Dr. Luther Oconer Receives Exemplary Teacher Award

During Advent Commencement, Rev. Dr. Kim Cape, General Secretary of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM) of The United Methodist Church, presented Dr. Luther Oconer with the 2015-2016 Exemplary Teacher Award.

Awarded annually, GBHEM’s Exemplary Teacher Award is the denomination’s way of honoring faculty members who “exemplify excellence in teaching; civility and concern for students and colleagues; commitment to value-centered education; and service to students, the institution, and the community.”

Dr. Oconer, Assistant Professor of United Methodist Studies at United since 2012, teaches in the areas of United Methodist History, Doctrine and Polity. His research areas include the Holiness Movement, Pentecostalism and mission history. He recently published the article“‘Keswickfied’ Methodism: Holiness Revivalism and the Methodist Episcopal Church Mission in India, 1870-1910” in the Wesleyan Theological Journal vol. 49, no. 2 (Fall 2014). In January 2015, he taught a class on United Methodist polity at the Wesley Theological College in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam.