Rubel Shelly

Dr. Rubel Shelly is an author, minister, and the current president of Rochester College. He served as Senior Minister for the Family of God at Woodmont Hills[1] in Nashville, Tennessee from 1978 until 2005. He was named the president of Rochester College in May 2009 and currently serves as a co-minister for the Bristol Road Church of Christ in Flint, Michigan.[2]

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Education and academics

Shelly was educated at Harding University (B.A.), Harding's Graduate School of Religion (M.A., M. Th.), and Vanderbilt University (M.A., Ph.D.). Although known primarily as a preacher, Shelly's debates and academic lectures on Christian apologetics, ethics, and medical ethics have won him several teaching appointments. Shelly has also served with such groups as the AIDS Education Committee of the American Red Cross. He taught at Freed-Hardeman College (now Freed-Hardeman University). While preaching at Woodmont Hills, he also taught at Lipscomb University, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Tennessee State University. Additionally, he has taught at Pepperdine University, Abilene Christian University, Emmanuel Seminary, and Kentucky Christian College. In 2005, he became Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Rochester College, and eventually began serving as interim President before being named President of the College.

Trajectory of change

Shelly's career, spanning decades, saw an abrupt shift in tone in the 1980s, perhaps best represented by his book I Just Want to Be a Christian, a radical plea for non-denominationalism. (Peruse Shelly's titles below to get a sense of this shift.) Shelly had started out as a boy preacher in the Churches of Christ, writing several books containing what some have called "sound teaching" [1], yet eventually Shelly became disenchanted with what he has called a "language of exclusion."[3] "Out of my own spiritual evolution, I've tried to adopt a much more Christ-like spirit and not be so sectarian and isolationist", Shelly said (quoted in Edwards).

Now, he pursues a unifying vision "more nearly the ideal of the early American Restoration Movement concept and experience than what [he] was born into." He critiques his former colleagues for trying to "decide who's in and who's out based on some list. We're very anticreedal in churches of Christ and Christian churches, meaning we won’t publish that list; we are more insidious in that we have unpublished lists of what lets you be "in" or "out" of our local churches. That's simply wrongheaded." Though these calls for unity do, in fact, echo Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone, in other ways Shelly has disengaged from the central tenet of the Restoration Movement: that the modern Church must restore the first century Church. In The Second Incarnation, Shelly and Randall J. Harris claim that this move is anachronistic (at best) and leads to doctrinal error, because no church has ever achieved perfection, and in any case, one cannot and should not attempt to recreate the first century Church.[4]:371-372

Leadership status

Rubel Shelly was inducted in 2007 into the Restoration Forum's Honor Roll of Unity, an award "given to people who are recognized for their love for those in the Christian fellowship and for their noble efforts to heal the divisions of the past and build unity."[5]

Because Churches of Christ are strongly congregational, there are only a few ways to rise to prominence: publications, lectureships, holding the pulpit of a large congregation, and by outside recognition. Rubel Shelly has written many influential books, cited by others in the Restoration Movement, and he routinely appears at lectureships sponsored by Universities and colleges affiliated with the Church of Christ. Shelly has also been the preacher at one of the larger, more affluent churches for many years (Woodmont Hills Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee).

One measure of Shelly's national reputation is the fact that local and national journalists call on him as an expert about Church of Christ matters. An infamous example of this was when Nancy Grace of CNN asked Shelly on national television whether or not the Church of Christ is a cult. Many felt that Shelly did not have a chance to express himself fully ([2] [3] [4][5]). A text of the exchange can be found here: [6] Mike Cope (not to be mistaken with the former NASCAR driver) was originally picked to be interviewed, as he is also one of the most prominent preachers in the Church of Christ ([7]).

Publications

Shelly's publications as author and co-author include, but are not limited to, the following:

Collaborative publications

References

  1. ^ formerly known as the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ
  2. ^ Rochester president resigns; Rubel Shelly to lead during interim
  3. ^ Mark A. Matson, interviewer, "Two Ministers, One Mission (an interview with Rubel Shelly and John York)", Christian Standard, 6/26/2005 (accessed January 16, 2009)
  4. ^ Hughes, Richard T. Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story of Churches of Christ in America. Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 1996.
  5. ^ Rubel Shelly Inducted into Restoration Honor Roll, website of Rochester College, October 8, 2007 (accessed January 16, 2009)

External links