¿Cómo es que la experiencia en el seminario nos invita a crecer de manera más profunda? Gaby Viesca nos comparte acerca de la transformación que los alumnos experimentan en Portland Seminary. Para más información sobre nuestros programas de maestría, visita el sitio web georgefox.edu/seminary/programs/masters.html.

Viesca nació y creció en México y ha estado viviendo en Portland durante los últimos cinco años. Tiene una maestría en estudios bíblicos (Universidad Regent) y una licenciatura en negocios internacionales (Universidad de las Américas). Actualmente se desempeña como presidenta de la Unidad de Estudios Evangélicos de la Academia Estadounidense de Religión.

Viesca ha trabajado en el ministerio pastoral a tiempo completo en Israel, México y el noroeste del Pacífico. Ella ha servido en una variedad de roles, incluida la predicación y la enseñanza, ayudando a la iglesia a proyectar e implementar su visión, capacitando y equipando pastores y líderes laicos, y movilizando a la congregación para participar plenamente en la vida y la misión de la iglesia.

Antes de servir a la iglesia a tiempo completo, Viesca estuvo profundamente involucrado en el mundo de los negocios internacionales. Tuvo la oportunidad de trabajar en una empresa de consultoría en la ciudad de Puebla, México, brindando asesoramiento y estrategia empresarial a jóvenes emprendedores. También diseñó estrategias comerciales globales para General Electric y desarrolló programas de cadena de suministro que se implementaron en todo el mundo. Es oradora frecuente en iglesias, conferencias y universidades.

How do we see ourselves in light of a multilingual world? Learn more about the significance of language in the early church and the implications of linguistic difference to the church today.

Ekaputra Tupamahu (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is an assistant professor of New Testament at Portland Seminary and George Fox University. A native Indonesian, he earned a master's degree and an MDiv from Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, and master's degrees from the Claremont School of Theology and Vanderbilt University.

Tupamahu has a broad range of academic interests, including the politics of language, race/ethnic theory, postcolonial studies, immigration studies, critical study of religion, and global Christianity (particularly Pentecostal/Charismatic movement). All these interests inform and influence the way he approaches the texts of the New Testament and the history of early Christian movement(s).

His writings have appeared in, among others, the   Journal for the Study of the New Testament,   Pneuma: the Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, the   Indonesian Journal of Theology, the   Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies, the  Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South,  Global Renewal Christianity,   and  the  T&T Clark Handbook to Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics.

He was a recipient of the Forum for Theological Exploration dissertation fellowship (2017), the Louisville Institute honorary dissertation fellowship (2017), and the Asian Theological Summer Institute fellow (2016). He serves as a member of the steering committee of the Paul and Politics Seminar at the Society of Biblical Literature's annual meeting. His current book project building on his dissertation work offers a new reconstruction of the early Christian struggle with the multilingual world around them.

Tupamahu formerly worked as a pastor of an Indonesian congregation in Redlands, California, and, from 2014 to 2018, he was a worship pastor at Connection Pointe Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He enjoys hiking, running, and many other outdoor activities with his family. Exploring local foods is what he loves to do when traveling.

How can knowing more about church history lessen the loneliness you may experience in pastoral ministry? Join Dr. Payne as she shares a snapshot of her insights.

Leah Payne (Ph.D., Vanderbilt University) is an assistant professor of Christian studies at George Fox University and Portland Seminary. She is also a senior fellow at the Louisville Institute and a Faculty Fellow at the William Penn Honors Program.

Her first book, Gender and Pentecostal Revivalism: Making a Female Ministry in the Early Twentieth Century (Palgrave, 2015), won the 2016 Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies Book Award. Her second book explores the development of political theology in American Charismatic Christianity. In 2015, she and three other colleagues received a Lilly Endowment, Inc. High School Youth Theology Initiative grant to cofound Theologia: The George Fox University Summer Theology Institute, which began in 2017.

In 2017, she and four additional colleagues received a $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to create an Institute for Pastoral Thriving at Portland Seminary, which began in 2018.  Her work analyzing religion and popular culture has appeared in The Washington Post and Christianity Today. She is also a co-host of Weird Religion, a podcast about religion and popular culture.

She currently serves the Foursquare Church as a commissioner on the Foursquare Education Commission.

How has having a "sense of homelessness" led believers to more fully develop a theology of God as liberator? What does this mean for us today? Dr. Jeong shares her vision for building community for believers of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Dr. Rebecca S. Jeong joined Portland Seminary as a  Louisville Postdoctoral Fellow and assistant professor of pastoral theology  in 2019. She has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship (2019–2021) from the Louisville Institute as part of the Institute’s Vocation of the Theological Educator Initiative.

Jeong is a practical theologian whose research interests coalesce around the following themes in homiletics and liturgics: Psalms and contextual preaching, modern homiletical theories for ethnic minorities, women preaching and leadership, and multicultural worship.

Before joining Portland Seminary, Jeong served churches as a pastor of Sunday school and youth ministry for more than a decade in South Korea and the United States. She also worked at a Christian middle school as a full-time chaplain in South Korea. She was an editor of homiletics and liturgics for the Journal of      Asian American Theological Forum   (aatfweb.org). From 2011 to 2015, she served   The Journal of Homiletic   (homiletic.net) as a managing editor.

Academic Background

PhD, Boston University, School of Theology;  ThM, Candler School of Theology, Emory University;  ThM, Presbyterian University & Theological Seminary (Seoul, Korea);  MDiv, Presbyterian University & Theological Seminary;  BA, Presbyterian University & Theological Seminary

Also check out this episode of Seminary Snapshots  at: 

https://vimeo.com/377608503

Ekaterina Lomperis is an assistant professor of theological studies at George Fox University and Portland Seminary, and a faculty fellow in the William Penn Honors Program. Raised and educated in the countries of Moldova and Russia, she moved to the United States to earn her master of divinity from Harvard University and her PhD from the University of Chicago (2018).

Dr. Lomperis’s primary area of academic expertise is the early modern era, particularly the Protestant Reformations. She is especially interested in questions about suffering, healing, physical and spiritual well-being, and gender.

As an educator, she is passionate about using her research in historic Christian thought to equip her students and the 21st-century church to address contemporary challenges. Her additional interests include contemporary global Christianity and the history of Christian spirituality. Among other sources, her research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Louisville Institute, the Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion, the Center of Theological Inquiry, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

With Gary Ferngren, Lomperis is the author of Essential Readings in Medicine and Religion (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017). Her second book project focuses on the development of Christian theologies of illness, healing, and medicine in the early modernity.

Lomperis is an active member of the United Methodist Church. 

Academic Background

PhD, University of Chicago; MDiv, Harvard University; BA in philology and education, Moscow Pedagogical State University

Expertise and Research Interests

The Protestant Reformations, medicine and religion, suffering, healing and gender, contemporary global Christian thought, history of Christian spirituality

You can also get a first look at: https://vimeo.com/377618505

Nijay Gupta (PhD, University of Durham) is associate professor of New Testament at Portland Seminary. He was born and raised in Ohio, but has lived in many places, including Boston, Durham (England), Seattle, Philadelphia, Rochester (New York) and Portland.

Gupta is passionate about academic scholarship that also serves pastors and the church. In the summer of 2019, he published two books, a reference work on 1-2 Thessalonians and a second edition of his Prepare, Succeed, Advance: A Guidebook to Getting a PhD in Biblical Studies. Due out in the fall of 2019 are three more books – an edited volume of 22 essays called The State of New Testament Studies (coedited with Scot McKnight), a theological study entitled Paul and the Language of Faith, and a primer for laypeople called Reading Philippians Theologically.

In 2020, Gupta will release another five books: a textbook entitled A Beginner's Guide to New Testament Studies, a handbook for pastors called The Lexham Guide to New Testament Commentaries, a commentary on Philippians coauthored with Michael F. Bird, and two edited volumes – one on sin language in Paul and the other a collection of essays by Gupta's seminary students on the subject of "suffering, pain, and hope in the letters of Paul." 

Primary Teaching Areas: New Testament, Greek and English translation exegesis, biblical theology

Research Interests: Biblical theology, biblical hermeneutics and exegesis, Pauline literature, the Gospel of John, New Testament ethics

Check out this snapshot on video at: https://vimeo.com/377619078

Viesca was born and raised in Mexico and has been living in Portland for the last five years. She holds a master's degree in Biblical studies (Regent University) and a bachelor's degree in international business (Universidad de las Americas). She currently serves as a chair of the Evangelical Studies Unit at the American Academy of Religion.

Viesca has worked in full-time pastoral ministry in Israel, Mexico and the Pacific Northwest. She has served in a variety of roles, including preaching and teaching, helping the church cast and implement its vision, training and equipping pastors and lay leaders, and mobilizing the congregation to fully participate in the life and mission of the church.

Prior to serving the church in a full-time capacity, Viesca was deeply involved in the world of international business. She had the opportunity to work in a consulting firm in the city of Puebla, Mexico, providing business coaching and strategy to young entrepreneurs. She also designed global business strategies for General Electric and developed supply chain programs that were implemented worldwide. She is a frequent speaker at churches, conferences and universities.

For a closer look check out the video at https://vimeo.com/377619045