Ministers Week Archive

Reconsidering Healings in the Hebrew Bible

Lecture 1: Non-Healings in the Hebrew Bible and Lecture 2: Texts of Terror Revisited


Jeremy Schipper
Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, Temple University
Jeremy Schipper is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Temple’s faculty, he earned his Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary and taught for two years at Siena College near Albany, New York. His research focuses on the portrayal of disability in the Hebrew Bible and related ancient Near Eastern texts. In addition to a number of essays and journal articles, his books include Disability and Isaiah’s Suffering Servant (Oxford UP, 2011); Disability Studies and Biblical Literature (co-edited in Candida R. Moss; Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), Parables and Conflict in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge UP, 2009); This Abled Body: Rethinking Disabilities in Biblical Studies (co-edited with Hector Avalos and Sarah J. Melcher; Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), and Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible (T & T Clark, 2006). Currently, he is working on a commentary on the book of Ruth for the Anchor Bible series.

Disability and Wholeness: New Images

Lecture One: Behold, It Was Very Good: Disability and Creation
Lecture Two: The Word Became Flesh: Imagining God with Disability


Deborah Creamer
Interim Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Iliff School of Theology
Deborah Creamer, Ph.D., is Interim Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, CO, where she also serves as Associate Professor and Director of Library and Information Services. In addition to teaching courses on disability and religion, her interests include practical theology, feminist theory, leadership development, and pedagogy. She is a founding member and past chair of the Religion and Disability Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion, and is a frequent speaker on issues of disability and religion at both local and national levels. In addition to numerous articles and book chapters, she is the author of Disability and Christian Theology: Embodied Limits and Constructive Possibilities (Oxford University Press, 2009), a work that encourages us to think in new ways about categories like ability and disability, and co-editor (with Eunjoo Kim) of Women, Church, and Leadership: New Paradigms, Essays in Honor of Jean Miller Schmidt (Pickwick, 2012). She is currently working on a manuscript with the working title of Theology and Disability: Intersections in Meaning, which will explore the emergence, key issues, and future directions for disability theology.

Organ Recital and Hymn Sing

Dr. Lawrence P. Schreiber will be the organist leading the Wednesday evening event. He will select several exciting hymns to be sung by the congregation interspersed with solo organ pieces selected to delight and inspire. The pieces include Cesar Franck’s monumental “Choral in A Minor,” and unusual selections by Leo Sowerby, Gordon Young, Richard Ellsasser, and Mendelssohn. Schreiber’s finale will be his own composition, a concert piece entitled “Fantasy on Five Spirituals.” Dr. Marilyn Mason commissioned the piece and gave the composer these instructions: “use familiar tunes and be sure to include a lot footwork on the pedals!”


Lawrence P. Schreiber

LAWRENCE P. (Lon) SCHREIBER has been active as an organist-choirmaster, composer, recitalist, accompanist, and teacher since he became Minister of Music at The National City Christian Church in Washington, D. C. in 1960. His undergraduate degree was earned at TCU under the guidance of Dr. Emmet G. Smith, and his Master of Sacred Music was earned at The School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary, New York City.  His chief professors were Dr. Robert Baker, and Searle Wright.  In 1981 TCU Honored Schreiber with a Doctorate of Music.<br><br>During his 40-year tenure at National City Christian Church, Dr. Schreiber developed a choir which was known for its outstanding repertoire each Sunday, as well as large-scale choral works with orchestra.  He supervised the design and installation of a monumental Moller organ (7592 pipes controlled by Washington’s first five-manual console), and hosted concert organists from around the world in weekly recitals. <br><br>In 1973, Schreiber’s choir and the legendary soprano Leontyne Price provided music for the State Funeral of President Lyndon B. Johnson, held at the National City Christian Church, and televised by NBC. <br><br>Dr. Schreiber announced his forthcoming retirement early in 2000 but upon his return from international travels he was soon persuaded to serve as “interim” organist-choirmaster at the historic First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C.  Thirteen years later, he is still heavily involved in music ministry with First Baptist Church.  He has been their chief consultant in the design and purchase of an Austin Organ (Hartford, Connecticut) (7000 pipes with a five-manual console) scheduled for completion by Easter, 2013.

The Disabling of the Gospel

Theme: The Disabling of the Gospel

1. Problematizing the Role of God in Disability (2 Kings 5: 1-27)
2. The WE in ME (Mark 2:1-7)
3. The Enduring Disability of the Christ (John 20:19-29)


Anthony Bailey
Senior Minister, Parkdale United Church, Ottawa
Dr. Bailey is the Senior Pastor of Parkdale United Church in Ottawa, Canada. Originally from Barbados he has lived and served in various parts of Canada, as well as in Kenya and Jamaica. He has degrees in social work, theology, philosophy of religion (liturgical language), and Christian ethics (culture).

Anthony has taught at the McGill University joint Theological Colleges (Montreal, Canada), and the Theological College of the University of the West Indies (Kingston, Jamaica). He currently teaches part-time at the Ottawa School of Theology and Spirituality and has been a guest lecturer at Queen's University School of Religion.

Dr. Bailey is a sought after preacher, speaker and worship leader at North American and Caribbean churches and conferences. For the past ten years he has been involved in the leadership of the annual Festival of Homiletics, varyingly as preacher, emcee and liturgist.

His missional service in Kenya and Jamaica has contributed greatly to his passion for prayer, preaching, justice and global rhythms. His other areas of contribution include: intercultural competence training, social justice animation, stewardship, and anti-racism training (ie. racial justice and reconciliation). He chaired his denomination's Racial Justice Advisory Committee for six years. He is very pleased to have been invited to offer the Wells Sermons.

Recovering This World's Paradise After War

Lecture One: Paradise and Wisdom
Lecture Two: Soul Repair

For a thousand years or more, Christians interpreted Genesis 2 as describing the human home on earth and baptism as the portal to paradise. Dr. Brock will discuss this ancient Christian understanding of collective salvation, especially as it addressed the shedding of human blood through the ancient system of penance as rehabilitation from violence. Brock will focus, especially, on the love of beauty and on moral responsibility as crucial dimensions of the restoration of moral identity.

In examining the contemporary implications of this life-affirming faith, focused on restorative justice, Dr. Brock will discuss the new Soul Repair Center's mission of supporting recovery from moral injury in combat veterans and the crucial role that congregations and religious leaders can play in supporting veteran recovery and in increasing public understanding about the moral cost of war for society.


Rita Brock
Co-Director of Soul Repair, Brite Divinity School
Rita Nakashima Brock, PhD, the first Asian American woman to earn a doctorate in theology, held the Endowed Chair in the Humanities at Hamline University from 1990-1997. In 1997 she became the Director of the Fellowship Program at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and from 2001-2002, she was a Fellow at the Center for Values in Public Life at the Harvard Divinity School. In 2004, she co-founded Faith Voices for the Common Good, which works on the public role of progressive religion.

Dr. Brock's current work on moral injury at Brite's Soul Repair Center began with the Truth Commission on Conscience in War and reflects her commitment to religion's role in social transformation. She is the founding Co-Director of the Center.

Dr. Brock's first book, Journeys by Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power, won the Crossroads-Continuum Press award in 1988 for the most outstanding manuscript in women's studies. In 1996, the Catholic Press Association gave its gender studies award to Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States. Her second co-authored book with Rebecca Ann Parker, Saving Paradise, was selected by Publishers' Weekly as one of the best books of 2008. Her book with Gabriella Lettini, Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury After War, was released in 2012.

Ministers Week 2013

On behalf of the students, faculty and staff of Brite and TCU, we invite you to campus for three days of inspiring worship, thought-provoking lectures, enriching workshops and a world-class organ recital. As in years past, we will be graciously hosted by University Christian Church.

Salvation and physical wholeness appear to be linked in much of scripture and the church's tradition. This year's conference explores some of the pastoral challenges encountered in relating salvation and healing. How do we address hidden wounds? What does salvation or healing mean for the chronically ill or those who view their impairments as part of who they are and not something to be healed? Rita Brock examines moral injury, a hidden wound experienced by some combat veterans. Deborah Creamer considers how Christians have talked about disability and asks what it would mean for our liturgy, teaching, and preaching if we reconsidered what is meant by normative and flip it around so that we start from our own experiences of disability instead of it being an exception. Jeremy Schipper examines healing stories from Hebrew scripture in light of disability studies. Anthony Bailey brings his background in parish ministry, community transformation, and pastoral counseling to the Wells Sermons.

As this event is a gift from Brite and TCU, there is no general registration fee; however, pre-registration is encouraged, as we anticipate a large attendance. We look forward to seeing you at Ministers Week 2013!

The Bible: Bane and Blessings

Part 1. What Hath Huldah Wrought? And Part 2. Glimpses of God


Phyllis Trible
University Professor, Wake Forest University Divinity School
Phyllis Trible is an internationally known biblical scholar and rhetorical critic. A past president of the Society of Biblical Literature, she began her collegiate teaching career at Wake Forest University in 1963. After leaving in 1971, she taught at Andover Newton Theological School in Massachusetts until she went to Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1979 as a professor of Old Testament. From 1981 until her appointment to the Wake Forest University School of Divinity in 1998, she was the Baldwin Professor of Sacred Literature at Union Theological Seminary. Dr. Trible, a leader in the text-based exploration of women and gender in scripture, lectures extensively in the United States and abroad. She is the author of the books God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality; Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narrative; Rhetorical Criticism: Context, Method, and the Book of Jonah; and with Letty M. Russell, Hagar, Sarah, and Their Children. She has written numerous articles and book reviews for magazines and scholarly journals and has provided expert commentary for Bill Moyers’ public television series, Genesis: A Living Conversation. She earned a PhD from Union Theological Seminary (Columbia) and has been awarded a DD from Franklin College, Lehigh University, Wake Forest, and a DHL from Meridith College

Pastoral Spirituality in A Global Context

Part 1. Religious Pluralism As An Invitation To Spiritual Stature – The growing pluralism of our time invites pastors and other spiritual leaders to explore new pathways of spiritual formation, proclamation, and pastoral care. This lecture will focus on the relationship between our theological visions and spiritual practices as we dialogue with North America’s growing spiritual diversity. Holistic in approach, this lecture will involve theological reflection, spiritual practices, and practical suggestions for pastoral and congregational responses to pluralism. Part 2. Ministry With The “Spiritual But Not Religious” – A growing number of persons identify themselves as “spiritual but not religious (SBNR).” While some consider the SBNR movement as superficial and others see it as a threat to institutional religion, this lecture will focus on the SBNR identification as a reflection of cultural and religious factors such as postmodernism, pluralism, and boomer spirituality. From this perspective, spiritual leaders and congregations are challenged to update their spiritual practices and theologies to respond creatively to the changing spiritual currents of our time. Building on the first lecture, this lecture will be holistic in approach in its integration of theological reflection, spiritual practices, and practical suggestions for pastoral and congregational responses to the various streams of pluralism, postmodernism, and “spiritual but not religious” phenomena.


Bruce Epperly
Theologian, Pastor, Author, and Leader in Faith Formation
Theologian, pastor, author, and leader in lay and pastoral faith formation, Bruce Epperly served as Director of Continuing Education and Professor of Practical Theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary from 2003-2010. Prior to this, he served as Director of the Protestant Ministry and Adjunct Professor in Theology, Spirituality, and Medicine at Georgetown University and Medical School (1982-1999), and Acting Associate Dean, Co-Director of On-line Programs, and Adjunct Professor in Theology, Spirituality, and Pastoral Care at Wesley Theological Seminary (2000-2003). He has served most recently as pastor of Disciples United Community Church in Lancaster, PA (DOC/UCC) from 2004-2010. Ordained in the Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ, Dr. Epperly has written twenty-two books in the areas of theology, spirituality, ministerial excellence, spiritual formation, and healing and wholeness, including Holy Adventure: Forty One Days of Audacious Living and God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness and the Healing Miracles of Jesus. He was written with Kate Epperly a trilogy on ministerial excellence and spirituality: Feed the Fire: Avoiding Clergy Burnout; Four Seasons of Ministry: Gathering a Harvest of Righteousness; and Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry, selected as 2009 Book of the Year by the Academy of Parish Clergy. His most recent books are Starting with Spirit: Nurturing Your Call to Pastoral Ministry, Philippians: An Interactive Study; Process Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed; and The Center is Everywhere: Celtic Spirituality for a Postmodern Age. He has appeared on “Nightline,” “ABC World News Tonight,” and “PBS News Hour.”
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Wednesday Afternoon Workshops

Workshop I - Prophetic Hospitality, Bruce Epperly, Theologian, pastor, and author.

Workshop II - Virtual Faith, Sage Elwell, Assistant Professor of Religion, Art, and Visual Culture, Texas Christian University.

Workshop III - Christian Faith and Zen Practice: A Primer on Silent Sitting, Valerie Forstman, Director of Admissions, Brite Divinity School, and Zen Teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan Tradition.

Workshop IV - An Experience with the Courage to Lead for Clergy Leaders, Cynthia Johnson, L.M.S.W.-A.P., Founder and Lead Facilitator for Courage & Renewal - North Texas.

Workshop V - Missional Transformation, Steve Knight, Leadership Development Consultant for Hope Partnership for Missional Transformation and Community Architect for TransFORM Network.





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What do We love When We Love Our Neighbor?: Cosmopolitan Theology of Neighbor-Love

Augustine shifts the question from “Do I love God?” to “What do I love when I love my God?” The name of God is the name of everything we love and desire. Therefore, the authentic question for Augustine is not “whether” we love God but “what” we love when we love our God. Jesus’ teaching reveals us that we cannot separate our love for God from our love for neighbor/enemy/self. Jesus’ radical commandment to love one’s neighbor-and-enemy-as-oneself is a radical call for dissolving the seemingly rigid boundaries between the triad of “I-neighbor-enemy”—the boundaries that appear to be impossible to transgress, to dissolve. The ideal of cosmopolitanism is to enlarge the circle of inclusion and to expand the scope of justice, which is implicit in various biblical texts. The biblical texts with cosmopolitan ideals can be a foundational teaching for a religious practice to transform the view of the other and to ever-enlarge the circle of inclusion—an important act of neighbor-love. In the lecture, I will deal with the ideal of cosmopolitanism and its theological implication in relation to the issue of hospitality as a way of practicing neighbor-love.


Namsoon Kang
Professor of World Christianity and Religions, Brite Divinity School
Namsoon Kang is Professor of World Christianity and Religions at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University. Before she joined Brite in 2006, she taught at Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, UK, and Methodist Theological University, Korea. She has been actively involved in various international ecumenical organizations and movements, and was a plenary speaker at the WCC 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2006. She has given lectures and speeches in Hong Kong, Thailand, Jamaica, India, Korea, Japan, Philippine, Indonesia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, South Africa, Brazil, Canada, and the US. She studied in Korea, Germany, and the USA with her Ph.D. from Drew University and is currently the president of WOCATI (World Conference of Associations of Theological Institutions). Writing in both Korean and English, her most recent publications include Handbook of Theological Education in World Christianity (Co-edited), “Constructing Postcolonial Mission in World Christianity,” “Out of Places: Asian Feminist Theology of Dislocation,” and “Towards a Cosmopolitan Theology: Constructing Public Theology from the Future.”
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Organ Recital and Hymn Sing

Patrick Scott
Organist, University Christian Church, Austin, Texas
A native of Picayune, Mississippi, Mr. Patrick A. Scott holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance from Birmingham-Southern College where he studied with James Cook, a Masters of Music degree in Organ Performance and Sacred Music from the University of Texas, Austin, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree, also from the University of Texas where he studies with Gerre and Judith Hancock. His other major teachers have included Betty Polk and Kathy Vail. While at Birmingham-Southern he was the Annie B. Ellis Organ Scholar and won several honors including the Minnie McNeil Carr Scholarship and the Myrtle Jones Steele Scholarship Competitions and the Birmingham Chapter of the AGO Regional Competition for Young Organists. In 2008, he was first prizewinner of the Clarence Dickenson Organ Competition. In 2011 Patrick was named the first prizewinner in the National Federation of Music Clubs Student/Collegiate Auditions, won the Agnes Fowler/Marie V. Thiesen Award, received the First Place Ruby Simons Vought Scholarship and was selected as a semi-finalist in the Rodgers North American Classical Organ Competition and went to compete in the semi-final and final rounds. He is the recipient of the Wihla Hutson Organ Scholarship from the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation. Patrick made his international debut in 2009 as part of the Summer Institute for French Organ Study at the Abbey Church of Ste. Criox in Bordeaux and the Church of Notre-Dame in Epernay, France. The following year Patrick traveled to England to study the English Sacred Choral Music tradition at churches and cathedrals in London, Cambridge, Oxford, and Winchester. Patrick currently serves as organist of University Christian Church in Austin, Texas.

Music for Worship That Matters

Recent research indicates that a minimum of 20% and as much as 70% of a typical worship service uses music. With so much information and many opinions available, how can leaders of worship best serve 21st century congregations with music? What basic principles from the past can be appropriated for worshipers today? How can Scripture be brought alive in fresh and new ways by the singing of Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs? Dr. Monie will raise insightful thoughts from his experience as a pastor and planner of worship and pose theological questions to consider. Dr. Mann will discuss the best use of hymns in worship giving historical and theological contexts from which they arose and exploring why they are relevant to worship in the 21st century. Dr. Anderson will give historical contexts for a theology of music in worship from his significant understandings of church history and practical considerations of an experienced church musician. Dr. Kroeker will explore sources and settings of Psalms for congregational singing, as well as surveying the latest research on how the arts and music can be incorporated effectively in worship. Attendees will experience lively discussion, singing, and come away with new resources for worship planning and to enliven congregational worship experience in their churches.




Dr. Christopher S. Anderson, Associate Professor of Sacred Music, Perkins School of Theology
Dr. Charlotte Kroeker, Executive Director of Church Music Institute and previous faculty at the University of Notre Dame.
Dr. Robert C. Mann is Director of the Music Resource Library, Church Music Institute, and Professor Emeritus of Music, Stephen F. Austin State University.
Rev. Dr. Blair R. Monie, Senior Minister Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church, Dallas, Texas

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Wells Sermons

Monday, All Will Be Well (Mark 1:1; 16:1-8). Tuesday, Unhindered (Luke 1:1-4). Wednesday, Binding, Loosing(Matthew 16:13-19).


Mike Graves
William K. McElvaney Professor of Preaching and Director of Continuing Education, Saint Paul School of Theology
Mike Graves is the William K. McElvaney Professor of Preaching at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri and Regional Minister of Preaching for the Greater Kansas City Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  An ordained Disciples minister, he was formally educated as a Baptist, having earned his MDiv and PhD at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.  He says he spent many hours in the libraries here on the TCU campus.  He previously served as pastor in two Baptist churches, and nowadays is a guest preacher in many different traditions, but especially DOC ones in the Kansas City area.  Dr. Graves has also taught adjunctively at Spurgeon’s College in London, England, and given the Warrack Lectures in Saint Andrews, Scotland and the Chungyup Symposium Lectures in Seoul, S. Korea.  He is the author and/or editor of six books on preaching, including the collection Craddock Stories and The Fully Alive Preacher: Recovering from Homiletical Burnout.  His current book project is titled Another Look at Narrative Preaching.  He and his wife Carol are originally from Houston, Texas, and two of their three grown children were born in Fort Worth, while in seminary.
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