A two-day meeting of the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities’ presidents and a recently published PC(USA)-sponsored report of the Joint Committee on Leadership Needs both concur that leaders must be mentored, not just taught.
Twenty-five college and university presidents (plus other representatives sent on presidents’ behalf) gathered in Charlotte, N.C., to discuss ways that their schools are seeking to reconnect with their Presbyterian heritage and revive their church connections today.
Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa. has “a wide a spectrum of, for lack of a better term, religiosity on the campus,” reported its president, Richard Dorman, a Presbyterian elder. “There exists on the campus this quiet, very civil tension about this entire subject.” Meetings like this one are so important to him, he said, “because I’ve been placed into the position of having to define” where the school stands on faith matters.
“One of my goals when I accepted the presidency at Maryville College,” reflected Gerald Gibson, who retires from the Tennessee school at the end of this school year, “was to work at bringing the college back closer to its Presbyterian roots, its Christian roots, to bring it closer to the PC(USA).”
Gibson led the effort to create a statement on faith and learning, which “is probably the only thing that we’ve had since I’ve been there that the board and faculty have agreed wholeheartedly on.”
Marjorie Haas said that the 30 year old mentoring program at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, where she recently became president, operates as a process of “accompaniment,” of “life guiding and conversation.” It reflects “at least the way Presbyterianism is lived on our campus,” where they believe “that everyone is a gifted person and that our job and our calling is to uncover each other’s gifts.”
Charlotte Carter, vice-president for academic affairs at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala., said that all faculty and administrators, including herself, are assigned students to mentor through their college experience.
The language of “calling” was echoed among many of the presidents. At Maryville the placement department was renamed the “Center for Calling and Career,” and is guided by a mission statement that says it aims “to integrate reflection on vocation … to serve as a vital force on campus to foster moral, spiritual, and personal reflection of issues of life and work.”
The presidents also heard from Linda Valentine, the executive director of the General Assembly Mission Council, and Lee Hinson-Hasty, the coordinator for theological education and seminary relations in the GAMC, about the recently published paper, “Raising Up Leaders for the Mission of God.” (see next page).
Valentine reminded those gathered that the Reformed church movement began as a protest against authoritarian rule and in its place elevated the priesthood of all believers, who exercise leadership in community where all can share their gifts. Accordingly, members, governing bodies and institutions – such as colleges and seminaries — need to partner to develop such leaders.
The GAMC, she said, is developing a pastoral residency program, “For Such a Time as This.” “We’ll pair new pastors with experienced pastors as mentors,” in the hope that smaller, under-served churches will find new leadership and the young seminary graduates will be shaped into effective church servant-leaders.”
