Thursday
Jul172008
FEATURED STORY
DELIGHTFUL HUMOR
‘Nothing sinister about a woman minister’ — or a comedic librarian
By J. Michael Krivyanski
PITTSBURGH — Ingrid Kalchthaler has stood in front of many different audiences and spoken just the right words.
As a youth librarian she helps children to appreciate reading and other good things. She has stood in front of a Baptist congregation and used her words to deliver sermons.
Most recently, she used her oratory skills in front of a different crowd — at a comedy club — where she delivered humorous words as a stand-up comedian.
Print Article Wednesday
Feb082012
Baptists Today News
Daniel Vestal to lead new Baugh Center for Baptist Leadership at Mercer
ATLANTA — Mercer University President William D. Underwood today announced the appointment of longtime Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal to lead the university’s new Eula Mae and John Baugh Center for Baptist Leadership, which is being endowed with a $2.5 million grant from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation. Vestal will also serve as Distinguished University Professor.
Vestal announced last September his intention to retire as leader of the Baptist organization effective June 30, 2012. His Mercer appointments are effective July 1.
“I can think of no two names more synonymous with Baptist leadership than John Baugh and Daniel Vestal. John Baugh for many decades provided courageous and principled leadership as a Baptist layperson, and Daniel Vestal for more than 15 years has provided courageous and principled leadership for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship,” said Underwood. “I am pleased that Dr. Vestal will serve in this new capacity as director of the Baugh Center and as Mercer’s first Distinguished University Professor of Baptist Leadership. I am deeply grateful to Babs Baugh and her daughters, Jackie and Julie, for making this investment to prepare future Baptist leaders who will champion the principles and embody the character of their late father and mother and grandfather and grandmother.”
The Baugh Center will foster research and learning in Baptist history, theology, ethics and missiology, partnering with Mercer’s James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the American Baptist Historical Society, as well as Mercer’s Center for Theology and Public Life and other organizations and programs.
The Center will initiate a doctoral program in religion focused on Baptist studies. It will be interdepartmental in nature, engaging faculty from across the university and visiting scholars from outside the university. Graduates from the Ph.D. program will become pastor-scholars, teachers in Baptist universities and seminaries, and leaders in denominational and ministry organizations.
“I am honored by this appointment as well as the generosity of the Baugh Foundation and anticipate being a part of such an historic institution as Mercer University,” Vestal said. “Eula Mae and John Baugh embodied integrity and Christian character. This Center will be a lasting legacy to their lives and will foster research, learning and community within the Baptist family. It will pursue excellence for both lay and clergy leaders by combining spiritual formation, academic study and caring collegiality.”
In addition to teaching, Vestal’s responsibilities will include fostering academic programs and research that draws students, professors, pastors and leaders into collaborative relationships and attracts Baptist leaders and emerging leaders from around the world for conferences, sabbatical leaves, and to pursue research and educational programs at Mercer.
“It is with great confidence and anticipation that the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation entrusts Dr. Daniel Vestal and President Bill Underwood with the very important tasks of working with thoughtful and dedicated Baptist students in the field of leadership, as well as in the areas of Baptist principles, ethics, theology, history and integrity,” said Babs Baugh. “We are honored to be associated with all of those who will participate in the practice and teaching of these ideals and can think of no better way to honor the legacy of John and Eula Mae Baugh. This was their passion.”
Prior to being named executive coordinator of the Atlanta-based Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 1996, Vestal served for five years as pastor of Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston. He also has served as pastor of Dunwoody Baptist Church in Atlanta; First Baptist Church of Midland, Texas; Southcliff Baptist Church in Fort Worth; and Meadow Lane Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas.
Vestal served as the first moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 1990-1991. He is a former board member for George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University and through the years served on numerous other boards, including the Steering Committee for Christian Churches Together in the U.S. (CCT) and the Executive Committee of the Baptist World Alliance.
He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from Baylor University and a master’s degree and doctorate from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He travels extensively and is in great demand as a preacher. Vestal is a writer, having contributed to numerous publications and has written four books, including his latest, Being the Presence of Christ: A Vision for Transformation. He and his wife, Earlene, have three grown children and five grandchildren.
(Adapted from a Mercer University press release.)
Tuesday
Feb212012
Daily RNS News
After C.S. Lewis College flops, a free campus for the taking
By G. JEFFREY MacDONALD
© 2012 Religion News Service
NORTHFIELD, Mass. — Jerry Pattengale's cell phone won't stop ringing as he leads a secretive group of four wide-eyed college administrators around a majestic campus built in 1879 by legendary evangelist D.L. Moody.
Calls and visitors are pouring in for one reason: the billionaire Oklahoma family that owns the 217-acre site and its 43 buildings aims to give it away to a Christian institution. Free. No charge. Just take it.
"That was a national organization in Colorado that just called," said Pattengale, a college administrator who's been hired to help find a new owner for the property. "They want to come and see."
The extraordinary offer went out to 15 hand-picked institutions in January after plans fell apart to locate a new C.S. Lewis College on the site that once housed the Northfield campus of Northfield Mount Hermon School. Moody founded a predecessor school, the Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies, here in 1879.
Now the Green family, owners of the Hobby Lobby craft store chain, is soliciting new proposals. The winner will need to demonstrate both an orthodox Christian vision and the financial wherewithal to pull it off.
Whoever gets the property will inherit a gem with hilltop views stretching to New Hampshire and Vermont. Since buying the campus in 2009 for $100,000, the Greens have poured $5 million into improvements. Visitors now stroll along new sidewalks, smell fresh paint in the 2,400-seat auditorium where Moody preached and marvel at seamlessly rebuilt buttressing for a formerly condemned stone chapel.
For the Greens, giant gifts to promote Christian education and the Bible are a stock in trade. The family saved Oral Roberts University with a $70 million donation; gave a campus in Haverhill, Mass., to Zion Bible College; and built a 1 million-square-foot complex for Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. They're currently planning a Bible museum to house their private collection of biblical antiquities, which ranks among the world's largest.
Though none of the Greens have been to college, Pattengale said, they're committed to strengthening Christian higher education. The so-called "Moody campus" here gives them an asset for doing so in a region famous for academic institutions and secular liberalism.
"While the Northeast has become very secular, we feel like it needs to reconsider the roots that this country was founded upon and that D.L. Moody taught," said Hobby Lobby President Steve Green.
"If there can be a light in that area that this campus can play a part in, we would love to see that happen."
Interest has been keen, and not just from organizations requesting anonymity. Delegations from Liberty, Azusa Pacific University and Indiana Wesleyan University were on site within days of being invited. (Indiana Wesleyan, where Pattengale is assistant provost, opted to take a pass).
But giving away an historic, picturesque campus is turning out to be a challenge.
So far, only the Redlands, Calif.-based C.S. Lewis Foundation has offered to take the entire property. The group is still raising funds with hopes of launching a "great books" college on the site, where students would focus on classic literature and arts. But organizers missed their Dec. 31 fundraising target by more than $3 million, thus triggering the new search.
"Everything is in place except money," said C.S. Lewis Foundation founder and president Stan Mattson. The curriculum is ready for would-be C.S. Lewis College students, but one year's operating costs for the campus (estimated at $1.5 million) would virtually deplete its resources.
Colleges have expressed interest in owning select portions of the campus, but not the whole thing. Thus the Greens are now considering a scenario of co-ownership among various institutions with one serving as the anchor, like a department store in a mall.
Liberty is a leading contender since it has a 40-year track record, has 80,000 students (including online enrollments) and, unlike many universities, "moves at lightning speed," Pattengale said. Liberty would likely offer short-term and weeklong intensive courses in Northfield for its thousands of online graduate students who live and work in the Northeast, according to Liberty Provost Ronald Godwin.
But even deep-pocketed Liberty doesn't want exclusive ownership of the campus.
"Liberty is a large school, but we still couldn't see how we'd utilize that whole property," said Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. "We suggested that maybe several schools could work together to jointly use the property for different programs. ... We put together a proposal along those lines."
Negotiating a cultural fit for the local community could pose challenges as well. When Pattengale recently met with 15 community leaders at a local inn, he asked if the campus had ever hosted a contemporary Christian music event, such as an Amy Grant concert.
"We had Peter, Paul and Mary play once," answered Ted Thornton, the chairman of the history department at Northfield Mount Hermon, which continues to operate on a separate nearby campus in Mount Hermon, Mass.
Northfield Mount Hermon broadly interpreted Moody's legacy by focusing on education, not evangelism. Some want elements of that ethos to continue. Dave Powell, D.L. Moody's great-grandson, said he hopes a Christian institution will take ownership and carry on such traditions as honoring the dignity of manual labor by having everyone do physical chores.
"I hope they sustain the Christian foundation here, but are broad enough to understand that it's not the only religion in the world," Powell said. "I would hope we certainly would invite Muslims, Jews and everybody else (to speak on campus) because how else are we going to survive in the world?"
The Greens will consider a first round of proposals at their monthly family meeting on March 7. After that, they might open the process beyond the hand-picked candidates, although that could mean weighing hundreds of proposals, Pattengale said.
He reminded local leaders that it's the Greens' property to "do what they want with it."
"We could hold it indefinitely if we wanted to, but our goal is to get it operating," Green said. "The sooner the better, if we could find the right fit."