Reading Scripture, Being Church, and Telling Our Story as Intercultural Communities:
A Faculty Colloquy
Join us in celebrating the installation of three endowed faculty chairs whose scholarly work exemplifies our seminary’s vocation to bring the best of the academy to the mission of the church: in multi-racial congregations, intercultural readings of Scripture, and building purposeful narratives. Come get a taste of how your North Park Seminary faculty together seek to discern the past in order to move forward in our complex world, training leaders in the art of telling visionary truth so they can inspire purposeful action—for God’s glory and neighbor’s good.
Schedule
February 15, 4:30pm: Installation of Endowed Chairs and Worship Service, Nyvall Hall, Isaacson Chapel
February 16, 9:00am-12:00pm: Faculty Colloquy, join in-person in Olsson Lounge located in Nyvall Hall on North Park University’s Chicago campus or REGISTER HERE to join the live stream of the lectures.
- 9:00-9:15 Welcome & Opening Remarks | Dr. Dennis R. Edwards, Dean of the Seminary
- 9:15-10:00 Be Loud and Brace for Impact: Anti-Asian Violence, the Model Minority Myth, and the Martyrs of Revelation 7:9-17 | Dr. Max Lee
- 10:00-10:45 Multiracial Churches: Transformative or Status Quo | Dr. Michelle Dodson
- 10:45-11:30 Purposeful Narrative? Covenant History Past, Present, and Future | Dr. Hauna Ondrey
- 11:30 Closing Remarks | Dr. Dennis R. Edwards, Dean of the Seminary
Lectures
Be Loud and Brace for Impact: Anti-Asian Violence, the Model Minority Myth, and the Martyrs of Revelation 7:9-17
Max Lee, Paul W. Brandel Chair of Biblical Studies
The rise in anti-Asian violence since COVID-19 demonstrates that Asian Americans have a shared history of persecution with other ethnic Americans, even as far back as The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Model Minority Myth threatens to silence their prophetic voice and re-write their story. Reading Revelation 7:9-17 interculturally, Max Lee calls for a rejection of the Model Minority Myth, a solidarity with ethnic histories of resistance against injustice, and presents sLambing as the way for God’s people to bear witness to Christ.
Multiracial Churches: Transformative or Status Quo?
Michelle Dodson, Milton B. Engebretson Chair in Evangelism and Justice
Dr. Dodson seeks to better understand the impact of multiracial churches beyond the four walls of the church. This lecture will explore the relationship between a multiracial church’s representation of race through talk, text, and imagery (its racial discourse) and how that church engages with the larger community in which it is situated (its social engagement). It will also explore the efficacy of pastors and other key leaders of multiracial churches in inculcating the stated values of their churches in those who attend.
Purposeful Narrative? Covenant History Past, Present, and Future
Hauna Ondrey, Wilma E. Peterson Chair in Church History
For a small, immigrant-founded denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church has an enormously rich historiography, within which ethnic identity has functioned variously across stages of demographic change. This lecture will trace the evolution of Covenant historiography itself, contextualizing our present discourse regarding purposeful narrative. It will secondly identify corollary priorities that must attend a commitment to purposeful narrative, outlining practical commitments required for an adequate genealogy of the Covenant to be a possibility.