NAPCE (Nap-see)

My most natural audiences intersect the academy and the church. So when professors are gathering not just to hear a paper about a specialized topic but to ponder, from their angle and the angle of others, what is going on in the church, then I feel like I am with “my people.” Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching and preaching in churches, but I’m a professor and I like to be with professors who like to consider what we can offer the church.

So when Jim Dekker, a colleague and leader in the North American of Professors of Christian Education (NAPCE), asked me (last year) to speak this Fall at their annual meeting, I was delighted about the opportunity.

I had no idea who might attend but while at the airport waiting for the plane I bumped into my old friend Perry Downs (at left), who was with Miriam Charter, another CE professor who knows a bunch of my friends and a lifetime of experiences in mission education … and this was the beginning of a day when I saw several old friends/students of mine who now are involved in NAPCE like Steve Kang and Steve Kemp, met new folks like Dennis Williams … I better stop there. It was surely “my people.”

We were at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, and it was a delightful time for me. I was invited to address the professors about how young adults see the church, which gave me the opportunity to test a few new ideas, and then to deal with one theological topic, and I chose gospel and its impact on education. My gospel project is part of a book that is being edited by the publisher. The time was very stimulating and I enjoyed meeting those there, seeing old faces, and being part of an active set of thinkers who had challenging questions and probing these topics.