Presidential Search Committee
News Update
June 19, 2007
Dear Asbury Family,
The Presidential Search Committee has begun its work, and we want to tell you about our progress.
1) On Thursday May 24, the committee met in conference call with Dr. Robert Cooley, President Emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Seminary, who offered to us wide-ranging and valuable advice right at the outset. Salient points of his presentation to us included the following:
- the challenging trends in the world of (higher, Christian) theological education;
- lessons learned from (many past) presidential searches;
- best practices in presidential searches;
- keys to selecting a good consulting firm for this search; and
- the necessity of complete confidentiality both for drawing high quality candidates and for protecting all candidates.
2) Shortly after this session, the Search Committee began gathering information on the most promising and highly recommended consulting firms. Our special focus lay in following up with Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries that had retained these firms for high-level (especially executive) searches. Over the following weeks, we gathered data through web searches, emails, and phone calls to follow up on references and to generate a clearer picture of the strengths and weaknesses of these firms.
3) On Monday June 18, we met in Atlanta to discuss our findings and to interview each of the firms being considered. It is fair to say that each firm was impressive in its own way, and had quite understandably won the genuine admiration of its former clients. Each firm responded well to most of our probing, and demonstrated high levels of professionalism, insight, and spiritual sensitivity.
Our probing with each of the firms included the following:
- their knowledge of and experience in (higher, Christian) religious education searches;
- their sensitivity to Asbury’s spiritual and theological heritage;
- their capacity to help ATS recruit candidates as widely as possible (yet within the parameters of our spiritual and theological heritage);
- their desire and ability to include within the candidate pool women, minorities, and internationals;
- their skill in pursing high-quality prospects who are not seeking this presidential position;
- their willingness to work with (not just for) the search committee;
- their depth of company resources, and willingness to focus on the ATS search;
- their strategies for helping us listen to the whole Asbury community;
- their procedures for managing candidates and candidate interviews; and
- those peculiar strengths each firm could bring to our search process.
Though we were impressed with each of the firms we interviewed, we concluded at the close of the day that we wanted to take a few more days to reflect on what we had learned and make a few additional inquiries. We agreed as a committee to fast and pray on Thursday June 21, and to meet by conference call on Friday June 22 to compare our final notes.
4) During the day on the 18th, we squeezed in a time of reflection and discussion on selected passages in Presidential Transition in Higher Education: Managing Leadership Change, by Martin, Samuels and Associates. We expect to fold a number of the matters addressed by this resource into our search process.
5) Several key features of the search process will be finalized by the Board of Trustees in conversation with the consultant (once retained) and other appropriate committees. We expect all of these matters to be addressed in due course.
•••••
As all of us in Asbury’s family know, this is a time for increased prayer and trust in the Lord for special wisdom and discernment. We invite everyone to join in heart with us (the Search Committee) as we fast and pray on June 21. If that date has passed you by, set another time to ask for special mercies from the Father in behalf of Asbury and her future leadership.
It is our goal as a Search Committee to keep the Asbury Family informed of our progress as far as we are able without risking any breach of confidentiality. Dr. Cooley and each of the consulting firms we interviewed repeatedly stressed that strict confidentiality protects all candidates from serious harm, and allows a better pool of prospects to be generated than would otherwise be possible. Pray for us as we try to hold privileged information tightly while keeping you, our whole family, well informed of our progress.
God bless and keep you all,
The Search Committee
Tammy Cessna, Joe Dongell, Steve Harper, Joe Harris, Dan Johnson, Joan Krupa, John McNairy, Ed Robb, Brian Russell, Jim Smith, Gabriel Tait, Karen Thomas