On What Has Become of Northern Seminary

A Tribute to Our Outgoing President

This past year Northern Seminary has had much to celebrate as the presence of the living Christ has been with us through very difficult times. Jesus’ presence, through the faithfulness of leaders and staff, has worked among us to heal us, and many people hurt by what happened at Northern Seminary. The pains and the broken episodes that Northern seminary went through these past two years has been much recorded in the news and other outlets. What is not often recorded is the transforming power and presence of Jesus to work repentance, healing and restoration of a broken institution. These stories often do not get told. And yet this is what the church needs to hear, what the world needs to see modeled.

Northern Seminary had its Christmas party this year, as we do every year, a week after the quarter ended. We celebrated Christ, His work among us, and the healing we’ve received. In particular, we took the time to honor Dr. Karen Walker Freeburg, who was our acting president leading us through all this repentance and healing. It was a remarkable time. Several of us made little speeches in Karen’s honor. In the hopes that people will know that the healing work and goodness of Christ can overcome brokenness and abuse in institutions, I offer the speech I gave below. I delivered it extemporaneously. I was supposed to keep it to 3 minutes. So maybe all of it wasn’t delivered verbatum. I publish it here, on this substack, to honour Karen. But I also publish it so that many can get a sense of what a leader can do in submission to Christ in bringing healing to an institution, and a church. My hope is that many can be encouraged to know that reconciliation, healing and restoration are possible in Jesus Christ. That indeed these pains, sorrows, relentless pushes for integrity, repentances, made possible in Christ, shaped a very rich and transformative space that is now Northern Seminary

Here goes.

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A few years ago. Northern Seminary was going through one of the darkest moments in its 100 year old plus history.

Two years later, we might now say, Northern is experiencing one its most astoundingly brightest of moments, having been witness to a significant transformation that gives witness to the center of our institution, Jesus, and His reconciling and transforming work.

Let us make no mistake, that a big part of leading us to this point, has been our acting president, the 12^th president of Northern Seminary, Karen Walker-Freeburg.

She led us all through treacherous waters with

· An ability to navigate and understand how people work, get wrapped up in their own little antagonisms, and how to nudge them, either moving them out of the antagonism, or asking them to leave with a generosity and grace.

· A deep knowledge of the unique role and place of Northern in training leaders for the church.

· The ability to give everyone their role and their space to exercise in that role.

· An ability to recognize when someone is acting in a diseased way, and not give that disease oxygen.

· An ability to recognize giftings … talents .. skills in the people around her.

For many of us who have swam through these difficult waters, the fact that we’re standing here today, in a much much better place, is a testimony to Karen, her submission and trust in Jesus, her leadership, and the work of God in Jesus at work among us.

Many write books about how to lead through antagonisms, and brokenness in church institutions. This women did it!!

And so Northern Seminary thanks you Karen.

Many years from now, as Northern becomes a center for training a new kind of leader for the challenges we face in these crazy cultural times, we will remember it started with your leading us out of the darkness into light in and through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We celebrate the coming of Christ in this season … and all He has made possible in this remarkable time in Northern’s history …

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I will add to that little speech, that many board members have been beacons of light, carriers of the humility of Christ, in leading us through what we we’ve been through. I have thanked many of them personally. I thank them again.

Dr. Mark Quanstrom, our acting Dean through much of this period, was not only an academic leader but a pastor to many of us through these times. I thank him again.

And Dr. Mike Moore worked tirelessly to guide our academic programs and the minutia involved. Thanks go to him as well. AS WELL AS ALL THE STAFF, the ones most affected by the past leadership and institutional sins. Again, heartfelt thanks, for your faithfulness, perseverance and courage.

And I will add that all of this good work of these past 18 months has led Northern to the inauguration of Dr Joy J. Moore as our new president. I believe she is such a gift to Northern, one who embodies in her life and ministry what Northern is and stands for. We have already prayed an anointing on her for this new season of Northern seminary. For sure there are many challenges that lie ahead. Here’s to 2025 and God’s blessings upon us. I could not be more excited to be part of a seminary and its mission.