On How Institutions Heal

My Journey at Northern Seminary

About a year and a half ago, a leadership crisis arose at Northern Seminary. This led to a long and painful process of self examination at Northern. It eventually led to a revealing of problems within the long standing structures in a century old institution that prevented mutuality and accountability between the board, faculty, students, staff, and administration. It was a moment of truth for Northern Seminary.

When such crises are revealed, predictably, a set of behaviors are set into motion. The revelation occurs. Then a 3^rd party investigation is commissioned. This investigation is slow, reveals the problems, sometimes the details are covered up. Often, all too often, an accused leader denies all allegations. If the investigation is too slow, or lawyers are hired, outrage sets into motion. Activists decry either the leader, or the institution, or both. One or the other or both are condemned. Social media hate explodes. The leader leaves, a set of changes are announced, a new leader is hired, and a lot of hurt people are left in the wake of the calamity.

But truth be told, if the institution or church survives, very little actually changes. Institutions of any significance are complex ecosystems that depend upon the flow of money. That flow of money is often tied to existing power structures. If the institution survives, it is most often that the ecosystem survives as well. Changes are made, but by definition, if the institution survives, it’s the structures, donors, modes of organization and leadership that continue on. Rarely do institutions change.

What I’ve seen at Northern these past eighteen months is different.

And so I now believe that Northern is an example of how institutions can respond to leadership crises and heal. Northern seminary bears witness to the possibility that institutions (and this includes church institutions) can change, that some practices that make space for God to work can lead in the process. And by God’s grace, and the Spirit’s work, an institution can heal. Northern Seminary is an example of how an institution can heal.

THE THINGS I HAVE WITNESSED AT NORTHERN

I must be blunt here. I speak as a professor at Northern, but I speak,

·      not as someone who needs his job (I’m so close to retirement it doesn’t matter),

·      not as someone who has a legacy to preserve (truth is I could have protected any legacy I do have much better by making a show of leaving, accusing the place of being “toxic,” and moving on to one of a few good job offers to “complete” my legacy),

·      not as someone who is trying to protect a platform (I have refused to expose details of this mess over social media – it’s against my religion!!! i.e. Jesus)

I speak as a witness to the amazing grace, reconciliation and healing made possible in Christ that has taken over Northern Seminary. Here’s a short list of just some of the things I had a front row seat to at Northern.

1.An Acting President was Appointed.

After an interim time, with an interim president, the board appointed an Acting interim president, Karen Walker Freeburg. She had been a previous Dean at Northern. She knows Northern’s history, including its warts. She loves the mission of Northern Seminary. She is a woman skilled in ‘family systems.” The fact that she was asked to take this job by the board, and that she agreed to do it, out of love for Northern, was a miracle of God. She set about listening. She set up places of conversation where the board, the staff, the faculty, and students could all be in the same room, often but not always a zoom room. Certain dysfunctions materialized. Behavior that borderlined on pathological was revealed. All in all it was messy, conflictual, at times frustrating and at times terrifying. But this is what we needed. I don’t know if these dynamics could have been set in motion if your typical, often male, problem solver had been appointed as president.

2.A lot of Listening Happened Most importantly, staff and Injured were listened to. It was not just what happened in bigger rooms, where board members, staff, aggrieved parties, faculty administration could all be heard. It was many smaller meetings. It was long and tedious. Lawsuits were slowly untangled. There was no quick fix. The careful and long process was not cut short.

3.Repentance, Lament and Reconciliation Happened There was plenty of open grief, apologies, repentance, and more listening, most prominently by members of the Board. There was humility, grief, honesty, and genuine sincere willingness to make things right. I have been involved in churches, boards, and institutions for over thirty years. I can tell you I’ve never see anything like this from a board.

4.(Then and Only Then) Changes to Institutional Structures Happened

Board members left, some within administration and the running of departments left. In the end a faculty member left later. They left for various reasons. In the minds of many, some needed to leave. But each one has their own narration. And so I won’t even try to speak to this. But there was a clearing of space for something new to happen here at Northern. Change was put into motion.

All of this took persistent and tireless effort, a lot of time to ensure that staff, former staff, faculty, administration board, all were heard. I believe God works in spaces of conversation, listening, praying, submitting, learning. God can use these kind of spaces to heal and restore. Even an exposed leader, or an exposed board member, needs to be heard. I made personal efforts in this regard. Nothing was perfect or ever will be perfect. But this process was pursued relentlessly by the Acting president, the Acting dean, and the board.

I cannot detail all the changes that have been happening around here because I am not sure I am even aware of all of them. But important and significant structural changes in the way the board operates in relation to president, administration, staff and faculty have been and are being made. Training in the way we as employees and leaders become aware of abuse and trauma (trauma-informed) has been and is being put into motion. The way faculty have been siloed, the way students are being heard, the way various functions of the seminary are being managed, are being addressed. From it all, a new culture and practice of being not only a business well run, but a community committed to a mission where all people are part of it, listened too, and recognized, is taking shape. It is all a testimony to the way basic core practices of following Christ as a people can make space for institutions to heal

OUTSIDE VOICES

As anyone who pastors or leads any kind of institution knows, when going through a crisis, you can work tirelessly to lead in the listening, reconciliation, healing work of your institution, you can be doing all the things above, and still there will be outside voices, most often on social media, who will be suspicious, or even antagonistic to the work going on. So just a few words to all of us who read these posts by persons online, or who are tempted to post such criticisms online via social media.

Constructive criticism, truth telling is the life blood of growth and sanctification. Truth telling is always good when done out of love for the person, or institution being criticized. Doing it however from the outside, peering in, is fraught with problems and potential harm to the persons most hurt by the abuse and those seeking to rectify it. The necessary listening, lamenting, forgiving, reconciling work that is so essential, can get cut short by persons from the outside making accusations, statements, and judgements, that either reference a prior time, or have no bearing in reality. The best kind of criticism is made in social spaces, directly with people, where Jesus can be present out of a mutuality and respect that comes from remembering we are joint members of the body of Christ. I urge people to talk with people not over people on behalf of other people. This to me is a core practice of making presence for Christ to be “in the midst” and work for healing and transformation (Matt 18:15-20).

THERE WILL BE TIMES

There will be times however, when a church or institution gets caught up in such toxic patterns, where toxic leaders accumulate such power and gather centers of power around him/her, that persons abused have no other recourse but to leave the institution, and address abuse through outside media. There is no other avenue for the leader to be challenged. He or she is so well defended, and retaliatory, that an abused employee cannot be heard. This destroys the morale and sustainability of an institution, and, by the way, it’s bad for the leader as well. The only way out of this kind of toxic mess is for an outside investigative authority and/or website to expose the abuse and force the organization to answer for it. But this should always be the very last resort.

I believe, and have seen, that when abusive leaders respond humbly to accusers, when they listen to their accusers, when they own their sin, when they step down and seek to reconcile with victims and restore victims, they become the better for it. But this is rare. Often, abusive leaders dig in, defend, retaliate, deflect, and coalesce a team to smooth it over and defend themselves against the attacks. In these moments, outside websites are the only remaining place to gain a hearing.

But I think when we do this, we have a responsibility. Websites who do this have a responsibility. Because, if those websites/social media publish too soon, they cut off the possibility for the good work of God’s Spirit to happen. Lawyers are hired, the social dynamic turns antagonistic, and chances for reconciling on all sides go down.

Furthermore, if persons, on the inside (because no reconciliation is perfect) or outside, point fingers using social media, or websites outside the institution or church, without going directly to the persons, this too is problematic. Because reconciliation takes time, and such outside ‘finger-pointing’ harms the process of the interpersonal relational work of the Spirit. No reconciliation is perfect. People are hurt. Healing takes time. One should point fingers only by sitting with the leaders and victims. If such ‘finger pointers’ aren’t doing this, all the finger pointing amounts to is cheap shots from the bleacher seats that only harm the process.

THREE QUESTIONS

And so, in conclusion, for all of us tempted to take these kind of shots or accusations at work being done to heal institutions, to assert “toxic culture” at Northern or any other church or institution, for all of us who might be tempted to listen to such accusations, I have three questions I think should guide whether we should post such accusations, or listen to such accusations.

1.)   Where was the accuser when the crisis was happening? Does the accuser know first hand what was going on? Was he/she there? If so, how did the accuser respond? Did he/she know first hand the social dynamics of what was happening? Or is he/she just conjecturing? Did he/she know the victims? To the accuser: It makes a big difference in how you see a situation, if you were there, on campus (church or institution) and daily witnessed the dynamics. It makes a big difference in whether you can see the work and transformation going on. Or are you a passive bystander? Were you complicit? Don’t make accusations from afar about people’s lives you actually know little about. Don’t conjecture. The world has enough conspiracy theorists. Please speak from actual presence or don’t speak at all. To all of us reading this post: don’t listen to someone who cannot answer these questions. The Christian task in these times of so much gaslighting, gossip, vitriol, conspiracy theories, is to stop the gossip, the cheap shots, the vitriol for the sake of the work of Christ Kingdom.

2.)   To the accuser: have you actually talked with the victims? Not just called them up, or interviewed them over the phone for your agenda from a perch of influence? Have you sat with them and listened to them. Heard their hearts? Discerned their disposition, genuineness and pain? If not, don’t pretend to speak for the victims. Don’t take a side pretending to speak for the victims. And again, to all Christians: don’t listen to someone who cannot answer this question.

3.)   To the accuser: What would you do differently? Anyone can complain about leadership. But when a church or institution is carrying on the work of Christ in vulnerability to  lament, forgive, restore, and reconcile, pot shots are too easy and very destructive. If you legitimately have a complaint, tell us what you would do differently (but first you have to know what the leaders are actually doing).

I make these suggestions not only to Northern Seminary onlookers, but to all of us seeking healing and restoration around the many bloodied Christian institutions and churches of our land. I believe leaders need good constructive criticism to grow in Christ. We must all be receptive. But I have also watched really good work get attacked  by people who cannot answer these questions above (I have reached out to some and asked them these exact questions). To sites like Julie Roys’ ‘The Roys Report’, they should not publish outsider or insider complaints before these three questions can be answered. These three questions are not an attempt to shut down criticism, but to finely tune the criticism, sift the criticism, and direct it to the leaders themselves. I don’t believe social media/the internet is the place to work out conflicts or details of conflicts. It so quickly devolves into objectifying the other, half-truths, conspiracy theories, outright lies, and hate. It becomes the arena of Satan’s work to destroy. These three questions drive how I make discernments period, and definitely over social media. I refuse to talk details of people’s lives on the internet.

And so again we should only publish criticism when the log jam inside cannot be broken because of its toxicity. Then it is important to publish it. But publish the voices of the victims, or the voices that give voice to the victims because they have actually listened to the victims. This then is truly the work of the Kingdom.

WE CELEBRATE

Commencement is coming at Northern Seminary June 8th.  We have more graduates this year than ever before on record. God is training amazing leaders, who know the Scriptures, and how to be present in and engage the culture we’re living in. We congratulate and celebrate every one of them. And we also celebrate the healing and renewing work of Jesus taking place at Northern Seminary. Northern Seminary is emerging again, not only as a unique place of theological training, but as an example of how institutions and churches can heal, by following the way of Christ. We celebrate Dr Matt Bates joining us this coming academic year to help lead our New Testament programs with Dr. Nijay Gupta. We congratulate and recognize acting president Dr. Karen Walker Freeburg, as well as our other outstanding administrators, who are leading us to this new place for the Kingdom of God. At this commencement I give the God of our Lord Jesus Christ all the glory for what He has done to heal and renew Northern as a place of ministerial training for the immense cultural challenges we face as ministers of the gospel in 2024. See you all at commencement!!