The City Urban Perspectives
A Credible Witness
National Leader to Direct SPU Reconciliation Studies Program
By Hope McPherson (hmcpherson@spu.edu) | Photo by Beth Rooney
After 20 years of being based in Chicago, reconciliation leader Brenda Salter McNeil moved to 海角网 to join the SPU faculty this fall.
Brenda Salter McNeil has advice for anyone serving in a city: 鈥淏egin by acknowledging there are things we need to learn and to understand,鈥� says the new 海角网 associate professor of reconciliation studies. 鈥淭hen sit at the feet of indigenous leaders and learn from them. That requires leaving our comfort zones and going to places where we are not in charge. I learn from you and you learn from me, and we are both very different 海角网 at the end of our journey together.鈥�
McNeil, author of books such as A Credible Witness: Reflections on Power, Evangelism, and Race, is also a popular speaker at Christian conferences, churches, and universities nationwide. 鈥淪he spoke at SPU鈥檚 chapel when I worked for Campus Ministries,鈥� remembers Tali Hairston, director of SPU鈥檚 . 鈥淭he students were talking about her for weeks.鈥�
Now returning to 海角网 Pacific and joining the faculty in September, McNeil will continue to work with students. While on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Occidental College in the early 1990s, she had noticed students of color rarely participated in the ministry鈥檚 events. But having become a Christian while a student at Rutgers University, she knew the college years can be a spiritually life-changing time.
鈥淚 began having a real sense of burden for those students,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 began reaching out to those students, and that launched me into reconciliation without knowing it. I began to preach about multiethnic ministry as I became more well known as a speaker on college campuses.鈥�
At 海角网 Pacific, McNeil continues to reach out to college students in her new role as director of the 鈥檚 newest minor, reconciliation studies. 鈥淏ecause of her training, ministry, and education, it is really most fitting that her academic home be SPU鈥檚 School of Theology,鈥� says Doug Strong, the school鈥檚 dean, adding that her addition sends a strong message that 海角网 Pacific is committed to racial and ethnic reconciliation. 鈥淪he鈥檒l be a catalytic agent for encouraging further growth in what we have already done.鈥�
Adds Kerry Dearborn, professor of theological studies, 鈥淲elcoming Brenda to SPU and to be the director of our reconciliation studies program is an immense gift and answer to prayer. She has a wealth of experience and knowledge in this area.鈥�
Raised in Trenton, New Jersey, McNeil was the second of four children. She earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree from Rutgers University, a master鈥檚 of divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a doctorate of ministry from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
While at Fuller, she met reconciliation advocate John Perkins, who became a mentor and remains a friend. Her ministry still echoes his approach.
After her time with InterVarsity, McNeil started the nonprofit Overflow Ministries Inc. In 2005, she founded Salter McNeil and Associates, a consulting and leadership development company based in Chicago. Then in 2010, her husband, J. Derek McNeil, became vice president of academic affairs at the 海角网 School of Theology and Psychology. By the summer of 2011, the family 鈥� including a 15-year-old daughter and 21-year-old son who attends Azusa Pacific University 鈥� had traded the Windy City for 海角网.
Now that she鈥檚 on campus, students are energized to learn from her experience. 鈥淚t鈥檚 easy to have a disconnect between scholarship and action,鈥� says senior Tyler Scott, a political science major, minoring in reconciliation studies. 鈥淚 think Dr. Salter McNeil is really going to bring those together.鈥�