Religion in American History: Christian Historiography: An Interview with Jay D....

Religion in American History: Christian Historiography: An Interview with Jay D....:

Jay D. Green has served as Professor of History at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia since 1998.


This is an important and emotionally-charged issue which some of us have to deal with. I think I know where I stand in my own work dealing with Native Hawaiian converts in the 19th century. I pray my publicly offered work does not conflict with the other points of view, though.

Anyone feeling generous????

We left Kenya to begin our study leave at the beginning of May. As a study leave, it was important that I have my library with me in order to complete my dissertation and to assist with my teaching preparation for my courses at Florida State University. We found the most economical way to handle the shipment, but that meant we were not able to make the final delivery to Africa Inland Mission who was to handle the shipment before our flight. We transported the shipment to our church's national office in the suburbs of Nairobi and they were to deliver it to AIM at their airport operations center before a certain date. Well, in the meantime the heavens brought forth a deluge; you may have seen it on the news. Not only was there a lot of destruction of files and equipment for the national office, but our items were partially destroyed. The full shipment came to us and we finally received it recently and have sifted through the boxes item by item salvaging whatever was possible. Some of the boxes made it through without any damage, other whole boxes were completely ruined, and some boxes were mixed.

I have created an Amazon.com wishlist which has the books which were destroyed; at least those of some importance to be replaced. I have rated the priorities for the books and the list can be sorted that way. The books with "Highest Priority" are the important ones for my dissertation work. When I am ordering for myself, I generally order the cheapest book at the "Good" level or better (sometimes that is actually a new book). If there is a large price difference between an "Acceptable" book and the better quality books, I generally go with the cheaper one.

If anyone would like to be a blessing at this time the shipping address is:

Gene Mills
810 Wadsworth St., #208A
Tallahassee, FL 32304

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Sabbatical Fellowship

(Be sure to follow the colored links...)

I am really happy with the congregation Tanya and I have landed at while we are on sabbatical. There are not many churches in the US where you can worship together while a young Mongolian-Chinese woman, a young Angolan man, and an American who is the first in his family to be born again each get baptized; and then you get to hear an encouraging word about being completely consumed by and for God from Payton Poulin, a young man with schizencephaly (similar to cerebral palsy) who has attended the church for the last year and a half. This Friday at the church, there will be a benefit concert put on by newly-signed Motown Gospel artist Royce Lovett (who, like us, recently started attending the church) as he launches his tour. The concert will raise money to feed children in a Philippine village through the feedONE initiative.

This is a congregation which takes seriously its call to follow the Great Commission to discipleship and to intentionally model the Mosaic nature of the Body of Christ.

DONATION INFO

In addition to giving through your local Church of God and by mail, donations can be made online with credit card or PayPal at the Church of God World Missions website. Through any method you will need the name of the project and the project number found below.

D. E. “Gene” & Tanya Mills, Jr.  Missionary Budget

#065-0871

Discipleship College General Funds

#100-7001

Discipleship College Ainabkoi Farm Sustainability Project

#100-7001-36

Discipleship College Capital Improvement Fund

#100-7001-49

Discipleship College Student Scholarship Fund

#100-7001-07

New Update Post

Well, it has been a while since you have heard from us. I know, that is not good! This has been a very interesting, challenging, blessed, unsettling, joy-filled, frustrating year and a half!

So much of our work is tied to the institutional development of Discipleship College and with what has been going on, it has been hard to come up with some more personal stories from personal ministry. Yet, through this period, I have sat down about 4 times to try to get a newsletter or other update sent out and as I was working on it, something new would happen and rock the boat again – changing what I could and could not say.

Student development

Let me start by saying that in terms of student development, things have been going fantastic! Several of the students who were brand-new to the college when we first arrived in early 2011 have now completed their studies and have been completely transformed; developed into well-trained, critically-thinking ministers. There are several testimonies that are exciting, but perhaps the pinnacle is the two brand-new church plants being led by Samson Mugi in Nakuru, Kenya and by Kabanda Martin in Kampala, Uganda. Both churches are off to great starts as the church in Nakuru has become a leading cooperative project of the District, Regional, and National churches which put up a large temporary structure on the land obtained just off of the main highway through Kenya. Pastor Kabanda in Uganda has already held his first baptismal service where 15 brand-new converts were baptized!

Institutional development

In terms of institutional development, that is where things have been an up-and-down venture. The basics of the situation are this: it is proving very difficult to have denominational goals and Kenyan expectations meet. Add to that the ever changing political and social situation in Kenya and you can recognize a recipe for complications.

In several ways we have made tremendous progress in accomplishing the things necessary to achieving the privilege of granting accredited degrees. DC has a new library, a new administration and welcome center, and other upgrades to the campus. We have also overseen the development of approved strategic plans, 10-year projections, and a campus master plan. We have also developed curricula at the diploma and degree levels in several fields of ministry ready for submission to the Commission for University Education.Yet in order to achieve a university charter which is the only way to offer accredited degrees in Kenya for the long-term, there are many additional things which need to be accomplished, some of which push the boundaries of what is normally done through Church of God World Missions. Please pray with us that God would direct the steps of the leadership of DC and COGWM and that God would provide the needed finances to accomplish these things so that the building of the Kingdom of God in Africa can continue and advance through our school

On the More Personal Side

Tanya and I are currently on an educational sabbatical. I have found it difficult to complete the writing of my doctoral dissertation while working in the field. Given the importance of my doctorate, not only for myself, but for the legitimacy of the college and our applications with government agencies, we have returned to Tallahassee, FL in order to complete my degree.

The current timeline awaiting final approval by the graduate school would have my work completed by January with graduation at the end of the spring semester. Please pray that God would help me to write diligently, clearly, and efficiently so that there are no delays and this chapter in our lives can be concluded soon.

While we are away, an interim director has been named, DC graduate Benea Alukwe. Please pray for his guidance.

Also pray that Tanya and I would be refreshed, encouraged, and revitalized through this time.

And On the Even More Personal Side
Tanya and I just became grandparents for the first time! Our daughter, Amber, who spent a year and a half with us in Kenya working at a preschool, recently had a daughter, Nohealani R’Nae Matthews. See her absolute beautifulness below!!!!!!

The Completed D. P. Barnett Administration and Welcome Center

I do not hate Muslims!

I do not hate Muslims! I live among them, some friends, who I can sit and laugh and "talk story" with (as we say back home in Hawai'i).

Some Christians need to do a review of Matthew chapter 5 before they respond to things such as this.

However, make no mistake, while most Muslims are also appalled at this event, these deaths were specifically due to their faith. The Muslim students were separated from the Christian students who were shot due to their testimony of faith. This is not a Somali vs. Kenya issue. This is not a cultural issue. This is an issue of religious ideology.

Religious radicalism is not even the problem, per se. I pray that there would be some Christians who were radical enough to witness (martyria) to the good news of the gospel even if it meant their own martydom such as these students in Garissa, rather than a religious hatred that simply mirrors what is in the picture here. The true gospel is much more radical than cries for military invasion or to "nuke 'em!" The gospel is so radical that it makes the bold claim that the son of God died so that even they might not be lost.

So I echo strongly the idea of ‪#‎AfricanLivesMatter‬. These young Christians' deaths need to be recognized. They need to be plastered on every news channel and throughout the world. They matter just as much as the deaths on 9/11 in "glorious" NY skyscrapers.

However, the solution to the problem will not be found in political action - as needed as some of that may be. With Dietrich Bonhoeffer I recognize that we must speak truth and only the truth will set free the captives, bind up the broken and broken-hearted, and feed the hungry.

"The only hope for the world is for the church to be the church." (Stan) Let us not act as if we are something we are not supposed to be...something from which we have purportedly been saved...