Hemphill reassigns theology dean
as trustees seek more faculty change
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___FORT WORTH--Less than two years after his election as dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, David Crutchley is being reassigned by President Ken Hemphill.
___Hemphill announced to the seminary's theology faculty Nov. 29 that he intends to move Crutchley to the newly created position of dean of globalization.
___Crutchley, meanwhile, indicated in a statement read to the faculty that he has not decided whether to accept the appointment. Should he decline the new post, he would retain a faculty position in the School of Theology.
___A seminary news
release said Crutchley would serve as theology dean until Dec. 31 and then "return to the classroom while he prays about God's direction for his next stage of ministry."
___Crutchley is a South African native who joined the Southwestern faculty in 1999 after 14 years of teaching at Cape Town Baptist Theological College in South Africa. He was elected dean in March 2000, succeeding Tommy Lea, who died of cancer.
___Crutchley's election followed an eight-month search, from which Hemphill lauded him as the best possible candidate because of his "vision for building a world-class faculty."
___Building the faculty proved to be a daunting task, however, as trustees created greater restrictions on who can teach at Southwestern. Crutchley spent much of the past two years working to bring current faculty in line with a trustee requirement that all elected and adjunct faculty must sign the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement.
___Two faculty members resigned rather than sign the faith statement, and others reportedly moved up their retirement plans or took other teaching positions because of the demand.
___An unidentified number of adjunct faculty are no longer eligible to teach.
___The seminary reportedly began the fall semester with up to 15 vacancies on the School of Theology's full-time faculty.
___This has been a matter of concern to fundamentalist leaders on the seminary trustee board like Miles Seaborn of Fort Worth, former board chairman.
___Seaborn was quoted in the December issue of the Southern Baptist Texan, magazine of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, as predicting the recent election of Craig Blaising as Southwestern provost and executive vice president would help fill the faculty with his kind of conservatives.
___"We've been working toward this ever since the firing of Dr. Dilday," he said, referencing the 1994 trustee action against President Russell Dilday.
___"It was a very tragic, traumatic event for all of us that were involved in it, but it's also been a process," Seaborn said. "There have been folks that got deeply entrenched here at the seminary that are moderates. Some of them have gotten so uncomfortable that they've left and are irritated, but others have kind of hunkered down and gone underground."
___Dealing with this will be Blaising's "biggest challenge," Seaborn said, "and I've talked to him about how to deal with those situations, because they've got to be dealt with."
___By all accounts, Crutchley has been an advocate for the faculty. He used those exact words to describe his role at the time of his election in March 2000, and the phrase is commonly used by current and former faculty to describe their relationship with him.
___In announcing his decision to reassign Crutchley, Hemphill did not identify any concerns about the way the dean had handled his responsibilities over the last 21 months.
___The reassignment "is a decision that I believe is in the best interest of the seminary," Hemphill said. "The critical issue for me is to ensure that our personnel are in the position that maximizes their greatest strengths and passion. I believe this new position will best utilize David's missions background, gifts and passion."
___According to a seminary news release, the dean of globalization will oversee the World Missions Center, coordinate relationships with international institutions, mobilize seminary faculty to consider global missions opportunities and serve as a liaison between the seminary and Baptist missions agencies.
___Incoming Provost Blaising said Hemphill's decision regarding Crutchley "is independent of my election as provost. It is the president's responsibility, as it will be mine as provost, to evaluate administrative personnel with respect to their gifts and strengths.
___"The president believes Dr. Crutchley, with his international experience, is uniquely qualified for leadership as dean of globalization and in addition to his excellence in classroom teaching would be most effective in this new position."
___Blaising said he does not anticipate a long search for a new dean of the theology school, "but finding the right person is more important than the length of the search process."
___He remains positive about Southwestern's future, he said. "I believe there are exciting days ahead for Southwestern."
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