Wednesday, October 17, 2001

Brite hopes grant will help recruiting
By Heather Christie
Staff Reporter

Brite Divinity School is opting for a $30,000 grant to focus recruiting efforts on high school students interested in exploring theological education and ministry
Brite Dean Mark Toulouse said the demand for clergy is rising as many youth look for jobs where the pay is higher.

The planning grant from the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, which should be available in a few months, will allow Brite to travel and meet with church officials across the country about recruiting programs.

Brite is planning a week-long event in the summer to expose high school students to theological education and show why they should consider ministry as a career, Toulouse said. He said Brite would find high school students through local churches and religious organizations.

According to a New York Times article, most mainline Protestant denominations (Anglican, Baptist, Congregationalist, Evangelical, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed and Presbyterian), Reformed and Conservative Jewish branches and the Roman Catholic Church are now having trouble filling job vacancies.

Bill Galbraith, senior pastor at St. Stephen Presbyterian Church, said Presbyterians are trying to find pastors that work with youth or in Christian education and specialized areas.

“In our denomination we are (having a shortage of clergy) and we are predicting it to get worse,” Galbraith said.

The Presbytery is sending letters to all Presbyterian Churches in the Metroplex to encourage churches to look for prospective clergy and help them with educational requirements.

However, Cyndy Twedell, an associate minister of evangelism at the University Christian Church and a TCU and Brite graduate, said her church is not having trouble finding ministers.

Sunday the University Christian Church hosted ministers to talk to people considering ministry as a career. Twedell said about 50people attended and about half were high school and college-aged students.

“I know that the statistics indicate there are more ministers retiring than are coming into the ministry, and yet I have not really experienced that,” she said. “I don’t doubt the data, but it has not been my experience.”.

Toulouse said the Lilly Foundation has funded 20 university programs and 22 theological programs since 1998. Thirty other programs, including Brite, are in preliminary stages for planning grants, he said.

Already established university programs focus on college students, but Brite will focus on high school students, Toulouse said.

“Our program will contain an element that’s going to enable us to track those high school students who have interest through their college careers, to stay in touch with them, to help them to explore questions of vocation and to think seriously about ministry,” Toulouse said.

Heather J. Christie
h.j.christie@student.tcu.edu