Emily Nelms Chastain - Southern Methodist University (original) (raw)
Journal Articles by Emily Nelms Chastain
‘Break[ing] the System’: How the Methodist Student Movement Motivated a Generation to Challenge Their Denomination’s Segregationist Polity
Wesley and Methodist Studies, 2025
The Methodist Student Movement (MSM) emerged just before the 1939 denominational inauguration and... more The Methodist Student Movement (MSM) emerged just before the 1939 denominational inauguration and catalyzed engaged youth within the Methodist Church. Facilitated through national to local leadership, it aimed at educating and empowering young adults via Wesley Foundations, National Conferences, and civic involvement. Its work turned contentious as youth pressed for quicker desegregation in defiance of the Church’s sluggish stance. This conflict highlighted a divergence in theological adherence regarding equality, leading to the gradual dissolution of MSM tools and youth participation. The denomination’s reluctance to address segregation aligned with its theological discipline clashed with the urgency felt by MSM members. The General Conference’s slow response led to the disappearance of organizational support and youth involvement, underscoring the clash between tradition and the evolving social conscience.
Conference Presentations by Emily Nelms Chastain
Reviving the Radical: The Legacy of the Methodist Student Movement within Wesleyan Tradition
American Academy of Religion, 2024
This paper investigates the Methodist Student Movement (MSM), a significant yet often overlooked ... more This paper investigates the Methodist Student Movement (MSM), a significant yet often overlooked chapter in Methodist history, which replicated the Wesleyan movement’s zeal for social holiness. Emerging in the late 1930s, the MSM mobilized young Methodists through innovative campus ministry, leadership development, and social activism. By understanding the historical context and legacies of the MSM, this research seeks to identify how students received Wesleyan theology and formation and activated it into advocacy for the racial integration of The Methodist Church.
All the World’s My Syllabus: Necessary Adjustments to Methodist Studies Curriculum in a Globalized Church
American Academy of Religion, 2023
The United Methodist Church (UMC) in the United States has become the minority of membership in t... more The United Methodist Church (UMC) in the United States has become the minority of membership in the world’s largest Wesleyan denomination. In 2022, Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) celebrated 23% international students in its incoming class of Masters students, evidence that American Methodist seminaries are now training clergy from around the world and for service in a diversity of cultural context. Yet the curriculum of Methodist Studies coursework has yet to catch up to the realities of this diverse and globalized church. Through historical case studies and experiences with the diverse student body at BUSTH, this paper considers necessary adjustments to decolonize and diversify Methodist Studies (with a focus on History and Doctrine) in the MDiv curriculum, provides a review of exciting new global sources, and names gaps in research still needed to meet the needs of educating clergy in a diverse and globalized Wesleyan/Methodist church.
The Francis Burns Effect: How a Transnational Missionary Transformed the Liberian Methodist Mission
Wesleyan Theological Society, 2023
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) inaugurated its foreign mission to Africa through the Republ... more The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) inaugurated its foreign mission to Africa through the Republic of Liberia in 1833, in partnership with the American Colonization Society. Known American preacher and former indentured servant Francis Burns accepted the opportunity to travel to Liberia to work as a missionary. Within 10 years, Burns developed such a reputation that he was elected to ordination as an elder and placed into supervision of one of the circuits of the Liberian mission. As a result of his time there and his growing popularity, Burns became the first black resident bishop of an African episcopal area after his leadership led the conference toward more self-sufficiency. Burns led the episcopal area for five years until his death in 1863.
This paper discusses the evangelistic work of Francis Burns and how it played a pivotal role in the development and growth of the Liberia Methodist Episcopal mission’s focus, but also in the evolution of the organization of the area in missional relationship with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Although Burns was Americo-Liberian, he ensured that the focus of the mission area became that of enculturation and civilization of the native peoples within the boundaries of the Republic of Liberia. Burns encouraged partnerships with the native tribes of the area while also extending the offering of education through schools and churches to promote well-being and personal growth. While also shifting the mission focus from colonization to that of civilization, Burns also pushed the region to grow independently and self-sufficient, while concurrently decreasing the need for funding coming from the United States.
Advancing a New “Woman Question:” M. Madeline Southard’s International Association of Women Preachers and Their Push for Women’s Right to the Pulpit
University of California - Irvine Graduate Student History Conference, 2022
Following a multitude of addressed invitations from one M. Madeline Southard, the first meeting o... more Following a multitude of addressed invitations from one M. Madeline Southard, the first meeting of the International Association of Women Preachers commenced on November 21, 1919, at the Young Women’s Christian Association in St. Louis, Missouri. Southard planned and founded the meeting with the hopes of uniting women preachers in a collegial manner, just as other women’s organizations had garnered community regarding advocacy issues. In her journal, she remembered the events of the day, and wrote, “ There has been little to encourage women preachers.” The creation of the IAWP provided a balm to those wounds. During the day’s long meeting that hosted between thirty and forty women, the group approved and adopted a Constitution and a Declaration of Principles. The IAWP, created as an advocacy organization for clergywomen’s rights across the ecumenical world, served those who had been accepted for ordination and those who had been denied and needed support. Southard detailed the event in her journal: “Our purpose as I wrote it and the gathering accepted it is to promote fellowship among ourselves, secure equal ecclesiastical rights for women and encourage capable and consecrated young women to enter the work of the ministry.” IAWP’s charter membership included twenty-four women from nine denominations, making it an interdenominational association for professional women preachers. In this paper, using M. Madeline Southard and the IAWP as a model, I will explore how women’s ostracization from public and private spheres of leadership have necessitated means of community, which provided means of support and communication to keep women educated on the most current topics. This model, which peaked in the early 20th century, is still in use today to provide a haven and safe space for marginalized people.
Book Reviews by Emily Nelms Chastain
Book Review: The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism: Emerging Trends from Everywhere to Everywhere, Reading Religion, eds. David Scott and Darryl Stephens, January 2024.
Reading Religion, 2023
Talks by Emily Nelms Chastain
Methodist Women in History
Un-Tied Methodism, 2021
Articles/Blogs by Emily Nelms Chastain
Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 2023
8-part series on newly elected women bishops in the UMC
Parity Among Methodist Clergy
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 2022
Connexionalism Vital to Continued Ministry of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 2022
Sexual Ethics Remain Vital to the United Methodist Church
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 2022
Clergywomen Promote Hope and Healing
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 2022
Laywomen Promote Hope and Healing
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 2022
Deaconesses Promote Hope and Healing
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women Blog, 2022
One of the first professionalized modes of ministry for women came in the role of deaconesses. Th... more One of the first professionalized modes of ministry for women came in the role of deaconesses. The deaconess, modeled first by Phoebe in Romans 16:1-2, is a consecrated position for women. In various denominations, the deaconess has different functions and specializations. The modern-day movement of deaconesses really ramped up in 1830, following the implementation of the order by the Lutherans. Initially, the role required celibacy and avoiding marriage. Once a woman married, she was “retired” from deaconess service. In the Methodist tradition, deaconesses have typically been an office of laywomen. However, beyond the 1939 merger, when the north, south, and Methodist Protestants merged, they moved the office of deaconess under the Women’s Division for Christian Service. In 2004, they added the role of home missioner for men to have equal opportunity to serve in unique ways that did not require ordination. Deaconesses became a major outlet for Methodist Episcopal women in the late nineteenth century to serve the oppressed and marginalized of their communities while also expanding their capabilities beyond that of socially-constructed domesticity.
The Foremothers of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women Blog, 2022
The work of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women continues beyond its initial f... more The work of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women continues beyond its initial fifty years, but GCSRW’s existence does not constitute the whole of advocacy for women’s full participation in the life of the Church. As we continue to celebrate the pivotal role that GCSRW has modeled for Methodists, we also want to commemorate a few of the foremothers in Methodism who helped create a pathway for GCSRW’s institutionalization as a standing agency of The United Methodist Church. These women championed for equal acknowledgment of women in service and ministry to their congregations and communities and thereby empowered other women to follow their lead. Though structurally, women had limited official means to usher in a change in their status and role in the denomination, many women found significant ways to challenge the system through writing and speaking to Methodist women who sought their own expressions of ministry, while also seeking to confront social issues with a lens of intersectionality.
The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women: Advocating for Women for 50 Years
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women Blog, 2022
In order to see the progress of GCSRW, one must glimpse at its historical progress through its fi... more In order to see the progress of GCSRW, one must glimpse at its historical progress through its fifty years and see how much the United Methodist Church has accomplished in providing more equity to all of its members and leadership. In upcoming months, GCSRW wishes to celebrate the tools that have maintained women’s presence and participation in the life of Methodism. Each month, we will highlight a specific ministry of GCSRW and how its function contributes to the agency’s mission and to the Church’s everyday function. This momentous walk through the history of GCSRW shows the agency’s necessity in our past as well as its continuance into our future. In exploring our journey, we will examine the programmatic and advocacy functions of GCSRW on its various levels and highlight many of the courageous people who committed themselves to this work, and on whose shoulders we, as an agency, stand today.
Collaborative Articles by Emily Nelms Chastain
Emerging Methodism, Jul 30, 2019
A progressive theology must be willing to consider the expanse of God's work outside of one’s own... more A progressive theology must be willing to consider the expanse of God's work outside of one’s own mental framework and understanding. In that sense, progressive theological thinking provides space outside of our own experience for God to work. Furthermore, it is an invitation into the greater liberative work of God for ourselves, as a journey toward community with others through expressions of love, mercy and grace. If we cannot conceive that God works beyond our own scope with that framework of understanding, it will be impossible for us to understand how God includes all within the work of salvation. If we use our human lens to conceive God's inclusion, we will always continue to exclude based on our systemic sin. However, if we formulate God's engagement based on the life of Jesus, who as God in the flesh lived, died and resurrected, then we can move away from the legalist tendencies to create community in our own image, and we move into a life of compassion.
Master's Thesis by Emily Nelms Chastain
Master's Thesis
Within the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church, women hold the majority demo... more Within the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church, women hold the majority demographic of membership across the jurisdiction’s churches. However, the leadership does not fully reflect the membership of Methodists across the southeast. This project and recent research reflects on the earliest attempts and failures to place women into the role of the episcopacy and offers insightful strategies employed by three specific candidates, whose elections were groundbreaking and offered significant impact to the jurisdiction and United Methodist denomination as a whole. By expanding the diversity of the episcopal role within the southeast, the leadership is beginning to look more like its membership. This research identifies specific election strategies that might be executed by others seeking the office, as a way to bring even more equity to the episcopacy.
Graduate School Papers by Emily Nelms Chastain
Christians believe in the Reign of God, or the world as God intended, is both a current and futur... more Christians believe in the Reign of God, or the world as God intended, is both a current and future reality. However, it is difficult to imagine a perfect world that God designed when oppression and marginalization are a present existence. In order to proclaim the Gospel to those who are experiencing systemic suffering, the liberation sought spiritually often necessitates an authentic approach that provides physical, social, or systemic relief. In this sense, the optimal opportunity to share the message of Jesus Christ and the Reign of God comes with supplying needs to enact justice in the life of a person or a community.
‘Break[ing] the System’: How the Methodist Student Movement Motivated a Generation to Challenge Their Denomination’s Segregationist Polity
Wesley and Methodist Studies, 2025
The Methodist Student Movement (MSM) emerged just before the 1939 denominational inauguration and... more The Methodist Student Movement (MSM) emerged just before the 1939 denominational inauguration and catalyzed engaged youth within the Methodist Church. Facilitated through national to local leadership, it aimed at educating and empowering young adults via Wesley Foundations, National Conferences, and civic involvement. Its work turned contentious as youth pressed for quicker desegregation in defiance of the Church’s sluggish stance. This conflict highlighted a divergence in theological adherence regarding equality, leading to the gradual dissolution of MSM tools and youth participation. The denomination’s reluctance to address segregation aligned with its theological discipline clashed with the urgency felt by MSM members. The General Conference’s slow response led to the disappearance of organizational support and youth involvement, underscoring the clash between tradition and the evolving social conscience.
Reviving the Radical: The Legacy of the Methodist Student Movement within Wesleyan Tradition
American Academy of Religion, 2024
This paper investigates the Methodist Student Movement (MSM), a significant yet often overlooked ... more This paper investigates the Methodist Student Movement (MSM), a significant yet often overlooked chapter in Methodist history, which replicated the Wesleyan movement’s zeal for social holiness. Emerging in the late 1930s, the MSM mobilized young Methodists through innovative campus ministry, leadership development, and social activism. By understanding the historical context and legacies of the MSM, this research seeks to identify how students received Wesleyan theology and formation and activated it into advocacy for the racial integration of The Methodist Church.
All the World’s My Syllabus: Necessary Adjustments to Methodist Studies Curriculum in a Globalized Church
American Academy of Religion, 2023
The United Methodist Church (UMC) in the United States has become the minority of membership in t... more The United Methodist Church (UMC) in the United States has become the minority of membership in the world’s largest Wesleyan denomination. In 2022, Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) celebrated 23% international students in its incoming class of Masters students, evidence that American Methodist seminaries are now training clergy from around the world and for service in a diversity of cultural context. Yet the curriculum of Methodist Studies coursework has yet to catch up to the realities of this diverse and globalized church. Through historical case studies and experiences with the diverse student body at BUSTH, this paper considers necessary adjustments to decolonize and diversify Methodist Studies (with a focus on History and Doctrine) in the MDiv curriculum, provides a review of exciting new global sources, and names gaps in research still needed to meet the needs of educating clergy in a diverse and globalized Wesleyan/Methodist church.
The Francis Burns Effect: How a Transnational Missionary Transformed the Liberian Methodist Mission
Wesleyan Theological Society, 2023
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) inaugurated its foreign mission to Africa through the Republ... more The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) inaugurated its foreign mission to Africa through the Republic of Liberia in 1833, in partnership with the American Colonization Society. Known American preacher and former indentured servant Francis Burns accepted the opportunity to travel to Liberia to work as a missionary. Within 10 years, Burns developed such a reputation that he was elected to ordination as an elder and placed into supervision of one of the circuits of the Liberian mission. As a result of his time there and his growing popularity, Burns became the first black resident bishop of an African episcopal area after his leadership led the conference toward more self-sufficiency. Burns led the episcopal area for five years until his death in 1863.
This paper discusses the evangelistic work of Francis Burns and how it played a pivotal role in the development and growth of the Liberia Methodist Episcopal mission’s focus, but also in the evolution of the organization of the area in missional relationship with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Although Burns was Americo-Liberian, he ensured that the focus of the mission area became that of enculturation and civilization of the native peoples within the boundaries of the Republic of Liberia. Burns encouraged partnerships with the native tribes of the area while also extending the offering of education through schools and churches to promote well-being and personal growth. While also shifting the mission focus from colonization to that of civilization, Burns also pushed the region to grow independently and self-sufficient, while concurrently decreasing the need for funding coming from the United States.
Advancing a New “Woman Question:” M. Madeline Southard’s International Association of Women Preachers and Their Push for Women’s Right to the Pulpit
University of California - Irvine Graduate Student History Conference, 2022
Following a multitude of addressed invitations from one M. Madeline Southard, the first meeting o... more Following a multitude of addressed invitations from one M. Madeline Southard, the first meeting of the International Association of Women Preachers commenced on November 21, 1919, at the Young Women’s Christian Association in St. Louis, Missouri. Southard planned and founded the meeting with the hopes of uniting women preachers in a collegial manner, just as other women’s organizations had garnered community regarding advocacy issues. In her journal, she remembered the events of the day, and wrote, “ There has been little to encourage women preachers.” The creation of the IAWP provided a balm to those wounds. During the day’s long meeting that hosted between thirty and forty women, the group approved and adopted a Constitution and a Declaration of Principles. The IAWP, created as an advocacy organization for clergywomen’s rights across the ecumenical world, served those who had been accepted for ordination and those who had been denied and needed support. Southard detailed the event in her journal: “Our purpose as I wrote it and the gathering accepted it is to promote fellowship among ourselves, secure equal ecclesiastical rights for women and encourage capable and consecrated young women to enter the work of the ministry.” IAWP’s charter membership included twenty-four women from nine denominations, making it an interdenominational association for professional women preachers. In this paper, using M. Madeline Southard and the IAWP as a model, I will explore how women’s ostracization from public and private spheres of leadership have necessitated means of community, which provided means of support and communication to keep women educated on the most current topics. This model, which peaked in the early 20th century, is still in use today to provide a haven and safe space for marginalized people.
Book Review: The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism: Emerging Trends from Everywhere to Everywhere, Reading Religion, eds. David Scott and Darryl Stephens, January 2024.
Reading Religion, 2023
Methodist Women in History
Un-Tied Methodism, 2021
Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 2023
8-part series on newly elected women bishops in the UMC
Parity Among Methodist Clergy
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 2022
Connexionalism Vital to Continued Ministry of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 2022
Sexual Ethics Remain Vital to the United Methodist Church
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 2022
Clergywomen Promote Hope and Healing
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 2022
Laywomen Promote Hope and Healing
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 2022
Deaconesses Promote Hope and Healing
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women Blog, 2022
One of the first professionalized modes of ministry for women came in the role of deaconesses. Th... more One of the first professionalized modes of ministry for women came in the role of deaconesses. The deaconess, modeled first by Phoebe in Romans 16:1-2, is a consecrated position for women. In various denominations, the deaconess has different functions and specializations. The modern-day movement of deaconesses really ramped up in 1830, following the implementation of the order by the Lutherans. Initially, the role required celibacy and avoiding marriage. Once a woman married, she was “retired” from deaconess service. In the Methodist tradition, deaconesses have typically been an office of laywomen. However, beyond the 1939 merger, when the north, south, and Methodist Protestants merged, they moved the office of deaconess under the Women’s Division for Christian Service. In 2004, they added the role of home missioner for men to have equal opportunity to serve in unique ways that did not require ordination. Deaconesses became a major outlet for Methodist Episcopal women in the late nineteenth century to serve the oppressed and marginalized of their communities while also expanding their capabilities beyond that of socially-constructed domesticity.
The Foremothers of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women Blog, 2022
The work of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women continues beyond its initial f... more The work of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women continues beyond its initial fifty years, but GCSRW’s existence does not constitute the whole of advocacy for women’s full participation in the life of the Church. As we continue to celebrate the pivotal role that GCSRW has modeled for Methodists, we also want to commemorate a few of the foremothers in Methodism who helped create a pathway for GCSRW’s institutionalization as a standing agency of The United Methodist Church. These women championed for equal acknowledgment of women in service and ministry to their congregations and communities and thereby empowered other women to follow their lead. Though structurally, women had limited official means to usher in a change in their status and role in the denomination, many women found significant ways to challenge the system through writing and speaking to Methodist women who sought their own expressions of ministry, while also seeking to confront social issues with a lens of intersectionality.
The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women: Advocating for Women for 50 Years
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women Blog, 2022
In order to see the progress of GCSRW, one must glimpse at its historical progress through its fi... more In order to see the progress of GCSRW, one must glimpse at its historical progress through its fifty years and see how much the United Methodist Church has accomplished in providing more equity to all of its members and leadership. In upcoming months, GCSRW wishes to celebrate the tools that have maintained women’s presence and participation in the life of Methodism. Each month, we will highlight a specific ministry of GCSRW and how its function contributes to the agency’s mission and to the Church’s everyday function. This momentous walk through the history of GCSRW shows the agency’s necessity in our past as well as its continuance into our future. In exploring our journey, we will examine the programmatic and advocacy functions of GCSRW on its various levels and highlight many of the courageous people who committed themselves to this work, and on whose shoulders we, as an agency, stand today.
Emerging Methodism, Jul 30, 2019
A progressive theology must be willing to consider the expanse of God's work outside of one’s own... more A progressive theology must be willing to consider the expanse of God's work outside of one’s own mental framework and understanding. In that sense, progressive theological thinking provides space outside of our own experience for God to work. Furthermore, it is an invitation into the greater liberative work of God for ourselves, as a journey toward community with others through expressions of love, mercy and grace. If we cannot conceive that God works beyond our own scope with that framework of understanding, it will be impossible for us to understand how God includes all within the work of salvation. If we use our human lens to conceive God's inclusion, we will always continue to exclude based on our systemic sin. However, if we formulate God's engagement based on the life of Jesus, who as God in the flesh lived, died and resurrected, then we can move away from the legalist tendencies to create community in our own image, and we move into a life of compassion.
Master's Thesis
Within the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church, women hold the majority demo... more Within the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church, women hold the majority demographic of membership across the jurisdiction’s churches. However, the leadership does not fully reflect the membership of Methodists across the southeast. This project and recent research reflects on the earliest attempts and failures to place women into the role of the episcopacy and offers insightful strategies employed by three specific candidates, whose elections were groundbreaking and offered significant impact to the jurisdiction and United Methodist denomination as a whole. By expanding the diversity of the episcopal role within the southeast, the leadership is beginning to look more like its membership. This research identifies specific election strategies that might be executed by others seeking the office, as a way to bring even more equity to the episcopacy.
Christians believe in the Reign of God, or the world as God intended, is both a current and futur... more Christians believe in the Reign of God, or the world as God intended, is both a current and future reality. However, it is difficult to imagine a perfect world that God designed when oppression and marginalization are a present existence. In order to proclaim the Gospel to those who are experiencing systemic suffering, the liberation sought spiritually often necessitates an authentic approach that provides physical, social, or systemic relief. In this sense, the optimal opportunity to share the message of Jesus Christ and the Reign of God comes with supplying needs to enact justice in the life of a person or a community.
Throughout the annals of United Methodist history, the stories of its early episcopal leaders -al... more Throughout the annals of United Methodist history, the stories of its early episcopal leaders -all men -gloss the titles of various biographies highlighting their elections and tenures of episcopacy. Shelf by shelf, books of John Wesley, Francis Asbury, Thomas Coke, and Richard Allen describe their leadership in beginnings of Methodism in America. The early leaders sought to create a lively, charismatic movement, and most its earliest subscribers were overwhelmingly female, at times at a ratio of 2 to 1. These leaders encouraged women to lead 1 classes and exhort in society meetings, but were rarely given a license to preach. For nearly two hundred years, only men held the episcopal leadership of the Methodist Church, in its various forms, and the Church as a whole significantly questioned the validity of women's callings to the pulpit. Women were finally provided the opportunity for ordination as Methodist clergy in 1956, which brought forth the first episcopal election of a woman nearly twenty-five years later. While the stories of firsts for other episcopal leaders have been drafted in dozens of books, the stories of women bishops have yet to be written -primarily, because all but two of them are still alive.
This in-depth sermon and small group series will look at evangelism in new and expanded ways. Thr... more This in-depth sermon and small group series will look at evangelism in new and expanded ways. Throughout this 4-week sermon series, insight will be provided on how to distinguish more effective evangelism compared to traditional methods of churches within the conservative evangelical South. The sermon series also contains a small group option for discussion and deeper study. Using scripture and the heritage of Methodism, participants will hear four ways to engage evangelism differently. The series will be divided into four weeks, which cover theological foundations behind evangelism as social justice, evangelism as pastoral care, evangelism as hospitality, and evangelism as personal witness.