Gems - Part 5

Ken Terwilliger – Ken was my roommate at Asbury before he entered a political science program at Washington and Lee. Besides his friendship Ken was gem in my life for our lengthy conversations about marriage, God’s will and working out faith in a modern context. Together we worked beyond a more open and broad view of God’s will versus the more narrow fatalistic view more common within the conservative wing of the Church. Ken was also instrumental in helping me to clarify the type of woman who I should seek as my life’s partner.


Pauline Wert – Pauline was a college friend. To merely apply the words wild and carefree would do a disservice to her and to the words themselves. Attending a conservative religious college Pauline was a free spirit with liberal and progressive ideas. Though I felt I was a little more progressive and liberal than most Asburians, compared to Pauline I was conservative. I found myself as one of her confidants, listening frequently to her frustrations and her dreams on a wide host of issues….and she listened patiently to mine. We debated faith and life issues with each other. Pauline helped me to broaden my understanding of faith and that faith must be relevant to contemporary life by actively expressing itself afresh.


Al Coppedge – Dr Coppedge was my seminary faculty advisor and professor of doctrine. Al with his analytical and sharp mind was the one who first turned me on to theology and its importance. He not only taught the Wesleyan perspective with dynamic passion but he also introduced students to the theological giants of other church traditions.

Clearly one of his lasting impacts is my interest in theological thought and reflection, in seeing how it is applicable to everyday life in a range of situations. Theology works itself out not so much in the technical language we use, but in how we build and work out our relationships with our Lord, with each other and the created order at large.

When Al spoke about other traditions and their concepts, we clearly knew where he stood. Though he noted where he and Wesleyans in general would disagree with another tradition, he never spoke despairingly upon the character, faith or passions of those with other view points. Rather he spoke with reverence and respect. Years later I would tell my students that as Wesleyans our tradition is to agree to disagree agreeably. For me that is not just a theory, but is an essential element which I seek to implement each day…and its roots go back to Al.


Fred Layman – Dr Layman was one of my professors in seminary who had an impact on two significant concepts that are part of how I look at life. From him I learned the value of taking time to reflect upon ministry. He helped me to develop the skill of ministry reflection a coupled with it that there is a difference between theory held versus theory in practice. In the Salvation Army we are busy doing ministry, going from one thing to another without much reflection. Fred helped me to understand that taking time to reflect what we have done in ministry and why, learning from those experiences and then intentionally applying them to the future. He is right, that if we do not take time to reflect we can find ourselves in one of three traps, a) doing something right for the wrong reasons, b) doing something wrong for right reason or c) repeating over and over again making the same mistakes.

The second impact was that Fred built upon the passion for theology that Al Coppedge was laying in my life. Fred was first turn my attention to historical theology, the understanding of doctrinal and theological development within the context of history.