EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Transcription

1 We Are Brethren EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY In May of 1767, Isaac Long, a farmer in Lancaster County, hosted a weekend-long great meeting in his stone barn, which attracted hundreds of listeners and a collection of fiery German preachers from all over south central Pennsylvania. One of them was Philip William Otterbein, a German Reformed minister who was trained in one of the finest schools in Europe and who began his American ministry at what is now the historic Tulpehocken church just outside Myerstown. Otterbein had something of a spiritual renewal since his installation as pastor of the influential Reformed Church in Lancaster and was beginning to preach revival-type messages inside and outside of his home church. Another who preached that weekend was Martin Boehm, a largely-uneducated German Mennonite farmer from near the Pequea Creek who had been chosen by lot to serve, first as pastor, then as bishop of the Mennonite Church. He had had a profound spiritual experience while plowing in his field, and had also begun preaching revivalist messages throughout the region. Otterbein and Boehm had never met before, but as the tall, refined Otterbein heard the coarse, rotund farmer-bishop preach, he recognized a kindred spirit. At the end of Boehm s message, Otterbein rose from his seat, approached the pulpit, and embraced the shorter man, exclaiming in German, Wir sind Bruder! We are brethren. Isaac Long s barn is still in use. Boehm s Chapel, built on the corner of his property in his final years, still stands. The Old Otterbein Church in Baltimore, where Otterbein spent the last 40 years of his ministry, is still an active place of worship. And the movement that took its name from that moment when opposites embraced still thrives as well. Later, Jacob Albright would also be significantly influenced by those former German Reformed, Mennonites, Lutherans and others who transcended disagreement over doctrine to pursue a common mission. They called themselves The United Brethren. Other than the fact that in twenty-first century sensitivities the name excludes our sisters, I like being part of a group that has insisted on being united as a defining characteristic. It is perhaps for this reason that I enjoy national conferences, including this one. I revel in seeing pastors and laity from congregations scattered all over the landscape come together for a few days to worship, dream, plan, and pray together. When I was senior superintendent of the MidAtlantic Conference of my home denomination, the highlight of my week was the opening session, when I would gaze outward from the platform at 150 or so friends and fellow laborers of different ages, colors, worship preferences, and spiritual experiences and inwardly rejoice that I could share ministry with such wonderful folks. I m sure many of you feel the same way when the National Conference is called to order each year even if we are ready to adjourn when that time comes as well. This feeling is not just about warm fuzzies. It s a visible expression of what I passionately believe is God s desire for His Church. When Jesus said that the love His disciples would have for one another should be their own defining characteristic, He was serious. When Paul wrote that Christ s death had broken down the dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles, I think He meant that followers of Jesus would and should break down other walls that would impede their unity. I have never interpreted this unity in strictly institutional terms; the tremendous diversity of the Body of Christ will inevitably result in a variety of denominational expressions, as well as the multiplicity of parachurch and higher education institutions that support it. This is to

2 be expected. But what should not be expected, much less supported, is the competitive spirit that has risen between them. Honor Everyone As an historian, I have traced the historical roots of what I call the competitive religious marketplace in America to those revivals of the 18 th century. Most of the revivalists of what is sometimes called the first great awakening were not as keen on cooperating across denominational barriers as Otterbein, Boehm, and their comrades were. In fact, Boehm was expelled from the Mennonite Church for his association with Otterbein, and Otterbein was marginalized within the German Reformed Church for the same reason. Astonishingly, then as well as now, it requires courage at times for a follower of Jesus to love one s brother or sister, for much of our faith identity is formed by distinguishing ourselves from others. Yet, as theologian Miroslav Volf reminded us at Evangelical in 2012, we are admonished by Scripture to honor everyone. If ever a biblical injunction has been ignored by the majority of Christ s followers, this one has been. I have led you down this historical pathway for a reason, and it is this: Given the challenges in our culture and the opportunities awaiting the Church, it is absolutely essential that we find the will and the creativity for deeply collaborative relationships across institutional lines. We will find it difficult to do so, for there is much inbred suspicion and sometimes outright hostility. There is also far too much empire-building among those who profess to be building the kingdom of God. There is too much addiction to bigger, better, faster as the markers of success in our consumerist religion, rather than the slower, harder, deeper work of grace. Collaboration, much less spiritual unity, is not in the DNA of American evangelicalism, but it nonetheless remains the will and desire of our Savior, whom we profess to follow in all things. It is our generation s opportunity to repent of past behavior and to offer the world and our descendants a better legacy. Therefore, over the past several years at Evangelical we have attempted collaboration again and again, and most times have been frustrated in our attempts. More than once, other institutions of Christian higher education that we approached as friends in the end chose to act as competitors instead, sometimes with nearly hostile intent. Economic pressures and declining enrollment trends nationwide have incentivized such behavior, as administrators everywhere fear cutting a thinner slice of a shrinking pie. And yet, because this matters so much, we continue to look for such opportunities. If a door is opened to us, even by a half inch, we will see what can be done within that space as well as how it might be opened further. It is good for Evangelical and it is good for the kingdom of God that we do so. Such collaborations can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes: We would love to develop academic programs jointly with another institution and thus do together for the kingdom what neither has sufficient resources to do alone. We are very interested in developing relationships with feeder schools undergraduate institutions that will send us their graduates. We will reciprocate by helping those schools attract undergraduate prospects from our own constituencies. We would be glad to host on our campus one or more other institutions who would offer programs that we do not and would be glad to be offered the same on their campuses as well.

3 We can imagine a scenario in which small institutions can share some marketing expenses by highlighting each of their distinctives to a common market. We can imagine scenarios by which institutions can share administrative services, such as a business office, or online learning infrastructure, or registration services. We can even imagine a more strategic alliance in which we could function as a satellite campus of a larger seminary, or the seminary of a reputable Christian university, or as a member of a consortium of likeminded schools. At the very least, we would love to have relationships with other schools in which we honor each other for the unique contributions that each brings to our common mission, which is to prepare men and women for service in God s kingdom. Methodists, Anabaptists, and Bears, Oh My! This is a frequent theme at Evangelical these days; we talk about collaboration among senior leaders, with faculty and staff, and increasingly with the Board of Trustees, for they are engaging in conversations about strategies by which we may best fulfill our mission in the longer-term future. And we do more than just talk; despite the frustrations noted earlier, here are some collaborative efforts we have in motion already: 1. As you are well aware, our relationship with the United Methodist Church requires continual cultivation. Our quadrennial report is due on May 1; four years ago when this was submitted they threatened to de-list us. Since then we have taken several significant steps, including the creation of the Evangelical Center for Methodist Studies and, more recently, the co-sponsorship of a Methodist history journal, to buttress our argument that United Methodist students emerge well prepared for service in that denomination. Please pray that we find favor with our Methodist brothers and sisters this summer. 2. We have also created the Evangelical Center for Anabaptist Studies to similarly support students who come from the historically Anabaptist denominations or who wish to explore Anabaptist theology or practice. We have few such support services already in place, so we are creating those from scratch. Anabaptists collectively represent our second largest group of students. 3. I happily remind you that we also have a Director for Evangelical Congregational Church Studies, a position filled by your own Bishop Emeritus Mike Sigman. 4. For the past year and a half, we attempted to create a noncredit program in Bible and theology for Korean immigrants in Philadelphia via a partnership with an organization there. Regulations from the Immigration and Naturalization Service made that difficult and eventually impossible to do. We are still exploring other alternatives by which we can work with our friends in Philadelphia to serve the Korean community here in Pennsylvania. 5. We continue to offer our Master of Divinity program at Messiah College s Harrisburg Institute. The first cohort is at the end of their second year of classes.

4 6. We have opened a new Lancaster office and plan to offer our Master of Arts in Leadership Development there by January. Classes will be held at the Lancaster Mennonite Conference Center. 7. We have been talking for nearly three years with Winebrenner Seminary about collaboration opportunities in the Cumberland Valley. By the time we meet in person I hope to have more information on this to share with you. 8. We have been talking for nearly three years with Lancaster Bible College but they have chosen to purchase and expand their own seminary. We continue to look for opportunities to honor each other. 9. As we seek fruitful collaboration with others, we are also being intentional about nurturing healthier relationships within our own learning community. We must practice ourselves what we preach to others. God is glorified not only by what we accomplish but also in how we get there. A Seminary for the 21 st Century Collaboration is both means and end. In the kingdom of God it is an end in itself, for this is what the kingdom looks like. But it s also one means among others in the fulfillment of our own mission, which we will continue to pursue whether others join us or not. Toward that end, I called a cross-functional task force together last Fall to engage in strategic conversations about the educational needs of 21 st century ministers in both church and parachurch. The result of those conversations was a new program proposal, which we presented to the Association of Theological Schools for approval on April 1. If approved as presented, the new Master of Arts in Ministry will be completed in a relatively short time span (36 credits over two years), offered in hybrid delivery (most online with a one-week residency each term), focused on ministry practices (one practice or collection of practices studied in each 6- credit course), integrated across disciplines (each practice will be studied through the lenses of systematic, biblical, historical, and practical theology), and focused on the personal development of the student (each student will have a spiritual director and a leadership mentor). We also intend to revise our Master of Divinity. If all goes as intended, it will consist of the combined curricula of the Master of Arts in Ministry and the recently revised Master of Arts in Religion, thus providing graduates with both the practices necessary for effective ministry in this generation as well as the biblical and theological foundations necessary to undergird and give content to those practices. We also submitted a proposal to offer a Master of Arts in Spiritual Formation and Direction. We already offer this curriculum as the most popular track in our Master of Arts in Religion program. By having it off as a separate program, we hope to better attract the attention of the growing number of evangelicals who are seeking spiritual formation education. We have been ahead of the curve in this area and would like to strengthen this as a distinctive of Evangelical Seminary.

5 Our newly-renamed Master of Arts in Leadership Development also has a strong spiritual formation focus, as we are unique in blending the being and doing of leadership in the curriculum of this program. This program, which is also offered in hybrid delivery, is attracting students from the business, nonprofit, and public sectors, as well as a few church staff members. It could meet the needs of many laypeople in your churches, no matter where you are located. We are also working on a plan that may re-name, re-locate, and re-fund our archeology museum. By the time we meet in person at National Conference I hope to be able to tell you some very good news about this. To do all of these new things new programs, new sites, new centers, new deliveries, new partners, etc we have had to critically evaluate nearly all of our systems and processes, for resources remain very limited. Fortunately, we have seen an increase in the number of prospective students as we look toward Fall; please pray with us that prospects become enrolled students. This improvement has come through a fairly radical rethinking of our marketing and recruiting strategies by the new team we put in place last Spring. We changed our investment company this past year and are re-engaging in estate planning services and scholarship fundraising, along with project-based funding efforts. Gifts to the annual fund have remained flat for the past decade, so we have been attempting some new strategies, some involving social media, to connect with new and lethargic donors. Please pray with us (and help where you can) for success in our unprecedented half-million-dollar target by June 30. We have seen our financial situation stabilize a bit. This does not mean that we are by any means in a healthy or sustainable situation; but it does give us early hope that the strategies we have put into place will carry us forward until we can develop more permanent strategies for the longer term. By the time you read this, we will likely have migrated our website to a new platform, freshened its appearance, and initiated a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign. This is now the way most people find us, and we have the potential for creating a national (as opposed to purely regional or denominational) identity. Our physical plant provides more space than we actually need, which increases utility and infrastructure costs. Our inability to fund depreciation is also catching up with us in terms of deferred maintenance issues. We are looking creatively at ways to better utilize, even share, this space, or to find other options by which we can focus dollars on mission rather than maintenance. They Will Know We Are Christians I close this report as I opened it by celebrating what happens when God s People collaborate for the sake of His kingdom. The Evangelical Congregational Church has roots very similar to those of the United Brethren, and you have demonstrated that partnership for the Gospel is part of your DNA by allowing Evangelical to serve a wider constituency than just this denomination. This has meant loosening the reins a bit over the years, which is a hard thing to do. I applaud you for doing that, however, as your investment in God s kingdom, expressed through this remarkable institution, has been multiplied again and again through the service of our

6 graduates in many churches, denominations, schools, mission agencies, parachurch organizations, and elsewhere over the years. The kingdom of God has been well served by your collaborative and generous spirit. This beautiful habit of yours will continue and even be enhanced in the years ahead. They will know we are Christians, not only because we speak a truth we ourselves have experienced, but because we live out that truth in our love for each other. We are brethren. Gratefully, Dr. Tony Blair, President