A Word from Christ to All of Us

I am promoting this comment to a regular post because it is the voice of Christ. You'll find it comes from Keith Drury under the previous post.

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I hate to read all this messy stuff about Asbury. I hate it, even though it may be needed.

I am not an Asbury graduate and admit I have not even been a great supporter of this Methodist-reforming Seminary. But a funny thing has happened to me as I have followed this messy plot... I find myself rooting for redemption and reconciliation at the school, like I am an alum! Perhaps I'm an idealist or I am hopelessly overcome by a conviction that good men who do bad things badly often see their need to back up and fix the mess they have made. Maybe it is my tendency to believe that the best men and women often are able to reach down deep and bring up the best from their hearts in times of crisis. But I have great hope that a resolution will occur that will make ATS and all its people better. It still can emerge from the garbage dump and division we see now. It can! I can’t remember who the old guy was who recited past crisis events at Asbury, but I too am an old guy who has seen this kind of stuff before.

Here’s one story: When I was an undergrad the President of my college (one who every single student and 90% of the faculty loved and admired) got crossways with his board and one of his administrators. It was messier than this. It got into the newspapers. It splattered all over everybody and “sides” emerged. The President refused the Chair’s direct order to pay the administrator’s salary which he was withholding (full disclosure—my father was the board chair). There was open rebellion on campus. The denomination’s General Superintendents were too weak to step in—believing “If you wrestle with a pig you both get dirty—but the pig likes it.” So they stood by and watched the fire.

With everyone watching the institution go up in smoke it got worse. Students transferred. Faculty floated their resumes. Board members resigned (including my dad) and some of my best friends who were more gifted at ministry than I was dropped out of school and went to Viet Nam, disgusted that “Christians could act this way.” Most never found their way back into the church, let alone the ministry. I still get emails from some of them. Bitter emails. Lives ruined. Faith abandoned. The fallout continues to today.

In the midst of that crisis that was far too severe for a 20 year old ministerial student to experience first hand I learned a most important lesson of life: Never, ever break a relationship. Sure you can disagree. Argue. Fight. Vote. Remove people from office. Politic. Line up votes even. But never ever break relationship with a brother or sister in Christ. Grab the “enemy” by the arm and go out to eat. Laugh. Tell stories. Grant your “enemy” the logic of their good arguments. Hug them and say, “I totally disagree with you 100% but I also love you 100%.” When they sabotage your career laugh lightly and walk away—God always will bring you back like a cork under water. When they manipulate and tell (what appears to be) lies correct what you can and trust that your friends won’t believe it, or at least your children won’t. Even as students we could see this was the solution. Fight in love.

Unfortunately the primary men in that squabble did not do what was obvious to us students. They continued offering their gift before the altar and refused to go to those who “had ought against them.” They exited different doors at the college. They ate together in clusters of like-minded “sides.” They were not “easily entreated.” In the end they sent the President packing and said, “There, that’s that.”

But the school never recovered. The sin got buried under the tent floor was never mentioned again. We “moved on” and “started fresh.” But the school would never again be the same. And the ruined lives are still scattered here and there.

So, two other quotes come to mind:

One comes from a similar crisis when the general board of The Wesleyan Church voted to close a college (in fact, this same college) over the unanimous opposition of the local board of Trustees. The faculty (and some of the board) of that school were doing and saying things that (appeared to be) wrong and nasty. A white-haired old statesman on the General Board gave me a quote worthy of this situation. He remarked, “These men are better men than they act.” Regardless of the theological soundness of the statement it was a wonderful quote that was full of grace. He understood that in a crisis (such as faculty losing their jobs by the closing of an educational institution) people sometimes act below who they really are in Christ. I am trying to have his attitude in this situation. (Sidelight: This man used to be on the ATS board and would have been the sort of giant who could have stood up to speak for God in this situation but he is no longer serving—so I’m hoping someone else “full of grace” will rise to take his place among the Trustees.) We all need to understand that in crisis “its is the liquor speaking.”

The second quote is an old African proverb: “Where two bulls fight the grass is trampled.” I am hoping and praying that the students and faculty at ATS will not abandon the school (or their faith) in this mess. Students (and to a lesser degree, faculty) are mere grass in this fight and they are powerless to stop the bullfight above them. But I am praying that they will hunker down and wait it out. These men-who-are-better-then-they-act (and women) may yet still act out of who they really are. There is still hope. Maybe there is no hope for Greenway, or faculty power, or trust in the trustees, but there is hope for students who have answered God’s call to serve the church where there will be plenty of people who need to be helped to act more like who they already are.

I too wish the board meeting were sooner. But at least there is time for the statesmen and stateswomen to decide they will risk their reputations to insist that Christ’s will be done in this situation. A few hours of prayer may be the best first item on the Trustees agenda. What does Christ want is the primary question. There is always a way to please Christ. After all, He is the primary “stakeholder.”