Disciples Leadership Institute discusses its next step Nine members of the Disciples Leadership Institute met in Chicago to brainstorm DLI’s next phase of ministry. Financial conditions have forced the cancellation of a 2009 event, but the 2010 event will invite observers to see how DLI creates open and trusting dialogue across traditional dividing lines.

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Thomas also served on the faculty at Texas Christian University, as an assistant professor of educational foundations and administration, and a dozen years in the Dallas Independent School District.

Thomas received his bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, his master’s degree in music education from Jackson State University, and his doctorate in educational administration from Texas A&M University, Commerce.

Thomas and his wife are the parents of three daughters and six grandchildren.

Chapman, Bethany add new church relations directors
Bethany College and Chapman University have introduced church relations directors, key positions linking Disciples and our educational heritage.

Rev. Nancy Brink is the new Director of Church Relations at Chapman University. Reverend Brink comes to us from Omaha, Neb., where for the past twenty years she has been pastor of North Side Christian Church. She has taught World Religions at the college level and is the founder of Connections, a Christian coalition of congregations devoted to social justice. She also brings to the Chapman educational mission her extensive global travel and long experience with youth ministry and as spiritual mentor for college students. She holds a BA in Religion from Texas Christian University and an M.Div. from the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University.

At Bethany, Dr. Larry Grimes will serve as the Director of Church Relations. Retiring after 38 years of teaching at Bethany, Dr. Grimes will being his new role July 1.

An ordained minister of the church, Dr. Grimes graduated magna cum laude from Bethany in 1964 with a major in English and a minor in Religion. He earned his B.D. from Yale Divinity School in 1967. Prior to joining the Bethany faculty in 1970, he spent three years as associate minister of the Sandy Springs (Ga.) Christian Church while he began working toward his doctorate at Emory University in Atlanta. Emory awarded Dr. Grimes his Ph.D. in Literature and Religion in 1974.

“The Arts of Leading across Diversity” inaugurated
A three-part forum during the 2008-09 academic year will bring Disciples leaders, especially young adult and emerging leaders, to the Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago to discuss “the arts of leading across diversity.”

The series is planned and hosted by Ayanna Johnson, DDH’s Minister-in-Residence, the current First Vice Moderator of the Christian Church and a new church pastor. Sandhya Jha was the first guest on November 17. She has recently completed “Room at the Table: Struggle for Unity and Equality in Disciples History”, which surveys the history of Disciples of nonwhite ethnic backgrounds in the United States. Jha is the Minister of the First Christian Church of Oakland, California, and the Minister of Transformation for the Northern California-Nevada region.

Lexington Seminary to reinvent in face of economic turmoil
Trustees of Lexington Theological Seminary have declared the school is in a state of financial emergency and will use this as an opportunity to boldly reinvent itself by developing a curriculum that stresses effective parish ministry as its primary focus.

Declaring financial exigency – the technical term for determining a financial crisis exists that threatens the survival of an institution – allows the trustees among other things to end faculty tenure. It also recognizes the loss of corpus on its restricted endowment.

LTS President James P. Johnson said the Seminary will focus on creating a new curriculum that will better prepare divinity students for careers as parish pastors. Faculty will develop courses that will merge theological thinking with practical skills in such areas as money management, use of technology and conflict resolution. Many course offerings will be available online and taught at remote locations.

The school’s financial situation has been compounded by “a tsunami of economic disasters that we have not seen in our lifetimes,” Johnson told trustees. An endowment that once stood at about $25 million in July 2007 is about $16 million today, Johnson said.

The Seminary, founded in 1865 as the first seminary of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), had a fall enrollment of 120 students, most of whom are seeking their master’s or doctorate degrees. It is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools, and Johnson said the association is working with the Seminary to make sure accreditation is maintained during the transition.