Faculty Activities

Lisa Allen-McLaurin
Associate Dean
Professor of Worship, Music and Spirituality

Publications

Quarterly columns for the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Sixth Episcopal District’s “Epistle” newsletter, July, October and December 2024, and February and June 2025.

Academic lectures and presentations

Preacher, MTSO chapel service, September 2024.

Guest panelist, Lancaster Theological Seminary’s annual Rt. Rev. Dr. Nathan D. Baxter Fund for African American Studies, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, February 2025.

Performed original piano arrangement, “Impromptu on God’s Faithfulness,” as guest artist for Sacred Symphonies: The Word in Song in Concert, the opening concert for the 2025 Bandy Preaching Conference at Candler School of Theology, Atlanta, March 2025.

Preacher, MTSO chapel service, April 2025.

Guest panelist on the Theological Education workshop panel, 2025 Holy Convocation for The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, Atlanta, June 2025.

Professional and guild activities

Represented MTSO and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church at the Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies in London, England, serving on the Worship and Spirituality Sub-Committee and leading Wednesday morning worship, London, England, August 2024.

Attended the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, San Diego, November 2024.

Attended the Association of Theological Schools 2024 School for New Deans, Pittsburgh, December 2024.

Attended the Phillips School of Theology Pastors’ Conference, serving as musician for the Women in Ministry Service, Atlanta, January 2025.

Attended the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Little Rock, February 2025.

Attended the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Black Religion, Montgomery, Alabama, April 2025.

Attended the Association of Theological Schools 2025 Chief Academic Officers Conference, Newport Beach, California, April 2025.

Co-chaired the Wendell P. Whalum recital series and also served as plenary speaker at the 2025 Hampton Ministers Conference/Choir Directors and Organists Guild Workshop, Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia, June 2025.

Church and popular speaking

Artist/musician-in-residence, West Georgia and Georgia North region annual conferences of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Sixth Episcopal District, July 2024.

Preacher, Missionary March service of the West Georgia Region Annual Conference at Holsey Monumental Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Columbus, Georgia, July 2024.

Served on the Music Team for the Christian Methodist Episcopal Unity Summit, Dallas, September 2024.

“For Christ’s Sake: Addressing the Conflict between Pastors and Musicians,” Christian Training Institute virtual presentation, for the Christian Methodist Episcopal Sixth Episcopal District, October 2024.

Planned, led and preached at the Advent worship service at the Christian Methodist Episcopal Sixth Episcopal District’s Winter Gathering, Macon, Georgia, December 2024.

Guest presenter and panelist at the First Episcopal District’s Spring Gathering (presentation title: “Woke Worship: A Presentation in Two Parts”), Chattanooga, Tennessee, March 2025.

Preacher, Hamlett Chapel CME Church, Chattanooga, Tennessee, March 2025.

Musician and choral accompanist, Pan-Methodist Gathering, Central UMC, Atlanta, March 2025.

Preacher, Central UMC, Atlanta, March 2025.

“Development Comes Before Destiny,” presentation as featured speaker, Women of Vision Leadership Summit, March 2025.

Workshop presenter (presentation title: “Over My Head: The Power of Ancestral Music to Future the Black Church”) and soloist, 2025 Freedom Assemblies Worldwide Holy Convocation, Seattle, May 2025.

Preacher, 109th Church Anniversary of the St. John Missionary Baptist Church, Alcoa, Tennessee, June 2025.

Other activities

Inducted into the Society for the Study of Black Religion, April 2025.

Jee Hyun Baek
Visiting Assistant Professor of Theology
Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Scholar

Academic lectures and presentations

Faculty panelist, book discussion of Undoing Conquest: Ancient Israel, the Bible, and the Future of Christianity by MTSO Assistant Professor Kate Common, MTSO, Oct. 24, 2024.

Presider, “Asian American Religious Formations and the Disciplinary Regimes of U.S. Secularism,” co-sponsored by the Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society Unit and the Secularism and Secularity Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, November 2024.

Professional and guild activities

Steering Committee member, Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society Unit, American Academy of Religion.

Church and popular speaking

“The Eye of the Night,” sermon, Korean Ecumenical Clergy Gathering, hosted by the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church, Dec. 17, 2024.

Valerie Bridgeman
Dean
Vice President for Academic Affairs
Associate Professor of Homiletics and Hebrew Bible

Publications

“From Whose Womb? An Ecotheological Exploration of the Speech from the Whirlwind in Job 38-41,” Working Group Papers at 2024 Institute, Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies.

“Facing the Truth: A Reflection for Juneteenth 2025,” June 19, 2025, churchanew.org.

Academic lectures and presentations

Panelist, “Up Against Crooked Gospels & Public Spectacles: Leading from the Margins,” Womanists at the Inkwell, the Black Religious Scholars Group’s Second Annual Consultation Gathering, Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, July 21-24, 2024.

“From Whose Womb? An Ecotheological Exploration of the Speech from the Whirlwind in Job 38-41,” presented at The Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies in association with the World Methodist Council, Aug. 4-11, 2024.

Panelist, “Womanism for Such a Time as This,” Womanist Conclave, Virginia Theological Seminary, during the installation of Judy Fentress-Williams into the Dodge Professor of Biblical Studies Chair, Oct. 16, 2024.

Panelist, “Nurturing Creativity in Teaching, Research, and Service,” Women in the Profession Breakfast, Society for Biblical Literature National Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 24, 2024.

Panelist, “Why Theological Education Need Black Church Studies,” Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan University, Rochester, New York, April 7, 2025.

Panelist, “Sustaining Our Souls: The Power of Sisterhood with the Womanist Conclave,” SOS: A Safety Planning Gathering for Black Women Leaders Under Attack, Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, April 29-May 2, 2025.

Professional and guild activities

Co-convenor of the OT/Hebrew Bible Workgroup, Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies in association with the World Methodist Council, Aug. 4-11, 2024.

Attended the African American Caucus Meeting of the Academy of Homiletics, Dec. 3, 2024.

Attended the Association of Theological Schools’ Women in Leadership Cohort Gathering in Toronto, March 16-19, 2025.

Delivered the invocation for the installation of President Maisha I. Handy, McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, March 28, 2025.

Attended the Society for the Study of Black Religion as an inducted member, Montgomery, Alabama, April 5, 2025.

“Developing the Capacity for Generosity,” centering moment, Symposium on Philanthropy and the Black Church, Indianapolis, April 11, 2025.

Book Award Jury member, American Academy of Religion, 2023-2026.

Church and popular speaking

Workshop leader, “Interpreting the Times & Speaking with Boldness,” with Forrest Harris, at the Hall-Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry, Clinton, Tennessee, July 14-18, 2024.

Panelist, “A National Call for Peacemakers: Battlegrounds Beyond the Ballot Box,” National Coalition of Faith in Public Life, online, Sept. 17, 2024.

Moderator of panel discussion on the film, gOD-Talk, Reimagining Faith in the 21st Century, presented by the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Association with the Pew Research Center; sponsored by MTSO in collaboration with Mt. Olivet Baptist Church and Payne Theological Seminary, MTSO, Oct. 8, 2024.

Panelist, “Revolutionary Leadership Forwarding Spirituality and Human Rights,” for Faith, Advocacy, and Religion Symposium, powered by SisterReach, Memphis, Oct. 10-12, 2024.

Preacher, Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, Columbus, Feb. 2, 2025.

Panelist, respondent and preacher, “Making it Plain: Lessons from the Black Church for Preaching to All God’s People,” Sankofa Institute for African American Pastoral Leadership at Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Feb. 7-8, 2025.

“Vision Quest,” sermon on Luke 4:1-13, Friendship West Baptist Church, Dallas, March 9, 2025.

“A Passion for God,” sermon on Psalm 63:1-8, Family Church, Columbus, March 23, 2025.

“At the Cross,” sermon for Good Friday service, New Jerusalem Baptist Church, Cincinnati, April 18, 2025.

“Who Are These?” Sermon on Revelation 7:7-19, West Hunter Baptist Church, Atlanta, May 11, 2025.

“Making Room at the Table,” sermon on Proverbs 9:1-6, Festival of Homiletics, Atlanta, May 15, 2025.

“Leadershift: Theology for Our Times,” lecture, Prophesy Deliverance: Theology, Technology & Justice, Black Prophetic Futures Holy Convocation, May 22-25, 2025.

“An Unexpected Answer to Prayer,” sermon on Acts 16:9-15, Hilliard UMC, May 25, 2025.

“Remember Whose We Are,” keynote, West Ohio Conference Social Justice Coalition Gathering, May 29, 2025.

Other activities

By invitation of the institute, wrote and presented words of thanks for MTSO Professor Sarah Lancaster’s service to the Oxford Institute for Methodist Theological Studies, Aug. 13, 2024.

Participated in International Womanist Consultation, Cambridge, England, Aug. 13-14, 2024.

Provided invocation for Delaware City Council Meeting, March 10, 2025.

Provided endorsement for the new reader, Reading Scripture in Wesleyan Ways (forthcoming), March 20, 2025.

Participated with faculty members in panel for potential students, “The Relevance of Theological Education in 2025 and MTSO’s Role In it,” MTSO, March 26, 2025.

Kate Common
Assistant Professor of Practical Theology

Publications

“Collective grief,” column in the Times Argus, Barre, Vermont, Feb. 19, 2025. And “‘Normal’ Is Dead; Collective Grieving Begins” (same text as the Times Argus column) in PacificSun, Marin County, California, Feb. 25, 2015.

Academic lectures and presentations

Race and Education panelist, Race and the Freedom to Learn Conference, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey, Nov. 9, 2024.

Spoke to Smith College Women’s Ordination Freshman Seminar on the film Forging Voice, Northampton, Massachusetts, Nov. 18, 2024.

“Desiring Utopia: Church as Queer Performance,” presented at Society of Biblical Literature Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation Section/Reading, Theory, and the Bible Section/Utopian Studies Section/Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures Section, AAR/SBL Annual Meeting, November 2024.

“Undoing Conquest: Ancient Israel, the Bible, and the Future of Christianity,” presented at the AAR/SBL Women’s Caucus New Books on Gender and Religion Panel, AAR/SBL Annual Meeting, November 2024.

“Forging My I: Film, Theopoetics, and Feminist Pedagogy,” presented at the Women and Religious Leadership Symposium, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, March 6-8, 2025.

Undoing Conquest discussion, “Religion Matters” Zoom webinar, Religious Research Association, March 28, 2025.

“Bible ‘Detox’: Disarming the Conquest Narratives with Kate Common,” presentation at the Center & Library for the Bible and Social Justice, April 1, 2025.

“Design Thinking for Racial Resilience,” facilitator, MTSO Racial Resilience cohort meeting, Los Angeles, May 19-21, 2025.

Season of Origins Design Retreat, bringing together church leaders from seven congregations around the U.S. to design the inaugural Season of Origins, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Northampton, Massachusetts, June 20-22, 2025.

Professional and guild activities

Communications editor, Association of Practical Theology.

Member, Society of Biblical Literature Bible and Practical Theology steering committee.

Church and popular speaking

Theologian-in-residence, 10 hours a month, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Interview about Undoing Conquest on the Rethinking Faith with Josh Patterson podcast, July 3, 2024.

Book interview focusing on Undoing Conquest: Ancient Israel, the Bible, and the Future of Christianity, in Grace Ji-Sun Kim’s Loving Life Substack, Aug. 6, 2024.

Leader, staff retreat on biblical interpretation, Hilliard UMC, Aug. 26, 2024.

Bible study discussion about Undoing Conquest, First Christian Church, Chico, California, Oct. 12, 2024.

“One in Christ,” sermon, at Hilliard UMC, Oct. 27, 2024.

“Rebuilding Foundations,” sermon, Blue Ocean Columbus, Oct. 27, 2024.

Discussion of Undoing Conquest at book club led by MTSO Emeritus Professor of New Testament Robert Tannehill, Jan. 24, 2025.

Q&A around Undoing Conquest, Columbus Mennonite Church adult Sunday school class, March 14, 2025.

Other activities

Awarded GBHEM Grant for research project “Exvangelicals and the Future of Theological Education.”

Awarded the Louisville Institute Grant for Researchers for project titled “Season of Origins: Centering Decolonial Justice in the Liturgical Year.”

Taylor Denyer
Fully Affiliated Faculty, United Methodist Studies

Academic lectures and presentations

“The Salvation of The United Methodist Church,” Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies, August 2024.

Professional and guild activities

Planning committee member for the next Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies.

Vice president, Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies-Africa Region.

Attended the 2025 meetings of the Association of Methodist Professors of Mission and the American Society of Missiology.

Church and popular activities

Conducted leadership training for the UMC’s Tanzania Conference.

Other activities

Serve as the anglophone executive assistant to Bishop Mande Muyombo, president of the UMC’s Africa College of Bishops.

Eugene Gibson
Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Church Leadership

Publications

“‘True Disciple’: Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Eulogy of Clay Evans and the Emergence of the Son of Abraham Rhetoric,” Sermon Studies volume 8, no. 1, 2025.

Academic lectures and presentations

Intensive teaching, Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, July 8-11, 2024.

Preacher, MTSO chapel, Sept. 17, 2024.

Conference facilitator, Mixed Methods, Indianapolis, Oct. 21-24, 2024.

Pedagogy intensive teaching, Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Jan. 13-16, 2025.

Writing colloquy facilitator, Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, March 10-14, 2025.

Professional and guild activities

Presenter, National Communication Association Forum: “Religion & Politics: A Reflection on the 2024 Presidential Election,” New Orleans, Nov. 23, 2024.

Church and popular speaking

Preached 35 of 52 weeks at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, Columbus.

Preacher, St. Paul Baptist Church, Charlotte, July 14, 2024.

Preacher, Bates Memorial Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky, July 20 and 21, 2024.

Preacher, Bible Tabernacle Christian Center, York, Pennsylvania, Sept. 15, 2024.

Preacher, New Calvary Baptist Church, Norfolk, Virginia, Oct. 13, 2024.

Preacher, First Baptist Church, Chillicothe, Nov. 20, 2024.

Preacher, West Hunter Street Baptist Church, Atlanta, Nov. 24, 2024.

Preacher, MTSO chapel, Feb. 4, 2025.

Facilitator, Marriage Workshop, Covenant United Church of Christ, South Holland, Illinois, Feb. 15, 2025.

Preacher, Covenant United Church of Christ, South Holland, Illinois, Feb. 16, 2025.

Preacher, Lott Carey Closing Session, Trinity Baptist Church, Columbus, March 20, 2025.

Preacher, Seven Last Words, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, April 18, 2025.

Preacher, Bates Memorial Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky, June 7 and 8, 2025.

Jeffrey Jaynes
Professor in the Warner Chair of Church History

Publications

“Reforms in Context: Assessing Protestant Church Ordinances,” in a Special Edition on Protestant Church Orders in the Reformation Era, edited by Simon Burton, of Renaissance and Reformation Review, volume 25, June 2025. On-line edition: https://doi.org/10.1080/14622459.2025.2505936

Academic lectures and presentations

“Imagining the Indigenous: North American Mission for Moravians and Methodists,” Working group for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Relationships, Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies, August 2024.

“Pastoral Care (Seelsorge) and the Incarcerated: Insights from Lutheran Church Ordinances”; North American Luther Research Forum, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, April 2025.

Professional and guild activities

Chair, Committee on Preparation for Ministry, Presbytery of Scioto Valley, Ohio, 2024.

Paul Kim
Professor of Hebrew Bible

Publications

“The World Is My Parish, or My Parish Is the World?: Isaiah’s Call for Ecclesial Repenting, Reckoning, and Restoring,” Proceedings from the Fifteenth Oxford Institute of Methodist Studies, 2024.

“Sheol or Saul: Finding Saul in the Intertextual Oceans of the Books of Samuel, Kings, and Isaiah,” in Explorations in the Interpretation of Samuel: Intertextuality and Reception, edited by Rachelle Lynda Gilmour and Benjamin J.M. Johnson, Berlin: de Gruyter, 2024.

“Isaiah in Intertextual Perspective,” in Cambridge Companion to Isaiah, edited by Christopher B. Hays, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Editor, with Amy L. Balogh, Jina Kang and Tammi J. Schneider, A New Era of Comparison in Biblical Studies: Case Studies in Applied Methodology, Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2025.

Academic lectures and presentations

“Isaiah and Jonah Meet Again: Intertextual and Theological Exchanges via Theophany,” Catholic Biblical Association International Meeting, August 2024.

Guest lecturer, “Isaiah and Intertextuality,” Isaiah class at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C., Oct. 2, 2024.

“Can AI Learn ‘Shame’? What Religion, Arts, and Humanities Need to Teach for the Future,” 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the German Academic Exchange Service, New York, April 3-4, 2025.

Professional and guild activities

Editor, Hebrew Bible Series, Resources for Biblical Study, SBL Press, SBL Annual Meeting, November 2024.

Co-chair, Israelite Prophetic Literature unit at SBL Annual Meeting, November 2024.

President, Korean Biblical Colloquium at SBL, SBL Annual Meeting, November 2024.

Church and popular speaking

Co-speaker with MTSO Assistant Professor Eugene Gibson and Professor Fulgence Nyengele, “Spaces for Thriving,” Thriving in Ministry, MTSO, July 11-12, 2024.

Co-speaker with MTSO Professor Fulgence Nyengele, “Conference on Trauma and Community Wellbeing,” Thriving in Ministry, MTSO, Oct. 17-18, 2024.

“Book of Exodus,” Lifelong Bible Study for Korean-American Pastors, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, Jan. 19, Feb. 23 and March 2, 2025.

Supply preacher at Granville Presbyterian Church, Marysville Presbyterian Church, Condit Presbyterian Church and Korean Presbyterian Church of Columbus.

Other activities

Sabbatical fellowship recipient, Catholic Biblical Association, 2025-26

Sarah Lancaster
Professor in the Werner Chair of Theology

Publications

Review of Good Book: How White Evangelicals Save the Bible to Save Themselves by Jill Hicks-Keeton, in Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, April 2025.

Review of Sola Scriptura by Ben Witherington III, in Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, October 2025.

Academic lectures and presentations

Response to Open Theism by Alan Rhoda, Open and Relational Theology Conference, online, Feb. 20, 2025.

Church and popular speaking

“Understanding Salvation as Healing,” World Methodist Council webinar on the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, March 4, 2025.

“United Methodism and the Nicene Creed,” LARCUM (Lutheran-Anglican-Roman Catholic-United Methodist) Conference of West Virginia, Charleston, May 12-14, 2025.

Paul D. Numrich
Professor in the Snowden Chair for the Study of Religion and Interreligious Relations

Professional and guild activities

Reviewed a manuscript for Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Other activities

Attended a meeting of the Joint Ethics and Advisory Committee, Grady Memorial Hospital, Delaware, Ohio, as a community representative. Nov. 21, 2024.

Quoted in “Here’s How a Lutheran and Baptist Church Share the Same Space in Lancaster,” article by Gayle Johnson in LancasterOnline, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, April 20, 2025.

Fulgence Nyengele
Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling in the L.A. Beeghly Chair
Director, Doctor of Ministry Program

Publications

“Grief and Cultural Melancholia among African Immigrants in the United States,” in God Help Us! The Bible and Pastoral Care Concerns for Black Churches, edited by Raynard Smith and Terry Smith, Pilgrim Press, August 2025.

Academic lectures and presentations

“Frantz Fanon and the Renewal of Humanness and Intercultural Empathy,” Society for Pastoral Theology Annual Meeting, online, June 5, 2025.

Professional and guild activities

Attended Society for Pastoral Theology Annual Meeting, June 4-6, 2025.

Editorial Board meeting, Journal of Pastoral Theology, June 4, 2025.

Co-chair, “Postcolonialism, Globalization, and Pastoral Care” Study Group, Society for Pastoral Theology Annual Meeting, online, June 5, 2025.

Other activities

Host and co-speaker (with Paul Kim), Conference on Trauma and Community Wellbeing, Thriving in Ministry Initiative, MTSO, Oct. 17-18, 2024.

East Ohio and West Ohio Bishop’s Day of Thanksgiving and Hope, Worthington, Ohio, Nov. 23, 2024.

Hosted the Thriving in Ministry Workshop on Pastoral Flourishing, MTSO, Jan. 23-25, 2025.

Served on Clinical Pastoral Education Advisory Committee, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Sept. 16, 2024, Jan. 27, 2025, and June 10, 2025.

Conducted appreciative inquiry/exit interview with CPE students, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Feb. 6, 2025.

Attended Lilly Grant Thriving in Ministry Annual Gathering, Indianapolis, March 25-27, 2025.

Attended West Ohio Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, Columbus, May 28-31, 2025.

Appointed to the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pastoral Theology, 2025-28.

Susan Ritchie
Fully Affiliated Faculty, Theology
Director, Unitarian Universalist House of Studies

Publications

“Universalist Professions of Faith: Articulating Non-Creedal Belief,” in The Universalist Herald, Dec. 16, 2024.

Academic lectures and presentations

Keynote address for the national Universalist Convocation, Sept. 20, 2024.

“Unitarian Universalist Rites of Passage,” for the UU Ministers Association Ministerial Formation Network, March 3 and 24, 2025.

Professional and guild activities

Director, Harvard Square Library (digital resource library of Unitarian Universalist history).

Member, James Luther Adams Foundation Advisory Board.

Church and popular speaking

Preach every Sunday at the North Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Lewis Center, Ohio.

“Mountains, So Many Mountains: A Theology of Unitarian Universalist Pluralism,” at the UU Church of Akron, March 23, 2025.

Ryan Schellenberg
Professor of New Testament

Publications

“‘Were Not Our Hearts Burning Within Us?’ (Luke 24:32): Dysregulated Passions, Righteous Fervour and an Emotional Regime Change in the Roman Empire,” in Emotions: History, Culture, Society Journal 8, 2024.

“The Brothers in the Praetorium: Syntax and History in Philippians 1:12–14,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 86, 2024.

Academic lectures and presentations

“A Cultural History of Early Christian Emotions: Prayer and Gottesfurcht,” Religion and Politics Excellence Cluster, Theory Platform Emotionality, University of Münster, July 9, 2024.

“Prayer and Emotion in the New Testament,” European Association of Biblical Studies annual conference, Sofia, Bulgaria, July 18, 2024.

“‘Were Not Our Hearts Burning within Us?’ (Luke 24:32): An Exegetical Puzzle and the History of Early Christian Emotions,” Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Münster (online), Sept. 20, 2024.

“Reverence and Fear: Plutarch, Paul, and the Social History of Religious Emotions,” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 23, 2024.

“Rejoicing as If Not Rejoicing: Apocalyptic Rupture and the History of Emotions,” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 25, 2024.

“Kissing Paul’s Chains: Relics of Paul’s Imprisonment in Ancient and Modern Christianity,” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 26, 2024.

Church and popular speaking

“Communal Lament as a Hopeful Practice for Repair and Healing,” Building Bridges of Opportunity Community Experience, West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church (online), Oct. 16, 2024.

“Paul and the Philippians: Radical Solidarity and Justice that Transforms,” Toward a Justice That Transforms: A Restorative Justice Gathering, Toronto, Oct. 19, 2024.

Beth Stroud
Assistant Professor of History

Church and popular speaking

Keynote speaker, Sunday School speaker and worship participant at Rainbows Resistance Reconciliation, celebrating 11 years as a reconciling congregation, First UMC of Evanston, Illinois, Feb. 15-16, 2025.

Other activities

Honored, with Deen Thompson and Susan Morgan, as LGBT clergy who were reinstated in 2024, by the United Methodist General Commission on Archives and History at event celebrating full inclusion, Greenland Hills UMC, Dallas, May 1, 2025.

Mentored Rick Huskey, a gay clergyperson whose credentials were terminated in 1977, through the process of becoming a United Methodist elder through reinstatement. He was ordained by Bishop Lanette Plambeck at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania, on June 14, 2025, and died on June 15.

Completed week-long intensive training for the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program in anticipation of teaching a Spring 2026 Inside-Out course, June 23-27, 2025.

Timothy Van Meter
Associate Professor in the Alford Chair of Christian Education and Youth Ministry
Coordinator of Ecological Initiatives

Academic lectures and presentations

“Conspiring for Climate Justice,” United Church of Christ conference, Templed Hills UCC Camp, Livingston, Montana, October 2024.

Professional and guild activities

Led the FaithLands National Conference, Aug. 6-8, 2024.

Preaching mentor, Innovative Preaching and Eco-Justice Initiative, working with the Center for Earth Ethics and Union Seminary to increase the abilities of select students to offer ecologically aware justice centered preaching as a core skill.

Other activities

Member, Executive Committee, Agroecosystems Management Program, Ohio State University, August 2020-present.

Member, Hispanic Scholars Program board.