The Newsletter for Chairs of Theological School Boards
Vol. 3 No. 3

Trusting the process, trusting each other

In leadership, everyone knows we're supposed to build trust. The difficulty is doing that. Trust is something that can take a long time to build but can be lost in a moment, and often, we don't even recognize where we've lost trust.

Cory Scheer, Ed.D, is an expert on trust. He is also a former pastor and university administrator whose doctoral work focused on trust in organizations. What he found in his research is that there is a pandemic in terms of a lack of trust across organizations.  

His work now has been in training organizations on how to build and restore trust. There is a process for building trust, and Cory can walk you through that. Last year, we engaged Cory to do a staff retreat and training with the In Trust Center team, and his insights were incredibly helpful for us to see blind spots and understand what we can do to build trust. You'll have the opportunity to learn from Cory next month as he will lead a webinar for our members. It will be at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 5. You can register here.

One of the things I appreciate about Cory is that, given his background, he understands theological education and the challenges the field faces, and he can speak to those directly. I'd encourage you to register today and pass this email on to those in your organization who will benefit.

Coming soon: I want to give you a heads-up about our new Governance Initiative. I'm going to send more information in the coming weeks, but this is an exciting program in which we're going to survey the field to understand current board demographics, structures, and wise practices of high-functioning boards. I'm going to ask for your help: Next month, we'll send out a survey, and I'm going to ask if you'd help us by responding. We're really excited about this initiative because it will give you new insights and tools into governing better. The In Trust Center will share more in coming months. 

With gratitude for all you do in theological education,
Amy Kardash
President