Time For a Rethink?

[Doug Ward]

I have absolutely no agenda here at all. The recent discussion on Upstate NY raised an issue I have thought about. Since the church was born and organized in a time of radically different transportation habits, is our method of organization outdated? For instance, could we not do wholesale mergers of districts and become more efficient? Do we need 8 colleges? Or would we be better with 5 or 6, and sell 2 or 3 properties and use that to endow the rest? I am not getting into college rivalry here, but strictly from an efficiency viewpoint. In these days of air travel and interstates, 8 seems like a bit much to me.

[Ryan Scott]

They're working on district mergers. I mean we've already completely changed the job description of DS from the beginning. They used to be the designated church planters, traveling their territory starting churches, then finding pastors for them.

I imagine there's an innovative and carefully constructed suggestion for such a change in the Report from the Commission on the Nazarene Future. Hopefully we'll get to see it someday.

As for the college and universities, I imagine the unique brand they've created for themselves would be worth retaining by a fairly large segment of the constituency. Since the denomination doesn't actually own them, I imagine it would be tough to convince the trustees to simply shut them down or merge them.

[Bill Morrison]

I have absolutely no agenda here at all. The recent discussion on Upstate NY raised an issue I have thought about. Since the church was born and organized in a time of radically different transportation habits, is our method of organization outdated? For instance, could we not do wholesale mergers of districts and become more efficient? Do we need 8 colleges? Or would we be better with 5 or 6, and sell 2 or 3 properties and use that to endow the rest? I am not getting into college rivalry here, but strictly from an efficiency viewpoint. In these days of air travel and interstates, 8 seems like a bit much to me.

I am confident we would lose many of our students if we merged colleges. Here at MNU a huge number of our students are local (live within an hour or two of campus). I assume some of our other campuses are in a similar position, especially those that have thriving adult programs and advanced professional degrees in Business and Nursing as we do at MNU. If anything, some of our Nazarene schools are eyeing the opening of branch campuses in other places in addition to where they are now located.
I think we would see a similar problem if we would merge Nazarene churches that are within say an hour's drive of each other: the merger would perhaps save money, but you would lose a whole lot of members!
Your question of merging districts remains an important one. My mother's district (Louisiana) shares a DS with Mississippi and my brother's Dakota district recently merged with Minnesota. I have heard both good and bad about those mergers. I think it is a complex question. Perhaps some could put forth both pros and cons they see about this?

BILL

[Jim Franklin]

I, too, have considered consolidation of churches, districts, and colleges as a more efficient way of using the monies that we are to use with care and God's guidance, however, I am certain that at the beginning of each that those involved felt they were beginning with God's blessing to build His Kingdom.

[Michael Flowers]

I am confident we would lose many of our students if we merged colleges. Here at MNU a huge number of our students are local (live within an hour or two of campus). I assume some of our other campuses are in a similar position, especially those that have thriving adult programs and advanced professional degrees in Business and Nursing as we do at MNU. If anything, some of our Nazarene schools are eyeing the opening of branch campuses in other places in addition to where they are now located.
I think we would see a similar problem if we would merge Nazarene churches that are within say an hour's drive of each other: the merger would perhaps save money, but you would lose a whole lot of members!
Your question of merging districts remains an important one. My mother's district (Louisiana) shares a DS with Mississippi and my brother's Dakota district recently merged with Minnesota. I have heard both good and bad about those mergers. I think it is a complex question. Perhaps some could put forth both pros and cons they see about this?

BILL

I think the question of the colleges would have to factor in how many of those students are actually "our" (as in Nazarene) students. Our colleges were started to train up Christian leaders, but how much is that actually being accomplished. I can say without any doubt in my mind that at least 20 percent (reality indicates it is probably higher than that) of my graduating class has no real relationship with Christ and is not living a life that would fit the biblical mandate of a Christian lifestyle, and certainly not a Nazarene style.

Do I think we have too many schools? No. Do I think they could be better positioned? Yes. Is any sort of change there likely? No.

The theory has been presented in the past about creating Mega-Districts. This would take places like Michigan or Illinois that three districts and merge them together under one district superintendent and a couple of associate DS's. The more I think about such a situation the more I am convinced that it would be a sound and reasonable move to make in certain settings.

[G R 'Scott' Cundiff]

I think district mergers have to be accompanied with organizational changes. Our current DS model won't work as well if the districts are regional in nature. I haven't looked deeply into it, but I think the Regional "GS" with a team of pastor/DS's would work better than creating mega districts with one person trying to do all the things we think a DS ought to do.