September 1998
Back Issues

Contents

• Emmanuel Village Groundbreaking Set for October 21
• From the President: Smiling Occasions
• On Kenyan Roads to Shumata
• Make Emmanuel Part of Your Estate Plan with a Will or Living Trust
• Hull Research to Highlight New Testament Confessions
• New Scholarships Formed
• Faculty Changes Announced
• Emmanuel Announces Myron Taylor Lectures
• 1999 Intersession Classes Scheduled
• Campaign Nears $3 Million Mark

Village Groundbreaking Set for October 21

The Board of Trustees of Emmanuel School of Religion is pleased toannounce that groundbreaking ceremonies for the Emmanuel Village are planned for Wednesday, October 21, 1998, as part of the activities of the fall meetings of the Emmanuel boards. Funds to construct the Village are being provided by donors in conjunction with the Seminary’s Heritage of Excellence fund-raising campaign.

A formal chapel will begin the events in late morning with an address by former Emmanuel president Fred P. Thompson Jr. At the conclusion of the service, guests will process from the Mildred Welshimer Phillips Chapel to the site of the Emmanuel Village, adjacent to the Seminary.

The response to Emmanuel’s “Heritage of Excellence” campaign has been overwhelmingly positive, and as a result ground will be broken for at least 22 cottages, three courts, and the Thompson Community Center. Families and donors who have contributed to these projects will be presented with special spades to use in turning soil to begin the process of village construction.

Present commitments provide for the following cottages: Bissett Cottage, Bledsoe Cottage, Chafin Cottage, Ellis Cottage, Holloway Cottage, Johnstone Cottage, Keefauver Cottage, Kraemer-Bott Cottage, Kraft Cottage, Larrick Cottage, Newton Cottage, Nutley Cottage, O’Neal Cottage, Phillips Cottage, Pisgah Cottage, Parish Cottage, Pratt Cottage, Robison Cottage, Sizemore Cottage, Taylor Cottage, Trinkle Cottage, and Von Hoff Cottage. Ground will also be broken for the Bush Court, Stewart Court, and Strickland Court.

Ground will also be broken for “Phyllis’s Green,” the park at the entrance to the Village. The Community Center groundbreaking will involve friends associated with the Thompson Community Center and the Dean Fireplace Room, as well as the recreation/fellowship room and the childcare center. Individuals who contribute to the funding of site preparation as it relates to the various roads in the village will also assist. The unveiling of a sign indicating “The Future Home of the Emmanuel Village” will also be a part of the day’s events.

The celebration will conclude with an evening celebration dinner for board members, groundbreakers, and seminary staff. This will be a memorable day in the life and history of Emmanuel School of Religion.

From the President
Smiling Occasions

I had to smile when I read the July 16 “Daily Report” from The Chronicle of Higher Education. It began, “Nearly every state may soon link some spending on public colleges to institutional performance, according to a new survey of state officials in charge of higher-education finance.” That is hardly news for those of us in church-related colleges and seminaries! The link between institutional performance and financial support has always been and continues to be a fact of life—and rightly so!

Requesting and accepting support from churches and Christian individuals is a relationship of responsible stewardship. Donors bear a responsibility to use what God has entrusted to them in the light of the biblical model of stewardship. And those whose ministry is funded by these donors bear the responsibility of good stewardship in the way the gift is used. As the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians,

We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men. — II Corinthians 8:20,21

What about the performance of Emmanuel School of Religion? The primary purpose of Emmanuel is to prepare men and women for effective ministry. Hence the School will ultimately be evaluated on the effectiveness of those who have done their preparation for ministry here. And gladly are we willing to be so judged!

Although I am only in my seventh year at Emmanuel I have known the School from its inception. As a teacher at Milligan College in the 60s and 70s, I saw the quality of students who were being attracted to Emmanuel. During my 11 years in England, I counted some Emmanuel alumni as trusted colleagues in our ministry among the British Churches of Christ. For the past four years I have traveled intensely among the American churches, many of which are served by Emmanuel alumni. I see the missionaries, chaplains, teachers and counselors who are serving around the world. And there are the professional and business people who see their work theologically informed because of their time at Emmanuel School of Religion.

Many stories could be told about Emmanuel alumni that would demonstrate “institutional effectiveness.” And I enjoy telling those stories! With the advent of e-mail we receive regular news bulletins from many of our graduates who are serving on the mission field. Recently we heard from Tom Moen in Campinas, Brazil, where he and his wife Amy are serving as missionaries. While at the church teaching a discipleship lesson, three armed men came in demanding money and his car keys. Tom kept his head, gave them what they wanted, and no one was hurt. Amy and some of the women of the church were in another part of the building and did not know what was happening. When Tom reported the robbery to the police, they told him that 43 cars had been stolen in the city that night! Tom’s response:

We thank GOD for many things. The boys [their children] were not at the church with us as they are so often, none of the ladies were assaulted, none of my documents were taken, and nobody was hurt.

We thank God as well. We thank Him for the deliverance of Tom and Amy, and we thank Him and praise Him for their faithful mission ministry.

A few weeks ago I drove to Cayuga, Indiana, for the funeral of Robert Thompson. Bob was a founding trustee of Emmanuel School of Religion. When the long drives to East Tennessee became too much for him, he was named trustee emeritus, a position which he took with all seriousness. He read every report to the trustees that came from my office, and he would phone from time to time with questions and encouragement. The minister of the Cayuga Christian Church is Andrew Spencer, an Emmanuel graduate. He and Bob’s daughter, Helen Jo, had created a memorial service that was not just a fitting tribute to Bob, but a celebration of our faith in the resurrection. I could not help but notice that in a town of just 800, around 250 people regularly attended the Cayuga Christian Church. On Easter, attendance was over 500! To hear Andy and his associate minister, Steve Vitaniemi, tell about the vital life of the congregation was to get a picture of what a church in a small rural community could be.

As I prepared to write this article, I received a phone call from a Christian lady who had attended the spring Commencement Service here at Emmanuel. A retired educator, she was in the process of working with her financial consultant. She asked about setting up an endowed scholarship at Emmanuel. Her church has been served by two Emmanuel graduates, and it was on the basis of their faithful and effective ministries that she decided to invest in the future of ministerial preparation at Emmanuel School of Religion.

Needless to say, her phone call put a smile on my face, but it was a different kind of smile from the one that was inspired by the note in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The first smile was one of irony that it has taken this long to tie funding with performance in public higher education. But now my smile was one of thanksgiving to see how God was working through a Christian woman to insure that the church would continue to be served by competent and faithful ministers.

—Dr. C. Robert Wetzel, President

On Kenyan Roads to Shumata

The metaphor that our Christian lives are a journey has taken on new meaning for me, an African meaning, with African words and African ways. The safari (journey) I experienced this summer in Kenya among the Maasai brought our group of twelve followers to a part of the Kingdom rich in faith and full of life.

The Maasai believers we met were beaming with life as bright as the colors of their clothing. Most prevalent was their hospitality and generosity. The homes we entered were simple and small, made of sticks and cow manure, yet overflowing with the fragrance of love. Time after time we were given the best they had in food and drink, from stewed and roasted goat to tea and maize (corn). Most of the families borrowed from others the cups and plates needed to serve a group our size. But these inconveniences were not thick enough to stop the most penetrating characteristic of the Maasai. The thriving faith that fueled the fires in each home filled their prayers to the Father. The simplicity of life showed their deep dependence on God to provide daily bread. The presence of God was among us as the people sang and danced praises. The reverberation of noise found in the States faded away as we filled the open clear sky with songs and shouts of “Ashe Naleng Enkai Ai” (Thank you much, my God).

Traveling the roads to this part of the Kingdom was an experience in itself with a definitive African feel. In contrast to the smooth roads of the States where one can fall asleep and speed easily, the Kenyan roads are rough, filled with rocks and ruts, creatures and crevices. Typical travel takes several hours to go short distances and its is always bumpy and bouncy, leaving one just plain shaken up. The missionaries have diagnosed the state one arrives in after traveling as “post-safari concussion.” We were so thankful for powerful vehicles to get us through the mud, around the ruts, and over the rocks.

And so it was for our journey of faith. We were so thankful for Tim Ross and the powerful ministry God worked through him when he and his family lived with the Maasai to get us over the rough roads of Kenya. It was a blessing to bridge the distance and meet so many friends and siblings in Christ. The Maasai Church carried us over the slow, rough road of learning a language so different from English. Daily we had language learning sessions that prepared us to go out among the people and share with each other our faith in God. With their help, we were able to open up the scriptures and learn hope amidst the crevices of persecution. This occurred in several ways with regular times of corporate worship and a special seminar session focussing on the seven letters in the book of Revelation. We stood together with the Maasai firmly in faith against the adversary prowling around like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8), and proclaimed the Lordship of Jesus.

The Christian community still bounces over the bumps and ruts of traditions of the Maasai culture—male/female circumcision, sexual promiscuity, violence, and stealing. And we still struggle to stay awake in our faith and focused in this fast Western world full of noise made from gratifying the desires of self, hurried by a consuming market, and segregated into public and private domains. But God is faithful to walk with us, wherever we are on this journey to Shumata (Heaven).

In addition to the author, the group consisted of Tim Ross (MDiv ’87), the minister of Hopwood Christian Church, and his two oldest sons Andy and John; Drs. Criag and Meg Farmer, Professor of Church History at Milligan College and a MD in pediatrics, and their oldest son Adam; Daniel Hendrix, a carpentry contractor, with his son Dustin; and three Milligan College students: Megan Dunn, Kim Dyer, and Michelle Warren.

Make Emmanuel Part of Your Estate Plan with a Will or Living Trust
The only way to make your wishes become reality

The Dilemma

You die with no will or living trust. You had assumed your children would simply step in, divide the estate equally, make charitable bequests to Emmanuel and organizations you have supported over the years, and that would be that. How very wrong you were!

Regardless of the size of your estate, if you do not have a will or living trust that provides direction, a judge, whom you’ve never met, will make decisions as to what happens to everything you’ve taken a lifetime to establish. Your spouse or children will not decide how property is divided or who gets what distribution. If you don’t like that, then you can do something about it.

The Solution

Find a good attorney and create a will or living trust. Whether you have a will or a living trust depends on the size of your estate and the type of property you own. The key differences between a will and living trust are:

w A will is subject to probate, which can cost 5–8% of your estate and take months to settle.

w To use a living trust, you transfer ownership to the trust with you as trustee. You retain the right to move items into or out of the trust, but since you technically don’t own the property, your estate avoids probate, costs less to settle, and can be settled in days rather than months.

w For smaller estates where there is little property, cash, or life insurance, a traditional will may be exactly what is needed.

w If you have appreciated property such as a a trust for a family member, a house, or stocks; if you desire to avoid probate; or if you have an estate of $150,000 or more, you should consider a living trust.

Let’s Be Specific

Guardianship. If for no other reason, you need a will to state who will take care of children should anything happen to you and your spouse. A verbal agreement with a couple at your church will not be honored by the court.

Specific Bequests and Personal Possessions. If you really want to keep harmony in the family, make a list of who gets what personal possessions and attach it to your will. Without such a document, a judge determines who gets dad’s shotgun, mom’s wedding ring, the antique vase or quilt, the car and bank accounts.

Probate. Probate is the means by which a judge determines that your estate is distributed. If you have a will, the judge uses that document as a guide. The process can be slow and expensive. A living trust allows you to avoid probate and reduce costs. If you don’t have a will or living trust, the judge imposes the court’s standards as the guide.

Charitable Gifts. If you would like to leave a portion of your estate to Emmanuel School of Religion or another non-profit organization, then a will or living trust is an absolute necessity. No judge will ever determine that a portion of your estate will go to charity regardless of your giving patterns while you were living.

Making Emmanuel Part of Your Estate Plan

If you desire to leave a portion of your estate to Emmanuel School of Religion, your desires must be made known in writing via a will or living trust. Ways in which the School can receive estate distributions include:

Specific bequests: The will designates a specific amount be given to Emmanuel School of Religion. The gift can be in the form of cash, specific stocks, real estate, collectibles, or any type of asset.

Percentage bequest: The will designates that Emmanuel School of Religion is to receive a particular percentage of your total assets or those assets left after specific bequests have been made.

Residue bequest: The will designates that Emmanuel School of Religion is to receive all property left after all other distributions have been made.

Life Estate: You can give a house to Emmanuel School of Religion and continue to live in it until you die. At that point the house becomes the property of Emmanuel. Also, you may provide a house for a loved one after your death, but upon the death of the loved one the property comes to Emmanuel.

Bequest in Memory or Honor or for special projects: You may use any of the mentioned techniques to leave a bequest that can be designated to memorialize or honor someone via a scholarship or special project.

A Service to You

If you, like many people, simply don’t know where to start in regard to preparing an estate plan, send for our free Estate Plan Organizer. It will help you organize your belongings on paper so you can make decisions concerning their distribution and whether a will or living trust is best for you. Such organization will also save you money because your attorney will not have to take the time to ask you the very questions you’ve answered on the Estate Plan Organizer.

For additional information about a Will or Living Trust contact:

Dan Lawson
Emmanuel School of Religion
One Walker Drive
Johnson City, Tennessee 37601
(423) 926-1186

The purpose of this material is to provide information of a general nature. Neither Emmanuel School of Religion nor any of its associates are engaged in giving legal or tax advice. Individuals should seek the advice of their attorneys and tax advisors for specific tax implications and laws governing estate planning and charitable gifts.

Hull Research to Highlight New Testament Confessions

Dr. Robert F. Hull Jr., Professor of New Testament, will spend his sabbatical year doing research and writing on a project entitled: “Confessing Jesus: The Contexts, Contents, and Coherence of New Testament Confessions of Faith.” Hull will be on sabbatical from September until May as a Resident Scholar at The Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research at St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota.

“I made application at this institute not only because of the good research facilities available, but also because the institute fosters a program that brings together up to a dozen scholars living within the same apartment complex and sharing their research ideas in monthly gatherings under the support of a full-time director of the institute,” Hull said.

According to Hull, the project takes as its starting point a number of questions that have been bothering him for a long time: (1) What was the function of “confessional language” in the religious culture of the New Testament world? What did it mean to “confess” something about God or the gods? (2) What are the functional similarities and differences between such confessions as ‘Jesus is the messiah,’ ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and ‘Jesus is the Son of God’ in the context of early Christianity? (3) What is the relationship between these short confessional statements and the more elaborate “hymnic” passages in the NT, such as Phil. 2:5–11, 1 Tim. 2:5, and Titus 3:4–7? (4) Why have churches of the Campbell-Stone heritage traditionally used only the Matthaean form of the “good confession,” ignoring the rich variety of confessional material in the New Testament? (5) What do people understand themselves to be saying today when they publicly affirm the confession that “Jesus is the Christ”?

Hull hopes to publish some of the results of the research in both scholarly and popular publications.

New Scholarships Formed

University Street Christian Church Scholarship

When the University Street Christian Church of Eugene, Oregon, disbanded in 1996, it was the desire of the congregation’s trustees to use the funds from the sale of the church property as a memorial to the congregation. The congregation has a long history of support for Emmanuel School of Religion and two of her former ministers are graduates of the Seminary. Thus an endowed full tuition scholarship named in memory of the church has been established. The scholarship will aid needy students seeking to obtain graduate level theological education at Emmanuel School of Religion. Students who were members of the University Street congregation will be given first consideration as this scholarship memorializing the church is awarded each year.

Robert D. Patton Scholarship

Tennessee State Representative Dr. Robert D. Patton began funding an endowed scholarship at Emmanuel School of Religion in the spring of 1998 after winning a donation sponsored by Tennessee Health Care Association during a charity fund raising event. Since that time, Dr. Patton has continued to add to this scholarship through direct appropriation grants for which he applies to the State of Tennessee.

The Robert D. Patton Scholarship has been established to aid needy students preparing for ministry at Emmanuel School of Religion. Dr. Patton has requested that first consideration be given to students with ties to the a cappella churches of Christ of the Restoration Movement. We are pleased to honor his request and to be able to award a scholarship in his name each year.

Helen Dulaney Preston Fig Tree Fellowship Scholarship

Helen Preston was an example of good stewardship during her lifetime, and in her death she continued that custom. Helen appreciated the work and mission of Emmanuel School of Religion, supporting the school through gifts of money and her time and energy as a regular volunteer at the school. She also participated in the work of Fig Tree Fellowship, an auxiliary organization that supports the school and the needs of students.

Mrs. Preston’s concern for students seeking to be well-prepared servant leaders of the church of Jesus Christ shows in her estate planning. She made gifts to both Emmanuel School of Religion and Fig Tree Fellowship stipulating that the funds be used to help students. Leaders of the Seminary and the Board of Directors of Fig Tree Fellowship agreed to combine the funds to establish an endowed scholarship in honor of Helen which would exemplify those things which were important to her in her lifetime.

Recipients of the Helen Dulaney Preston Fig Tree Fellowship Scholarship will be chosen by members of the Fig Tree board each year on the basis of their academic record. We are honored to be able to perpetuate the life and spirit of Helen Preston through this scholarship.

Faculty Changes Announced

Two professors will not return to the Emmanuel faculty when the 1998 fall semester begins. Dr. James Street and Dr. W. Michael Smith have left to pursue other ministry opportunities.

Dr. Street has accepted a position with CheckFree Corporation in Norcross, Ga., as Director of Training and Development. In a letter to the faculty announcing his resignation, Street said, “Having spent the last 24 years of my life in church, campus, and educational ministries, working in the corporate setting will be a radical shift. However, I am very interested to see what it means to ‘do theology’ and minister in the name of Christ in that kind of environment. I hope my experience with CheckFree will enable me to reflect deeply about how the corporate world shapes the lives of both Christians and non-Christians.”

Dr. Smith has accepted an invitation to become Director of Field Education at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. Dr. Smith said, “Being a part of the Emmanuel community means a lot to me. God has provided some wonderful friends and colleagues through our time together.”

Please be in prayer for Drs. Street and Smith as they begin new phases in their lives, and be in prayer that God will lead Emmanuel to the right persons to fill these faculty positions.

Emmanuel Announces Myron Taylor Lectures

Emmanuel School of Religion announces the inauguration of the Myron Taylor Lectures in Preaching and Pastoral Ministry.

Dr. Myron Taylor, for whom the lectures are named, will deliver the first series of addresses November 10–13, 1998, in the Seminary’s chapel. Dr. Taylor will deliver a series of four lectures at 11 a.m. each day on the topic “Preaching Today and Tomorrow.” The individual lectures will be as follows:

• Tuesday: “The Priority of Preaching”
• Wednesday: “The Preacher’s World”
• Thursday: “The Nature of Preaching”
• Friday: “What Makes Preaching Biblical”

The lectures are free and open to the public.

Intersession Classes Scheduled

January 5–15

• Seminar in the Stone-Campbell Movement: Issues of Biblical Authority, Inspiration, and Interpretation in the Stone-Campbell Movement. Dr. Paul Blowers. CH 7210. 3 hours.
• Seminar: Ecclesiology. Dr. S.K. Elolia. CD 7940. 3 hours.

January 19–29

• The Letter of James. Dr. Rollin Ramsaran. NT 6190. 3 hours.
• Contemporary Issues in Counseling: Diversity and Congregation. Mrs. Joyce Smith. CMC 7920. 3 hours.

Campaign Nears $3 Million Mark

Since the update in the June 1998 issue of the Envoy, over $300,000 has been pledged to the Heritage of Excellence campaign. Today, total commitments stand at $2,901,321, nearly 89% of our $3,275,000 goal. In addition, we have another $1,095,500 in asks that are pending a response from the donors, and $1,500,000 in asks that are yet to be made.

We are excited about the positive response we have received thus far. We have 22 cottages and three courts firmly committed for the Emmanuel Village, and groundbreaking ceremonies are officially scheduled for October 21, 1998. We continue to solicit funding for ten additional cottages and six courts, as well as for the Child Care Center and Community Room in the Thompson Center. Also, significant funds are still needed for site preparation throughout the entire Village.

We hope to begin construction on the Library third floor this January if funding from the campaign continues to come in strongly. Library commitments total $223,000 of the $300,000 needed to complete the project.

Please remember the Heritage of Excellence campaign in your prayers as we endeavor to not only reach our goal, but also go as far beyond it as possible. This will permit us to do more of the projects than originally scheduled in the first stages.