A reply to clergy trustees

This year's session of the Arkansas Annual Conference begins tomorrow in Hot Springs. That means that the proposed changes to Hendrix College's charter, designed to reduce the elected Arkansas Conference clergy members on the Board of Trustees from 10 to 5, will be taken up very soon. I brought attention to this issue through this blog post on May 28th. In it, I linked to an article I wrote opposing the proposed changes in the Arkansas United Methodist, which explains why the changes are a bad idea.

Then, in this blog post a week later, I linked to a letter the clergy trustees have written in response to my article. That letter has now been published in the most recent (June 6th) issue of the Arkansas United Methodist, together with a column by the Rev. Bud Reeves, who is one of the Hendrix clergy trustees. Both those articles attempt to respond with reasons why the proposed changes should be passed by the Annual Conference.

Let me say first off that I deeply respect all the clergy men and women who serve on the Hendrix Board of Trustees. For anyone who knows these folks, a quick glance at the list is all it takes to realize that these are some of the most beloved and respected pastors in Arkansas. Their collective wisdom and pastoral experience far outstrip my own. Some of the people on the list are among my close friends and mentors. So I approach this task with more than a little bit of fear and trembling.

But regardless, I think it is important to respond once more on this blog, for those of you who are following the debate. We need to examine the method of reasoning that the clergy trustees are using. Doing so, I contend, will show that it is deeply flawed. Since the clergy trustees' letter and Rev. Bud Reeves' column cover the same ground in pretty similar ways, I will deal with the issues they raise together. I you would like to download a version of the following response in a Word document, you can do so here. Okay, on to the matter at hand...

The trustees' letter takes issue with the title of my article, which suggests that the future of the Hendrix - UMC connection is "uncertain". The clergy trustees then proceed to describe many of the good church-related activities that are going on currently at the college. I am aware of these ministry efforts, and they are encouraging to me. In fact, I believe in them so much that I have joined in them several times over the past few years, including taking leadership roles in four Hendrix mission trips, preaching at a Hendrix chapel service, meeting with the 'Future Preachers of America' ministry group, and speaking at a 'Tuesday Talks' vocational luncheon. It is nice for the clergy trustees' letter to point out this work (which is largely directed out of the chaplain's office by the Revs. Wayne Clark and J.J. Whitney), but it entirely misses the point of why I suggest that the future of the college-church relationship is uncertain in the first place. The reason the relationship is rendered uncertain is exactly because of the proposed action of the Board of Trustees, which substantively and permanently diminishes the Arkansas Conference's connection with the college.

Since the clergy trustees' letter takes issue with the title of my article, allow me to take issue with the title of theirs. The title of their letter reads, "Hendrix trustees: proposal enriches college/church relation". As justification for this claim, the text of the letter states that the revised charter will allow the college to "broaden the participation of United Methodists by drawing in lay leaders and by making space on the board for clergy representation from beyond the Arkansas Conference." The letter then goes on to do what every clergy trustee or Hendrix administration official with whom I have spoken or e-mailed has done: Situate the context for the proposed changes in the issue of Hendrix's desires for growing national prominence.

This reasoning implies two things that are simply incorrect: First, that the language of the current Hendrix charter inhibits Hendrix from drawing in 'lay leaders' and 'clergy representation from beyond the Arkansas Conference'. And secondly, that a permanent change to the charter is necessary in order to 'make room' for these supposedly underrepresented groups.

In truth, there is nothing in the Hendrix charter that keeps the college from asking nationally prominent UM clergy or laity from serving on the Board of Trustees. Ironically enough, the clergy trustees' letter itself admits that 18 of the current 30 lay trustees are United Methodists. That, in and of itself, shows that there is ample room on the Board for lay United Methodists. And if the Hendrix administration wants more, it can simply ask some when current non-UM trustees rotate off. Likewise, if the need is for more nationally-prominent UM clergy, then the Hendrix administration should simply seek some of them out.

In much the same way, there is no reason that a change in the charter is necessary for Hendrix's rise in national prominence. The real problem behind this aspect of the debate is the subtle suggestion that we are dealing with a zero-sum game. That is, the clergy trustees are suggesting that a growth in national prominence (coupled with a large number of national figures on the Board) requires a diminishing of the Arkansas Conference presence. There is no reason why this should be the case. If the idea is for there to be a true enrichment of the college-church relationship, then the best way to do it is to maintain the current strength of the Arkansas Conference relationship while finding creative ways to add trustees from other areas of the country.

A change of the magnitude to the Hendrix charter we are being asked to consider requires that a compelling case be made to the Annual Conference for that change. We have seen no such compelling case.

Since the Arkansans who are delegates to the Arkansas Conference are going to have to grapple with an argument by 10 Arkansas clergy trustees, who will try to convince them why 5 of those same trustees shouldn't exist, let me close with some thoughts on the importance of the relationship between the Arkansas Conference and Hendrix College.

Consider how our lives are only meaningful insofar as they arise out of a story, which we are given and in which we live. We don't just hatch out of eggs, ready and able to take on the world from our births. We are the products of families and communities and traditions, and we do not have the freedom to divorce ourselves from those sources of our identity. We can try to do so, but the result will leave us with lives that are morally unintelligible and based on the arbitrary of emotive choice. We Christians, of all people, should realize this. We are the ones who have been grafted like a wild olive shoot onto the tree of Israel, who "now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root" (Romans 11:17). The branch forgets its rootedness in the tree at its peril.

Hendrix's connections to the United Methodist Church of Arkansas (and its predecessors) are not generalized and conceptual; they are historical and concrete. Many of us have heard the stories of Captain W.W. Martin's role in bringing the college to Conway and his financial subsidies that kept the doors open in difficult times. We all know the high number of clergy who have served as college presidents. We can look back in the college's history and see how much investment the People called Methodists in Arkansas have made to Hendrix, allowing it to grow into the great college it is today. This is the story that Hendrix arises out of, and it is what gives the college its identity.

In addition, in the opening section of the Hendrix charter, we see that historical and concrete connection through the express purpose of the college's existence. Article 1, Section 3 states, "The purpose of the corporation shall be (1) to own and operate a co-educational college at Conway, Arkansas, and such other schools, academies, and colleges at Conway or elsewhere as may be deemed advisable; and (2) to carry out the plans, past and future, of the Conferences of the United Methodist Church in Arkansas for the development of Christian education through this institution." That statement strikes me as remarkable. Hendrix College has a two-fold purpose etched into its very charter, and that purpose is to be a college and to be related to the UMC in Arkansas for the purpose of Christian education. In that sense, the argument about Hendrix's growing national prominence is contrary to the college's very purpose for existence if such prominence comes at the expense of its Arkansas church ties.

I am a strong proponent of increasing Hendrix's national prominence, so long as that growth does not come at the expense to the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church. The reason I am compelled to oppose the proposed charter revisions is that they would, in a real and concrete sense, diminish that connection. But then again, I don't think this is an either/or issue. I think it should be entirely possible to grow in national prominence and grow in the sense of the Arkansas Conference connection. The key issue is how we go about doing both.

I admit that there is a certain oddity to being a clergy person opposing a course of action that all the clergy people on the Hendrix Board of Trustees support. You might ask, "Don't they know better what path Hendrix should take?" And here I think it is important to note the reason that the Hendrix Board of Trustees has to take proposed charter revisions before the Annual Conference in the first place. The constitution of Hendrix's governance is set up so that the church has some guiding oversight to major projects or changes the college wants to make. The presence of clergy trustees is one aspect of that oversight. But the requirement to take proposed revisions to the Annual Conference is another. As a member of the Annual Conference and an alumnus of the college, I think it is both appropriate and helpful for us to consider a perspective different from one that would substantively and permanently reduce the Arkansas Conference - Hendrix College connection. When delegates to the Annual Conference prepare to vote on this issue, I hope they'll consider what the long history between the college and the church in Arkansas means and how voting 'yes' to the proposed revisions would affect that relationship in the future.

Continuing the Hendrix debate

I received a copy of an open letter by the clergy members of the Hendrix Board of Trustees that will appear in the upcoming issue of the Arkansas United Methodist. It is written specifically in response to the op-ed article I published in mid-May. The letter was e-mailed out to an Arkansas young adult clergy e-mail list that I had contacted about the proposed charter revisions.

I am serious about wanting open debate on this issue, so I am going to offer the letter without comment for now. You can download it here:

Letter_from_Hendrix_Clergy_Trustees_5-29-08.doc

I do intend to respond, because I think that the points that the clergy trustees raise call for further conversation. But I will wait until the letter appears in the next issue of the AUM.

Let me say something else as well. A friend and former professor of mine at Hendrix raised the issue of some of the language I used in my Wednesday blog post. What I had intended as tongue-in-cheek, wry, or witty comments were received by some as mean-spirited and cynical. I deeply regret that.

I do believe that the blogosphere is a democratic, free-wheeling arena of public discourse where we bloggers often mix in humor of various kinds to spice up our commentary on issues. However, through targeted e-mails, I invited a diverse crowd into this blog to read my argument on the Hendrix issue. This included a lot of people associated with Hendrix College or the Arkansas Conference who are not regular readers of this blog. Because of that, I should have moderated my writing more closely and recognized how sensitive an issue this is for many people. I apologize for my carelessness, and I apologize to anyone I may have offended through my comments. I have gone back and edited the post significantly, hopefully removing any language that might be construed as base.

Hendrix College and the UMC

I am a 1998 graduate of Hendrix College, in Conway, AR. Hendrix is a small liberal-arts college that has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church (or its predecessors) since its founding. It offers a top-notch academic education, and I am grateful for my experience there as an undergraduate.

If you are a Methodist who attended a Methodist-related college or university, you know how strange college-church relations can be at most of "our" schools. Methodists frankly don't know how to do church-related higher education anymore (there are some specific historical and cultural reasons for this, which I will not go into right now). The resulting confusion can often lead to strained relationships between the church and its colleges.

My own alma mater of Hendrix is a great example of just such a strained relationship. There are some aspects of its church-relatedness that are laudable. The second of the missions to Peru this month that I've been writing about was - that's right - a group of Hendrix students who were wanting to learn more about the church in Peru and wanting to help out with earthquake rebuilding efforts. The college thought enough of the mission to ask a clergy alumnus (me) to lead it. That kind of stuff is great.

But then, there's other stuff. For instance, the president of Hendrix, Dr. Tim Cloyd, has pushed through a proposed change to the Hendrix Charter that would reduce the number of Arkansas United Methodist clergy on the Board of Trustees by half. Currently, ten clergy in full connection serve on a 42-person Board (along with the bishop and director of conference ministries, who serve in an ex-officio capacity). The change would reduce that number to five clergy. The newly freed up five Board members would be United Methodist, either clergy or laity, from anywhere in the U.S.

The key question here is why. Here's a school that has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years in every measurable category - from enrollment, to endowment, to academic programs, to buildings. The church doesn't seem to have stood in its way in any of that growth. So why take what can only be seen as a punitive action against the church in Arkansas by reducing its presence on the Board of Trustees?

Talk to clergy and laity in Arkansas, and you'll hear dozens of possible reasons. Some say this is the inevitable next step in a relationship that has been declining for decades. Some suggest that this is a punitive move by the administration, in response to the Annual Conference's decision last year to equalize funding with historically black, UM-related Philander Smith College in Little Rock. Some current Hendrix students and alumni both, who are particularly unhappy with the president, suggest that it is just one more example of his insistence on remaking the college in his own image.

From talking to people related to the college, I get the sense that the administration will argue that this will actually strengthen the church-college relationship by allowing the college to stock the Trustees with nationally prominent clergy and laity from other states. A memo by President Cloyd to the Hendrix faculty and staff, dated February 19th of this year, classified the proposed changes as one of a number of "important actions" that would move Hendrix closer to being a "national leader" in "engaged liberal arts and sciences education." But there are at least four problems with the administration's line:

1) The stated purpose of the college (see Hendrix Charter, Article 1, Section 3) is to "carry out the plans, past and future, of the Conferences of the United Methodist Church in Arkansas for the development of Christian education through [the college]." The statement of purpose in the Charter doesn't say anything about the UMC in other states or annual conferences, and thus it is somewhat confusing for the college to argue that the Arkansas Conference should acquiesce in its own diminishment on the Board of Trustees. And besides, the administration simply isn't offering anything (yet) about how this will strengthen the relationship between the college and the church in Arkansas. It will be curious to see if that changes.

2) The college's reasoning will most likely rely on a very optimistic view about how the five freed-up Trustees positions will be filled in the coming years. That is, it will assume that the college will continue to seek Trustees with strong United Methodist connections who care a lot about the church-college relationship. Anyone familiar with how and why people get chosen to serve on such boards knows this is unlikely when competing against other needs (deep pockets, influence, political connections, etc.). This is not to say that it's wrong to ask wealthy and powerful people to serve on the Board. And it's not to say that such people can't have strong UM connections. But it is to say that preachers fall pretty far down the list of attractive candidates for such a Board. And it is also to say that church commitments tend to lose out to other priorities by those whose first commitment is not to the church. The clergy who are selected are selected because they, as people who are by definition committed to the church, have been constitutionally included in the makeup of the Board in the college's charter. Laity who happen to be UM and are selected may or may not put the interests of the church first, but the fact of their church membership will never be the sole reason they are chosen for Board membership.

3) There has been the suggestion by some people that at least some of the five freed-up positions will be filled by nationally prominent clergy. Now, I grant that one or two megachurch or big steeple pastors may be asked to serve in the early years. But the likelihood that the College is still going to voluntarily seek out preachers for its Board of Trustees 10 or 20 years down the road - after the debate around the charter changes has been forgotten - is (in my opinion) slim.

4) A key administration argument is that the proposed changes will allow the college to reach out to committed Methodists (clergy or lay) in other parts of the country. This ignores one huge question: If the college cares that much about including prominent Methodists on its board, why doesn't it just ask some of them to serve? There is no change to the charter needed for this. With a 42-member Board, it can ask all the Methodist clergy and laity from around the country that it wants! And herein lies the key to seeing through the flawed reasoning around Hendrix's proposal. Ask yourself this question: If the Hendrix administration truly wants to strengthen its ties to the church, why does it feel like it has to make permanent changes to the college charter that actually diminish the number of clergy on the Board of Trustees? I continued to miss the logic in that line of reasoning.

Ironically enough, I learned about the proposed change by accident through a chance conversation in April. This is the type of thing that the administration would probably like to have flown under the radar, so it could be presented at Annual Conference and approved without a lot of debate. But as an alumnus of the college, Hendrix is my alma mater - my nurturing mother. And like all alumni, I have a responsibility to look out for her well-being. So I've penned an op-ed piece in the Arkansas United Methodist newspaper that highlights the proposed changes. Here it is, in three PDF files because it was spread out over three different sections of the paper:

Hendrix College and the UMC, page 1

Hendrix College and the UMC, page 2

Hendrix College and the UMC, page 3

The catch is that the Annual Conference has to approve any changes to the Hendrix Charter. If the Conference says no, the charter stays as it is. I actually want to improve the relationship between Hendrix and the Arkansas Conference, so my article offers some suggestions. I welcome any conversation here on this blog.

What a week!

It's Friday evening, and I am finishing a 7-day period where I preached at a blessing service for a friend's child, attended the Arkansas Annual Conference, worked like crazy to get caught up on all the Latin work I missed while I was away from Durham, and logged about 2000 miles in travel. It's good to be home!

Since this was the year we elected delegates to General and Jurisdictional Conferences, it was an interesting annual conference session. I'll share a few thoughts:

-- As always, it is really good to attend annual conference just to see friends and colleagues in ministry. That was especially the case this year, since I am now living in North Carolina and haven't gotten to see those folks Emily and I have missed over the past year. I also had a lot of people express the desire for us to return to the conference when I finish my Th.D., something that I hope God provides a way for us to do.

-- This year marked the third year in a row that Eric Van Meter has organized a Gen X clergy supper. We had 30 or so clergy and clergy spouses who gathered in the Arkansas Tech University Wesley Foundation building on Monday evening for good ol' Arkansas barbeque (this is a noun rather than a verb for those of you not from the South). Eric does a good job of resisting the temptation to set an agenda at these gatherings. And so the conversations just naturally flow from what our concerns and hopes happen to be. This year, we focused on the need to keep in touch with young seminarians while they are in school as well as talking about how to get better involved in connectional conference structures such as the Board of Ordained Ministry and other appointed bodies. We believe this is important to add our voices to conference leadership. This year, we made the firmest commitment yet to keeping in touch and making progress throughout the year. We had some volunteers offer to serve as 'point people,' and I think we are going to use the new 7 Villages website to build an online connection. Kudos to Eric for all his work in this area. He has shown real leadership. And good luck to him as he starts a new appointment in campus ministry at Arkansas State Univeristy in Jonesboro. The Gen X clergy gathering is, by the way, something I would highly recommend for other annual conferences to do.

-- Billy Reeder and his group Sanctus led an emergent-style worship service outdoors following regular worship on Monday evening that was pretty well attended. The Holy Spirit was obviously in attendance, which was awesome.

-- This was the first conference session that I have attended where we have elected delegates to General and Jurisdictional Conferences. For all the horror stories I have heard about how nasty elections can be, I think this one went pretty well. We ended up electing a balanced group including Conservatives, Liberals, and Moderates. I think that is important, since it reflects the makeup of our annual conference. For the record, I personally voted for people who would generally be categorized in all three groups.

-- Kudos to Revs. J.J. Whitney and Aubrietta Jones, who were elected as General and Jurisdictional delegates, respectively. They are both Gen X'ers and help to bring a young clergy voice to our delegations. Sarah Steele, a Millennial teenager, was also elected as a lay delegate to General Conference. And Jay Clark, youth ministry guru who has held positions in the Arkansas Conference, New England Conference, and the General Board of Discipleship, was elected as a Jurisdictional alternate. Jay is soon moving from Nashville to become the minister of youth at Pulaski Heights UMC in Little Rock, and my only regret is that he was not elected as a General Conference delegate in his own right. But then, there's always 2012!

One final note: In her e-mail recap of annual conference, SMU professors (and Arkansas Conference elder) Rebekah Miles wrote, "There is nothing like the sound of a group of preachers and lay people singing hymns loudly and enthusiastically at annual conference." Amen to that! "And are we yet alive?" You bet we are. And the work of the kingdom goes on.