Seminary Synopsis

Seminary Synopsis QARA: Women in Ministry A second edition of the soldout text Called to Minister, Empowered to Serve is now available in electronic and print versions. The book was originally published in 1989 with Dr. Juanita Evans Leonard (seminary professor emerita of Christian mission) serving as editor. The original book was released during the first National Consultation on Women in Ministry and Mission of the Church of God. It "provided a much-needed encouragement for women and men who are engaged in the difficult task of rethinking mission, redesigning curriculum, and redoing theology and ministry" in the Church of God, which historically "affirmed and upheld the place of women in ministry." Some of the original chapters by authors Dr. Cheryl Sanders, Dr. Sharon Pearson, and Dr. Susie Stanley were updated. There are also chapters by Arnetta Bailey, Cindy Mansfield, and Kathi Sellers. Dr. MaryAnn Hawkins (professor of intercultural Seminary Synopsis | Spring 2013 service) is the general editor for this edition. This is an important text for women, men, pastors, and area administrators. It contains biblical, historical, and ethical foundations for the inclusion of women clergy in the Church of God. In addition to the book, a short curriculum for use in small-group settings (including Sunday School and Wednesday evening studies) is available as a free download from the Anderson University School of Theology: www.anderson. edu/sot/wim/called. A more extensive course related to this book is available through the Center for Christian Leadership (www.anderson.edu/sot/ccl). Seminary Reflects on its Mission… we are empowered to live in love for God as we live in love for others. To begin to understand reconciliation, we must therefore redress some of our misconceptions about what it entails. Especially within North American evangelicalism, we have been tempted to reduce reconciliation essentially to the relationship between God and ourselves. However, such an approach misses the breadth of the Gospel's promise, which is a holistic and therefore holy possibility. Reconciliation is not about a state one achieves but is about the form of life one inhabits. Reconciliation is relational language; it is about learning to live in new ways as those redeemed by God and thereby placed into the new community (the Church) that God's redemptive activity creates. This means, however, that reconciliation must be a lived experience. As Scott McKnight observes, "Theology.…transcends proposition in performance."1 We must Scot McKnight, A Community Called Atonement (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007), 28. 1 Continued from page 1 never permit reconciliation to be reduced solely to an idea that does not necessitate our most faithful obedience. A failure to live into reconciliation denudes the term of all its meaning. It reduces the scope of reconciliation to mere sophistry, an ideal that sounds promising but that can never come to fruition in our fallen environment. Nevertheless, the reality that the Gospel creates makes possible a new form of existence, lives enacted in love for God as we seek to live in love for each other. Jesus the Christ's life (the Gospel) thereby becomes the condition for the possibility of a new existence in and through our incorporation into the life of God's Spirit. Note: Dr. Gregory Robertson, associate professor of Christian theology, believes that theology and reflection are communal acts. While Robertson penned the article as a reflection on our seminary mission statement, he invited the faculty and staff of the seminary to contribute critique and thoughts. This is the final result of that collaboration. 2

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