My CV details in a comprehensive way the areas and activities of my professional service to the library, the university, my fellows archivists in the profession, to colleagues and institutions across the Stone-Campbell spectrum, and to my local congregation.

I have consistently served the library through a host of committee assignments through which we collaborated to ensure the business of the library operated smoothly and effectively.  Over time I have served in increasingly responsible roles, chairing or co-chairing committees, serving on multiple hiring committees including the Dean search committee, and chairing committees for successive years.

It took some time before a University committee assignment became available.  However, in 2019 I was appointed and served UGEC for a full term and just completed a full term as a member of the Adams Center Faculty Development Committee.  These assignments have been crucial to facilitating contact with peers across campus.  I have long been frustrated by this tension: the nature of my work requires me to work behind closed-doors on the lower level of the library on the one hand, yet I need (and the expectation is genuine) to engage with my peers across campus on the other.  Librarians, by the necessity of their work, are tied to a physical space like no other faculty.  Committee work has proven to be a crucial way to navigate this tension.  However, it has not been the only way I have served the University.  I have volunteered as a judge for the Undergraduate Research festival for several years, and I have taken advantage of the opportunities offered by the Adams Center to meet and engage with my peers.

In one sense my work in securing two grants might be considered scholarship.  However, in a very real way they are properly considered service.  In 2019 I led a team which successfully petitioned National Endowment for the Humanities for a Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections Planning Grant ($40,000) to fund evaluation of our built preservation environment.  This grant is ongoing and will result in a set of assessments that will give us a much clearer picture of how our facility is preserving (or preventing the preservation of) our collections.  In 2020 Mark McCallon and I successfully petitioned the Texas Archives Commission for a $25,000 TexShare grant to fund digitization of the full run of Christian Chronicle.  This renders the full text of 75 years of the foremost newspaper among Churches of Christ available restriction-free online for the first time to a global audience.  The potential impact for research possibilities into the global reach of Churches of Christ is hardly estimable.  Preparing our spaces for optimal preservation of our assets, and extending the reach of our collections, is service: to our university, to our users, to the scholarly and church communities, and to future generations.

Mac places dataloggers throughout our facility to measure temperature and humidity levels as part of the NEH Grant.

Mac (and Zach from Facilities) work with consultant Jeremy Linden to place dataloggers inside our air-handlers in the Library HVAC unit.

I have served my profession in increasingly responsible and visible ways.  I have served as Associate Editor of Restoration Quarterly since 2016.  To date I have peer-reviewed about 35 articles for RQ. I have participated, through my own initiative and by invitation, on panels at Stone-Campbell Journal Conference and Christian Scholars Conference and at Society of American Archivists annual meeting.  By my own initiative I have served as a mentor for Society American Archivists and last year was nominated and elected to nationwide office as member-at-large of the Steering Committee for the Archivists of Religious Collection Section of SAA.  Last year I was nominated for a seat on the Board of Regents of the Academy of Certified Archivists.  Additionally, this last year I was appointed chair of the archivists section of Christian College Librarians, a nationwide networking guild for Stone-Campbell librarians.  The trajectory of my service in each area is clear as I have moved in each consistently from attendance and involvement to recognized, appointed and elected leadership.

Mac and Amanda Dietz volunteer at the Academy of Certified Archivists booth, Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, Austin TX 2019.

Last, but certainly not least, I have maintained active service to my local congregation, University Church of Christ.  My CV contains exhaustive details which reflect committee service and leadership, frequent teaching and occasional preaching.  My involvement here, though, is not fulfilled as a criteria for employment at ACU.  I cannot stress strongly enough how much I support the Church of Christ requirement for university employment.

University Church Eldership. I respect these men as no others.  It is a joy and privilege to serve with them.

Yet, I do not attend or serve at church to fulfill an employment obligation.

Rather I consider my service there to be the first fruits of my best efforts at Christian service.  Conceptually my service in, to, and through my local congregation is my most important service activity.  While I have grown in service to my congregation, it only continues my lifelong commitment to the church.

Click here to read a letter of support from Dr. Monty Lynn.  I appreciate Monty’s commendation of my service to our university and our broader constituency by building the  collection and facilitating scholarship.

Next section: Collegiality