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Professor of Methodist Studies and Mission

Phone: 913-253-5011
Email:
Digitized Publications:
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Curriculum Vitae

Education

Boston University, Boston, MA. 2000-05. Doctor of Theology
Major: Mission Studies, Minor: Church History
Languages: German
Dissertation: “Holiness Evangelical Urban Mission and Identity in Boston, 1860-1910” Dana L. Robert, Director

• Awarded the 2007 Jesse Lee Prize, given once every four years, General Commission on Archives and History, United Methodist Church
• Awarded the 2007 “Outstanding Dissertation” award, Wesleyan Theological Society

Boston University, Boston, MA. 1997-99. Master of Divinity, Cum Laude Concentrations: Church History, Urban Ministry

Discipline or Specialty

Methodist Studies, Mission Studies, History of World Christianity, Diaconal Studies

Disciplinary/Research Interests

I am a historian with a love for the work of discovery in archives and oral histories. Every place I've lived (Saint Paul is the fifth university or seminary where I have worked) I have found my way to doing some sort of local history project. I am also a biographer of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate from 1946. His name is John R. Mott (1865-1955). He was a leader in the early 20th century missionary movement and and someone who, perhaps for the first time, was trying to organize a world Christian movement on all six continents. Titles for possible research projects:

• Ecumenism Reimagined: Forgotten stories in World Christianity
• Missouri Methodism: Did that really happen here?
• Midwest Methodism: Critical Themes and Puzzling People
• Rethinking Evangelism for... (Last year I had several students in my evangelism class from the Tamil Nadu state in southern India. They belonged to the Dalit people. We read a book about Dalit Pentecostalism in their home city of Chennai. That book and the students' push back on some of my ideas prompted me to reconsider some ideas I hold. Another student created a very different evangelistic tract that did something similar for a North American secular context. I find efforts to rethink evangelism to be fascinating - even when I disagree with them!

What do you hope your students come away with when they leave your classroom?

The greatest compliment I receive from students is when they tell me what they hope to explore after my class is completed. I want students to leave my class being convinced and enthusiastic explorers.

What is your teaching style?

I taught in an honors program for three years where we mostly sat around a table for six hours each week and discussed "great books" from the medieval period and the 20th century (two different courses). I lectured very little. That experience has increased the extent to which I value discussion in the classroom. That said, I am also not shy about lecturing - especially when I can lecture in a way that is personally integrative - for myself and students. Teaching about the Methodist movement allows for that rather easily since I am both a historian of the movement and a committed United Methodist deacon. I also love co-teaching with others. In my career I have probably co-taught with pastors or other faculty members a couple dozen times. They all were not fantastic experiences. Sometimes the styles of teaching with whomever I was teaching with were too different for both of us to do the co-teaching work effectively. But I have always learned a great deal from these experiences.

Recent Publications

Books / Edited Volumes

John R. Mott and the Collaborative Crafting of a World Christian Movement. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, under contract, forthcoming in 2028.

Co-editor with Robert Danielson. Transforming Teaching for Mission: Educational Theory and Practice: The 2014 Proceedings of the ‘Association of Professors of Mission. Wilmore, KY: First Fruits, 2015.

Published Articles / Book Chapters

��“Missiological Engagement with Anthropology between the World Wars (proposed title),” Missiology: An International Review, peer reviewed and accepted for publication in 2027.

“John R. Mott at War and the Consequences for Internationalism” in The Young Ecumenical Movement under Pressure: Christian Internationalism in War and Post-War Times, c. 1890-1930, ed Judith Becker and Felicity Jenz. Frankfurt and New York: Campus Verlag, forthcoming in 2026.

“Pragmatic Christian Internationalist: John R. Mott’s Negotiation of Nationalisms and Racism, 1895-1925,” in The Young Ecumenical Movement: Explorations in Christian Internationalism, 1895-1920s, ed. Dana L. Robert and Judith Becker. Leiden: Brill, 2025.

“John R. Mott Amidst the Students: Historical and Missiological Gleanings for Today,” Missiology: An International Review 53(1), (2025): 1-15.

“The Problem and Promise of the Diaconate,” Chapter in Diaconal Studies: Lived Theology for the Church in North America, edited by Darryl Stephens and Craig Nessan. Oxford, UK: Regnum Books International, 2024.