Is a DMin Thesis Useful?
By Theresa Newell, LCJE Coordinator for North America
This was a question that I asked as I worked on my Doctor of Ministry thesis last year. Would my work be useful to the Church and its mission? Would I actually be called on to talk about my topic again? Or would it simply be printed and bound and sit on a seminary library shelf? I even thought of ways to MAKE it more useful or to get it out to others, but that seemed self-serving and I did nothing. But, as always, I learned that I only needed to be obedient, write it as best I could, and wait on the Lord to make it “useful” in His own time.
The title of my DMin thesis is: “Preparing the Church to Evangelize Jewish People.” I had found only one other thesis on this topic. After graduating in May 2005, my next Jewish outreach was in my own city of Pittsburgh when Jews for Jesus brought their “Behold Your God” campaign in September. I joined the team of over 20 workers and perhaps 30 volunteers to canvas the city giving out Gospel tracts, talking with students on the college campuses and working in the Jewish areas of the city. As a result, over 105,000 tracts were distributed, a public debate between Dr. Michael Brown and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach was held in the university section of the city and a number of people, both Jewish and gentile, made professions of faith in Jesus.
A week later I was in Israel and had opportunity to share with several Israeli women about Jesus. On my return we were preparing for the Hope and a Future Conference which my husband was chairing for the Anglican Communion Network. It attracted over 2,400 people from around the country. One of the keynote speakers was Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, author of the best-selling “Purpose-Driven” series of books. Rick has recently been in Rwanda and spoke about his PEACE plan that his church will be working in for sub-Sahara Africa. My job at the conference was to be host to Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda. Our Diocese of Pittsburgh had had a partnership with the Anglican Province of Rwanda from 1999-2004. As co-chairman of our Diocesan partnership, I had had occasion to visit Rwanda and meet the Archbishop and also to host him and his wife when they visited Pittsburgh during that time.
Rick Warren met with three of the East African Anglican Primates the Friday evening of the Hope and a Future conference to strategize for his next visits to Africa. I was sitting behind Archbishop Kolini and had with me a Purpose-driven book that another of the Archbishop’s wives had asked to have Rick sign. When the meeting ended, I stayed behind to ask Rick this favor. After he signed the book, he asked what I did. I told him that my major ministry was Jewish evangelism. He looked surprised and said, “I really need to talk with you about that.” He said that a month earlier he had felt that he should write to about 25 Jewish friends at Yom Kippur and ask their forgiveness for the Church’s role in the persecution of the Jewish people over history. He said he had gotten some wonderful responses to his letters. “I really feel the Lord speaking to me about reaching the Jewish community, especially in Southern California,” he said. I told him that I was the North America Coordinator for the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism and that this organization networked all those evangelicals working in the area of Jewish evangelism. He wanted to know when we met, what literature there was about LCJE, etc. He asked that I send him a copy of my DMin thesis and the booklet, “Jewish Evangelism: A Call to the Church” which a small group of LCJE leaders had written at the LCWE Forum 2004 in Pattaya, Thailand. I was greatly encouraged by Rick’s enthusiasm for Jewish evangelism and immediately emailed and snail mailed the materials he requested. I got a quick email response from Rick saying “Wow, this is such good stuff – I got it all”.
A week before the Hope and a Future conference was our Diocesan Convention at which I was elected to the Standing Committee, an advisory board consisting of six clergy and six lay persons. A week after the conversation with Rick Warren, I walked into the Diocesan offices to attend my first meeting of the Standing Committee. At the door as I arrived was our Auxiliary Bishop, Henry Scriven. “Theresa,” he greeted me. “I have just this minute completed an email exchange with a Jewish man here in Pittsburgh asking if our Diocese supported financially the LCJE meeting that is coming for its conference here in April. He also knew about the Jews for Jesus campaign that just ended recently.”
It seems that our Bishop Scriven and this Jewish man I’ll call Saul have been sitting on an interfaith committee together working on relief efforts for victims in the Darfur area in western Sudan. Saul had written that he did not believe that a Christian could be in an interfaith work with Jews and at the same time subscribe to mission to the Jews – not in the face of the Holocaust and the history of anti-Semitism in the Church, etc. While there was not time to discuss this fully as I had my meeting to attend, it did begin some long email exchanges between Bishop Henry and me. The first thing he asked for was my DMin thesis!
In January 2006, my husband Bruce and I will be in India at the dedication of the main building at the new India Graduate School for Missiology whose aim is to train pastors in missions and evangelism so that they are equipped to train others. What will you teach when you are there? I was asked. The biblical and theological core of my DMin thesis is Romans 9-11, Paul’s plea to God for his Jewish brethren to come to know Jesus. This will be the teaching I will carry to the pastors of India.
As I reflect on these three incidents which happened within weeks of each other, I was gratified that the work I had done on my thesis WAS bearing fruit and being useful in the Church for outreach to the Jewish people. These opportunities – with Rick and Bishop Henry and Dr. Swamidoss in India – have far-reaching possibilities. I am praying daily for them and the call God is giving them to proclaim the Good News of Jesus to their Jewish friends and to the Church.
The reason there was a Hope and a Future conference was that some stalwart souls were willing to stand up for the orthodox, historic faith of the Church in the face of modern apostasy. Jewish witness is more central to this movement than is first imagined because if Jesus is not the Messiah of Israel he cannot be Christ for the nations. If he is not the Savior to his Jewish people, then perhaps the Hindus or the Moslems have no need of him either.
Theresa Newell
lcjena@comcast.net