Rev. Dr. Jonathan Barnes (he/him/his)
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean
Professor of Church History and Mission
Pathways for Tomorrow Grant Program Director

Barnes has over a decade of international experience, serving in South Africa and Mozambique with Global Ministries (DoC and UCC) and in South Africa, Lesotho and eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) with the Mennonite Central Committee.

He received a BA from Gardner-Webb University (1993), a MDiv from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (2000), and a PhD from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (2010) in South Africa.  In addition to numerous journal articles, Barnes is the author of Power and Partnership: A History of the Protestant Mission Movement (Pickwick, 2013) and co-editor of Restoring Dignity, Nourishing Hope: Developing Mutuality in Mission (Pilgrim Press, 2016). More recently, he wrote “Mission and Ministry in the Age of Pandemics,” which appears in Threshold Dwellers in the Age of Global Pandemic (Pickwick, 2022) and is a guest editor for an issue of the Review & Expositor focusing on faith responses to imperial Christianity and Christian nationalism.

He received his Ph.D. in Religious Ethics from the University of Chicago, M.Div. at Vanderbilt University, and his B.S. at Texas Christian University. He is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He joined the HPU faculty after teaching at the University of Chicago and DePaul University.  He primarily taught in the areas of Business Ethics, Educational Ethics, Christian Theology, and Civic Responsibility and Social Innovation.

Dr. Blosser’s academic work specializes in the ethical implications of economic theory and Christian theology for community transformation.  He has published articles in the Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Journal of Religious Ethics, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory, Encounter, Homiletic, and Religious Studies Review. His book, Beyond Good Intentions, is due out in 2024 with Orbis Press.

Joe has chaired numerous nonprofit boards in High Point, NC. He current serves on the boards of the Guilford Educational Alliance, High Point Community Foundation, and High Point Regional/Atrium Health Medical Center. He also chairs the NC Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service. He was awarded the “Spirit of Advocacy” by the United Way of Greater High Point in 2015, named the “Community Partner of the Year” for Communities in Schools in 2018, and was the inaugural recipient of the Spirit of High Point University Award in 2018.

Dr. Blosser attends Emerywood Baptist Church with his wife Dr. Allie Blosser, who is the academic dean at New Garden Friends School, and their two kids, Seth and Beatrice. He and his family reside in High Point.

Rev. Dr. Kristel Clayville holds a PhD in Religious Ethics from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School. She is a Sinai and Synapses Fellow as well as a Senior Fellow at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. Formerly, she was the Acting Director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science. Clinically, she works as a chaplain and ethicist at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and focuses on the existential and spiritual issues facing organ transplant patients. Kristel’s early research was on the uses of the Hebrew Bible in environmental ethics, especially through the work of Holmes Rolston, III and Hans Jonas. More recently, she has turned toward the intersection between environmental ethics and bioethics to study the green burial movement and organ donation as genres of recycling. She actively pursues clinical research in how patients engage their religions to understand the medical care they are getting and make decisions about it. She is ordained in the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ.

John Hull has taught Hebrew Bible since 2009. He is Minister Emeritus at Beargrass Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, where he served as Minister of Faith Development from 1998—2019. An ordained Disciples of Christ minister, he previously served at First Christian Church of Atlanta and Temple City (CA) Christian Church. He has been visiting lecturer in Biblical Studies at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles) and has served as contingent faculty at colleges and seminaries in California and Texas.

Dr. Hull’s Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible is from Claremont Graduate University. He also has a M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and a B.A. in biblical studies from Azusa Pacific University.

The areas of the Hebrew Bible in which Dr. Hull specializes include narrative and prophetic literature. At LTS he has taught courses in the Deuteronomistic History (Joshua—Kings), the Prophets, the Book of Amos, and Ruth and Jonah. Dr. Hull has published articles on the books of Judges and Kings.

Dr. Hull is married to the Rev. Dr. Caryn Yoast, who holds a D.Min. from LTS. They now live in Erie, Colorado between Boulder and Denver and have two daughters who also live in Colorado. Dr. Hull enjoys hiking and backpacking, fly fishing, cooking, photography and American and family history. He has great concern for climate and the environment as well as justice.

M.Div., Duke University Divinity School (1978)
D. Min., Ashland Theological Seminary (2009)

Dr. Lee holds the B.S. degree from Virginia State University, the M.Div. degree from Duke University Divinity School, and the D.Min. degree from Ashland Theological Seminary.  Dr. Lee is pastor of Loudon Avenue Christian Church, Roanoke, Virginia, a congregation he has led for over 34 years, turning it into a major force for improvement in the city of Roanoke and one of the leading congregations among the Christian Churches in Virginia.  He is also a former moderator of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and is vice-moderator of the LTS Board of Trustees.

In May 1996, Rev. Moore graduated from Tuskegee University, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science. In May 2011, received his Master of Divinity Degree from Lexington Theological Seminary, and received his Doctor of Ministry Degree from the United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio in May 2017.

Dr. Moore is the former Moderator of the Consolidated Baptist District Association and presently serves as the 1^st Vice Moderator of the General Association of Baptists in Kentucky. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Lexington Theological Seminary and as a DMin Advisor/Reader for the Doctor of Ministry program. He is presently a Co-Chair of the Lexington-based social justice organization BUILD which stands for Building a United Interfaith Lexington through Direct-action. Pastor Moore is also a member of the Black Faith Leaders of Lexington and Vicinity.

Rev. Moore is the 14^th pastor of First African Baptist Church (FABC), Lexington, KY. He accepted the call on June 27, 2009. FABC’s mission is to be “The Church In The Community For The Hearts Of The Community.” The 4 Steps to achieving the mission is to be A Hospitable Church, A Holy Church, A Healthy Church and A Helping Church.

B.A., Texas Christian University, 1995

Grad. Dip., Monash University, Melbourne, Aus., 1996

M.Div., Pacific School of Religion, 2000

Ph.D., Graduate Theological Union, 2011

Rev. Dr. Christy Newton received her Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in the interdisciplinary disciplines of theology, globalization, and material culture.  She is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) with a M.Div. from Pacific School of Religion, and she has served Disciples and United Church of Christ congregations in Arkansas and California for over 20 years.  She also worked in campus ministry/church relations at Chapman University in Orange, California.

Currently, she serves as the Senior Minister of the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Vallejo, California, and she teaches online courses in social ethics, practical theology, and spirituality for Lexington Theological Seminary and Pacific School of Religion.

Her ministry and teaching focus on the gritty, tangible intersections of embodying justice, translating a prophetic gospel message into widely-accessible language and action, and using the arts to open up the deeply transformative possibilities of the spirit.  She is energized by practical and public theologies that insist on hospitality and compassion, and she is inspired to help individuals and communities find ways to sustain their prophetic voices in a difficult and polarized world.

M.C.M. (Church Music), Southern Seminary in Louisville

M.Div., Southern Seminary in Louisville

Ph.D., (Liturgical Studies) Drew University in Madison, New Jersey

The Rev. Dr. John T. Opsata is the senior minister of First Christian Church, Frankfort, Kentucky. Before that he was the pastor of Lakewood Christian Church (Lakewood, OH), and North Middletown Christian Church (North Middletown, KY), as well as associate pastor of Jeffersontown Christian Church (Jeffersontown, KY). He holds a Ph.D. in liturgical studies from Drew University where he wrote his dissertation on “Order at the Table: Lord’s Supper Services in the Disciples of Christ 1883-1960.” Before entering the ministry he had a career as a choir director and minister of music. He teaches preaching and worship in the Lay School of Ministry of the Christian Church in Kentucky, and has written a variety of worship aids, especially related to music in worship.

Dr. Christopher Rodkey is a public theologian in south-central Pennsylvania, where is he Pastor of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Dallastown, PA. He is a graduate of St. Vincent College (B.A.), the University of Chicago (M.Div.), Meadville Lombard Theological School (D.Min.), and Drew University (Ph.D.). He regularly teaches philosophy at Penn State York, where he was awarded the Burness Award for Excellence in Teaching, and has had extensive training in online pedagogy and course design from Penn State’s Global Campus. He holds lifetime certification as a Specialist in Religious Education from the United Church of Christ and has substantial ministry experience in children’s, youth, and young adult ministries.

Dr. Rodkey’s publications include The Synaptic Gospel (2012), Too Good to be True (2014), The World is Crucifixion (2016), The Palgrave Handbook of Radical Theology (co-editor, 2018), and The Bonhoeffer Chrism Mass (2020). He has additionally co-created a series of three devotional coloring books for Chalice Press and was on the revision team for God & Me (2020), one of the scouting awards programs for children from P.R.A.Y. publications. He currently is a recipient of a research grant from The Louisville Institute on contemporary confirmation practices in the American church.

Since 2006 Rev. Dr. Rochelle Stackhouse has been the pastor of the Church of the Redeemer UCC in New Haven, CT, and since her ordination by the United Church of Christ in 1982, she has served churches in rural Michigan, just outside New York City, suburban Massachusetts, and interims in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She holds a PhD in Liturgical Studies from Drew University (NJ) and has taught as an adjunct at Lancaster, New Brunswick, Hartford, Moravian and Yale seminaries/divinity schools. She thinks preaching is one of the most fun things she gets to do most weeks, and feels strongly about the power of worship to connect people with God and one another in redemptive and world-changing ways. As someone who has sung in choirs all her life (including her current church’s choir), she revels in how God speaks through almost any kind of music.  Dr. Stackhouse also does occasional freelance writing for a variety of publications.

Rev. Dr. Christal LaShawn Williams

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Christal graduated from the Cleveland School of the Performing Arts, where she had a special emphasis on Vocal Music and Theory. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Jarvis Christian College, Hawkins, Texas; a Master of Divinity Degree from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana. Christal holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. On June 20, 1998, Christal was ordained a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) at Southport Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Dr. Christal is the proud Founder and President of Credo International Women’s Ministries, Incorporated and A.W.O.K.E. (Anointed Women Overseeing Kingdom Endeavors) and is the author of three books, The Power of Asking; Unleashing God’s Best For Your Life, Moving From Endangerment to Empowerment: Rediscovering the Word of God, Beneath It All: A Conversation Specifically For Women. Currently, serving as a member of the International Disciples Women’s Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), this transformational leader is respected by her colleagues and admired by her friends. In her role as Discovery mentor, Christal offers a thought provoking, contagious leadership that transcends lines of age, ethnicity, culture and theological boundaries. She has a host of trainings, multitudes of certifications and several awards. She is a proud member of The Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority, Inc., N.A.A.C.P and IMPACT Network Ministry. Chris is a member of the Board of Trustees of for the Christian Church Foundation, Vanderbilt Board of Visitors, and the Board of Trustees for the Disciple Divinity House at Vanderbilt.

Christal L. Williams has an extensive background in community service, mission work, education and pro-reconciling-anti-racism training, conflict resolution and mediation and Parker Palmer’s Circles of Trust Retreats. She is the author of three books, and a host of articles. Christal has one sister Kim, two nieces and two nephews and also, has four very special Godchildren. Dr. Christal’s hobbies include reading, traveling, music and photography. Her favorite scriptures are Isaiah 61, Ephesians 3:14-21, I John 4:7&8, Revelation 22.