Beeson podcast, Episode 468
Dr. Michael Pasquarello III
Oct. 29, 2019

Announcer:          Welcome to the Beeson Podcast coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your hosts, Doug Sweeney and Kristen Padilla.

Doug Sweeney:       Welcome to the Beeson podcast. I am your host, Doug Sweeney, and I am here with my co-host Kristen Padilla.

Doug Sweeney:       Today is October 29, 2019 and it is the first day of our Reformation Heritage Lectures with Dr. Kelly Kapic of Covenant College. Kelly is preaching in Hodges Chapel this morning at 11, then this afternoon at 2:00 PM our Robert Smith Jr. Preaching Institute is hosting a conversation with Dr. Kapic discussing the topic of one of his recent books, The God Who Gives: Preaching the Movement of Divine Generosity. Tomorrow, October 30th, Dr. Kapic will give our two Reformation Heritage Lectures. The first at 11:00 AM again in Hodges Chapel and the second at 2:30 PM in the Divinity building room S, for south wing, 013. If you were in the area, we would love for you to come and join us for this time of learning and edification.

Doug Sweeney:       Now for our conversation today, we are pleased to welcome one of our colleagues to the podcast studio to discuss several new and exciting initiatives at Beeson Divinity School. Kristen, would you mind introducing today's guest?

Kristen Padilla:    Thank you Doug and welcome to the Beeson podcast.

Kristen Padilla:    We are here with Dr. Michael Pasquarello III. He is the Methodist Chair of Divinity, Director of the Robert Smith Jr. Preaching Institute and the Director of the Doctor of Ministry program at our school. He is also the author of several books including most recently Dietrich: Bonhoeffer and a Theology of the Preaching Life, published in 2017 by Baylor University Press and a forthcoming book called The Beauty of Preaching. Mike is ordained in the United Methodist Church having served in pastoral ministry for 18 years. He is married to the wonderful Patty, and they have four grown children.

Kristen Padilla:    Welcome Mike to the Beeson podcast.

M. Pasquarello:     Well thank you Kristen and thank you Dean Sweeney for having me.

Kristen Padilla:    We are so glad you are here with us. Our listeners may recognize your voice or your name. You were with us on episode 386 but at that time you were not on the faculty at Beeson Divinity School. But for those who might've missed that episode, would you introduce yourself in a more personal way to our listeners, where you come from, anything that you'd like to share about who you are?

M. Pasquarello:     Sure. Thank you Kristen.

M. Pasquarello:     This is my second year on the faculty of Beeson Divinity School and as you said, I was here in the spring of 2018 to deliver the Conger Lectures on Biblical Preaching and our Dean at that time, Dr. Timothy George, interviewed me for the podcast and we talked about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and preaching in general. Bonhoeffer was the topic of my lectures on preaching out of the work that I did in writing the book.

M. Pasquarello:     I was born in Philadelphia and grew up in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Very stable childhood. My dad worked for General Electric for 42 years. He was a machinist. Worked at a big manufacturing plant in downtown Philadelphia. But I've lived in the south most of my adult life, so when Patty and I had the opportunity to move here to Birmingham and for me to work at Beeson, we were very happy to come here and we really enjoy living here. My family was devoutly Christian. And so like many who go into ministry, I grew up in the church and was very familiar with the church and its ways and its life and its gospel.

M. Pasquarello:     My calling to ministry came when I was an officer in the Marine Corps. I served in the United States Marine Corps for five years and I was a platoon commander responsible for about 35 enlisted Marines. Given the nature of my job and responsibility, I had to handle quite a few disciplinary and personal issues and matters. What I sensed in that was a desire to do more to help them than my position as an officer would allow me. I wasn't a chaplain, although I often encouraged them to visit the chaplain. But it was through that, in and through and under all that I was experiencing in my military service, that I sensed God calling me to leave the military, which I thought would be my career, and to return to school and prepare for pastoral ministry, which I did.

M. Pasquarello:     As you said, Kristen, after finishing my seminary work at Duke Divinity School, I was ordained in the United Methodist Church and I served as a full time pastor for 18 years in North Carolina. Towards the end of my work as a pastor, I was able to work on a PhD. My degree is in the history of Christianity; early church through the reformation period into the early modern period, but my focus was the history of preaching. That is what led me to work on Bonhoeffer as well as a number of other figures in the history of the church.

M. Pasquarello:     That's one of the reasons why I love being at Beeson Divinity School because we have such high, high value on the Christian tradition. We believe that our foundation is the word of God as it's been received and interpreted and proclaimed and lived across the centuries, and we are the beneficiaries of many, many, many gifts. And so my research and my writing as well as my teaching has been devoted to learning from the wisdom of the past to help us find our way forward in the proclamation of the word. That's in large part what brought me to Beeson Divinity School.

Doug Sweeney:       Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you Mike.

Doug Sweeney:       Could you tell us the story of how you got to Beeson Divinity School? You're obviously somebody with a long and accomplished career. You've been a pastor, you've taught for other seminaries. Asbury Seminary for a while, Fuller seminary. What was it that happened? How did God providentially pull you away from Southern California and move you to Birmingham, Alabama to join us here?

M. Pasquarello:     Doug, I've known of Beeson Divinity School for many years; since its founding. I was in pastoral ministry when Beeson was founded and I've had great respect for the faculty, for Dr. George, for the work that Beeson does, and so when I was invited to give the Conger Lectures I was really honored to do so. And while I was here, I had a wonderful time. Faculty and staff and students just treated me so well. It was just a very enjoyable experience and I felt at home in the Beeson environment.

M. Pasquarello:     Let me say what I mean by that. The weekly rhythm of worship, a focus on praising the triune God, a strong, strong commitment to the study of scripture, Christian tradition and how it informs and shapes us for the practice of ministry. I think more than anything what drew me and made it rather easy for me to say yes when I was invited to join the faculty, is our strong commitment to building up the church as the body of Christ, to proclaim and live the gospel in the world. That was evident when I was here, that that really informed everything about our school. The work of our faculty, the staff are committed to that, I think the students. And in my teaching since I've been here, I could see the students have a deep sense of that commitment. It just seemed like a very good place and a fit for me to be.

Kristen Padilla:    We've invited you today to talk about the many initiatives that you're involved with here at Beeson Divinity School. In fact when I read your bio, it sounds like you wear a lot of hats here, which you do, but we are so grateful for your work here. And so we want to begin by talking about the Robert Smith Jr. Preaching Institute. So for our listeners who are unfamiliar with that Institute, could you tell us about the history, the mission, the work of the Institute, and then could you tell us your vision for the Institute, including how one could be involved if he or she is interested?

M. Pasquarello:     Sure, Kristen, I'd be happy to do that.

M. Pasquarello:     The Robert Smith Jr. Preaching Institute is named to honor our longtime colleague, Dr. Robert Smith, a professor of preaching here at the Divinity School. He exemplifies so much of what the Institute is about. I count it as an honor to be his colleague and to serve the Institute that bears his name.

M. Pasquarello:     The Institute is funded by a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment. It's an initiative that they implemented several years ago for theological seminaries to establish preaching institutes that would strengthen preaching of working pastors in the church. And so our mission as a preaching Institute is to strengthen both the person or the preacher and the preaching for the service of building up the church and its witness in the world.

M. Pasquarello:     We do this in a number of ways. The first ... and this is how folks can be involved with the Institute ... The first, which is most accessible, is to be part of a preaching peer group. We have preaching peer groups scattered around in different places in the country, where pastors come together typically on a monthly basis and they work together to grow in their learning and their knowledge in relation to preaching and their devotion to God as disciples of Jesus Christ and their formation, and in their competence in the practice of preaching. They provide mutual support, they encourage each other, they preach for each other, they read books and they discuss them together, they pray together. It's a wonderful way for a working pastor to be engaged in fellowship with peers in a way that is encouraging, intellectually stimulating and practically helpful.

M. Pasquarello:     We start preaching peer groups typically twice a year; at the start of the year and then again in the summer. I provide guidance and assistance and encouragement to help them in the work that they do. We ask them to make a two year commitment, which gives it value and enables them to see the benefits of being together over an extended period of time.

M. Pasquarello:     We also present events here at Beeson Divinity School that are accessible through our webpage. You have a hand in that and making sure that that's done well and you do [inaudible] I appreciate very much. For example, our Reformation Heritage lecturer, Dr. Kelly Kapic, will be doing a Preaching Institute event the afternoon of his first time speaking with us. He'll talk out of one of his books. But it will be oriented to those who are in pastoral ministry and other forms of ministry that involve them and engage them in preaching and teaching the word of God.

M. Pasquarello:     So everything that we do in terms of events, conferences and other kinds of ways to reach out to pastors and those in ministry are oriented toward preaching and teaching the word of God in the service of the church.

Doug Sweeney:       One of the other things you do for our community is serve as the Methodist Chair of Divinity. We have a good number of Methodists in the Birmingham area, but just for those who don't know a lot about Methodism and Westleyanism and its history, tell us a little bit about what it means to represent Methodism here at Beeson and what is the Methodist add to the ecumenical flavor of Beeson Divinity School?

M. Pasquarello:     Yes, I'm very proud and thankful to represent the Wesleyan tradition and to hold the Methodist Chair of Divinity at Beeson. As you know well, and with your work as a historian, the Wesleyan movement began in the 18th century. John and Charles Wesley are our founding fathers in the faith. John Wesley's one of the greatest preachers in the history of the church, and Charles Wesley is known of course for his literally thousands of hymns that he wrote that many, many congregations around the world sing every Sunday; Hark the Herald Angels Sing, for example, one of his best known. Or Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, or Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.

M. Pasquarello:     Wesleyan movement was part of the evangelical revival in both Europe and England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland in the 18th century where there was a deep, deep and powerful movement of the Holy Spirit that stirred in people a desire to be more devoted to God and to live a life through the work of the Holy Spirit that would be holy, that would be a life shaped by love for God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength and love for their neighbor as themselves.

M. Pasquarello:     That really was the heart of the matter for the Wesleyan movement. That's what John Wesley preached. That's what Charles Wesley wrote hymns about, and they were a people who were both personally committed to being holy and socially committed to demonstrating or manifesting the holiness of God in all of life. Well, the rest of you might say is history because the Wesleyan movement now is a global movement that embraces millions of people around the world and continues to be a strong voice in both evangelization and discipleship and engagement with the world in ways that bear witness to the gospel.

Kristen Padilla:    Last month you assumed another new role at Beeson. You now serve as the Director of our Doctor of Ministry program. Can you tell our listeners about our DMin program and what specifically makes our DMin program stand out from others around the country?

Speaker 4:          Yes, thank you Kristen.

Speaker 4:          I was very pleased to be invited to direct the Doctor of Ministry program, and the reason is is that I believe it offers what I would call the best at Beeson. By that I mean it is focused on the ministry of the word. It is a doctor of ministry that works with pastors as well as those in other forms of ministry to deepen them in their understanding and knowledge of scripture as well as who they are as pastor, teacher, leader in the church, the place of preaching and teaching in relation to culture and as it changes and then to improve and sharpen their understanding of the practice of preaching and all of the elements that are involved in preaching. It's not a Doctor of Ministry program that tries to do too much. I think that's good and that's one of the things that makes it very unique.

Speaker 4:          The other thing I would say about it is that I think it does extremely well with the Doctor of Ministry degree was established to do in the first place and that is to integrate theological and pastoral wisdom; what it is that we believe and know and think of God but also how we speak and live and act in ministry in the service of God. That's the best of Beeson because that's what we do and our faculty does well.

Speaker 4:          The last thing I would say about our Doctor of Ministry is that the seminars are taught by our regular faculty and so there you do have an opportunity to work with the best at Beeson.

Doug Sweeney:       Probably some of the pastors and ministry leaders listening to us now are wondering what Dr. Pasquarello is thinking about with respect to the DMin moving forward. Any plans for the future that you might want to share with our audience?

M. Pasquarello:     Yes, Doug. I think that one of the things I'd like to see happen with the Doctor of Ministry is that we expand the scope of the degree while maintaining the strong center on the ministry of the word, which is the best of Beeson. By expand the scope, I mean that we make it clear that our program is not limited to just those who are in weekly preaching ministries. It certainly will continue to be for them, but it's also a degree program that can serve well those who ... for example, are in campus ministry or youth ministry or children's ministry. They're certainly engaged in the ministry of the word, though they may not be in pulpit ministry on a regular basis those who are on a pastoral staff in a larger church. And also those who serve in ministries that are extensions of the church in their community. I'd like to see us be more flexible and make it clear that we have room for them.

M. Pasquarello:     I'm also keenly interested in making sure that the Doctor of Ministry represents our strong interdenominational commitment as a divinity school so that a pastor or someone in some form of ministry who is Baptist or Methodist or Lutheran, Presbyterian or Anglican could see that we understand the specific or particular needs and requirements of their calling and that we're able to address those in and through our program and that we have faculty members who are certainly capable of doing that.

Kristen Padilla:    Mike, for those of us who know you, and I would even say those of us listening to this conversation and hearing you talk about your commitment to the word of God, know that you are a deeply committed Christian as well as a committed churchman. How do you see the mission and work of Beeson Divinity School and the various facets serving to advance the gospel, to enhance and enrich our churches and to expand the mission of God in this world?

M. Pasquarello:     Well, I'm here for those very reasons and I believe God called me to contribute to the very things you've just said.

M. Pasquarello:     We live in a time in the 21st century where the church faces many, many challenges. And Beeson Divinity School's program, its Master of Divinity program, our Doctor of Ministry program are so strong that they are capable of grounding students in the word of God, in Christian tradition, in theologically wise and sound practice in ways that are going to be necessary as we go forward. We cannot assume that we continue to live in a world that many people think is Christian, but we're now moving into a time here in the North American culture that many say is post-Christian, that others are saying we live in what they call a secular age. Beeson Divinity School, because it is so clearly focused on really what the heart of the Christian faith is and the church's life is I believe is just positioned well to serve the emerging generation of those who believe God has called them into pastoral ministry and other forms of ministry.

M. Pasquarello:     The other thing that excites me, and I think that Dean Sweeney has already said, this is part of his vision, and that is how we can increase our support of the global church, and how we can learn from our brothers and sisters in the global church, that we see how we're engaged in a partnership for the gospel and that we need each other very, very much. My hope is is that in the various hats, as you've said that I wear here, I'll be able to contribute to that.

Doug Sweeney:       Amen. Thank you very much Mike.

Doug Sweeney:       You have been listening to Dr. Michael Pasquarello, the Methodist Chair of Divinity here at Beeson Divinity School, who also directs our Preaching Institute and our Doctor of Ministry program. Thank you very much Dr. Pasquarello for being here with us today.

M. Pasquarello:     You're welcome. Thank you for having me.

Doug Sweeney:       God bless you all and our audience. Thank you for being with us. Good bye for now.

Kristen Padilla:    You've been listening to the Beeson Podcast. Our theme music is written and performed by Advent Birmingham of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama. Our engineer is Rob Willis. Our announcer is Mike Pasquarello. Our co-hosts are Doug Sweeney and myself, Kristen Padilla. Please subscribe to the Beeson Podcast at beesondivinity.com/podcast, or on iTunes.