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Recorded live during Foursquare Connection 2012 in Phoenix, this extensive audio Learning Track by the Foursquare Scholars Fellowship features Foursquare pastors and educators tackling theological and practical issues under the theme of reclaiming our voice as a movement while preserving our uniqueness and individual identities.

During the Foursquare Scholars Fellowship Learning Track at Connection 2012 in Phoenix, Bala Musa, Ph.D., encouraged “scholarship that brings about change” and said we must blend theory with practice, and align scholarship with mission.

Professor and chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Azusa Pacific University in Southern California, Musa referred to Foursquare founder Aimee Semple McPherson as a “communications strategist,” saying she modeled Christ’s love for the world by engaging popular culture in spite of vying realms of politics, economics and religion.

This extensive audio session was hosted by the Foursquare Scholars Fellowship and designed to explore the past, present and future of the Foursquare movement and its thousands of unique voices.

Highlights of the session:

  • Gateway District Supervisor Sam Rockwell presented an overview of his doctoral dissertation in process, in which he begins a conversation about the identity of Foursquare as a movement and as individual ministers.
  • Life Pacific College (LPC) Assistant Professor Karen Tremper, Ph.D., and Crystal Guderian, Th.M., senior pastor at Barnabas (Alderwood Manor Foursquare Church) in Mountlake Terrace, Wash., presented research about the “marketing of the world” that typically equates the ordination of women with radical feminism and denominations that also ordain gay clergy. They said such correlations are destructive to the cause of legitimate female leaders in the church and should be rejected.
  • LPC Professor Jim W. Adams, Ph.D., addressed theological confusion among Foursquare ministers regarding our stated doctrinal position of Jesus as Baptizer With the Holy Spirit and the way in which ministerial candidates are vetted for licensing, as well as how this doctrine is taught in Foursquare churches.
  • New Hope Christian College – Hawaii President Guy Higashi, D.Miss., and Dean/Executive Officer Randy Furushima, Ph.D., called for leaders to identify the cultural distinctives that will draw people together, rather than divide social and cultural groups, as a means of restoring people to Christ.

Foursquare ministers interested in the theological underpinnings of our movement and those who seek to celebrate distinctive Foursquare perspectives will benefit from this session. Although it is presented in one continuous recording, it will be most beneficial as a training tool to listen to the separate sessions in isolation and reflect on the depth of each presentation.

To see more from Connection 2012, click here.