Rev. Dr. Jones is a gifted educator, pastor, author, and speaker. As part of his illustrious career as a professor, Rev. Dr. Jones served as Director of the Kelsey-Owens Black Ministries Program and as Kelsey-Owens Professor at Andover Newton Theological School, where he was a beloved and sought-after member of the faculty. 

 

Kirk Byron Jones, DMin, PhD, husband, father, and friend, serves Zion Baptist Church, Lynn, MA as senior pastor, and the wider world as preacher, professor, and author. He sees himself as a playful, joyful explorer who keeps on discovering, learning, and growing. His latest books are Soul Talk: How to Have the Most Important Conversation of All and The Spiritual Treasure of Jazz: Wisdom that will Make Your Life Swing! In Spring 2021, Judson Press will publish a 20th Anniversary Edition of his groundbreaking book: Rest in the Storm: Self Care Strategies for Clergy and Other Caregivers. More biographical information can be found on his website. We are thrilled to have Rev. Dr. Jones reflect on our theme for Convocation, “Just because you’re in a storm, doesn’t mean the storm has to be in you.” (Register for the Opening Plenary)

 

Following the plenary with Rev. Dr. Kirk Byron Jones, join Sarah Drummond for this opportunity to hear a state-of-the-school and honor the receipient of the Spirit of the Hill.

We have a special announcement about this year’s recipient of the Spirit of the Hill and we’re excited to share it with you on October 20th. (Register for the State of the School and the Spirit of the Hill Award)

 

Convocation Workshops

“Typhus, Plague, Covid-19: a theological perspective“  with Prof. S. Mark Heim (MDiv ‘76) and Dr. Benjamin Doolittle on Wednesday, October 21st at 11:00am

• For the past three years Dr. Benjamin Doolittle of the Yale Medical School and Dr. Mark Heim of Andover Newton Seminary at Yale have been team-teaching a course on theology and medicine. The course has covered topics from Hildegard of Bingen’s “slow medicine” to the strange immortality of cells from an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks that have fueled countless medical breakthroughs, from the HIV epidemic to the evidence that church attendance increases life expectancy,  to reflections on “the lost art of dying.”  The fall 2020 edition of this course is giving major attention to the reality that surrounds us all, the COVID 19 pandemic. We are considering how epidemics past have challenged—and changed—the practice of medicine and the practice of faith, and how this epidemic will impact both.”   (Register for this workshop)

“Embracing the Prophetic Moment” with Prof. Gregory Mobley on Thursday, October 22nd at 11:00am

• In response to the stirrings of outrage and prophetic consciousness issuing from the deferred dreams and righteous aspirations of African Americans in the Year of Our Lord 2020—a social movement that, in shorthand, can go by the insistent imperative sentence, “Black Lives Matter”—the horizon of my course on the Hebrew Prophets needed to change from the past to the present. This session represents a progress report on that experiment in “Embracing the Prophetic Moment.” (Register for this workshop)

“The Pandemic and the Pastor” with Dean Sarah B. Drummond on Friday, October 23rd at 11:00am

• In a time of global crisis, we hear – and sometimes tire of – the word “unprecedented” as a catch-all adjective. As overwhelming as these days can be, leaders cannot step back, promising to resume their work when the future is certain again. First, we might be in the midst of intersecting crises for the foreseeable future. Second, the future was never certain in the first place; we just liked to pretend it was. There is nothing unprecedented about leadership amidst unprecedented circumstances. What are the leadership practices that make a difference in the midst of uncertain times, and how can those practices shape the future on the other side of uncertainty into something better and more as God intends it to be? (Register for this workshop)