By Rev. Dr. Heather H. Lear, V.P. for Grants
“The E. Stanley Jones Professors of Evangelism are on the cutting edge, addressing the realities and answering questions most church leaders are just now beginning to ask.”
Over my weeklong experience August 4-11 at the 15th Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies at Keble College, I regularly heard academic and denominational leaders from across the global Wesleyan family express a similar sentiment. Every four to six years, lay and clergy scholars gather in the town where Methodism began to listen, learn, and address current issues in the academy, church, and wider world. The theme of this 15th Institute was, “The World is My Parish: Glad Tidings of Salvation in an Age of Crisis.” The Institute’s program includes plenary sessions, worship, and subject-specific working groups.
The Foundation for Evangelism’s presence was profound in the Mission and Evangelism working group, as Dr. Stephen Gunter and I, along with four current E. Stanley Jones Professors (Prof. Achim Haertner from Reutlingen Theological Seminary, Dr. Daniel Shin from Drew Theological School, Dr. Bryan Stone from Boston University School of Theology, and Dr. Mark Teasdale from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary) up almost 30 percent of the group’s composition and papers presented. Sergei Nikolaev, President and E. Stanley Jones Professor at Moscow Theological Seminary, as well as three former E. Stanley Jones Professors (ESJP) were also members of the Institute, contributing to other working groups. All of us with ties to The Foundation for Evangelism found time to check in and fellowship during the week, and I was grateful and humbled to hear how important each professor’s connection to and the support from The Foundation for Evangelism is to their teaching and ministry, both personally and professionally.
The ESJP program is one of The Foundation for Evangelism’s great legacies and continued sources of transformation, both in the academy and local church. These leaders are shaping students in classrooms and the cultures in their seminaries. They are conducting research and writing the resources that scholars and denominational leaders use across the Wesleyan family to help local churches invite and form disciples of Jesus Christ.
As the entire institute worshipped on Wednesday night in the same chapel at Christ Church where John and Charles Wesley were ordained, I gave thanks to God for the privilege of being part of an organization that, for 75 years, has equipped and empowered Wesleyan-tradition Christians to fulfill the brothers’ mission of spreading scriptural holiness across the land, meeting people where they are, inviting all to come and see what it means to follow Jesus, and daily sharing and living out their faith through loving God and their neighbor in authentic, tangible ways. At The Foundation for Evangelism, we’ve identified our first two values to be Evangelistic and Wesleyan, and those who sit in an E. Stanley Jones Chair continue to remind and educate the church how these values are practiced and embodied.
