Opinion

Response to 40-Year Survey: Timothy L. Johnson

Timothy J. Johnson

In this post we continue our series of responses to Lenore Knight Johnson’s study, “Four Decades Later: Credentialed Clergywomen in the ECC.” See additionally the 1989 letter from the Board of Ministry (following the 10-year study) as well as responses from Katherine Hamilton and Mark Novak & Carol Lawson.  

It has been a personal pleasure for me to engage with the February 2017 issue of the Covenant Quarterly, as the issue of women in ministry in the Evangelical Covenant Church intersects in several ways with my life and ministry.

Personal Intersection

I began seminary only months before the decision was made to ordain women at the June 1976 Annual Meeting of the ECC. As I think back on my years in ministry, I am particularly grateful for that 1976 decision. In each of the churches I have pastored, I have ministered with women pastoral leaders. I am married to an ordained clergywoman whom I have had the pleasure of working with as well as witnessing her ministry in other contexts. I was blessed to graduate from North Park with five women in the spring of 1980. I believe this was in a graduating class of forty. In my current role at NPTS, I have the privilege of being involved in the vocational development of gifted women and men for ministry. Most years the student population is close to 50% women.

It is noteworthy that a majority of the students in NPTS’s master of divinity program are men, while a strong majority of students in programs like the Certificate in Spiritual Direction are women. Those distinctions are significant but do not negate the fact that the composition of the current student body is vastly different than it was when I was a student. This marks the fact that real progress has been made in the past forty years. I have the joy of observing gifted women enter our seminary community, expand their knowledge base and ministry skills, develop their pastoral identity, and depart for the purpose of serving in Christian ministry.

There is, however, grief to be recounted. It was a personal delight for me to observe at our most recent Midwinter Conference one of my female classmates, Mary Miller, receive the honor of being named distinguished alum of NPTS for 2017. Mary has served the ECC well as an exceptionally gifted servant leader. As a colleague and friend, Mary has been a blessing to me over my decades in ministry. Honoring Mary also serves to honor those other early women in ECC ministry. It also causes me to remember one classmate who was also exceptionally gifted for ministry but had to choose to serve in another denomination because of the way things unfolded for her. That memory illustrates the impoverishment to our denominational body when inadequate provision is not made for a major change in our denominational culture. As it has frequently been noted, it was both curious and unfortunate that the same assembly that voted to ordain women also voted not to embark on a strategy to promote and educate concerning the matter.

Pioneers

Kelly Johnston’s biography of  Jean Lambert was a particularly apt way of unpacking the concept of the pioneer. Along with Mary Miller and the other four women I graduated with in 1980, Jean Lambert was certainly a pioneer in for women in ECC ministry. I had not been aware of the letter Jean had written in 1989 on behalf of the Board of the Ministry. It was and is a strong letter, and it describes well the pioneer role of our earliest female colleagues in ministry. As I was glad for the honor bestowed on Mary Miller at Midwinter, I was reminded of what a good thing it was that Jean Lambert was honored by the ECC in 2006 (Irving C. Lambert Award for excellence in urban and ethnic ministries) and NPTS in 2008 (honorary doctorate). She established solid ground for women pastors and theologians in the ECC. I was personally struck by some of her work referred to in Johnston’s article.

Lambert’s contribution to Amicus Dei opened my eyes to the richness of “Mission Friend” terminology. This work was a major influence in my Doctor of Ministry work at Hartford Seminary (1986-1991). One of the things Lambert did well was to show how Pietist essentials, such as the “priesthood of all believers,” offered a path toward a  less hierarchical, more egalitarian church. These essentials are given strong expression in the third article of this issue of the Quarterly. Denise Kettering-Lane reminds us that even though the early giants of Pietism likely did not have women ministers in mind, their theological principles are given rich expression through the reality of women in ministry.

Practical Considerations

A a Covenant, we are fortunate that each decade since 1976 persons have offered careful analysis of the ECC’s progress in living into its vote. Lenore Knight Johnson offers fair and thorough insights on where we stand at year forty. Some of her suggestions for improvement I find particularly helpful. It is a given that we are congregational in our polity, and I think the advantages of this far outweigh the disadvantages. Yet there is no doubt that congregational polity has in large measure limited the suitable placement of many gifted clergywomen. Knight Johnson helpfully points out major ECC events, such as Midwinter and CHIC, as available opportunities for the ECC to draw attention to gifted women preachers.

I would add our Covenant camps to that list. This was brought home to me recently when my daughter Chloe came home from a youth retreat at Covenant Point and enthusiastically reported what a great speaker Ramelia Williams was at this event. As the father of a sixteen-year-old young woman, I celebrate that she has had ample opportunity to hear gifted women preach, including her mother. It is my hope for Chloe and others like her that each decade going forward will mark dramatic progress for our denominational family when it comes to women in pastoral leadership.

Timothy L. Johnson, graduated from North Park Theological Seminary in 1980. After twenty-five years of parish ministry, Tim returned to NPTS in 2005 to serve as field education director (currently also interim academic dean). Tim’s wife Kari Lindholm-Johnson is an ordained Covenant pastor who is currently the artist-in-residence at Swedish Covenant Hospital. They have two children. Gabe is a sophomore at North Park University; Chloe is a sophomore at Von Steuben High School.

Opinion: The Future of the Seminary is Tied to the Future of the Church

John E. Phelan, Jr. 1 Comment

In this post, North Park Seminary professor Jay Phelan responds to Gary Walter’s and David Kersten’s articles, published in the most recent issue of the Covenant Quarterly. Do you agree with his sentiments? Dialog with Phelan, Walter, and Kersten in the comments section (link located below article title).

Jay Phelan

Jay Phelan

I deeply appreciate the commitment that both President Walter and Dean Kersten have made to the Seminary. Since I have spent more than twenty-five years of my life and ministry serving North Park, I have a vested interest in the school not only surviving but thriving. As President Walter makes clear, these are challenging days for American seminaries. I know these challenges intimately not only because of my years at the seminary, fourteen of them as president and dean, but because of eight years on the board of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). Over those eight years I was privileged to work with and learn from some of the brightest minds in theological education leadership.

For the board of ATS, the future of seminaries, and of theological education in general, is closely tied to the future of the church. Many seminaries are in crisis because the churches they serve are in crisis. The tide of Christendom is receding. And while mainline churches have struggled for years with declining membership and dwindling resources, in recent years it has become clear that evangelical churches are facing some of the same challenges.

Recent statistics indicate that evangelical churches are losing their young people at an even greater rate than mainline churches. This is not a problem that will be solved by outreach and evangelism alone, as important as both are. As the seminary needs to rethink what it means to prepare women and men for ministry, so the church needs to rethink what it means to worship, serve, witness, and teach in a post-Christian era. The Evangelical Covenant Church is historically well-placed to explore new ways of being church. Pietism has always stressed life over theological correctness, and for many people young and old this has a great deal of appeal at a time of deeply divisive theological conversations. Both the seminary and the church have stressed the deepening of the spiritual life, focusing on the spiritual formation of both pastors and “lay” leaders. And both the seminary and the church have focused on the importance of issues of justice—on poverty, racism, domestic violence, and social justice generally. The churches and the schools that are able to focus on mission and witness, that are rooted in actions as well as words, in compassion instead of condemnation, will have a future.  I think North Park Theological Seminary and the Evangelical Covenant Church can be such a school and such a church.  To that end, I would observe and recommend the following:

  • In an era of biblical illiteracy and theological ignorance, it will not serve us well to lessen our emphasis on the Bible, theology, and history. These must remain at the core of preparation for ministry. We still need a learned clergy and learned lay leaders.
  • Theological education must be a partnership not only between the denomination and the school, but also between the local church and the school. Many of our current students are online students serving in local churches already. In my opinion, local church leaders and seminary personnel need to work more closely together to assure the online student or other already-serving student is getting the greatest benefit possible from their theological educations. Churches also need to take the initiative to recognize, cultivate, and call out talent within their own congregations.
  • The denominational leadership and leadership of the school must work to preserve the distinctiveness of the Covenant. I recommend this not simply to be parochial but to suggest that our biblically centered, theologically diverse, and spiritually committed form of witness and worship are powerful and needed by the wider church. To this end both church and school need to be confident in the gifts they have to offer. For too long we have lived as if we are just a little people with no gifts to bring to the larger community. We need no more “poormeism.”
  • Finally, and perhaps not surprisingly, I believe the seminary needs to be resourced sufficiently to accomplish its tasks. The seminary, like every American seminary, even the largest ones, has faced financial difficulties in recent years. Some severe belt tightening and fiscal discipline have righted the ship. But there comes a time when a more aggressive stance is necessary. If we are going to accomplish the wide-ranging plans recommended by Dean Kersten, we are going to need more resources, especially for technology, student financial scholarships, and for increased spending in our recruitment office. With a growing seminary we will be able to add additional voices at the faculty table.

I am retiring this year and am very thankful and humbled to have spent my career at North Park. I am confident in its future and its leadership. But all associated with the school will need courage, flexibility, and imagination to enable it to succeed in its mission.

John E. Phelan, Jr. is senior professor of theological studies at North Park Theological Seminary. He previously served as the seminary’s president and dean, as well as on the board of the Association of Theological Schools.

Opinion: A Call for Comprehensive Assessment of the Vitality Pathway

Karl Larson 7 Comments

In the 1840s, Oliver Wendell Holmes, father of the famous Supreme Court justice, was studying medicine in Paris. Mortality rates in European hospitals for women giving birth were at 10–35%. For a thousand years it had been believed that during childbirth toxic substances were released from deep within the mother’s body, causing fever and death. The unchallenged belief of the day was that these women died of “puerperal fever.”

Dr. Holmes theorized that the source of the infections was actually the hands of the physicians themselves. Doctors would come straight from working on cadavers to delivering babies without washing their hands or cleaning their instruments. They brought pathogens from the lab to the clinic. Dr. Holmes’ suggestion that the physicians were themselves causing illness was dismissed. Doctors would not consider the possibility that they were transmitting pathogens to their patients. Only with the work of Louis Pasteur, some twenty years later, would doctors accept their role in transmitting disease and change their procedures in caring for their patients.

This response comes from one who is both hopeful that the Vitality Pathway can assist the church I serve and concerned with the actual effects the program has on all of the churches in which it has been implemented. I was first introduced to the term “latrogenic” by Eugene Peterson. “Latrogenic” (“brought forth by the healer”) refers to a disease contracted in the process of being treated, especially by a doctor. While the ECC’s Vitality Pathway has resulted in renewal for many congregations, the experiences of others suggest it may also result in “latrogenic” complications.

The Vitality Pathway, like everything else devised by human beings, is flawed. Being flawed does not disqualify it from being useful. It does, however, mean we need to approach this program with both hope and care. My concern is that the possibility of “latrogenic” tendencies in the Vitality Pathway is not currently being considered, discussed, or addressed.

The Vitality Pathway begins with the Veritas Seminar and the admonition to “tell the truth.” While the Veritas Seminar intends to tell the truth about congregations, I have been unable to find materials that evaluate, or tell the truth about, the Vitality Pathway itself. Specifically, what is the range of experiences of all of the churches that have begun the Vitality Pathway? It is tempting to highlight those churches that have profited from this program. But what of those situations where the Vitality Pathway has failed to help churches produce the desired results?

In light of the Covenant’s promotion of this pathway as appropriate for all churches in the denomination, the Vitality Pathway has a responsibility to inform prospective churches of the full range of outcomes that have actually resulted from this program. It has the further responsibility of mitigating disruptive and divisive consequences that may result.

Therefore, I would urge the Evangelical Covenant Church to undertake and widely disseminate a comprehensive review of the effects the Vitality Pathway has had on all of the churches in which it has been implemented, including those churches that have dropped out of the program for any reason. If the Vitality Pathway is truly sound, it will withstand the scrutiny of a comprehensive review. We ought to apply the slogan “there is no vitality without reality” to the Vitality Pathway itself.

The majority of the women who gave birth in Paris hospitals in the 1840s would have praised the physicians who cared for them; the voices of the 10–35% who died in the hospital were not heard. This illustrates why it is crucial to go beyond highlighting those who thrive to consider those whose experiences range from problematic to damaging to fatal. The Vitality Pathway assumes that churches that do not benefit from, or are injured during, this program have difficulty solely because “toxic substances have been released from within.” This assumption needs to be interrogated.

Karl B. Larson serves as pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Aurora, Nebraska.

How can the church be supportive? A response to Amy Simpson

Stephanie Thompson 1 Comment

Amy Simpson’s article, “Supporting Families Living with Mental Illness,” resonates deeply with me. Her story speaks of a journey that many walk in silence – a journey with which I am all too familiar. I am ordained in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), and while I do not currently serve in a pastoral position, I do have a ministry. My family’s journey with our child who is being treated for Bipolar Disorder has opened my eyes to the need for educating and equipping the local congregation to care for others walking our journey.

Recently, I had the privilege of leading a workshop at the ECC Central Conference Women’s Spring Celebration for women with children affected by mental illness or other challenges. The fact that the room was packed spoke volumes. That room became a place of refuge and belonging. Common experiences shared included isolation, exhaustion, and the need for community – specifically for Christian community. Simpson’s call to action to the church to support families affected by mental illness matches my own experiences as a parent and as part of the body of Christ. I offer here some practical suggestions for how the local church can support families struggling with mental illness.

  • Offer compassion. During any given Sunday morning, the parents are faced with no shortage of awkward situations involving the affected individual, from physical and emotional confrontations to withdrawal. For parents of children struggling in the areas of mental health, engagement in a public venue brings a cringe factor along with a host of questions. How will other children be affected if my child utters a socially inappropriatecomment? Will I be judged about my parenting skills? How will others perceive my child or sibling? Simple explanations to others (while being sensitive to confidentiality), modeling unconditional love, and communicating with the parents/family go a long way.
  • Educate. Become aware of organizations that provide information about various mental health conditions. Ministry staff may wonder, How do I care for this person and their family? How do I help educate the congregation without drawing negative attention to the individual or family members? Since symptoms fall on a large spectrum, individuals have different needs. Some churches have a Sunday school class that caters to children with special concerns. We give practical suggestions to teachers when they encounter cues indicating frustration or anger.
  • Understand the impact on the entire family. As Simpson notes, “behind every person with mental illness is a family that has been impacted – perhaps even devastated – by that illness” (p. 42). Time, energy, and resources are often drastically reduced in caring for the affected individual. Siblings may feel neglected. One idea that has been welcoming to us is when families invite our other children to play at their homes. It’s a simple act that benefits everyone and reminds the siblings that they too are special. Any gesture that can ease tension is a gift to the family. 

A note on a theology of suffering. Simpson cautions against a theology of suffering that teaches that “life should be easy and happy” (p. 49). While I agree with her, I would want to warn against the opposite error that views medication and other treatment as a diversion from embracing the reality of suffering. I know persons with mental illness who have refused medication because they regard their illness as a “cross to bear” – a view not generally held by those suffering from diabetes or heart conditions. In particular, parents of children with mental health issues may struggle with embracing the use of medication to help their child. Further complicating the decision with a misguided theology of suffering is not helpful. I believe God has gifted individuals to develop medications that help restore brain processes and give those affected a better quality of life.

The beauty of the Christian community is that we are made better by growing together. We gain a bigger picture of God’s character through our interactions with each other. My daughter loves and is effective in helping in certain tasks. When she was younger, she placed communion cups in trays. She also helps prepare the snacks (and I might add enjoys being creative in this task) for our Café that follows our Sunday worship service. Children crave purpose. Involvement affirms the truth that they are an important part of the community. The Apostle Paul writes, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). As Simpson states, “Helping people with mental illness is part of the church’s mission and calling. This is true not only for church leaders, but also every Christian. We are responsible for our response to people in need” (p. 48).

Stephanie Thompson is a graduate of North Park Theological Seminary and an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church. Stephanie attends Hope Covenant Church in Orland Park, Illinois, with her husband Scott and their three children. She has a passion for encouraging and empowering people toward finding purpose, healing, and identity through the Holy Spirit as they pursue life in an imperfect world. Stephanie holds a special desire to help families journeying with a child with a medical/mental illness.  A speaker at various venues, she blogs at http://stephaniejthompson.com/ and can be followed on Twitter @s2thomp.

The Theological Role of the Covenant Quarterly: A Thesis

Andy Meyer

Since its inception in 1941, the Covenant Quarterly has sought to serve Covenant clergy, a fact evident in its original title, Covenant Minister’s Quarterly. I believe this goal begs the question, How has the Covenant Quarterly impacted Covenant theology and identity? I offer two answers to this question: the Quarterly has shaped Covenant identity by (1) modeling Pietism as a theological discrimen and by (2) engaging in disciplined theological reflectionCovQuarterly1941 on contemporary social issues.

Covenant leaders have debated and shaped Covenant theology on the pages of the Quarterly through the story and language of Pietism. The term “discrimen” comes from an article by C. John Weborg, where he defines it as “a configuration of criteria that are in some way organically related to one another” (41:3, 1983). This technical term is needed to underscore the fact that the Quarterly has not defined or enforced Covenant identity according to the standard of Pietism. Rather, the Quarterly has used Pietism in a much more a fluid, dynamic, and imaginative sense that has fostered debate and growth in key areas such as biblical interpretation and social justice.

To give an example of the former, many Quarterly articles approach biblical interpretation with Pietism as a theological discrimen. F. Burton Nelson’s article “An Evangelical Approach to Biblical Authority” (41:3, 1983) is representative. Responding to competing conceptions about biblical authority, Nelson asks whether the Pietist understanding of “life in Christ” might be a viable alternative to traditional evangelical understandings of biblical authority. Nelson here appeals to the Covenant’s Pietist heritage not to enforce a particular system of doctrine but to raise a question.  Rather than closing the conversation, this approach spurs dialogue and debate about life’s essential questions. Nelson’s article reflects how denominational leaders have used the language and spirit of Pietism within the pages of the Quarterly to create a unique space within the theological imagination of the denomination. Examples could easily be multiplied.

A second way the Covenant Quarterly has shaped Covenant identity is by providing the first forum within the denomination for reflecting theologically on contemporary social issues. Articles on race and racism, the civil rights movement, Liberation Theology, immigration, urban ministry, women in ministry, ecumenism, poverty, and missions can all be found within the Quarterly. Some of these articles are raw and unrefined – at times even objectionable by current standards. But they all attempted to serve the Evangelical Covenant Church by initiating dialogue and wrestling honestly with issues of faith and culture.

In these ways, the Covenant Quarterly historically has connected the heritage of the Covenant to its future through theological reflection that seeks God’s glory and neighbor’s good. It is for us to decide whether it will continue to do so.

MeyerAndy Meyer (ameyer@northpark.edu) is head of electronic resources and interlibrary loan at the North Park University’s Brandel Library. A graduate of NPTS (MA), he is currently pursuing a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois. Andy serves on the seminary’s Library & Publications Committee and as technical adviser to the Covenant Quarterly.