BWC clergy are invited to prepare for Advent at a Pre-Advent Day Apart at Brook Hill UMC in Frederick.

Cost:  $20 (includes lunch)

Participants who register will receive .3 CEU's

Theme:  "Precursors" 
The Reverend Dr. Robert Allan Hill
Dean, Marsh Chapel; Professor, New Testament and Pastoral Theology, Chaplain to the University 
Boston University

Rev. Hill has been preaching since 1976.  As an elder (Upper New York Conference) in The United Methodist Church he has had experience in ten local churches, five different annual conferences, multiple annual conference board assignments, General and Jurisdictional Conference participation, General Board membership (GBHEM), various speaking engagements, and denominational leadership discussions. His views of the present condition of the church, particularly in the Northeast, and prospects for ministry into the future, have provided a complementary perspective to that of some recent Northeastern UMC denominational leadership.  His main denominational interests have been in Large Church ministry and Theological Education.  

Dr. Hill was given the Harry Denman award for Evangelism in 2003.  Currently he serves on the Board of the New England Annual Conference United Methodist Foundation, the Board of Visitors of the Learning Project Elementary School (Back Bay, Boston), the Board of Visitors of Harvard Memorial Church, and the Board of Ministry of Harvard College.  He is an active member of the Boston Ministers’ Club and the New Haven Theological Discussion Group, and an inactive Rotarian.  He loves sports, and played basketball and soccer at the high school and college levels.  His wife Jan is a musician and teacher, whose children’s choir sings regularly in Boston, most notably once a year in early May on the steps of Trinity Church, Copley Square. Bob and Jan are joggers, and spend summers on a lake in upstate New York.  They have three grown children and three grandchildren.

At Boston University School of Theology, Hill teaches one course in New Testament each year (usually fall term, and usually the Gospel of John), and one course in Pastoral Theology each year (usually spring term, and usually a course in Preaching or Pastoral Leadership).  A two-credit course for undergraduates of Boston University, on ‘Vocation’, is in the planning stages.  The course on John differs from some other studies of Johannine literature in that it strongly, equally relies both on the Jewish background to the gospel (from Hill’s study at Union/NYC with J.L. Martyn and R.E. Brown) and on the Hellenistic (Gnostic) background to the gospel (from Hill’s study at McGill with F. Wisse and N.T. Wright.).  Hill has recently published a book on John, The Courageous Gospel:  John in Sermon, Lecture, Essay and Discussion, copies of which in rough form were used in the course.  Two collections of sermons, A Village Green, and, In the Depths of the Depression were published in 2011.

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