[November2004 journal entry]
The small inner-city congregation I served part-time as minister (1976-79) while completing my doctoral course work and beginning my dissertation work -- became increasingly polarized. Most of the longtime members became more and more defensive as the number of new and untraditional members grew. Several friends were ready to lead the new and untraditional members in forming a separate congregation if I would make a long-term commitment to the experiment. My other two options – to finish my doctoral program with Dr. Hinson at Southern Seminary before going to Oxford University to do a second doctoral program with Maurice Wiles (a Patristics specialist with additional scholarly stature as an interpreter of the 1950s/60s ‘God is dead’ tumult within the ‘religious’ sphere) or to join the Harding Graduate School faculty in Memphis. I chose Memphis. What if I had chosen Louisville? What if I had chosen Oxford?
