Dean Blevins

I came to teaching later in my adult life after working as a videographer in broadcast journalism. Through God’s call to ministry, I developed a deep passion for teaching, whether in Sunday School, undergraduate teaching, ministry seminars, and now here at NTS as Professor of Practical Theology and Christian Discipleship.

Teaching describes both a daily craft and a research field, so I have spent a lot of my time also serving as a consultant with the Church of the Nazarene for my work in youth, children and family ministry as well as guiding a number of efforts in general Christian discipleship. My love for academics and ministry find expression through my editorship of Didache: Faithful Teaching, an on-line academic journal in the Wesleyan tradition, as well as guiding clergy development in the USA/Canada for the Church of the Nazarene. Beyond my denominational commitments, I found myself fortunate to serve as president of the Religious Education Association, an ecumenical, interfaith, organization that has been in existence for more than 100 years, and also to serve as board chair of Youthfront a Kansas City-based national youth ministry training organization. Those relationships allow me to maintain a broad network of ecumenical and evangelical professionals working on the front edge of ministry and education.

I grew up on science fiction stories, and still have a love for science, technology, and media (I guess that makes me a well-educated sci-fi geek). Those topics reveal an unending curiosity and desire to explore new fields which have led me to explore and research the field of neuroscience and its potential in theology and ministry.

I serve as a theological advisor for the Science for Seminaries program sponsored by the Dialog on Science, Ethics and Religion (DoSER) and am active in the TheoPsych initiative sponsored by Fuller Seminary and Blueprint 1543. In addition to this continued research and engagement with science, I have developed both research and educational strategies connecting theology with work, innovation, and economics as a gateway into new forms of ministry. My “vocation” may be that of an explorer, always seeking new horizons of study that will ultimately serve the Kingdom of God.