Matthew Wesley Williams
Associate Director for Fellowships
Recent entries:
January 07, 2011
I started in the preaching ministry at the age of 15. Fifteen is a
strange age. At least it was for me. I was just old enough to have my
own ideas about this and that. And I was just young enough to be very
certain about my ideas. But I was also just “green” enough to believe
that what I had to say might be useful to God in a preaching moment. I
preached my first sermon on a chilly spring day in April 1992 in
Chicago, IL. This was the pulpit in which a master preacher got up each
Sunday to “break the bread of life.” However on this Sunday, this
people and this preacher let the young people “run the service.” And
they let me preach the morning message....
That church was a grace-filled space in which I had the freedom to
flunk. With that freedom I was provided the space to identify, explore,
and reflect on my sense of call to ministry...
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September 29, 2010
What students are often surprised to find is just how many unwritten
rules there are to the “game of the academy.” Through dialogue with
graduate students and faculty they come to understand that doing well in
a graduate program is not just about being smart, it is about being
strategic...
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July 20, 2010
Consider these two statements on leadership:
"Strong people don't need strong leaders."
"Leadership never ascends from the pew to the pulpit. It always descends from the pulpit to the pew."
The first quote is a famous line from Ms. Ella Baker, whose masterful work in organizing and leadership development helped to launch and stabilize the early work of many of the most significant civil rights organizations of the 20th century: NAACP, SCLC, SNCC and MFDP. The second quote is a lesser known line from a better known figure: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ...
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October 05, 2009
25 Things You Should Consider Before Applying to a Ph.D. Program…
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September 07, 2009
While this is an approximate outline, it offers the key steps in applying to a graduate program. You should start planning the summer before your final year in college/master’s programs or at least a year before you wish to start graduate school.
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August 26, 2009
An excerpt from an interview FTE recently conducted with Dr. Emilie
M. Townes, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and
Theology at Yale Divinity School
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July 24, 2009
This article reports on a 1997 study that indicates that race and gender
are significant factors in determining the quality of graduate school
experiences. African-American students reported that mentoring,
advising, and departmental environment were their most important
concerns with regard to the quality of their graduate school experience.
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May 11, 2009
In this provocative article on the Religion Dispatches website Professor Jonathon Walton (FTE Fellow '02, '05) recounts a conversation among a group of well reknowned scholars about the imperiled theological academy and the public relevance of academics. Excerpt below...
Over the weekend I participated in a fascinating conference/conversation headed by Professors Philip Clayton and Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki of Claremont School of Theology. Under the banner of “Rekindling Theological Reflection: Transformative Thought for Progressive Action” thirty theologians and Christian ethicists were brought together to brainstorm concerning how our chosen vocations might better impact our world.
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April 15, 2009
What distinguishes a minister who carries out her/ his call with excellence? FTE conducted four consultations around this question with ministers across the country. The results were published in Faithful to the Call: Reflections on Excellence in Ministry
Here's a synopsis of what they said:
1. Excellent ministers believe what they are proclaiming.
"They embrace their faith as a living, breathing thing, and they share that faith with others by pointing to the scriptures and the life of the worshipping community."
2. Excellent ministers love their communities.
"Whether introverted or extroverted, gregarious or reserved, a good minister thoroughly grounds himself or herself in the life of the congregation."
3. Excellent ministers display agility, flexibility and grace under pressure.
"Excellent ministers are agile ministers. They move fluidly across a range of responsibilities, from the sublime to the everyday and the tedious."
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April 08, 2009
Here, a group of young women at Spelman College's Sister's Center for WISDOM share powerful testimony of the ways in which the issues of race and gender have affected their responses to God's call on their lives. The second person to speak is Meredith Coleman Tobias, a 2007 FTE Ministry Fellow from Yale Divinity School.
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