Current Issue: Didache Volume 24 Number 1

INTRODUCTION

Dean G. Blevins, Editor

Welcome Didache: Faithful Teaching Volume 24, number 1. This edition includes new articles addressing both the future of preaching and the current state of the Church of the Nazarene in the United States as well as additional responses to our recent Global Theology Conference. Finally, we close this “introduction” by introducing you to our two new editors, Dr. Tammy Carter and Dr. John Nielson.  

The edition opens with a look forward by also looking back to the creativity engendered in John Wesley and its potential guide for how we engage new mediated forms of communication for the sake of Christian witness.  Dr. David Swisher serves as a Senior Learning eXperience Designer & LMS Technology Integration Specialist at Indiana Wesleyan University with over 30 years of ministry experience.  He is a multimedia developer who is actively involved with incorporating virtual reality, metaverse learning, and generative AI in online courses, and he teaches graphic design, ministry, and data visualization classes.  Swisher has been an active member of the Wesleyan Theological Society since 2001. 

Dr. Ron Benefiel provides us with an interesting analysis of the changes in the USA/Canada Church of the Nazarene, particularly in dialog with the Southwest field in the same global region. Dr. Benefiel serves as director of the Point Loma Nazarene University Center for Pastoral Leadership and a long-time representative of ANSR, the Association of Nazarene Social Researchers. Benefiel’s work provides both statistical analysis and commentary by triangulating the research with movements across the USA. This form of contextual analysis reflects the kind of reporting that can occur beyond mere numbers and blog interpretations. Hopefully, it models a thoughtful engagement that can occur in many regions seeking to understand change in any denomination.

READ MORE 

Table of Contents