Vantage - Columbia Theological Seminary

David Miller (DMin '06): Telford Award

The George and Sally Telford Award is given to an outstanding Doctor of Ministry graduate who shows exceptional ability for congregational leadership with an emphasis on social justice issues and vision for the church.

David Miller of State College, PA, holds the B.A. from Goshen College in Goshen, IN, and the Master of Divinity from the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, IN. He is the pastor of the University Mennonite Church in State College, PA.

Below you will find an abstract of Miller’s D.Min. project. The full text is available at www.ctsnet.edu/degree_programs/advanced_degrees/doctor_ministry.asp.

ABSTRACT

The Missional Church and the End of Christian Social Ethics: Reassessing, Remembering, Rehearsing

David Blake Miller (DMin ’06)

This project applies the analysis and constructive vision of "the missional church" to the church in the United States in the arena of social ethics and the question of state sanctioned violence.

The missional church movement has called for the church in the West to recognize that its days of Constantinian formed cultural privilege have ended and challenged the church to rediscover its reason for being in the missio Dei. Here is described a threefold process of reassessing, remembering, and rehearsing for the church to center itself in the mission of God as defined in the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth.