| In Trust Center for Theological Schools

What Your CFO Wants You to Know

Asking the right questions can reveal much about direction and purpose.

By Matt Hufman

Take ’em to lunch and ask the hard questions. Your CFO’s portfolio is wide and deep, and understanding operational complexity is essential to fulfilling your board’s fiduciary responsibilities.

Reset and Revitalize

How one institution plugged into creative disruption

By Brent Sleasman, Ph.D.

In a “look-alike” sector, disrupting accepted practices for finances, fundraising, and curriculum can lead to differentiation and sustainable success. How one school broke out by changing just about everything.

Navigating Between The Times

Expanding the Scenes of Instruction

By Mark D. Jordan, Ph.D.

Mark D. Jordan, Ph.D., suggests expanding “scenes of instruction” to foster new hope for teaching and learning in this essay for the Theological Education Between the Times project.

Eternal Enterprise

When it comes to financial health, boards need new devotion to a hopeful future. We asked ATS’s Chris Meinzer for advice.

Faced with an array of complex financial challenges, boards and other leaders can’t afford to assume anything. ATS’s Chris Meinzer, an expert in seminary finances, unpacks the issues and offers advice.

On My Mind

Money and Mission

Why finances should matter to you, regardless of your role.

By Amy L. Kardash

Knowledge and curiosity about finances are critical for leaders with fiduciary responsibility to mission fulfillment, says In Trust President Amy Kardash.

On Your Mind

On Your Mind | Letters to the Editor

The work of the theological school continues despite the interruptions of the pandemic.

Lilly Grants Help Theological Schools Look to the Future

$87.5 million initiative offers opportunity for innovation, creative projects

Lilly Endowment Inc. recently announced the Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative through which it is making available $87.5 million in grants to help theological schools accredited by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) strengthen their ability to prepare pastoral and congregational lay leaders.

The Gift Collaborative Highlights Need for Black Church, Seminaries

The Gift of Black Theological Education & Black Church Collaborative kicked off in January with a series of powerful presentations that have examined the history of and the need for the Black Church and the Black Seminary.

Present Moment

Money Matters: Financial health requires allies, not adversaries.

By Richard “Rick” Foss

When I left a graduate program in Industrial Relations to enroll in seminary, it was not because I was interested in finances.

Podcast Picks | From Our Ears to Yours

Five podcasts you won’t want to miss

Investing in New Growth

When it comes to endowments, the board’s fiduciary oversight of this intergenerational asset has lasting value

By Matt Hufman

In Trust magazine talked with Doug MacGray, founder of Stonecrop Wealth Advisors and a member of the Missio Seminary board, about board responsibilities and considerations for endowments, investments, and markets.

The Census | Why Theological Education

Influencers, Compellers, and Call

What Entering Students are Saying in 2021

All People Considered | Public, Prophetic Platforms

Auburn Seminary’s multifaith movement for justice

The view from the windows of Auburn Seminary in Manhattan includes the Hudson River flowing past.

Future Promise | Promise in Partnerships

The power of honest conversations about money

By Elise Erikson Barrett

Over the past five years, I’ve watched as the lives of both theological students and pastoral leaders have been transformed by a combination of financial support and equipping for financial leadership.

One For All, But Still For Many

Kairos embraces ‘legacy’ partners under one board, keeps schools’ traditions alive

By Karen Stiller

Greg Henson, lead partner of the Kairos Network, sounds as if he’s talking theology when describing the experiment in competency-based theological education

Momentous Decision | What’s in a name?

The school’s mission is bigger than what it’s called

By Rev. Dr. James E. Brenneman

When I arrived at the American Baptist Seminary of the West in 2017, the strategic plan called for concluding a 15-year discussion on renaming the seminary.

Preparing to Launch

Helping students see the intrinsic value of their education can open new vistas for employment

By Packard Brown

In March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate fell to 6.2 percent.