After earning a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton, serving 10 years as a pastor, and becoming CEO of a mental health organization, Jeremy Morse entered 海角在线鈥檚 聽鈥渢o bring all those things together,鈥� addressing the needs of people with mental health conditions. His synthesis has drawn $50,000 in research grants and even involves his love for jazz.
鈥淧ractical theology is very much like jazz in a way,鈥� said Morse, shown in the photo above with his sax, sitting in with the Susan Merritt Trio. His first research paper toward the Ph.D. shared a story about trumpeter Miles Davis, one of the great innovators of jazz. The young Davis would leave his classes at Julliard to sit in with working musicians at New York City jazz clubs. There he found it hard to improvise, constantly worried about playing the wrong notes.
鈥淔inally, a seasoned professional explained to Miles that when jazz players improvise, they interpret music鈥檚 structures, reshape them and build new structures together,鈥� said Morse. 鈥淚n jazz, so-called 鈥榳rong notes鈥� transform what is given and lead the musicians and audiences to new experiences.鈥�
For his 鈥渄ay job,鈥� Morse is CEO of Mental Health America of the Palm Beaches, which focuses on providing supportive communities for people living with sometimes severe mental health conditions. 鈥淭hese are people who our culture excludes, ignores, and pushes off into the margins as if they were 鈥榳rong notes,鈥欌�� he said.
In his Ph.D. research, Morse interviewed some of these people 鈥渋n the margins,鈥� including a woman referred to as 鈥淪ophie.鈥� She told of the stress of trying to hold down a job when you hear voices and your seemingly bizarre external behavior causes people to avoid you. And after she was given a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia, her only experience was exclusion.
鈥淥nce people find out you have a mental illness, they treat you like you have the plague or something like they鈥檙e going to catch it,鈥� Sophie told Morse. 鈥淣obody wants to be your friend.鈥�
At Mental Health America, Morse has seen the harmful effects of this exclusion for people with schizophrenia or another disorder. 鈥淭hose diagnoses become a very basis for identity,鈥� he said. Responding to that, in his research he asks, 鈥淗ow do we create a supportive community for these people, an alternative community?鈥�
The question leads him to theology. 鈥淚n our practical theology courses, we believe that theology is transformative,鈥� said Morse. 鈥淪o how can we create faith communities that are truly transformative?鈥� Such communities could serve to hurt populations of all kinds, but how to create them? And how to measure their effectiveness?
Enter SenseMaker庐, 鈥渁 really innovative qualitative research tool鈥� as described by Morse. 鈥淭his web-based platform allows people like Sophie to provide qualitative information about their life experiences, and about any types of interventions that you鈥檙e doing and whether they perceive those interventions as being helpful,鈥� he explained. 鈥淭he tool will transform those stories into quantitative data that you can really work with.鈥�
For his research and work at Mental Health America, Morse has won $50,000 in grants from Palm Health Foundation to implement the SenseMaker庐 tool for two years. 鈥淧alm Health Foundation is a great partner,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e the ones who discovered the effectiveness of 聽SenseMaker庐.鈥�
For the next two years Mental Health America will use this tool 鈥渢o understand the stories of our members here,鈥� said Morse, 鈥渢o discover what we need to do to create a supportive community where they can flourish.鈥�
Simultaneously, with the help of his own community within the Practical Theology program, Morse will wrestle with a challenge he sees facing the Christian Church: 鈥淲hy aren’t we creating alternative communities where people who are really living on the margins of our culture feel welcomed, feel accepted? And why aren鈥檛 we listening to their voices?鈥�
Such voices, such 鈥渨rong notes,鈥� said Morse, deserve to be heard. 鈥淎nd like it is with jazz, if we listen, those voices may lead us to something new.鈥�
鈥淛eremy Morse is truly a Renaissance kind of person,鈥� said Dr. Bryan Froehle, director of the Ph.D. in Practical Theology. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a musician, community leader, and nationally known figure in mental health advocacy, not to mention a born educator and outstanding researcher and grant writer.
鈥淎nd Jeremy鈥檚 engagement of newly emerging approaches to narrative theology and cutting edge computer software reflects our doctoral program鈥檚 deep commitment to engaging empirical approaches in theological method and methodology,鈥� Froehle said. 鈥淛ust as we see in the Bible, God speaks to us through stories and people in everyday life. This is a central insight of the discipline of practical theology. That鈥檚 what Jeremy is doing and that鈥檚 what makes our Ph.D. program in Practical Theology here at 海角在线 so special.鈥�