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Phillips Seminary's role change: New president must change mission with the economic downturn.
Oct 24, 2009 (Tulsa World - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Gary Peluso-Verdend is both excited and daunted by his new responsibilities as president of Tulsa's Phillips Theological Seminary.
Peluso-Verdend will be formally inaugurated president of Phillips at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 10 at First Christian Church downtown.
He replaces William Tabbernee, who retired June 30 after 18 years as president.
Peluso-Verdend is the first United Methodist to lead the century-old seminary, which is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He became president July 1.
Mainline denominational seminaries across the nation face a host of challenges, Peluso-Verdend said this week, although Phillips is doing better than many.
"The economy has taken its toll," he said.
The Association of Theological Schools has reported that a majority of mainline seminaries did not have a balanced budget last year, he said.
"We did."
Seminaries also are hurt by the graying of their support base and a decline in denominational loyalty among younger people.
Peluso-Verdend said Phillips has weathered the downturn well, largely because it does not rely heavily on its endowment to meet the budget. Instead, it has a strong annual fund.
The average seminary derives 40 percent of its budget from its endowment fund. When the stock market collapsed in 2007, those endowment funds were hit hard, and many schools had to withdraw endowment fund money when the market was low.
Phillips, which normally gets 18
percent of its budget from the endowment, has been able to stop withdrawing from the fund and wait for the market to recover.
"We weren't as affected as others," he said.
As mainline churches have declined since their heyday in the 1950s, so has enrollment in seminaries, Peluso-Verdend said.
Enrollment at Phillips has gone down during the last five years, he said, in part because St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo., established a satellite campus at Oklahoma City University, drawing away some students. Before last fall, Phillips was Oklahoma's only school offering seminary classes accepted by the United Methodist Church.
Phillips is developing strategies to combat its challenges.
Traditionally its primary purpose has been to train professional clergy. It is now expanding its purpose to educate both clergy and laity, with a goal of building a more educated church, in and out of the pews.
Interestingly, Peluso-Verdend said, that was the original purpose of the seminary when it was formed more than 100 years ago in Enid as part of Phillips University, which no longer exists.
To meet that purpose, the school now offers classes to men and women who want to learn but not go into the full-time ministry.
Seminaries across the nation are doing the same thing, he said.
One United Methodist seminary in California has even became an interfaith institution, offering classes for Jews, Muslims and other faiths, he said.
Phillips also is putting a new emphasis on Internet courses, Peluso-Verdend said.
While it has offered a few Internet courses for some time, the school is working toward offering as many classes as possible online. Students seeking a master of divinity degree must take one year of classes on campus. The other two years of the three-year program can be taken online, he said.
Expanding the online offerings has drawn students from several nearby states, he said. As many as 70 percent of Phillips students now take at least one course online. In addition to the classes, the seminary puts selected lectures and sermons online for the general public.
Who is gary Peluso-Verdend?
Raised: Chicago area.
1977: Undergraduate degree, Carroll College, Waukesha, Wis.
1981: Master's degree, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill.
1991: Doctorate Degree, University of Chicago.
1993-2000: Faculty, Phillips Theological Seminary.
1997-2000: Dean, Phillips Theological Seminary.
2000-2005: Faculty, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.
2005-2009: Vice president of stewardship, Phillips Theological Seminary.
2009: President, Phillips Theological Seminary Author of "Paying Attention: Focusing Your Congregation on What Matters," and other books.
Family: Wife Cheri, daughter Eliana.
Bill Sherman 581-8398 bill.sherman@tulsaworld.com
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