporated
3. Weep with the mother whose child died for lack of a measles vaccine
4. Help the anxious father search for his runaway daughter
5. Feel comprehensively the role of suffering in modern life
6. Apply comfort in emotionally and spiritually appropriate doses

Do you wish that you had taken this course in empathy? Grief is best answered not by intellectual response, but relationally and emotionally. If we try to answer, “Why does God allow bad things?” theologically instead of seeing the pain behind the question, we may lose an opportunity to meet a heart need. Grief is cross-cultural, personal, individual, and yet universal. Grief requires a caring response at an emotional heart level.

Some of us who are full-time Christian servants occasionally put our toenails so far into our mouths that they are digesting. One of my most memorable funeral sermons was hearing a preacher exposit Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s theory of grief progression to comfort the grieving family whose little girl had just died! Without a grain of compassion in voice or attitude, we sat stunned as he read from the text.

Come take this class with me. It’s offered at the cardiac unit in the university of life. Enrollment is automatic each sunrise. Our Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14) remains my personal life-example for incarnated empathy.

He walked where I walked
He stood where I stand
He felt what I feel
He understands
He knows my frailty
Shared my humanity
Tempted in every way
Yet without sin

God with us
So close to us
God with us
Emmanuel

One of a hated race
Stung by the prejudice
Suffering injustice
Yet He forgives
Wept for my wasted years
Paid for my wickedness
He died in my place
That I might live

God with us
So close to us
God with us
Emmanuel

Copyright 1993 Don Moen

Book Review:
A Lover’s Quarrel: My Pilgrimage of Freedom in Churches of Christ

By Leroy Garrett
Abilene, Texas: ACU Press, 2003, 284 pp.

For over 50 years Dr. Leroy Garrett has lived and ministered in the non-instrumental Churches of Christ. No other figure in this stream of the Stone/Campbell Movement has experienced such polarized responses to his message. Branded by some as heretic and divisive, Dr. Garrett has also been recognized by our leading universities as a leader and promoter of unity. Perhaps the title for this autobiography depicts it best, his life has truly been a “Lover’s Quarrel.” In Dr. Garrett’s own word to the reader, “Once you realize the extent of my quarrel, you may wonder why I didn’t just leave the Churches of Christ. As I have said for fifty years, and I say once more: I will never leave the Churches of Christ, never, no matter what, for I love my people too much to leave them. Even if they kick me out, I’ll stay around!” (p. xii).

This autobiography recounts the stories of Garrett’s depression-era childhood, his first love and broken heart, the early years of preparing for ministry, and his own theological and academic preparation at places like Princeton and Harvard. We learn of his journey as a prophet in the Churches of Christ (including a night in jail), his influence through the various publications of his ministry, of his partnership with Carl Ketcherside, of his adventures as a world traveler, and of the life that he and his dear wife Ouida have shared. We are introduced to a man who began his career as an educator, implementing groundbreaking approaches to teaching philosophy to high school students, of his role as a philosophy professor at Texas Woman’s University, and of the final position of his career, in his “Sunset Years,” as a bus driver for “kids who thought it cool that they had a Ph.D. for a bus driver” (p. 243).

But, as “a lover’s quarrel” this book is much more than just autobiography; it also describes the fears, crises, and changes of a movement that has battled with its very identity during the lifetime of this author. Although deeply personal, and rooted in his experience, these stories demonstrate how the voice and very presence of Leroy Garrett in the Churches of Christ symbolize their own struggles toward non-sectarianism, unity in diversity, and trust in the grace of a gracious God.

Thank you, Leroy, for a life well lived, for giving us your story, and for the courage to quarrel with a movement you love.

You may purchase a copy of this book in the Emmanuel Bookstore. Contact 423-461-1545 or email bookstore@esr.edu.

Clipnotes

STEVE BIXLER (MAR ’91) and his wife, Debbie, have joined a team of families with OC International to minister to the people of Central Java, Indonesia, beginning August 2004.

LT BRETT CARTWRIGHT (MDiv ’98) serves as a U.S. Navy Chaplain and has had a permanent change of station to Guam.

CLAUDIO DIVINO (MDiv ’97) became a naturalized American citizen on January 28, 2004. Claudio came to the United States from Brazil 11 years ago. He currently serves as inter-cultural professor at Crossroads College in Rochester, Minn., where he and his wife, Alzira, reside.

JOHN EMMERT (MDiv ’03) and his wife, Brooke, announce the arrival of their first child, John Chesney Emmert II, “Jack,” on March 2. John serves as the Connections Minister in charge of shepherding at First Christian Church in Johnson City, Tenn.

RICK GROVER (MDiv ’93, DMin ’98) wrote an article for the February 29 issue of Christian Standard titled, “Where Do We Look First?” Rick serves as the Vision and Teaching Minister at Journey Christian Church in Metairie, La., where he lives with his wife, Laura, and family.

KENDI HOWELLS DOUGLAS (MDiv ’96) successfully defended her dissertation March 19 and will receive the Doctor of Missiology degree from Asbury Theological Seminary in May. Kendi is professor of cross-cultural ministries at Great Lakes Christian College in Lansing, Mich.

CAL HULTGREN (MDiv ’01) and his wife, Heather, welcomed their second daughter, Sierra Kimberley, on February 23. She joins big sister, Skye. Cal serves as Youth and Family Minister at Bow Valley Christian Church in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

RODNEY MARSHALL (MDiv ’85) now serves as Minister at the White Mountain Christian Church in Show Low, Ariz.

JOHN WASEM (MDiv ’87) was featured in an article, “The Ministry of John Wasem,” written by Greg Lee in the April 4 issue of Christian Standard. John ministers with Suncrest Christian Church in St. John, Ind.

JIM VAN WINKLE (MAR ’94) and his wife, Cindi, have relocated from Florida to Middletown, Ohio, where Jim is supply preaching at the Franklin (Ohio) Christian Church.

Faculty News

	ELEANOR A. DANIEL will attend a meeting of the ATS Committee on the Character and Assessment of Learning for Religious Vocation in Pittsburgh, Pa., on April 16. Dr. Daniel will return to Austria on May 24 to continue her work with TCMI Institute.
	ROBERT F. HULL JR. was an overnight host and van driver for Interfaith Hospitality Network guests at Grandview Christian Church, Johnson City, Tenn., during the week of March 14-21. He attended the Annual Stone-Campbell Journal Conference at Cincinnati Bible Seminary March 26-27. He will preach for morning worship and teach an adult Bible School class for Westwood Hills Christian Church in Los Angeles, Calif., on May 2. Dr. Hull will be a panelist in a discussion of the question “Are Churches of Christ and Christian Churches Evangelical?” at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures in Malibu, Calif., May 6-7 and will be the speaker for the Restoration Quarterly luncheon at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures May 7. He will make four presentations on “Women in Ministry: Going to Church in the Steps of Paul,” at Christian Heritage Conference, May 29-31, at Wi-Ne-Ma on the Oregon coast. Dr. Hull published a chapter, “Using the New Testament for Ethical Guidance,” in Christian Ethics: The Issues of Life and Death, ed. Larry Chouinard, David Fiensy, and George Pickens (Parma Press, 2003): 102-121. This is a project of College Press.
	THOMAS F. JONES JR. attended the National New Church Conference in St. John, Ind., on April 1, where Church Planting from the Ground Up (edited by Dr. Jones) was released. At the conference, he was honored with the prestigious Donald A. McGavran Award in recognition of “his superb, continuous leadership and performance in the field of new church planting as a practitioner, professor, equipper, assessor and author.” Jones will coach a new church in Bluffton, S.C. (Hilton Head area), May 15-16; and will host a Church Planting Assessment Center at Emmanuel School of Religion May 23-27.
	BRUCE E. SHIELDS will preside at the Annual Meeting of the European Evangelistic Society Board in Miami, Fla., April 25-27. Dr. Shields continues his work as a volunteer chaplain at the Johnson City Medical Center.
	THOMAS E. STOKES will attend the ADME (Association for Doctor of Ministry Education) annual meeting April 23-24 in San Antonio, Texas.
	C. ROBERT WETZEL wrote a series of four communion meditations for Christian Standard published on March 7, 14, 21, and 28.

Emmanuel on the Road