Spring Institute for Lived Theology 2009
American Evangelicalism and the Practices of Peace:
The Lived Theology of John M. Perkins
April 22–24, 2009
Charlottesville, VA
John M. Perkins – influential community organizer, minister, speaker, writer, and Civil Rights activist – was the keynote speaker at the 2009 Spring Institute on Lived Theology (SILT), "American Evangelicalism and the Practices of Peace: The Lived Theology of John M. Perkins", which was held in Charlottesville, Virginia, from April 22-24.
Spring Institute 2009 Proceedings
- Session I (April 22) : A Quiet Revolution: A Group Discussion on the Lived Theology of John M. Perkins - led by Charles Marsh
Listen to the session (MP3 file).
- Session II (April 22) : Hospitality and Justice in the Life of John M. Perkins - Mark Gornik, Director, City Seminary
- Session III (April 22) : Let Justice Roll Down - John M. Perkins in conversation with Charles Marsh
- Session IV (April 23) : Morning Seminar with John Perkins: American Evangelicalism and the Practices of Peace
Watch the session (QuickTime file).
Watch the session (QuickTime file).
Watch the session (QuickTime file).
- Session V (April 23) : John M. Perkins and the Social Witness of the African American Church - Cheryl Sanders, Professor of Christian Ethics, Howard University and Senior Pastor, Third Street Church of God
- Session VI (April 23) : Richmond Community Development - Don Coleman, Richmond School Board and Pastor and Corey Widmer, Pastor of Preaching and East End Ministry, Third Presbyterian Church
- Session VII (April 23) : Whatever Happened to Racial Reconciliation? The Future of a White Evangelical Obsession
- Soong-Chan Rah, Assistant Professor of Church Growth and Evangelicalism, North Park Theological Seminary
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Session VIII (April 23) : Open discussion of Session VI and Session VII with Don Coleman, Corey Widmer and Soong-Chan Rah
- Session IX (April 24) : Open Friendship in a Closed Society: Mission Mississppi and the Theology of Friendship - Peter Slade, Assistant Professor, Ashland University
- Session X (April 24) : Community Organizing as a Spiritual Discipline - Susan Glisson, Director, William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, University of Mississippi; Joe Szakos, Executive Director, Virginia Organizing Project, and Rydell Payne, Executive Director, Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries
Visit our web album to view more photos of SILT 2009.
2009 Spring Institute for Lived Theology speakers:
Don Coleman serves on the Richmond City School Board and as Pastor-at-Large at Commonwealth Chapel in Richmond. He is a member of the Richmond Hill Council, which has led projects such as the Michah Initiative, a partnership program between churches, synagogues, mosques and other
communities of faith in metropolitan Richmond and the Richmond Public
Schools.
Susan Glisson specializes in the history of race and religion in the United States, particularly in the black struggle for freedom. She was appointed director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation in November 2002. Since then, Glisson has supported community projects across the state of Mississippi and has contributed to several volumes, most lately Telling Stories that Change the World (Routledge, 2008).
Mark Gornik is the Director of City Seminary of New York. Gornik is the author of To Live in Peace: Biblical Faith and the Changing Inner City (Eerdmans, 2002) and has a Ph.D. from the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World, New College, University of Edinburgh.
Born in Fluvanna County and educated at James Madison University, Rydell Payne is the Executive Director of Charlottesville Albemarle Abundant Life Ministries, a whole-family, holistic ministry with incentive-based programming.
Soong-Chan Rah is the Milton B. Engebretson Assistant Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary. Rah received his bachelor's degree from Columbia University, his M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, his Th.M. from Harvard University and his doctorate from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary's Center for Urban Ministerial Education. His book The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity is forthcoming from InterVarsity Press in May of 2009.
Cheryl J. Sanders is professor of Christian Ethics at the Howard University School of Divinity and Senior Pastor of the Third Street Church of God in Washington D.C. Her key areas of research and writing are African American religious studies, bioethics, pastoral leadership and womanist studies. She holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College and two graduate degrees from Harvard Divinity School: Master of Divinity, cum laude and Doctor of Theology in the field of applied theology. She is an author of more than 100 articles and several books, including Ministry at the Margins (InterVarsity Press, 1997).
Peter Slade teaches courses in the History of Christianity and Christian Thought at Ashland University. He received a doctorate degree in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi and a B.D. with Honours in Christian Ethics and Practical Theology from St. Andrews University, Scotland. Slade's book Open Friendship in a Closed Society; Mission Mississippi and a Theology of Friendship is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in the fall of 2009.
Joe Szakos has been the Executive Director of the Virginia Organizing Project since 1994. He was the founding coordinator of Kentuckians For the Commonwealth (1981-1993), as well as one of the founders of the Southern Empowerment Project and the Hungarian Environmental Partnership. Szakos is the co-author of We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk About What They Do—And Why (Vanderbilt University Press, 2007).
Corey Widmer holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia and an M.Div. from Princeton. Following his graduation from Princeton, Widmer and his wife, Sarah, moved to Richmond's Church Hill community to join a group of friends who are committed to the city. Widmer began serving the congregation of Third Presbyterian Church as Associate Pastor of Outreach in July of 2005.