David Evans

“I teach my students to think about the church as a community of sent disciples, laboring from the Kingdom of God in (g)local contexts, in hopes that they might recognize the many cultures and people who make up the Body of Christ. As a Methodist, I encourage them, in the words of John Wesley, to engage the society in which they live by “doing no harm” and by acknowledging that they are products of the world in which we all live.

My research focuses on the braided identity categories of religion, race, and nation. This focus helps me understand how US Christian Churches function in local societies and throughout the world. The study of Christian Mission affords unique opportunities for such research because it is often in the history of mission encounters that I find the most clear construction of boundaries that divide missionaries from the objects of their work. These boundaries function as mirrors through which we can learn how Christian missionaries define themselves and envision the goal of conversion. In this way, I am attempting to make invisible, unstated, power laden boundaries visible and thus unmask their power."

David has worked in various ministry contexts. While living in Washington, DC, David was the Junior/Senior High Director of an out-of-school time program on Capitol Hill. Later he served as Community Development Resource coordinator with MCC East Coast. Most recently he was co-pastor of Boonton United Methodist Church in New Jersey. He loves to spend time with his wife, Faith and his two boys Isaac, 13 and Solomon, 6. He finds joy in playing and watching basketball and soccer. He is also an avid music enthusiast. Above all else, he would like to be known as someone who loves God with deep conviction and loves God’s people with a heart that is wide open.

Ph.D. Drew University Graduate Division of Religion, Historical Studies
M.Phil. Drew University, Historical Studies
M.T.S. Wesley Theological Seminary, History of Christianity
B.A. Spring Arbor College, Christian Ministries

Scholarly Articles:

“Regenerating the Italian Race: The Italian Methodist Mission and the Americanization of Italian History.” Methodist History, April 2011, Vol. XLLX No. 3: 132-146.

Book Reviews:

“Mark Auslander, The Accidental Slave Owner: Revisiting the Myth of Race and Finding an American Family.” Methodist History, October 2012, 51:1 & 2: 173-75.

“Searching for Zion.” The Revealer, Forthcoming, 2013.

Session Chair/Commentator, “An Individuals Impact: Ideas, Inventions, Identities” Eastern American Studies Association, Eastern Mennonite University March 23, 2013

Narrator, “Paul Robeson: I Go on Singing,” Eastern Mennonite University, February 9, 2013.

“A Certain Sound: Spiritual Songs and the Civil Rights Movement.” February 17, 2012. Virginia Mennonite Retirement Center, Harrisonburg, VA.

“The People in Your Neighborhood” February 10, 2012, Manor Memorial UMC, New Market, VA.

“Generation Fusion” September 30, 2012, Culpeper UMC, Culpeper, VA.

“Dealing with Diversity” October 28, 2012, Immanuel Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA.

CM 613 A – Cross Cultural Church Experience

CM 631 A – Churches and Social Transformation: The Civil Rights Movement

CM 544 A – Christianity through the Eyes of America’s Outsiders

CM 572 A – Cross-Cultural Integration Seminar

CM 643 A – Missio Dei in Cultural Context

CM 654 A – Race, Nation, and Religion in America

Old Testament/Hebrew Faculty Search Committee, Spring 2012-Fall 2013

Seminary Community Council, Faculty Representative, Spring 2013