About
Lifelong Leadership
I have been a teacher all my life! My first paid job was teaching sailing and swimming at age 17. I had been racing boats since I was ten years old and loved anything in and on the water. My Dad, Mom, and Grandpa were my mentors and cheerleaders. My Dad’s comment to me and my sister was, “Don’t let your cousins (two boys) beat you all the time. Go out and get them!” And we did. It was a pretty even match.
In college, I led Bible studies in our dorm within just months of making a personal commitment to follow the Lord Jesus. After college graduation and marrying my life partner, I began studying for a teaching credential that included an in-class practicum. After my first time teaching in the practicum, my mentor-teacher said to me, “You’ve taught before!” Bewildered, I thought, “Not in a high-school chemistry classroom!” In reflection, many years later, I realized that this had been an early indication of my love and giftedness for teaching and communication in a classroom setting.
Over the next twenty-five years, my husband, Lew, and I both became a “jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none!” During the late ‘60s, we created three-screen slide shows (which took both of us to operate) to develop cultural awareness of the racial issues among Christian groups. In the ‘70s, we were leaders in a charismatic prayer group, and we started a ministry with high schoolers that led to a church plant in the early ‘80s. We really didn’t know what we were doing, or needed to do in the church plant, so we closed it to become part of a church planting program. But after we closed the church, the program was canceled, and we “fell through the cracks,” unsure of where we were going next. To complicate matters, we lost a child through miscarriage without any support in the grieving process. Participating in a home group several years later helped to begin the healing.
In 1991, I went to Fuller to audit a leadership class with J. Robert Clinton, better known as Bobby around campus. He required auditors to do all the classwork (or at least most of it). So, I jumped in and God met me in the process. I heard His call saying, “I have called you as a leader, not just the wife of a leader!” My response was: “What does that mean??? We have always been a team, leading together.” Over the next several years, I enrolled in the MA program and explored the significance of this call.
After being a teaching assistant for Bobby in a number of classes, he encouraged me to consider doing a PhD. After numerous conversations, I agreed to explore the possibility of doing the practical doctoral program (then called the DMiss—Doctor of Missiology) which was the same degree my husband, Lew, was working on. But during the class to prepare for both the PhD and the DMiss, I wrote a proposal to study leadership development for women in Christian ministry. On the last day of class, I presented my proposal, and several students in the back of the classroom said, “That needs to be a PhD!” To me, it sounded like God was shouting at me, “This is what I want for you. You can do it!!”
It was an interesting discussion at dinner that night as I told Lew what had happened in class that day, and cautiously said, “I think God wants me to do the PhD.” I realized I was still dealing with some of the old gender issues of being a submissive wife. In my thinking, I was not supposed to do a degree that was half a step above my husband’s. Lew, bless his heart, laughed and said, “That sounds like you. Go for it!!” So, I did, and we graduated together in 2000!
Over the next fourteen years, I worked at Fuller, School of Intercultural Studies (formerly School of World Mission) as the Director of Doctoral Studies and Admin-Faculty. For eight years, I supported doctoral students in their study programs and taught leadership classes. In 2005, I helped redesign and implement the practical doctoral program as a cohort-based program where students only spent two weeks on campus each year. In 2008, I transitioned to core faculty for that program, teaching research design, missiology, research methods, leadership, and dissertation writing. Since then, I have mentored well over a hundred students through their doctoral programs.
I officially retired in December 2014. But was asked to complete the cohorts I was already committed to without all the administrative responsibilities. That took three and a half years, and I planned to retire again. But then I was asked to do one more cohort to help train another professor who had never taught in that program. That was another 4 years. I retired for the third time, or so I thought. After a year off, I was asked to take the last two years of a cohort where the lead professor was not in a position to complete it. As I write this, I plan to retire for the fourth and final time in June 2025, at the age of 82!
During my time at Fuller, I had the opportunity and privilege of teaching on leadership, gender issues, and research methods, both locally and while traveling around the world to at least twelve countries outside the US. I have published a number of articles in journals, but never had the time designated to write a book.
As part of retirement, I have started doing more writing. My booklet on Laments is the first of others yet to come.
Articles
2017; “Women in Paul’s Network of Leaders in the Early Church.” Paper presented for ASM workshop, June 2017
2016: “A Study of Supernatural Encounters in the Book of Acts and How They Shaped the Early Church.” Paper presented for IAMS, August 2016
2016: “Missiological Contexts for the Public Presentation of the Gospel in the Book of Acts.” Paper presented for ASM, June 2016
2015: “Name Change at Fuller’s School of World Mission to School of Intercultural Studies” Plenary presentation for APM, June 2015 (published in on-line proceedings of meetings)
2014: “Analysis of Spiritual Formation Practices in DMiss Cohorts.” Paper presented for APM, June 2014. (published in on-line proceedings of meetings.)
2012: “The Importance of Spirituality of Key Leaders in the Early Church: A Study of the Paradigm Shift towards the Inclusion of Gentiles in Acts 10-15” submitted to Journal of Spirituality and Soul Care 10/1/2012
2012 “Embracing the Second Half of Life: Journey into Leadership” in Global Missiology: Special Issue for Retirement of Dr. Betty Sue Brewster 1(10)2012: www.globalmissiology.org
2009 “Missiological Reflections on Difference: Foundations in the Gospel of Luke.” Mission Studies 26(1):64-79.
2004 “Breaking Down the Dividing Walls: A Theological Reflection” Article to be presented at IAMS conference, Malaysia, August 1-7, and considered for publication in the book of the conference.
2000 “Women in Christian Leadership” PhD Dissertation, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA
Recent book:
Are you struggling through the mire of grief? Maybe you lost a parent, child, spouse, or are simply asking God, “Why me?” Maybe your question is just “Why?” as painful and challenging times buffet you from all sides.
In the Bible, one way people dealt with grief was through “laments,” or expressing sorrow in ways that helped people find release and healing.
Join me on a journey through Biblical and contemporary laments. Learn how you too can write laments, find comfort, and catch a glimpse of God at work, even when big questions may still go unanswered.