June 1998
Back Issues

Contents

• Heritage of Excellence: Library Expansion Schedule Approved
• Elolia Appointed to Faculty
• From the President: Basin and Towel
• Byron Lambert Receives James A. Garfield Award
• 1998 Alexander Campbell Scholars Announced
• Emmauel Graduates Largest Class Ever
• Students Chosen for Holy Land Travel
• Over $2,500,000 Committed to Heritage of Excellence Campaign

Heritage of Excellence:
Library Expansion Schedule Approved

The Board of Trustees of Emmanuel School of Religion at their April meeting approved a plan for construction to begin on the Library portion of the Heritage of Excellence campaign in January 1999. Until then, time will be filled finalizing architectural plans, obtaining approval from the fire marshal, securing building permits, gathering materials, and insuring that funding is in view.

The third floor of the Emmanuel building, which is currently unfinished and used for storage, will be completed and will provide a larger home for the Beauford H. Bryant New Testament Seminary Library. In addition, study carrels from the second floor will be relocated to the third floor. Then remodeling of the first and second floors of the library will begin. To minimize inconvenience to students, the construction will begin during the winter intersession when fewer classes are in session.

These improvements will not only provide for a more pleasant environment for study, but will also increase book and periodical shelving capacity, providing space for the next twenty years of growth. Utilizing the third floor of the B.D. Phillips Memorial Building will add approximately 4,400 square feet to the Emmanuel Library, and it will increase shelving capacity by 60,000 volumes.

Alumni began the Library Expansion fund a few years ago and raised over $50,000. Using this generous support as a foundation, the total project has been incorporated into the Heritage of Excellence Campaign so other alumni and friends of Emmanuel can assist in this important project, which will honor the memory of Dr. Beauford H. Bryant who passed away last year.

We praise God and His people for the generosity shown in this facet of Emmanuel’s educational ministry.

Elolia Appointed to Faculty

Emmanuel School of Religion is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Samuel Kiptalai “Kip” Elolia to the position of Associate Professor of Christian Doctrine and Mission/Evangelism. Dr. Elolia, who comes from the country of Kenya, enhances Emmanue’s concern for globalization in its understanding of the mission of the church. He will begin teaching classes in the Fall 1998 semester.

Dr. Elolia is a first-generation Christian who came to Christ during his high school years. He received his undergraduate education in Kenya, then went to Canada for graduate studies where he completed both the M.A. and the Ph.D. While doing doctoral studies in Toronto, he also worked on a church staff as a youth minister. For the past six years he has been a member of the faculty of St. Norbert’s College in De Pere, Wisconsin.

Dr. Elolia has made several presentations at professional meetings and has contributed to several published works including Religion and the Democratization Process in the African States after the Cold War, Missionary Education in Africa During and After the Colonial Period, and African Expressions of Christianity: The Case of the African Inland Church.

Kip met his wife, Robin, in Toronto. Mrs. Elolia is a qualified epidemiologist, but just now she is a full-time mother with two young children.

Dr. Frederick W. Norris will share both missions and doctrine courses with Dr. Elolia. Dr. Norris chaired the search committee that found and recommended Dr. Elolia, and observes:

The faculty search which led us to Samuel Kiptalai Elolia introduced us to a Kenyan theologian with an undergraduate degree from Scott College in Kenya, an M.A. from Arcadia University in Nova Scotia, and a Ph.D. from the world renowned University of Toronto.

We knew little about the African Inland Churches of which he had been a part. But when he talked to us in five different interviews, it became increasingly apparent that his view of the gospel and mission was quite similar to our own. On important points such as the gospel, the nature and mission of the church, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, we found ourselves in agreement. In many respects he said what we want to say in a fresher and richer way. And he found our understanding of ministry by every believer to be most helpful for those congregations he loves in Kenya.

Dr. Elolia will teach both doctrine and mission classes. His first exposure to the Stone-Campbell Movement was at the First Christian Church of Green Bay, Wisconsin, where Emmanuel alumnus Bruce Colson ministers. He liked what he saw. When he arrives in Johnson City, he will join with us both at the congregational and the seminary level.

We look forward to Dr. Elolia and his family joining us in Tennessee.

From the President
Basin and Towel

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. (John 13:3–5)

On April 29 and 30, the Emmanuel community abandoned classroom and offices for service projects in area communities. Students, faculty, administrators and staff were to be found painting and mowing at the East Tennessee Children’s home, cleaning at the Appalachian Christian Village, building a house with Habitat for Humanity, sorting used clothing at the Appalachian Resource Ministries and working on area church buildings.

Basin and Towel was student initiated, organized and led. Senior student Heath Schnelle from Abilene, Kansas, was the driving force behind this effort, but he was supported enthusiastically by members of the Basin and Towel Steering Committee. Heath said the idea of the project arose from a question in class, “What does it mean to be the church in the community, not just the church on Sunday?”

The activities of Basin and Towel were covered by the local media, but news coverage was incidental to the effort. When Dan Lincoln and Scott Isom were interviewed by local television newsmen, they both stressed that the service they were doing was for the glory of God. Tabitha Travis, one of the painters at the East Tennessee Christian Children’s Home, testified that she was simply learning something about being like Christ. Shirley Marshall and Mary Ann Jobe, administrative assistants to the President and the Dean respectively, were to be found in jeans for the day along-side of Tabitha.

William Willimon preached a commencement sermon to the graduates of Princeton Theological Seminary entitled, “The Messiness of Ministry.” With his characteristic ironic humor, he said, “We make you learn Greek (now the truth can be told) not because knowing Greek has anything to do with successful ministry, but in the hope that we will thereby render you so impractical that, having wasted so much time with a dead language, you may not balk at wasting an afternoon with an eighty-year-old nursing-home resident, or spending a Saturday listening to the life of a troubled teenager, or taking hours to write a sermon that no more than twenty will ever hear.” During the first day of Basin and Towel, Heath Schnelle was seen with a shovel digging in a local church yard. He said, “I haven’t used any Greek today.” On the second day when he was working on the Habitat house, a perspiring Heath was heard to say, “This is day two. I am so looking forward to Greek tomorrow!”

In preparing men and women to serve Christ’s church, Emmanuel School of Religion stresses “formation for ministry.” And that involves a willingness to serve the physical needs of those around us as well as developing the ability to handle rightly the Word of God. Just as Basin and Towel was not a public relations effort, so learning the biblical languages is not simply an academic exercise. Both are forming people to be more effective servants for Christ. Furthermore, getting down on one’s knees to serve others is a rather wholesome prelude to kneeling in prayer. 

—Dr. C. Robert Wetzel, President

Byron Lambert Receives James A. Garfield Award

Dr. Byron Lambert was presented the James A. Garfield Award, the highest citation bestowed by Emmanuel School of Religion, during the seminary’s commencement service on May 31.

In presenting the award, Dr. Paul Blowers said, “In his capacities as scholar, teacher, preacher, lecturer, writer, and zealot for Christian unity, Dr. Lambert is one of the most gifted theological thinkers of his generation and one of the most insightful interpreters of the Movement’s principles in the late twentieth century.”

The James A. Garfield Award is named for the twentieth President of the United States of America, who was also an educator and preacher in the Christian Churches.

1998 Alexander Campbell Scholars Announced

Emmanuel School of Religion’s Alexander Campbell Scholarship Program is named for one of the leaders of the Nineteenth Century Restoration Movement who demonstrated in his ministry a combination of leadership, scholarship, and effective communication of the Gospel. The scholarships cover full tuition for up to 90 hours of course work at Emmanuel. They are intended to serve as an encouragement for those with outstanding potential for ministerial leadership to continue their educational preparation for ministry at the graduate level.

The 1998 Alexander Campbell Scholars are:

Brady Augustine Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin Minnesota Bible College “Brady is highly motivated, a deep thinker, and has a heart for ministry. He is a rare find.” — Keith J. Mackey, Senior Minister

Christina Mansicka Rochester, Michigan Minnesota Bible College “Chrissy is a born leader in a quiet, humble unobtrusive way. Her evangelism is never a task, just a natural overflow of a loving heart.” — Ruth Picker, Professor of English, Communication and Christian Education, Minnesota Bible College

Jason Mead Portage, Indiana Milligan College “Jason is already a devoted Christian, an exceptional scholar and an exceptional person. He is now on the verge of being an exceptional minister…his professors…rapidly sensed in him their intellectual and emotional equal.” — J. Lee Magness, Britton Professor of Bible, Milligan College

Cody Moore Dallas, Texas Dallas Christian College “Cody Moore is exceptional. His study is an act of worship. His ministry is an act of worship that just happens to be his job.” — Mark Hahlen, Professor of Old Testament, Dallas Christian College

Robert Paynter Tallapoosa, Georgia Atlanta Christian College “The better one knows Robert, the clearer it becomes that he has not only embraced a biblical concept of ministry but that ministry has become an integral part of his identity. His effectiveness as a leader is clearly linked to his integrity and to the gifts the Lord has bestowed upon him. Robert exhibits what he preaches.” — R. Edwin Groover, President, Atlanta Christian College

Emmanuel Graduates Largest Class Ever

Emmanuel School of Religion graduated the largest class in the history of the School on May 31 with seventeen students receiving the Master of Arts in Religion degree, eighteen receiving the Master of Divinity degree, and four the Doctor of Ministry degree.

Of special significance was the graduation of our 1000th alumnus at this commencement service. Jonathan Powell of Georgia (right) walked across the platform to receive his diploma in just the right sequence to become the 1000th alumnus of Emmanuel School of Religion. Jonathan received a commemorative plaque in honor of this significant event in the history of the Seminary.

Students Chosen for Holy Land Travel

For the seventh year, students from Emmanuel School of Religion were selected for participation in the 1998 Middle East Travel Seminar, sponsored by the Parker and Pittulloch Foundations of Atlanta.

Chosen this year were Lance Butler of Idaho, David Chapman of Indiana, John Nugent of Michigan, and Bill Westfall of Oregon. Under the guidance of Dr. Gerald Mat-tingly, Professor of Old Testament at Johnson Bible College, and Dr. Max Miller of Candler School of Theology, the students joined 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 Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, and Greece in early June.

Candidates for the tour were recommended 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.

The seminar not only provides an opportunity for Emmanuel students to see lands of the Bible, but it also helps build the bonds of friendship between various Christian groups and schools.

Congratulations to the 1998 Middle-East Travel Seminar participants!

Over $2,500,000 Committed to
Heritage of Excellence Campaign

In the last issue of the Envoy we announced that commitments to the Heritage of Excellence campaign exceeded $2,000,000. Now, just over a month later, we are happy to announce that commitments have gone beyond $2,500,000. We are well on our way to our goal of $3,275,000. Our staff and trustees have 100% participation. The Associates in Christian Education members have strong participation as well. The church campaign is just getting off the ground with commitments from seven churches totaling $67,000. These early responses from churches have been most encouraging.

We are still in need of funding for site preparation in the Emmanuel Village and for donors who will fund the construction of the Child Care Center in the Thompson Community Center. While our original plans were to construct 16-20 cottages in Phase One of the Emmanuel Village, if the strong response continues, we are hopeful that we will be able to initially construct a much larger number of cottages. Since the April issue of the Envoy, when we announced the funding of sixteen cottages and two courts, additional commitments have been received to fund the construction of the Phillips-Larrick Cottage, the Mary Phillips Cottage, and one additional cottage yet to be named by the donor in Ohio. Ten additional cottages are pending responses from the donors. Groundbreaking for the Emmanuel Village has been scheduled officially for October 21, 1998, during the meetings of our Emmanuel boards.

We are hopeful that face to face solicitation for the campaign will conclude this summer. Then in the fall we will conclude the campaign with a phonathon to the remainder of our donors and to all of our alumni.

We continue to be amazed by the support of our friends across the nation and by the generosity of our loving God. God has provided, is providing, and will provide for the important ministry of Emmanuel School of Religion.