These challenging times demand that Christian churches and their leaders faithfully and effectively address diverse global situations with Gospel-rooted compassion and justice. These essays argue that public theology provides the trinitarian theological framework which fuels wise and compassionate public participation in God's mission within the world today. Public church leaders from the Global South and Global North join their voices to explore the global implications of public theology within unique situational particularities. Their essays are principally based on the public theology and theological commitments of Gary M. Simpson, Lutheran pastor and systematic theologian. Simpson's public theology is an intersection of Lutheran theology, post-colonial approaches to missiology, the growing field of congregational studies, and the Civil Society turn in Critical Social Theory. Expanding on various aspects of Simpson's public theology, these essays provide a glimpse of newly-emerging global public theology with leadership implications for twenty-first century contexts. This book calls the church to bear today's multi-dimensional crises with courage, mutuality and cooperation. Congregations who seek to participate in God's mission by confronting these challenging realities will find encouragement through the theological reflections, first-hand experiences, and innovative public leadership narrated in these essays.
Samuel Yonas Deressa is assistant professor of theology and the Global South and Fiechtner Chair for Christian Outreach at Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota. Mary Sue Dreier is retired professor of pastoral care and missional leadership at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary of Lenoir-Rhyne University (Columbia, South Carolina).
Foreword Mary E. Hess Introduction Samuel Yonas Deressa and Mary Sue Dreier Part I: Christian Mission Chapter 1: Implication of the Trinitarian Vision for the 21st Century Dinku Bato Chapter 2: What Can the West Learn from the Rest? Nurturing the Culture of Global Conversation Samuel Yonas Deressa Chapter 3: The Commonplace Congregation Scott J. Hagley Chapter 4: Turning Outward: One Moravian's Journey from Pietist Quietism to Public Theologian Betsy Miller Chapter 5: Giving Them a Fair Shot: Musings on an Evangelical Reading of "Preferential Option for the Poor" Mark Nygard Chapter 6: Love Actually Tomas Gulan Part II: Public Vocation Chapter 7: Civil Society and the Church in Kenya as a Public Moral Companion William O. Obaga Chapter 8: Late Reformation Lutheran Preaching on the Legitimacy, Duties, and Responsibilities of Civil Authorities Mary Jane Haemig Chapter 9: Teaching Solidarity in Civil Society for Love of Neighbor Mary E. Hess Chapter 10: The Vocation of the Local Congregation as Public Companion Jeremy Myers Chapter 11: Pandemics are Terrible Things: A Theology of Promise for a Missional Church Emerging Dee Pederson Part III: Christian Leadership Chapter 12: Public Leadership Across Cultures: God's Transforming Power for Mutual Governance Sekenwa Moses Briska Chapter 13: Worldly Spirituality for a Missional Church Mary Sue Dreier Chapter 14: Is Anybody Listening? An Analysis of the Role of Bishops as Adaptive Leaders and Public Theologians in a Time of Crisis Paul D. Erickson Chapter 15: No Patiency, No Promise: Missional Warrants toward a Public Theology of Listening David C. Hahn Chapter 16: A Missional, Open and Relational System for Faith Formation in the Local Congregation Steve Thomason Epilogue I: Reflection about Professor Gary Simpson Marie Y. Hayes Epilogue II: Gary M. Simpson: A Fruitful Vocation David L. Tiede Afterword by Gary M. Simpson About the Contributors
Forming Leaders for the Public Church is a fitting testimony to the illuminating and piercing work of Professor Gary Simpson. Like the book's dedicatee, the essays in this volume reflect a fierce love for the gospel, a deep concern for those on the margins, and a clarion summons for the church to help build a more just and fruitful world. -- Michael J. Chan, Concordia College Nothing honors the career and creativity of Dr. Gary Simpson better than this salute to a true visionary from his former students, colleagues and friends. A collection edited with great love and respect, Forming Leaders for the Public Church lights up the theological depth and the manifold dimensions of Gary's passion to send forth the church into public life. But it's the personal anecdotes scattered among the chapters that remind us that a mentor's deep love, affection, and sacrifice is key to forming leaders for missional vocation. -- Gregory P. Leffel, past-president, the American Society of Missiology, and author of Faith Seeking Action: Mission, Social Movements, and the Church in Motion This excellent collection of essays by students and colleagues of Professor Gary Simpson carries forward his important teaching and scholarship on the theology and vocation of being a public church. The trinitarian theology that informs Simpson's understanding of the public church as missional church is evident in these clear, well-written, and well researched accounts. Representing a variety of domestic, global, and cross-cultural congregational contexts and reflecting Simpson's emphasis on the congregation as the center of the public church, the essays offer a variety of practical approaches to the church's participation in civil society that are integral to the gospel centered worship life and witness of the congregation. Simpson's gracious pastoral presence and love of the church, echoed throughout, has been infectious in the lives of these contributors and will shine through for readers as well. This is a treasure trove of insightful and innovative resources for leaders and leaders to be who aspire to the vocation of the public church. -- James M. Childs, Jr., Trinity Lutheran Seminary at Capital University
