Summer Scholar-in-Residence
For nearly 150 years, The Episcopal Church of St. John in the Wilderness was a summer congregation that welcomed a priest in the warmer months to share the sacraments and proclaim the Gospel. Flat Rock’s first residents escaped low-country heat and humidity for a summer in the mountains filled with rich fellowship and spiritual rejuvenation at St. John in the Wilderness. In 2021, we began the Summer Scholar-in-Residence program to live out this tradition in a new way. Each summer, we invite a scholar-priest to preach and teach for a month and to provide nourishment for our parish and the greater Hendersonville community.
Each Summer Scholar is invited to shape the program so it may benefit their research and the parish’s life. The basic structure of the month is as follows:
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Preaching some Sunday mornings.
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Offering a formation program, including teaching a class on Sunday mornings and during the week.
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Enjoying the hospitality of the parish, including housing in or near Flat Rock.
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Taking time to work on scholarship and to find rest and renewal in a beautiful setting.
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The program also includes a generous honorarium in gratitude for the scholar’s ministry.
Dr. Craig S. Farmer
2025 Summer Scholar-in-Residence
Topic
Church History Matters:
How Historical Controversies Help Us
Make Sense of Our Faith
Class Schedule
Week 1 ~ Who are We? Sin, Grace, Freedom, and Salvation
Thursday, June 5 (5:30-6:30pm) The Pelagian Controversy
Sunday, June 8 (10:10-10:50am) Luther and the Justification of the Sinner
Week 2 ~ Ubi Ecclesia? The Essential Marks of the Church
Thursday, June 12 (5:30-6:30pm) The Donatist Controversy
Sunday, June 15 (10:10-10:50am) Reformation-Era Ecclesiological Debates
Week 3 ~ Medicine for Immortality: Sacraments and Grace
Thursday, June 19 (5:30-6:30pm) The Eucharistic Debates of the Sixteenth Century
Sunday, June 22 (10:10-10:50am) Baptism in the Ancient and Reformation Eras
Week 4 ~ Quodlibetals: Following up on Questions Posed by Course Participants
Thursday, June 26 (5:30-6:30pm)
Sunday Formation
All Sunday sessions are at 10:10am in the Wilderness Room.
Childcare is available in the Nursery.
June 8 | June 15 | June 22
Thursday Formation
All Thursday sessions are in the Wilderness Room. Gather at 5:00pm and bring finger food to share in fellowship! Class begins promptly at 5:30pm. Children's formation runs concurrently. RSVP to Missy Izard for children's formation.
June 5 | June 12 | June 19 | June 26
Please bring food to share! We will provide food for children.
Tuesday Bible Study
Our weekly Men’s and Women’s Bible Study will combine for three weeks for a time of study with Dr. Farmer on the historical interpretations of the Gospel of John. All Bible Study sessions are on Tuesdays at 3:30pm in the Wilderness Room.
June 10 | June 17 | June 24
Summer Scholars of Years Past
Dr. Phil Kenneson
2023 & 2024 Summer Scholar-in-Residence
Topics
Signposts of the Kingdom:
Learning to Live Into God’s New Reality
The Gospels are clear that Jesus believed a new reality was breaking into our world; he called it the Kingdom of God, and he announced this as good news. Jesus invited people to live into this new reality as a way of bearing embodied witness to God’s deepest desires for all of God’s creation. What might it look like in our day and time to be formed into a people who are signposts of God’s Kingdom, pointing to God’s new reality in the midst of the old that is passing away? Our time together in 2023 explored some of the ways we might serve as such signposts by allowing the Spirit to cultivate in our life together ways of living that both lead to our deepest flourishing as human beings and point beyond ourselves to God’s new reality.
Practicing Forgiveness & Reconciliation
In 2024, we explored important themes of God's mission in the world, starting with a review of God's economy, the idea of shalom, and our role as signposts of God's Kingdom. Later sessions focused on the practices of forgiveness and reconciliation and their significance in the lives of Christians and our communities. The series ended with practical advice on practicing forgiveness in various relationships and a reminder of the divine partnership with the Triune God in the ongoing process of healing and reconciliation. Click here to see session overviews.
The Rev. Dr. Robert MacSwain
2022 Summer Scholar-in-Residence
Dr. Rob MacSwain is the Associate Professor of Theology at the seminary at The University of the South, in Sewanee, TN. For a number of years, Dr. MacSwain has been researching how the lives of holy people serve as evidence of God’s existence, which was the focus of our time together in 2022.
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Dr. MacSwain is no stranger to North Carolina, having been ordained as a priest in the eastern part of the state in 2002. He holds masters degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and The University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He completed his Ph.D. at The University of St. Andrews in Scotland in 2010. He has authored and edited several works including his book Solved by Sacrifice: Austin Farrer, Fideism, and the Evidence of Faith (2013). His forthcoming book is titled The Saint is our Evidence.
The Rev. Bill Brosend, PhD
2021 Summer Scholar-in-Residence
Our 2021 Summer Scholar-in-Residence was The Rev. Bill Brosend, PhD. Fr. Bill is the Professor of New Testament at The School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. He has served as the Executive Director of the Episcopal Preaching Foundation and has enjoyed shaping seminarians to read and proclaim God’s word with wisdom and conviction.
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In addition to preaching, Fr. Bill shared with us his study of the Parables of Jesus, who told stories like the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan. Through these stories, Jesus gave listeners a glimpse of the Kingdom of God and invited them to live into God’s reality.