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Featured Students |
Featured Student: April Alkema (Master of Arts in Theology: Theology and Arts emphasis)
April Alkema is from Yorba Linda, California, and earned her B.A. in Biblical Studies at Fresno Pacific University. She is currently working on her M.A. in Theology with a particular focus on theology and art and spiritual formation. April enjoys a variety of arts and crafts, but for the past several years has developed a particular interest in oil painting. In her experience, painting a portrait is like making a window to a soul.
April found out about the Brehm Center in a search for a seminary that included a way to study and work at the integration of theology and art. She read about Dr. Bill Dyrness' research project, Art and the Visual in Communities at Prayer, which she now works on as a research assistant. When she heard about the Brehm Center's trip to Orvieto, Italy, including classes in Medieval Theology and Art and Medieval Spirituality, the decision was made. After experiencing Orvieto, she is more strongly convinced that art and beauty play important roles in worship and spirituality. Praying the Hours, experiencing Mass and the beauty of medieval architecture with fellow students, and getting to know Brehm Center artist-in-residence Christopher Slatoff was a life-changing experience for her.
Her time here has led her to focus her studies on spirituality in addition to theology and art, and be open to the possibility of ministry as well as teaching. She plans to continue to take every opportunity for art-making during her time at Fuller.
Come by the Brehm Center to see April's newest work, Christ Within. The painting was her creative response for TC 519 Medieval Art and Theology with William Dyrness taught in Orvieto, Italy.
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Featured Student: Elijah Davison (Master of Arts in Worship, Theology, and the Arts)
Meet Elijah Davidson, a current Master of Arts student concentrating in Worship, Theology, and the Arts.
"I think we use a very limited vocabulary in our worship services," Elijah Davidson says, "and I don't think we really understand the depth of what the words we do use mean. Grace, joy, peace, hope, faith, love - these things are really quite profound and often not nearly as romantic as we make them out to be. I think we do a great disservice to our congregations and to God when we use these words flippantly. We need better songs." Elijah Davidson came to Fuller from Valley View, Texas, a small town (Population: 700) an hour and a half north of Dallas to study Worship, Theology, and the Arts because he wants to better know the things of God and to write better songs about those things.
"Good art and good people are created in community, too," continues Elijah, "I could know every nuance of every word in scripture, but if that knowledge isn't informing the way I live and the way I write, what use is it? I need to be challenged by other Christians to live a life of faith, and I need to be challenged by other Christian artists to write skillfully about it. It is not enough to simply create in Christ's Name; we must also be able to declare that what we create is ‘good.'"
To that end, Elijah has recently been part of establishing a new Fuller songwriting group, Progressions. Progressions is a chance for songwriters associated with the Fuller community to come together to encourage and critique one another's writing. "We can and must learn from each other," Elijah says, "We were not meant to live any part of our lives alone."
You can sample Elijah's writing on his obsessively updated blog, Wish You Were Here (elijahdavidson.blogspot.com), and you can listen to his song, "Love That Remains." If you would like more information about Progressions, feel free to contact Elijah at .
Featured Student: Valerie Mayhew (Master of Arts - Theology and Arts Format)
Meet Valerie Mayhew, currently completing her Master of Arts, Theology and Arts concentration. Valerie was the driving force behind the recent Man of La Mancha production.
Returning to graduate school at Fuller after many years in the professional world, Ms. Mayhew is thrilled to be directing MAN OF LA MANCHA, The Brehm Center's first fully staged theatrical production, which will be performing this April at the Worship & Arts Theater at La Canada Presbyterian Church and at The Laguna Playhouse.
As a graduate of New York's prestigious The Juilliard School, Drama Division, Ms. Mayhew's first love has always been theater, beginning as an actress and now, for the last 20 years, as a theater director specializing in musicals and new plays. Before forming her own theater company The Winged Lion Players, which focused on bringing professional productions to non-traditional performance spaces, especially houses of worship, Ms. Mayhew was a successful television writer/producer. Television writing credits include THE X-FILES (Fox), CHARMED (WB), THE FUGITIVE (CBS), VENGEANCE UNLIMITED (ABC) and THE INVISIBLE MAN (SciFi). Theater directing credits include Equity productions of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, THE FANTASTICKS, GODSPELL and the original revue AS THE SPIRIT MOVES among many others. Ms. Mayhew was a literary assistant at The Center Theater Group's New Works Festival and went on to develop and direct many new plays, including the Dramalogue award winning A NO LIFE CRISIS by Pauline Lepor, Ms. Lepor's CAROL'S EVE (starring Alicia Silverstone) and Farrell Hirsch's DIFFERENT STATES. Ms. Mayhew also directed a staged-reading of her own full-length theater piece (with composer Phillip Swann) TROMBONE: A NEW MUSICAL FROM THE POEMS OF JAMES WELDON JOHNSON at the Wilshire Ebell theater. Ms. Mayhew has had the privilege of working on charity theater projects with such notables as Anthony Hopkins and Dick Van Dyke, raising money for the homeless and hungry of Los Angeles. Ms. Mayhew has recently completed her first novel and is greatly indebted to her husband, screenwriter Matthew Greenberg, and their three children for their patience during the many hours she spends at school, writing and directing.
Featured Student: Ron Rienstra (PhD in Worship and Culture)
Meet Ron Rienstra, PhD student in Worship and Culture, professor of Preaching and Worship at Western Theological Seminary, and co-author of Worship Words: Disciplining Language for Faithful Ministry, from the Brehm Center's Engaging Worship series publish through Baker Academic.
Since his ordination in the RCA in 1993, Ron Rienstra has lived and ministered at educational institutions in Iowa (Central College), Michigan (Calvin College), and here at Fuller Seminary, pursuing his primary interest: helping preachers, congregations, worship teams, and individuals learn to deepen and enliven their gatherings with God. All the while, he has remained active in local church life as an interim pastor, preacher, worship leader and consultant.
Ron is currently finishing his dissertation as he works as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship at Western Theological Seminary in Holland Michigan. Never one to be idle, Ron is also working on advancing a number of diverse research projects: exploring postmodernism and its affect on worship and preaching, mapping the place of corporate worship in seminary education in North America, and developing a homiletical pedagogy based on the Suzuki music method.
Ron has published numerous articles in Reformed Worship (where he is a contributing editor), he is the author of Ten Service Plans for Contemporary Worship, volumes 1 & 2 (Faith Alive, 2002, 2006). He has recently published a worship curriculum for small groups, and the book Worship Words: Discipling Language for Faithful Ministry (Baker), co-authored with his wife, Debra Rienstra and the next in our series Engaging Worship. Worship Words will be officially released in February by Baker Academic. Buy a copy here.
Here is an excerpt from Worship Words titled "Feel It With Me Now"
As I have taught classes on preaching, I am surprised by how many students are skittish about attending carefully to the emotional contours of their sermons, about deliberately shaping their language in order to solicit an emotional response from their congregations. This skittishness is rooted in an appropriate fear of manipulative preaching. But let's think carefully about this for a moment. A preacher will usually have no qualms about wanting the congregation to think her thoughts after her. She will work at a logical presentation of material and careful diction so that it is comprehensible and persuasive. In doing so, she is not demanding or manipulating assent--though of course she is leading the congregation in a particular direction. In the same way, it does not seem manipulative or disingenuous for the preacher to preach in such a way that a congregation is led, emotionally, to feel the preacher's feelings after her. The preacher does not coerce a particular response, but does try to solicit it. This is no more manipulative than using logic well, provided--and this is crucial--the direction the preacher is headed is one determined by the scripture and the message of the gospel. In my experience, a great many sermons would be vastly improved if the preacher would create an "emotional" outline of his sermon as well as a logical one. Better still for a preacher to use whatever outline is appropriate to the sermon's content, and then at every point and subpoint of that outline, ask "what should people feel at this point? Remorse? Hope? Anger? Fear? Joy? How can I help my congregation to feel this way?" Inviting them to do so is not a way preachers bring congregants into an encounter with God; but we preachers set the context, we trim the sails, so that our speaking evokes the full presence of our congregations, able then, to meet God's presence -- in the sermon, and in worship more generally.
Used by permission of Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, copyright © 2009. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Publishing Group.
Listen to a podcast interview with Ron and Debra at the Calvin Symposium on Worship 2008 - "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something New: Principles for Renewing Language in Worship." Used by permission of the Calvin Symposium on Worship.
Featured Student: Jeff Frymire (PhD in Practical Theology with an emphasis in Homiletics)
Meet Jeff Frymire, currently working on completing PhD in Practical Theology with an emphasis in Homiletics at Fuller Theological Seminary. Jeff is an adjunct professor at Fuller teaching a number of courses as well as regularly leading Preaching Practicae for the School of Theology.
Jeff Frymire's Midrash on I Kings 17:1 - "Elijah the Tishbite"
After 30 years in pastoral ministry, Jeff Frymire has returned to seminary to pursue a PhD degree in Practical Theology with an emphasis in Homiletics. He is currently writing his dissertation, "Creating a Homiletic of Creativity." In addition, Jeff is an Adjunct Professor at Fuller having taught courses in Homiletics, Creativity in Preaching, and numerous Preaching Practicae. Jeff is author of the book, Preaching the Story and has been a feature writer for the magazine, One Voice. As an ordained minister in the Church of God (Anderson), he has pastored congregations in Pennsylvania, Florida, Indiana, and California. He served for seven years on the Ministries Council, the national leadership board for the Church of God. Married for 33 years, he and his wife Joan (also ordained in the Church of God) have three grown children serving in pastoral ministry.
Featured Student: Karen Johnson (Mdiv-WTA)
Meet Dr. Karen Johnson, currently working on completing her Master of Divinity in Worship, Theology, and the Arts at Fuller Theological Seminary. 
Dr. Karen Johnson, Soprano, studied at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she received the Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees under the tutelage of Dr. Willis Patterson. Dr. Johnson has received numerous musical accolades, including: First Place honors in the Boyer Concerto/Aria Competition; First Place in the Leontyne Price Vocal Competition, Midwest Regional Division; First Place in the University of Michigan's Concerto Competition, Voice Division; and being named a finalist in the William C. Byrd Young Artist Competition and most recently a semi-finalist in the American Traditions Competition. Her opera credits include Mozart's Don Giovanni, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites, Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors and the world premier of Ainadamar by Osvaldo Golijov, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
A frequently requested recitalist for both classical and popular repertoires, Dr. Johnson has enjoyed solo performances in cities throughout the United States. Her performances are also featured on three recordings, "Fare Ye Well," "Artsongs of Black American Composers" and "The New Negro Spiritual." A native of North Carolina, Dr. Johnson has served on the faculties of The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Alcorn State University in Mississippi and Dillard University in New Orleans, LA, where she was Chairperson of the Department of Music. Dr. Johnson currently resides in Los Angeles, CA where she is professional artist and private studio teacher.
Featured Alumna: Kristin Myers (MAT-TA)
Kristin graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2008 with a MAT- TA. Previously, she had received a BA in Communication Design from California State University, Chico, where she studied and sharpened passions for graphic design and fine arts. Wanting to use these skills in a meaningful way, she joined a mission agency for two years, working from Southern Spain as a communications coordinator at the Malaga Media Center, and graphic designer for Avant Ministries.
Becoming more convinced that graphic design is vital in a visually attuned postmodern world, Kristin came to Fuller to enrich her design skills with a theological education and join the theology and culture conversation. Participating in the 2007 Sundance Film Festival with the Fuller community was a highlight of her two years at Fuller, as well as collaborative film projects organized by fellow Fuller students with Miners Club Productions. In addition to using her fine art and photography background for several academic projects, her Masters Thesis project included the rebranding of the Brehm Center itself and investigating the role of branding in faith organizations.
After graduating in the Summer of 2008, Kristin is now an independent graphic designer and owner of Kristin Myers Design. Based in Pasadena, California she works largely with non-profit organizations and churches, striving to offer authenticity and integrity in the design process to further these organization's own mission and vision. She is also an amateur photographer, and was part of the Pasadena Art Walk in 2008.
Online Portfolio: www.kristinmyers.com
Blog: www.designministry.org
Here's a sample of her work:
Featured Student: John Lui (MAT-TA)
Meet John Lui, a new Master of Theology student with a concentration in Theology and Art here at Fuller Seminary. John comes to us via New York and the prestigious Pratt Institute. In addition to being a thoughtful and nice guy, John is a terrific graphic designer with a witty sense of humor that inevitably sneaks into his work. He comes to Fuller to continue his use of graphic design and communication art as a medium through which he can initiate dialogue between culture and his faith.
John Lui was born in Vancouver and has spent many years overseas in Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo. His undergraduate studies took him to New York City where he received a BFA in Communications Design.
He is now a first year student at Fuller Theological Seminary pursuing an MA in Theology and Art. John likes to observe the world around him and create stories from the most unlikely sources. He owes a lot to his mentors who have taken their time and guided him along the way. They have exposed him to look at the world through the lens of anthropology, sociology, philosophy and now theology. However, these “ology” are usually filtered by John’s imagination to become a quirky, and sometimes meaningful, but mostly quirky projects. His projects are featured on his portfolio website justpossibly.com.
You can also see his first group project that he did with Steven Hobbs, Rie Goto, Andrew DeFusco and Ryan Meredino in a Theology and Pop Culture class taught by Dr. Craig Detweiler on his blog.
Picture above: This image comes from one of John’s projects in reaction to our society’s fast food lifestyle. He created a kit called, “Fine-Dine-Anytime” so that anyone can turn fast food into a five-star dining experience!
Featured Student: Joshua Lim (MAT-TA)
Joshua Lim was born in Malaysia and raised in Singapore. After junior college, he spent over two years in the Singaporean army and then left for the University of Southern California to study filmmaking. The Olive Depression (see trailer below) is his first feature-length film after graduation.
Joshua is currently pursuing a MAT at Fuller Theological Seminary. In the spring of 2008, he made a short film entitled, "The Library" for Topics in Theology and Film with Craig Detweiler.
His latest full-length feature film "The Seminarian" is in the pre-production stage and will serve as his thesis project. The film is about a seminary student who goes through a failed romance that leads him to fall out with God and into the arms of his mother.
Joshua can be contacted at .
Stills from Olive Depression 
Trailer for Olive Depression, a film by Joshua Lim
