Contents

• Student discovers that business and ministry can mix

• Annual NACC Emmanuel Breakfast planned for July 9

• From the President: The fruits of your Stewardship

• Students chosen to participate in Middle East Travel Seminar

• Alumni Profile: Tim Ross uses experience with Maasai to prepare new missionaries

• Basics of Ministry: Worship

• Seminary Financial Update

Kathy Plunkett is not your typical Emmanuel student. Having never been part of a ministry staff, she started Seminary in 2000 after a 20-year career in business and industry.

Last year Kathy had the opportunity to combine her business and industry background with her ministerial education by working with Wesley Mission in Sydney, Australia. Wesley Mission, led by Dr. Gordon Moyes, Emmanuel’s Adjunct Associate Professor of Urban Ministry, is the largest church in Australia and one of the largest churches in the world.

Kathy spent five months during 2002 interning at Wesley Mission, where she studied how such a large ministry works smoothly. “It was an opportunity to experience a successful urban ministry with a long history, and to learn other ways that my industry skills might be used for Kingdom work,” Kathy said.

“Wesley Mission is a remarkable urban ministry,” said Kathy. The church conducts 45 worship services weekly, and has extensive pastoral and ethnic ministries. Wesley operates over 450 different programs and centers (such as elder care, youth services, and foster care) in Australia.

Kathy spent two months getting acquainted with the various Wesley Mission centers and ministries. Then she worked with the Mission’s strategic planning group for the following two and a half months.

“What I find most exceptional about Wesley Mission is their creative use of resources and their unique network of partners,” Kathy said. “Wesley Mission is not afraid to use the world’s money to do Kingdom work. They can turn just about any house, store front, or van into office and ministry space with no inch left unused.”

One ministry that particularly impressed Kathy was Wesley Disability Services. Kathy said, “Wesley is one of the few churches continuing to provide disability services to the community. They do it with a tremendous amount of care, concern, and creativity.”

Kathy returned to Emmanuel with a greater understanding of how American churches can be a more positive force in their own cities. She said, “Churches can find out what needs in the community are not being met. Then they can work with community officials and leaders to see how the church can serve through faith-based initiatives, their own resources, or other creative means.”

In May, Kathy will graduate from Emmanuel with the Master of Divinity degree with a concentration in Christian ministries. She says her dream job is to be chaplain on a dude ranch. Yet her combination of industry experience and theological education would fit well with a congregation seeking an executive pastor — a minister who manages a church’s pastoral staff. Kathy says she would be equally comfortable back in the business world or with a parachurch organization. “The business world is in need of committed Christian employees,” she said.

Alumni and friends of Emmanuel School of Religion are invited to join President Wetzel in Indianapolis on July 9 at the Seminary’s annual breakfast during the North American Christian Convention.

Ben Cachiaras (MDiv 92), minister of Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland, will be the guest speaker. The event will be held at 7:30 a.m. at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown.

Tickets are $15 per person and reservations are strongly encouraged. For more information, call 423-461-1510.

From the President:
The fruits of your Stewardship

Christians will understand an expression like “the fruits of your stewardship.” In the world of economics and business, I might have said, “the return on your investment.” But then, when Jesus talked about fruits and stewardship, he was talking to an agricultural society that understood both the results of farming as well as its management.

When you send contributions to Emmanuel School of Religion, hopefully you see it as both stewardship and investment. It is an expression of your stewardship before God, who has blessed you with the means to foster the work of the Church. At the same time, it is an investment in the future of the Church.

Let me share with you an example of what you have done through the ministry of Emmanuel. Enoch Nyador is a 1986 graduate of Emmanuel School of Religion having received the Master of Divinity Degree in Honors. His wife, Lydia, is a medical doctor.

Today Enoch serves as director of Ghana Christian Mission. In partnership with FAME, Enoch and Lydia have both an evangelistic and medical mission to the people of Ghana. Since 1987 their clinics have treated over 80,000 people in 10 medical clinics. Furthermore, over 3,000 people have been baptized and over 65 churches have been established.

Recently Enoch was our chapel speaker. He expressed gratitude for the opportunity to enhance his preparation for ministry at Emmanuel following his graduation from Ghana Christian College. Recently he had traveled to the United States with Doug Fox of the Christian Medical and Dental Association, who had just led a medical team to Ghana for a two-week ministry. Both Enoch and Doug were praising God for what they had seen accomplished in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Those of you who were contributing to Emmanuel School of Religion in the early 1980s did so in the faith that the students who were being prepared for ministry would prove to be the fruit of your stewardship, the return on your investment. Enoch Nyador is but one example of the host of students who came through the School at that time and who have had fruitful ministries.

Today you are investing in a new generation of students. As we approach the 2003 Commencement Service our graduates are already taking their place in the service of the church. They too are the fruit of your stewardship and the return on your investment. The planting has taken place. We shall look for God to bring the increase.

For the twelfth year, students from Emmanuel School of Religion have been selected for participation in the Middle East Travel Seminar, sponsored by the Parker and Pittulloch Foundations of Atlanta.

Chosen for the 2003 trip are Rob Hartley of Alamo, Ga., and Sam Long of Lansing, Mich.

Under the guidance of Dr. Max Miller of Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, the students will join others from Duke University Divinity School, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Mercer University, Candler School of Theology, Columbia Theological Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary for a three-week tour of Western Turkey and Greece in May and June.

Candidates for the tour were nominated by the Emmanuel faculty and chosen by an interviewing committee from the foundation on the basis of their potential for leadership and their promise of contributing to the overall experience of everyone on the tour.

Congratulations to the participants of the 2003 Middle East Travel Seminar!

Tim Ross seems to have had “missionary” written in his genes, and, he’s trying to pass it to the next generation. Ross, a 1987 MDiv graduate of Emmanuel School of Religion, spent nearly ten years working with the Maasai tribe in Kenya, Africa (1987–1995). Now, he wants to pass his experience on to the next generation of missionaries.

Tim works as a “missionary mentor,” meeting twice monthly with missionary recruits who live in the area, including students from Milligan College and Emmanuel. They will be going on the mission field within two years.

“There’s still a great need for long term resident missionaries,” says Tim. He strives to help form new missionaries spiritually, and works at teaching practical ministry skills. “Given the current political climate it is important for Christian servants to give the world an alternative model for change and growth,” he says. “Taking the news of Christ’s unconditional love to a world that only understands money, violence, and dominance seems especially important.”

Tim is hopeful. “I’m glad to see the continued globalization of missions. We see missionaries from many more countries sending out workers,” he adds. “Some countries even send missionaries to the United States.”

Currently in the middle of Emmanuel’s DMin (Doctor of Ministry) program, Tim plans to finish in two years. When asked about the program, he replied, “I’m excited by the quality of the instructors, and love the interaction with my classmates most of whom are mid-career in very diverse ministries.”

Tim is a mid-career minister himself. After graduating from Milligan College in 1980, he served as an Associate Minister at Cambridge City Christian Church in Indiana. It was while ministering in Cambridge City that he received the call to come to Emmanuel to prepare for mission service. He was especially interested in ministering to unreached people groups.

After serving on the mission field for over eight years, Tim and his family (wife Marsha, three high school boys, and a young daughter) felt it was time to return to the United States. Tim was called to the ministry at Hopwood Memorial Christian Church, on the campus of Milligan College.

“It was a big surprise to come back to East Tennessee to Hopwood … but it’s been a good fit,” he comments. “It’s very challenging to preach at Hopwood with all the academics and ordained ministers in the congregation. And at the same time, I can sit in a Sunday school class and enjoy ‘continuing education!’ The church has a good mix of students, faculty, and people from the community.”

With Tim’s encouragement, Hopwood (200 members) has become involved with Interfaith Hospitality Network, a local inter-church ministry to the homeless, and ministries to local prisons. The congregation has also become much more missions-oriented. Tim is enthusiastic about the church’s dynamic men’s ministry.

Tim is also excited about the direction Hopwood is taking in worship. “We’re trying to hang on to the worship practices of the ancient church while addressing the needs of 21st century worshippers,” he says. “Hopwood probably won’t go the way of many modern evangelical congregations in our worship style … we’re more into blending ancient patterns of worship with more modern expressions of faith … we’re aiming for a more meditative service that focuses on Word, Table, Prayer, and Community.”

Basics of Ministry: Worship
An interview with Dr. Robert F. Hull Jr., Dean and Professor of New Testament

ENVOY: Why is corporate worship an important aspect of ministry?
HULL: No matter how many things a church does well, people tend to judge it by the character and quality of its worship.

ENVOY: How has corporate worship changed in recent years?
HULL: It has become more informal, more youth-oriented, more centered on music, and more imitative of pop culture. It has tended to de-emphasize the importance of the Scriptures, the cross, the table, and its own history.

ENVOY: What makes a good worship leader?
HULL: Four things: (1) A good worship leader has to know God and want to lead others to a deeper, richer knowledge of God. (2) He or she must be well grounded in scripture and the history of Christian belief and practice, including the history and theology of worship. (3) A good worship leader must know the congregation, its history, its current complexion in terms of age, educational level, ethnic mix, and available skills. (4) He or she must be acquainted with quality resources to assist in planning and conducting worship.

ENVOY: How does Emmanuel prepare students/alumni to lead the church in its worship life?
HULL: In several ways: By modeling good worship in our own chapel services, by teaching basic courses on principles and practices of worship, by providing students opportunities to lead in worship under skilled supervision, and by providing a well-rounded theological education; in other words, by strengthening the four areas mentioned above.

Seminary Financial Update
by Dan R. Lawson, Executive Director of Development

This has been a financially challenging year for Emmanuel. The national economy has been difficult not only for individuals, but also for institutions such as Emmanuel. This year Emmanuel is more dependent than ever on gifts from churches and friends across the country.

Due to the struggling economy and weak stock market, Emmanuel’s leaders made a decision to take no income from the endowment during this second semester. This means that a higher percentage of the general fund expenses will need to be covered by gift income in order to finish the fiscal year in the black by May 31.

With the planned budget expenses for this fiscal year, plus the need to cover lost income from our endowment, it is necessary to receive $1,788,537 in gift income by May 31. This translates into a need of approximately 25% more gift income than last year.

As of the end of March we had received $854,000 from regular donations, $437,000 in commitments from special friends, $232,000 from estate gifts, and $50,000 committed during our spring phonathon. That leaves just over $200,000 to raise by May 31 to meet our goal.

With some “belt tightening” in our spending and additional income from friends in the remaining two months of our fiscal year, we are hopeful that we can end our fiscal year in the black. It will be tight, and we are depending on our friends to come through with their commitments to give special gifts by the close of May.

God is faithful, and we are confident that His people and His church will be faithful as well. We cherish your prayers that the resources will be available to maintain the quality of Emmanuel’s work of ministerial preparation.