Dr. Joel Brown has been called to serve as president of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society, located in Bethany, W.V. He will begin his new role with DCHS on Sept. 1.
Brown replaces Rick Lowery, who is retiring. Lowery had served as president since 2017.
“This is an important time as the Society builds on the excellent leadership of Rev. Dr. Lowery in expanded digitization, infrastructure improvements, and living ever more fully into the Society’s vision of celebrating our past and telling its hard truths,” said search committee chair Rebecca Hale, a DCHS board member.
Brown recently earned his PhD from the University of Chicago. He holds a ThM from Texas Christian University, Brite Divinity School, and an MDiv from Abilene Christian University, Graduate School of Theology. He also earned his BA at ACU.
Most recently, Brown served as the associate for publications and programming with the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago, where he was managing editor for the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, and managing editor for the Religion & Culture Forum (2016-18).
Committee and board of trustee members noted Brown’s excellent scholarship, breadth of knowledge related to historical archives, deep connections to the Stone-Campbell traditions, and visionary yet humble spirit.
“I am incredibly honored and deeply humbled by the call to serve in this leadership role and to continue the important work that DCHS has been doing of preserving and telling our history, both lifting up those narratives that tell of our movement’s faithfulness and achievements as well as reckoning with those parts of our story where we have fallen short and caused harm,” Brown said. “I look forward to working with our churches, ministries, schools, and partners in other streams of the Stone-Campbell Movement.”
The Disciples of Christ Historical Society is the repository for church files, personal papers, records, books and journals, artifacts, and memorabilia related to the three streams of the Stone-Campbell Movement: The Disciples of Christ (Christian Church), the noninstrumental (or a cappella) churches of Christ, and the Christian churches and churches of Christ (the last group being the main constituency of Christian Standard).
To the writer of the article: in your listing of “the three streams of the Stone-Campbell Movement: The Disciples of Christ (Christian Church), the noninstrumental (or a cappella) churches of Christ, and the Christian churches and churches of Christ,” where would you place the International Churches of Christ?
(not the article writer) but this is for commenter Sam Hastings – Most in the Restoration Movement (not a fan of personal names to describe a movement) consider the following to be a sect or cult who have abused traits or added elements of the Restoratioon Movement:
International Church of Christ, International Christian Church, The Way International, Disciple Heritage Fellowship, Ottumwa (IA) Bretheren, Boston Movement, Crossroads Movement. I am confident that there are others out there who could fall into this category of congregations.
CONGRATULATIONS TO JOEL ON BEING NAMED AS THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST HISTORIAL SOCIETY!
WE LOOK FORWARD TO MEETNG HIM AND GIVING HIM SUPPORT IN HIS NEW LEADERSHIP ROLE.