collageAt Cheryl Bridges Johns Pentecostal Theological Seminary, our emphasis is to provide you with the tools necessary to meet the challenges of ministry. We exist so that you can be effective in leading your congregation or organization. Our goal is to give you practical and relevant training that you need to succeed as a leader and disciple.
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Cheryl Bridges Johns Pentecostal Theological Seminary
Dr. Cheryl Bridges Johns
B.A., Lee College, 1975
M.A., Wheaton College, 1976
Ph.D., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1987
Cheryl Bridges Johns serves in the Robert E. Fisher Chair of Spiritual Renewal. She is past President of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. From 1996-2002 she was a member of the Executive Board for the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. In 1997 she was named a Henry Luce III Fellow. Dr. Bridges Johns currently chairs the Henry Luce III Fellowship Selection Committee. She served on the Selection Committee for the ATS Lilly Faculty Grants and chaired the committee for one year. From 2003-2005 she was a member of the Doctoral Dissertation Award Committee for the Fund for Theological Education. She was a member of the Selection Committee for the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Religion (2007).
Dr. Bridges Johns is a leading ecumenist, representing the Pentecostal movement in several venues. She was a participant in the International Roman Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue, and was a long- term member of Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT). She was active in the Commission on Faith and Order for the National Council of Churches (1992-1996) and served on its Executive Committee. She has participated in a number of World Council of Churches initiatives. Dr. Bridges Johns is part of the ongoing Mennonite (USA)-Church of God Dialogue. She has delivered plenary address at the Global Christian Forum meeting in Kenya (2007) and at National Meeting for Christian Churches Together (2014).
Dr. Bridges Johns has been invited to deliver several lectures, including the Jamison Jones Lecturing in Preaching at the Divinity School, Duke University; Focus on Ministry Lectures at Christian Theological Seminary (1998); Holy Living Lectures, Haggard School of Theology, Azusa Pacific University (2004); Smyth Lectures, Columbia Theological Seminary (2008). She had been a guest lecturer for the Center for Theology at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (2007); St Paul School of Theology 1998, 2005); Emmanuel College, Victoria University (1998); Chandler Divinity School, Duke University (1992); Regent College, University of British Columbia; Center for Theological Inquiry, Princeton Theological Seminary (2006); Orebro Theological College, Orebro, Sweden (2004).
Dr. Bridges Johns is the author of Finding Eternal Treasures and Pentecostal Formation: A Pedagogy Among the Oppressed. She has written numerous articles for academic journals and presented numerous papers at academic conferences. At its General Assembly In 2012 the Church of God honored Dr. Bridges Johns with its Distinguished Educator Faculty Award. In 2013 her alma mater, Emmanuel College, named her for the G. Earl Beatty Servant Leadership Award.
Dr. Bridges Johns is married to Jackie David Johns and they have two daughters and five grandchildren.
email: cjohns@ptseminary.edu
- May 25, 2020
This conversation with Cheryl Bridges Johns is rich and deep. If you haven’t found her already, you need to listen. Dr. Johns serves in the Robert E. Fisher Chair of Spiritual Renewal at Pentecostal Theological Seminary. She carries the fire of a Pentecostal and the heart of a social activist. What humbles and inspires us most is that with thousands of Twitter followers and a national platform, she so graciously gives her time to anyone ready for a serious conversation about what it means to see the Kingdom come. Thanks, Cheryl, for a great discussion!
Links:
– Follow Cheryl on Twitter
– Seven Transforming Gifts of Menopause by Cheryl Bridges Johns
– Sola Sancta Caritas by Joseph Dongell
** Special offer for listeners: 16 Seedbed Seedlings for $25 **
The Yes that is a No – Cheryl Bridges Johns
Another story of two sons, one who said yes and didn’t follow through, the other who said no but then did the father’s will. Ruby Turpin, a fine southern woman in Flannery O’Connor’s story, was a follower of Jesus, and respectable in her own mind. But when she encountered a “white trash” woman who spoke a piercing message to her from Jesus, she had a transforming meeting with the one to whom she had said yes, realizing she had been acting in the no. Cheryl identifies with this character so strongly that she asserts that Jesus sometimes calls her by the name of Ruby Turpin, beckoning her to come on the bus of salvation, and have a seat at the back.
Interview: Cheryl Bridges Johns, Professor of Spiritual Renewal
‘Women need permission to be angry, and I’m giving them permission’
Integrating the topics of mind and body is not too difficult. The Pentecostal Theological Seminary [in Cleveland, Tennessee] sees itself as a place for spiritual and personal formation as well as academic training. I’ve moved into a semi-retirement phase in the senior faculty; so I teach one course per semester. Right now, I’m focusing on writing and speaking.
We in the West continue to think of ourselves as the centre of the world. I try to help Western Christians de-centre a bit by serving as a bridge between two worlds. The axis of Christianity has shifted to the global South, creating new forms of spirituality that are not closely tied to the European Protestant Reformation and Roman Catholicism.
In particular, Pentecostalism is not only its own unique wing of Christianity: it is “Pentecostalising” all of Christianity. An Anglican from Uganda has some form of Pentecostal faith. A Lutheran living in Ethiopia is a “Pentecostal Lutheran”. Most of the younger Roman Catholic priests in Brazil are Charismatic/Pentecostal. One in 12 people on the planet identify as Pentecostal. This data has not reached the hearts and minds of most Western Christians.
As in all forms of crisis, Covid-19 presents dangers, but it also offers opportunities to revisit priorities. For the Church in the US, this pandemic is a season of “winnowing”, meaning it reveals our idols, such as hyper-individualism and nationalism.
For me, not much has changed. I was already teaching using Zoom technology as well as in-class instruction. Seven Transforming Gifts of the Menopause was released in March: promoting it now means less travel and in-person gatherings and more podcasts and online interviews.
I began writing on menopause as primarily a biological and psychosocial process. But, as I went deeper into my research, I discovered how the developmental window at menopause offers women opportunities to move out of their first half of life as “spiritual holding containers”.Advertisement
I discovered that the feared things surrounding menopause are actually signals for change. For instance, increase in anger provides opportunities for women to deal with repressed issues.
Within every Christian woman lives the message “An angry woman is evil and sinful,” or “An angry woman is a bitch.” I hope that my book will help women develop anger competency and find righteous power in it. Women need permission to be angry, and I’m giving them permission. We need more publications and sermons that help women see anger as the possibility of righteous power. The #MeToo movement has been helpful toward this end.
The saddest thing that I discovered was how a woman’s experiences of early life trauma make it extremely difficult for her to navigate perimenopause, especially when there are few mental-health resources.
I discovered, too, that my experiences as a woman were not that unusual, and how those experiences could be analysed in a healthy manner. I wanted to help other women learn to read their bodies.
The Church pretty much follows the pattern of the larger society in ignoring the lifelong journey of women. Women at mid-life are expected to be the same as they were in young adulthood. The Church offers few safe places for anger, and no support groups for women during perimenopause. There are no rites of passage for women, and no ways of honouring older, post-menopausal women as elders. In Evangelical circles, women are often expected to continue in their support-giving and nurturing roles. They are allowed to age, but they are not given permission to mature.
I grew up in rural southern US, as a child of the woods and a child of the Church. Both nature and the Church were safe places for me. As you can see in the book, I encourage women to connect more with nature and to find a church that is safe for their voice.
Growing up in a Pentecostal church, I had many experiences of God. Early in life I was aware of God’s presence. The Elders of the church encouraged me to develop my gifts. In my tradition, people used a phrase: “We sense God has his hand on your life,” to encourage young people to develop their calling or ministerial vocation.
In 1907, just a year following the Azusa Street Revival, my great-grandmother received what we call the baptism of the Holy Spirit during a camp meeting. As a result, she became a “shouting Methodist”: something that did not sit well with her home church. They asked her to leave.OTHER STORIESChurches’ £12.4 billion contribution to UK is under threat, Archbishops warnTHE Archbishops of Canterbury and York have warned that without state support the Church’s multi-billion-pound contribution to social welfare is in jeopardy
My great-grandfather told her: “Sally, if you want a place to shout, I will build you a place.” They built a church, but my great-grandmother never served as official pastor. They joined what became the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, and pastors were appointed to the congregation. I grew up with male pastors, but with the legacy of my great-grandmother. Her portrait hung in the vestibule of the church. Her image was the “icon” of our faith. She died long before I was born, but at my church she was very much alive.
The church and the denomination were open to women, but few women actually served as senior pastors. I was encouraged to use my gifts: music, teaching, and preaching. Because I live in another state, it’s been many years since I visited. I hope they continue openness to women.
In young adulthood, I discovered that most churches were not like the church of my childhood. Pentecostal churches in the US have become more like Evangelical US churches: highly patriarchal, and often the least safe space for women.
I’d like to create a safe space for women who have left the organised Church.
Some women have found community and acceptance and voice in places such as Twitter. The internet was a galvanising factor in movements such as #MeToo. In the long run, I hope there can be more actual safe places. All humans, especially women, long for safe and loving interpersonal space — but, for now, the internet is life-saving for many women.
The book I’m presently working on, Re-Enchanting the Text: The Bible for a new generation, is my attempt to rescue the Bible from the constraints of modernity. Modernity has flattened the text, reducing it to an object. In that sense, the Bible has experienced the same fate as most of the world: objectified, controlled, and devoid of any form of enchantment. I investigate the ontology of scripture, in which the Holy Spirit is actively present in the textual landscape of the Bible.
Lies We Believe About Creation is a book for a broader audience. It looks at assumptions about the world and creation as a whole that are false. These assumptions come from distorted theology as well as distorted views of the natural world.
The nationalism in US churches is the touchstone of my anger right now. And President Trump.
I’m happiest being in nature: camping and hiking with my husband; or playing with my grandchildren.Advertisement
I love the sounds of nature: the call of a bobwhite quail in the morning, and the sounds of whippoorwills at night; the wind in the trees; and a mountain stream.
I have hope in the younger generation of women, who are more vocal in terms of justice.
I pray through some of the hopeful passages in Isaiah: for the Spirit to be poured out from on high; for the earth to flourish and Jesus’s words — the renewal of all things. I pray for the healing of creation.
If I was locked in a church with someone for a few hours, I’d love to worship and pray with my friend Beth Moore. She has a deep spirituality and wisdom. She’s grounded in the scriptures, but also keenly aware of the times in which we live.
Cheryl Bridges Johns was talking to Terence Handley MacMath.
Seven Transforming Gifts of Menopause is published by Brazos Press at £10.99 (£9.89).
cheryl bridges johns pentecostal theological seminary usa
Cheryl Bridges Johns (Ph.D., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the Robert E. Fisher Chair of Spiritual Renewal at Pentecostal Theological Seminary. She has researched the ways human development intersects with spiritual transformation for over three decades. Johns was formerly co-pastor of New Covenant Church of God in Cleveland, Tennessee. She is a leading ecumenist, representing the Pentecostal movement in several venues, and is past president of the Society for Pentecostal Studies.
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