If you would like to hear about 10 minutes of Asbury Board Chair Jim Smith addressing the chapel of Asbury Seminary about the recent crisis and installing Ellsworth Kalas as interim president, you can download the chapel mp3 from
http://www.asburyseminary.edu/community/current_ky.htm
Scroll down to yesterday's chapel, October 24 and then choose either hi or low, depending on your internet connection speed. Warning: I would right click on it and save it to a spot on your computer that you can find. Cursed Bill Gates has these things going to Temporary Internet Folders that are well nigh impossible to find. Who will free me from this body of PC?
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15 comments:
Macintosh may indeed release you from the wretched world of PC. :)
It is called The Apple Store... and yes, it will change your life.
I thought I'd add that you will now find streaming video at this same link.
Turn back from the dark side. Buy a Mac.
Schenck Thoughts has search high and low for nigh unto two months for some sign answer the the proud fall of the board, and the Phoenix of Greenway.
He has been a voice from the internet desert, crying: "Where can the seeker find one who is more haughty and smug than the Executive Board."
And on the wall the finger of God writes in the comment section: "Mene Mene A Mac User Upharsin."
:-)
This isn't the first and won't be the last place you'll find this remark... Jim Smith will not stop until fellow Northwest Texas Conference UM Church Elder Steve Moore is president of Asbury Theological Seminary. Dr Moore left Asbury as Senior Vice President under Dr Dunnam soon after President Greenway's arrival. Dr Moore went over to the Council for Christian Colleges an Universities as a Senior Fellow where, as you remember, Dr Andringa -- the BOT's infamous outside consultant -- was President.
Actually Dr. Moore is the director of the Murdock Foundation and happily employed there distributing enormous amounts of grant money to worthy recipients. The claim of some kind of Texas Takeover of ATS is at least 25 years old and never really materializes. Bob Lyon back in the late 70's warned that almost Any Day Now the Texans would own ATS, but it never happened. I'd also point out that several in the anti-board group are texans--Green, Mulholland, for example. So the regional stereotypes and vilification of people seems to me just plain silly and wrong.
BTW why is Ken Schenck now candidating at Asbury when he said a few weeks back that he could never recommend anyone teaching at ATS as long as the present Board leadership were in place?
I sit in the ATS library, about twenty minutes before the next part of the interview process at Asbury. Don't have much time to respond to ATS Prof. I'll try:
1. I formally entered the search process back in the summer, in late July I think. It was the week after I returned from Scotland. In any case, it was well before the Greenway crisis.
2. Regarding the comment I made some time ago, three things. First, given the way the board vote went, I have to believe it was the right decision at least for the direction the crisis had gone. I had said with Larry Wood at the very beginning that I would submit to whatever decision the board as a whole made.
Second, I have good reason to think that the board itself has decided to review its own part in the crisis and has even brought in a consultant. In other words, the board is willingly evaluating itself. I find this encouraging.
Third, I remain very nervous about the unintended consequences of this crisis. I believe Asbury is in a vulnerable place. As with any interview, it is a two way street. At the same time that Asbury is deciding whether I would be a good candidate here, I am deciding whether Asbury would be a place where I would want to be in five years.
My division and the president of IWU know I am here and they know that I am conflicted about any decision I would have to make if I were offered a position at Asbury. IWU is a great place with a solid trajectory. To some extent I have taken a providential view of this process. If my participation in the crisis is a deal breaker, then I will take that as God's will (makes the decision easy :-)
3) If someone were to study all the comments I made in the crisis, one often was on my mind. It has become a major motto for me: "Everything can look political, so you just have to do what you think is right." Anyone who thinks I participated in the way I did to help my chances must think me a fool. We know how these things go--the board has the power. I actually saw my involvement much more as putting my chances in jeapardy, not helping them. And I would say that has proved to be the case. If I were to say what I thought my biggest weakness in this process is, it is exactly this point.
With regard to a post by Anonymous, let me clarify, one more time: Dr. Mulholland and I are not "anti-board." Nor do I know any faculty at Asbury Seminary who are "anti-board." As we stated repeatedly over the past two months, our concern has focused on process vis-a-vis the by-laws and the board's governance policies.
I did not comment based on "regional stereotypes," or any other stereotypes for that matter. I personally know both Steve Moore & Jim Smith, and have known them both for over 20 years. Much of that time I have worked on boards and agencies with Jim. I also studied under Dr Lyons while an MDiv student, sometime later than the 70's, and remember his dissertations about the Texas Takeover. I'm talking about the Northwest Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church, and specific members of it, not the geographic region known on the map as Texas. (Yes, Robert Mulholland taught in Abilene at then McMurry College, but that doesn't make him a Texan nor a Northwest Texan. To lump all Texans together as a cohesive body is, indeed, a regional stereotype.)
Jim Smith builds on the legacy of R L Kirk and others from the Northwest Texas Conference, only somewhat less yielding. Dr Green's concern about the process the BOT has gone through to get to the present outcome is exceptional and well-received by me. In my experience with Rev Dr James W Smith, outcomes are more important than processes. I re-state my premise, not new or original to me: Jim Smith will not stop until Steve Moore is President of ATS.
Just one more comment... I do not know Ken Schenck at all, but I believe his heart to share his concerns for Asbury Theological Seminary uniquely positions him with gentle authority. I'm impressed by his openness.
I hope you don't sign a contract with Asbury Seminary unless Joel Green makes a public commitment that he will stay... which I fear he will not do considering recent events. If Joel Green is going to be there ATS is a good next step. However a JoelGreenless ATS is considerably depreciated in value.
You know, I don't know what the future holds for Asbury or me. But I really hope Asbury can pull through this time and bounce back with a greater vibrancy than it even had before.
One thing I hope Kalas and Arnold (provost) can do is build on the common focus that this crisis has created. It seems to me that faculty who might otherwise be buried in writing or lecture preparation have spent more time together than they usually did (maybe they did before and I just had the wrong impression). It would be great if they would make this a real regular thing!
There are a lot of towering figures at Asbury. If Asbury can plug them all back in, repair the wiring, and flip the circuit breaker back on, it can be better post-crisis than even pre. I do think it will take God and some towering figures in the reconcilation department to do it, but it could happen.
Some may feel squeamish about eating it, but rabbit has a fan base that grows as cooks discover how easy they are to raise — and how good the meat tastes.
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