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THOUGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF THE FREE METHODIST GRADUATE STUDENTS' THEOLOGICAL SEMINAR Frank H. Thompson, A Founding Member

"The that Cares" was the motto that Free Methodists used to repeat as they attempted to show servicemen and women who had gone away to war that they were still being remembered by the home folk and the home church . I had endorsed this idea as a pastor, and I quoted it in my appeal to Dr. George Turner, of Asbury Theological Seminary, to lead the to do something similar for graduate students in Theology and Biblical Stu_dies, who were feeling alienated and alone in the universities and graduate seminaries where they were preparing for further Church service. The spot where we talked was the swan pond near the Billy Sunday Tabernacle, in Winona Lake, . The time was June 1964, during the twenty-sixth Free Methodist General Conference. Dr. George Turner of Asbury Theological Seminary had been a powerful mentor to me, and had encour­ aged me when I entered the Th.M. program, and then the Doctoral program in Old Testa­ ment Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. I had urgently requested he hear me out. I had a desperate need and a seemingly impossible dream.

The proposal I made to Dr. Turner was that leaders of the denomination take forceful steps to establish and maintain nurturing relationships with graduate students in biblical and theological studies who were enrolled in major universities and divinity schools. There were several reasons for my anguished request to Dr. Turner. I was a card-carrying Free Methodist. I had been a pastor for nine years. I had established conservative credentials. I had whole'-heartedly endorsed the "Church that Cares" posture of the denomination during my pastoral years. I wanted very much to continue to be a minister in the denomination which had led me to Christ, nurtured me, educated me, and ordained me to the ministry. But, to put it bluntly, I was scared. I was immersed in new, heady, and exciting ideas, and alternately exalted and terrified by what I was hearing and learning. Fears and frustration were engendered in me as I watched attacks being made on such fellow Free Methodists as Dr. Dewey Beegle of Biblical Seminary, who raised questions about the standard interpretations of "" held by such influential leaders as Dr. Carl F.H. Henry. Many things I was learning seemed true and enlightening to me, but I was not sure I could talk about them as a functioning member of the Free Methodist Church. I was feeling very alone and very threatened, removed as I was from any significant relationship with thoughtful Free Methodists. I felt convinced that, if I became a "liberal," my friends would say, "I told you so," but if I did not, they would say, "Prove it! " I needed to talk to a powerful friend, and I saw Dr. George Turner as that person.

Dr. Turner and I talked about a gathering between the graduate students and denomi­ nationalleaders. They would talk. The atmosphere would be non-judgmental. There would be complete openness and acceptance. If a person said something contrary to the so-called "party line," there would be no threat of recrimination or retaliation on an ecclesiastical level. Instead, there would be a mutually respectful practice Christian love and candor. The - students would say what was on their minds and in their hearts. They could even express their fears and angers. The leaders would respond. Conversation would go both ways. Students would listen to leaders, too. We would dispel the miasma of suspicion which was often felt between leaders and graduate students during and at the completion of their graduate years. It would be a time for face-to-face exchanges of views, and cultivation of mutual friendship and of Christian fellowship around the Scriptures and prayer.

Dr. Turner's response was magnificent. It was warm and positive. He said that, as a matter of fact, he and Missionary Secretary Byron Lamson had discussed their concern for overseas Free Methodist students who came to the for graduate work. Turner and Lamson wanted to establish continuing and helpful relationships with these powerful young scholars, and to save them for the ministry of the Free Methodist Church. Some, too, had become estranged, and felt impelled to leave the denomination over newly-perceived doctrinal and technical issues. A fellowship might help these visitors to our shores.

Missionary Secretary Lamson's response to Turner's approach was equally magnifi­ cent and magisterial. He not only endorsed the idea, but immediately arranged for a Fall, 1964 seminar. He announced that it would be held at the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship House in Nyack, New York. He would finance it with Mission Board funds. The denomina­ tional and church leaders would be himself and Dr. George Turner as co-sponsors of the - session, Dr. Lloyd Knox, denominational publisher, and Dennis Kinlaw, representative of Asbury Theological Seminary, and also a graduate student in Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Brandeis University. He invited a list of students which included Professor Joseph L. Davis, on leave from Pacific College and studying at Union in Richmond, ; Kazuhito Shimada at Union in New York; Yoshikazu Takiya in Studies, and Donald Yorp, in Theology, both at Drew University; and me, in Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.

At the last minute, I came very close to a decision not to attend. As I waited for Joe Davis to pick me up at my home in Hightstown, , I agonized with my wife, Marilyn, whether it would indeed be wise for me to attend and, perhaps, "blow my cover." She said I had to go. I thank God that I did attend. It was a turning point in all our lives.

Drs. Lamson and Knox established such an accepting atmosphere on that "First Morning of Creation" that we simp! y poured out our hearts to one another. (The now­ established oral tradition requires that I notify you that we scarcely took time even to go to the bathroom lest we miss one word of anything anyone said.) The leitmotif of affirmation and inspiration was sounded late that first afternoon. Dr. Lamson, during a moment of quiet in the torrent of words, said, "I guess that the question we're faced with here is, 'Is there anything that is true that a Free Methodist can't believe?'" A luminous sense of love and - acceptance surrounded us. Unbeknownst to us, the pattern had been set for all of us by this kind and understanding Christian statesman. Denominational leaders followed it. So did the graduate students who came year by year.

2 In 1965, Lamson announced that the Graduate Seminar, as he now called it, would be held in the lovely and impressive French-chalet-like Wainwright House located in Rye, New York. As the years passed, the seminar came simply to be called "Rye." People knew what "Rye" was. People went to "Rye." The name persisted even after the formal move to the International Friendship House, in Winona Lake, in 1975. (It should be said here that this, and subsequent relocations of the seminar took place because of constraints of space, money, travel , or all of these. )

After lhe first session of academic catharsis, it was felt that a structure was needed for ongoing consultations. A pattern emerged. Students presented papers on a theme, and to have school men or denominational executives critique them. As time went on, students made presentations from their current studies, and the students were encouraged to form an "inner circle" for presentation and conversation, with the college and denominational attendees sitting in the outer circumference. It was at the fifth meeting, in 1968, that we began the tradition of using a form of the Wesley Service during the final worship period, and it was the custom for a denominational leader to be the preacher.

Association of Free Methodist Educational Institutions presidents eventually decided to fund the sending of college representatives; the denomination sponsored the travel and accommodations of graduate students from every part of the United States. The effort came I - to be considered a prime ministry of the caring Church, and this rwenty-eighrh occurrence in September, 1991, is testimony to the place the Free Methodist Graduate Students' Seminar has come to have in preparing teachers and other professionals for the ministry of the Free Methodist Church.

I have recited these facts at some length simply to inform you of the circumstances, needs, and caring impulses out of which the consultation grew. This lengthy prologue may be testimony to the fact that I am beginning to claim the privileges of an of the Tribe who recites stories which confer a crucial sense of identity and hi storical depth to a new generation. - Changes began to be suggested from the very beginning. In the 1965 seminar, it was proposed that students from other denominations be invited. Many of us knew persons from the Wesleyan, Pilgrim Holiness, and United Missionary churches who felt and struggled as we did. Wesleyans were invited and, in 1969, Melvin Dieter attended and affirmed the possibility that the might become a co-sponsor of the consultation, and finance the attendance of its graduate students at the annual gathering. Wesleyans did attend for a number of years, and the fellowship was affirming and exciting. The attendance at the 1965 seminar contains interesting names: Denominational leaders included Paul Ellis, General Secretary Cleo Denbo, Missionary Secretary Charles Kirkpatrick, and Retiring - Missionary Secretary Byron Lamson. Schoolmen included Dr. George Turner (Asbury) and Dr. Stanley Walters (Greenville). Students included Onva Boshears (U. of ), - Joseph L. Davis (Union Theological Seminary in Virginia), Kazuhito Shimada (Union in

3 -

New York), John Taylor and Frank Thompson (Princeton Theological Seminary) , and Donald Vorp (Drew University) .

Of the students attending the first two consultations, Takiya is now a professor at Osaka Christian College, Davis is an emeritus professor at Seattle Pacific University, Vorp is a librarian at the Speer Library in Princeton, and Thompson is head of the Department of - Philosophy and Religion at Greenville College.

Changes took place in denominational leadership, as well. In 1966, Byron Lamson - "retired" from the consultation committee, and was replaced by the newly-appointed Secretary of Higher Education and Ministry Arthur Zahniser. Art continued the enthusiastic and warmly hospitable spirit of Dr. Lamson, and came to be viewed by the ever-changing population of students as one who cared effectively for them. A budget statement was given to the attendees, showing a total of $2246.48 spent from both denominational and college sources. In 1973, Dr. Lamson returned for a visit to the consultation, and the following resolution was read to him:

To you, Dr. Byron S. Lamson, Who, when you were laboring in a vineyard as wide as the world, were not heedless of a call from young theologians in "a strange land;" Who, when you heard the anguished questions of immature biblical - scholars, were not shaken or defensive, but affirming and kind; Who, when confronted with ideas that seemed perilous to the peace of - the Tradition, showed no alarm, but saw that there is "no truth a Free Method­ ist cannot believe;" Who, with catholicity of spirit and breadth of vision wished to share the excitement and healing of Rye discussions with persons of sister traditions; We of the Tenth Rye Conference, meeting at Wainwright House September 21--23, 1973, unanimously express our love and gratitude to you for your instrumentality in founding the Rye Graduate Theological Consulta­ tion, and wish you Godspeed and good health in your pilgrimage of life.

In 1974, Dr. Lawrence R. Schoenhals, President Emeritus of , became Secretary of Higher Education and the Ministry, and under his leadership ...... the consultation was moved to larger quarters in the International Friendship House, Winona Lake, Indiana. He, in tum, was succeeded in 1981 by President Emeritus Bruce Kline, of Central College. Under the leadership of each, the consultation took on new power and - meaning, and has moved back to the East Coast, where many of the graduate schools are.

Another, less happy change occurred. The "Wesleyan Connection" had been a vigorous and exciting one over the years since 1966, but they took a "sabbatical" before the 1983 consultation to marry the , and have never returned.

4 Before I comment on the profound changes which are reflected in the lives and thoughts of present graduate students attending the Graduate Students' Theological Seminar, as it has been called since about 1979, let me reminisce a bit more:

Who could forget the feelings of those early students as they gathered? They came guardedly, curiously, angrily, brightly, worriedly, confusedly, and with that lordly conviction that they were on the cutting edge of whatever it was the church ought to be doing or believing. The bishops and other church leaders who came often seemed to wear on their .... faces or reflect in their demeanor that sort of excitedly sheepish countenance of a boy who was about to go out "behind the barn" to do whatever was not exactly approved of by Dad. Of course, they were too sophisticated ever really to feel those sensations, but it seemed to me that they, too, came with a tentative, searching spirit. The meetings were always, in the final analysis, memorable for affirmation and affection. Who could ever recover from the sight of Ken Shimada, bright and articulate Japanese intellectual working at Union Theologi­ cal Seminary in New York, standing in the middle of the crowd, weeping unashamedly, and saying, "Now I can be a Free Methodist." Or Lamson, at his last meeting with us, weeping openly and without shame?

It was a pattern that students would come new and edgy and prickly and aggressive and overly-alert the first year or two. Then they would show signs of growth, and under­ standing, and deepening tolerance as the years passed. It was powerful to watch. After about fi ve years, when the first cycle had reached its maturity, the "older hands" were wonderfully effective in responding to and affirming the newer graduate students.

Over the years, the students at the consultations have read papers on subjects covering Biblical Studies, Theology, Church History, Anthropology, Sociology, Aesthetics, Philoso­ phy, and nearly every area of concern to the theological mission of the Church. Early moves to have consultations for graduate students in other fields unrelated to Biblical Studies or Theology were tabled for sheer lack of funds, and because the Church has always been more alert to what her theologians and teachers were thinking and saying, than in other fields of study.

Some of the new generations of students often seemed to feel that the consultation would be a place to show their wares, and to preen for potential employers, but the genius of - the consultation remains in its free and accepting seminar-type atmosphere in which students can wrestle openly over the critical issues confronting both them and the Church.

It is safe to say that, unlike an earlier generation of brilliant graduate students lost to the Church in the Thirties and Forties and Fifties, those attending the Graduate Students' Theological Seminar have more often been saved for the service of the Church in the colleges, seminaries, pulpits, and mission fields. The litany of names presently giving leadership across the denomination reads like a roll-call of those who were nurtured in the Nyack-Rye-International Friendship House-and Wherever-fellowship of the Seminar. On the basis of my incomplete records, it is safe to say that over one-hundred-fifteen Free Methodist

5 - - and Wesleyan students have attended one or more times over the years. And the list of denominational officials attending is equally impressive, though their number has, unfortu­ nately, diminished in recent years.

It seems to me, as I talk to students who now attend the major graduate schools of our nation, that there is a significant effort on the part of many of those faculties to be more cognizent of, and sensitive to, the concerns of students who come from backgrounds of more traditional biblical and theological interpretation. While each student must hammer out one's own path in the pilgrimage of learning, it is also true that there are now more signposts and companions on the path than when I entered Princeton in 1962. The graduates from our Church colleges tend to be better informed as to alternative points of view and to the literature in their field than I was. They have less distance to travel to "get into" the mainstream of academic study. Yet, the importance that each "keep one's heart warm until one gets one's head straight," is undiminished. It is best when the heart and the head function together in the epistemological situation. Empirical truth cannot tread where faith­ language and faith-sight call. The student of today is rightly asked to drink more deeply of the Pierian Spring of academic excellence, and also to enter more deeply into the experience of prayer; to come more clearly to the place where one knows when it is that God is talking, and where one sees God as neither a Savage Inquisitor on a Doctoral Committee, nor a Tired Emeritus Who is unwilling to be bothered, but as a Friend who is eager to enter into the - busy and important functions of one's life and though t.

It will not be long until the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Graduate Students ' Theologi­ cal Seminar occurs. The future of the Seminar is now in the balance. New sources of funding have had to be found for this year's meeting, and for any future sessions, until the Free Methodist Church can once again secure its financial footing. I cannot imagine that the Church will not continue to be "The Church that Cares." It always has. Pray God it always will. Even in the face of Free Methodists' claims that they cannot afford the spiraling costs of a Christian education, and so they send their children to public colleges; even in the face of the shifting patterns of funding going on, the Church can answer. Leaders can help change the climate of opinion and the level of support. Pastors can lower the level of anti­ college rhetoric which is too often heard. it will soon not be unheard-of for churches and even conferences to employ resident theologians and Bible teachers. Until this happens, young men and women will have to follow Abraham in an unconditional commitment to the tasks to which God has called them. And, each will be challenged to tend one's spiritual - maturation with an intensity equal to the seeking of professional knowledge and competence.

In the meantime, what shal l you do? Be free. Be loving. Seek the Mind of Christ, - with all that this means. Follow the Spirit of Truth, Who will lead you into all truth. "Work out your own with fear and trembling, for it is God Who is at work in you, - both to will and to do His good pleasure." You will like it. God will like it. Those you touch will bless your name for it.

Corrected 30 September 91

6 - 1967-GSTS

1967-GSTS: Several of those attending the seminar listening to a paper being read. Left to Right: Bishop Myron Boyd, FMC; Dr. Lloyd Knox, Light & Life Press; John Hartley, Brandeis University; Dr. Jame Mannoia, Spring Arbor College; Wayne McCown, Union Seminary, Richmond VA; Dr. G. H. Livingston, Asbury Theological Seminary; Dr. Donald Demaray, Asbury theological Seminary. 1967-GSTS Planning Session: Frank Thompson, Rev. Donald Vorp

1968-GSTS 1969-GSTS

1979-GSTS