A way up, a way out, a way forward

Denver, Bangor, and Midwestern Seminaries sell real estate, focus on mission
By Matt Forster

For the typical middle-class North American, the
family home is the most significant asset. Pension
plans and investments are good, and saving for a rainy
day is admirable, but in the end, there’s nothing like
owning a home debt-free.
But what about theological schools? To pursue their
missions, do they need to own their homes? And when
the rainy day arrives, how do they know when it is
time to tap into the ever-growing value of real estate?
Tracking the total revenues for 220 schools from
1996 to 2005, data from the Association of Theological
Schools show that schools took a substantial hit in
the first part of this decade. The drop in total revenues
paralleled the stock market performance for those
years, and many schools had to take an even harder
look at their budgets — especially if enrollment
growth was stagnant and individual giving
could not make up the difference
between income and rising
expenses.
Recently, a number of North
American theological schools have
faced their financial challenges head
on and have decided, reluctantly or
not, to sell. Their stories are hopeful
— and sometimes painful.

A way up
hen Dr. Craig Williford signed on as

W president of Denver Seminary in August

2000, he found himself at the helm of
a campus that needed some work. Deferred
maintenance had built up over the years, and it
was clear that a lot money needed to be spent,
and soon.
The campus of the nondenominational, evangel-
ical school was a very valuable piece of land in
Denver, so the school had been hearing from
developers who wanted to purchase the property.
“We had a decision to make,” said Williford —
whether the seminary was going to pour millions
of dollars into maintenance and repairs that had
long been deferred. To do so would bring it up to
speed but leave no room for growth, no major
remodeling, no new building projects.
So the school started exploring the idea of selling
the campus, with the aim of using that money to Denver Seminary’s new Carey S. Thomas
build a new campus. “We felt our constituents Library is just one part of an entirely new Matt Forster, a freelance writer,
would be more excited about that,” said Williford. 20-acre campus, completed in 2005, that lives in Goodrich, Michigan.
encompasses seven buildings. The new In June he participated in
Right from the start, the president and board
property cost $3 million, and construction In Trust’s first Writer Workshop.
broke the process down into a series of smaller
decisions. “The first thing we did was put together costs totaled $23.5 million. Denver’s
a joint task force of board members and leaders old campus (including the former library,
of the seminary to discuss if the seminary should inset) was sold to a developer for
consider moving,” said Williford. “Then after $12.3 million.
that piece, we said, ‘If we are going to move, then
to what?’”
w w w. i n t r u s t . o rg | IN TRUST SUMMER 2OO7 15
 The board was involved at all stages of the
process. In fact, board members, faculty, staff, and
students all served on the committees that moved
the process forward — finance, design, and
relocation committees, and more.
An important issue was emotional attachment.
At any seminary, people become invested in the
school over the years. Students have fond memories
of living in the dorms, couples reminisce about
weddings in the chapel, and professors teach in
the same classrooms for years or even decades.
Leaders in administration and on the board have
the challenge of communicating the primacy of a
school’s mission over its actual physical address.
Denver Seminary had a champion in the person
of Dr. Vernon Grounds, who early on endorsed the
Seminaries on the move
> Sioux Falls Seminary
Faced with mounting debt and a poll revealing that only 11
percent of the students desired campus housing, Dr. Michael
Hagan, president of Sioux Falls Seminary in South Dakota, felt
the door was open to consider the school’s properties as assets
that could extricate the seminary from its financial difficulties.
Trustees at the school, which until this year was called North
American Baptist Seminary and is affiliated with the North
American Baptist Conference, considered selling only parts
of the property, but eventually they sold the entire campus
to Sioux Valley Hospital, located across the street.
Sioux Falls Seminary is now leasing the campus back from the
hospital. In 2008, the school will break ground on a new
building adjacent to Augustana College, just a few blocks south
of the current location. Though the seminary will have its own
campus, it will borrow some of the college’s facilities as well.
Augustana has agreed to let seminary students live in their
> Central Baptist Theological Seminary
Two of the things that Dr. Molly Marshall knew must be
addressed when she became president of Central Baptist
Theological Seminary in Kansas City,
Kansas, in 2004 were seriously deferred
maintenance and the inappropriate
configuring of learning space for adult
learners. So she appointed a board task
force to consider the decision to sell
and relocate.
In November 2005 the task force
reported that relocation would be
necessary for the American Baptist-
affiliated seminary to continue to grow
its financial resources to support its Central Baptist Theological Seminary’s
mission. The committee recommended new home in Shawnee, Kansas.
16 IN TRUST SUMMER 2OO7 | w w w. i n t r u s t . o rg
school’s decision to sell the old campus and move.
For more than 56 years, Grounds has been a part of
the seminary’s life, serving as dean, president, and
now chancellor. “All of the emotional attachment
and the historical attachment to Denver Seminary
are tied to him as an individual,” said Williford.
His endorsement, therefore, went a long way in
diffusing resistance to the move.
Communication was a key part of the process.
The administration and the board spent four years
meeting with key leaders individually, in small
groups, and in larger groups. “We took every chance
we had within the community, within our donor
base, within our student body, within our faculty
and staff,” said Williford, “constantly selling the
vision and the story of why this made sense and
what God might be doing in all this.”
married housing, the seminary’s books will be housed in a
special section of the college library, and the college chapel
will be used by the seminary for biweekly chapel services.
Sioux Falls Seminary is planning a new building adjacent to
nearby Augustana College.
that the school purchase a new property in nearby Shawnee,
Kansas, in May 2006.
Throughout the process, Marshall met with
different groups to explain the move, listen
to concerns and get the support of faculty,
staff and the seminary community at large.
Moving to the new building in August 2006
created challenges: International students,
who relied on campus housing, were allowed
to remain in their apartments on the old
campus, and space had to be leased to house
the school’s library collection because the
new building did not have the proper space.
The Kansas City campus is expected to
sell this year.
A way out
ot every seminary will take a look at
N their property and discover a pot of
gold. Often the impetus to move is not
a decision about how to best spend assets in
hand, but rather how to save money and salvage
a school’s mission from increasing financial
pressures. This is the story at Bangor Theological
Seminary in Maine.
When Dr. William Imes became president of
the United Church of Christ–affiliated school in
2001, he was faced with a situation that is not
uncommon for theological schools. “We could
not afford to continue living as we were, because
we were living beyond our means,” said Imes.
“I entertained the notion that we are a good
school, that there must be ways that we could
grow out of our troubles. I felt that what we were
doing was good, and I didn’t see our budget as
extravagant, so I saw the question as how we
could generate more income.”
They looked at raising the endowment,
increasing giving, and attracting more students.
Over the next few years, they saw some increase
in income, but by autumn 2004, things had not
turned around significantly. The enrollment that
semester — the highest number of incoming
students in years — was first seen as a sign of
progress. However, the new students only
increased Bangor’s FTE enrollment by two-tenths
of a percent, because many of the new enrollees
were part-time students.
Imes became convinced that Bangor was not
going to grow its way out of its troubles. Having
asked the board for deficit budgets since the
beginning of his tenure, he went to the board
of trustees to explore ways to cut expenses.
He talked to many people about the problem,
including the president of nearby Husson
College, Dr. William Beardsley. Husson College,
founded in 1898, has been at its
present campus in Bangor, Maine, Two years ago, Bangor
since the 1960s. Together, Beardsley and Imes
considered the idea that Bangor Seminary could
build a new building on the Husson campus and
move there. This would reduce the size of their
Theological Seminary
moved from its historic
19th-century grounds in
Bangor, Maine (inset),
campus dramatically — a move that made sense to the nearby campus of
for a seminary moving away from a traditional Husson College. Cutting
residential model. expenses has enabled the
While Imes was busy talking to trustees, school to decrease its
endowment draw-down
faculty, staff, and alumni about this idea,
Beardsley came back to him with a new from 9.7 percent to 6.4
percent.
proposition. Husson College was moving its
nursing department to a new building, and the
newly vacated building might serve the purposes
of the seminary. The seminary went from seeing
if they could work toward a move in two years to
needing to make a decision immediately. “My
first response was Good grief,” said Imes. “We’re
just like a church: we have to circle a problem six
times before we can land on it. And now you’re
asking a business sort of decision — here’s an
opportunity, take it or miss it.”
Once Imes looked at how much they could
save immediately, it became clear that he needed
to persuade people that this was something the
school needed to do. The trustees and faculty
were on board right from the start. But some of
the staff, students, and alumni were appalled
that the seminary would leave the campus it had
occupied since 1824. “I don’t know if having two
years to think it over would have made it any
easier,” said Imes. In any case, the immediate
decision to move raised a lot of questions.
The decision was made within a month, and
the seminary moved to the Husson College
campus in autumn 2005. The school took two
more years to come up with a plan for selling the
old campus. The sale to a developer is expected
to be completed this summer.
w w w. i n t r u s t . o rg | IN TRUST SUMMER 2OO7 17
 The effect the move had on Bangor Theological
Seminary’s finances has been significant. With the
sale of their property this summer, the draw off the
endowment, which had been around 9.7 percent,
will drop to 6.4 percent. Next year, the draw will
drop to 5.4 percent, closer to the 5 percent
that more efficient, less expensive facilities do not
solve all the school’s financial problems. There is
much work to be done to move Bangor toward
greater economic stability.
A way forward

recommended by investment managers to
ensure the long-term value of an endowment.
Though there was interest in building at the
start of the process, Imes said he would now like
to continue to lease. Realizing how an increased
endowment can help fund the seminary’s programs,
Imes has a simple question: “Why do I want to put
money back in building?” Nevertheless, he is aware
In two transactions, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary first acquired a 24-
acre parcel and later sold 30 acres of vacant campus land to a real estate developer,
leaving the school six acres smaller, but $6.8 million and one building richer.
T
he sale of property is not always motivated by
a deteriorating campus or a need to restore
financial stability to an institution. In some
cases, the purchasing and selling of property is part
of a larger investment strategy. Such is the case with
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a
Southern Baptist school in Kansas City, Missouri.
Dr. R. Philip Roberts, president of Midwestern
Baptist, said the decision was a development
question, and what really freed them up to sell the
property was a previous real estate purchase. Back in
2002, the seminary’s trustees approved the purchase
of the 24 acres adjacent to the seminary. The
property, which sold for $1.4 million, included a
34,000-square-foot building that had been used as
a corporate retreat center by Farmland Inc. It has
since been renovated and is being used as a general-
purpose building.
This year, the seminary is poised to sell 30 acres
of vacant property on the other side of its campus
for $8.2 million — money that will go to grow the
endowment and fund future building projects. All
told, in a five-year period, the campus is six acres
smaller, but the seminary has gained $6.8 million
and a significant building.
The sale of the property to real estate developers
is nearly complete, and a 300,000-square-foot retail
center called North Oak Village is planned for the
site.
Before the sale, Midwestern Baptist owned more
Continued on page 21

Real estate & good governance
Issues that boards and
administrators may want to
consider before selling:
> Mission. Are we clear about the mission
of our school? Does our current property
enhance our capacity to pursue our
> Costs. What are the annual costs of
mission with economic vitality? If we sell
all or part of our property, what will we
do with the proceeds of the sale to
strengthen our mission and make us
economically stronger? Explore as many
ideas as possible.
> Relationships. Which members of the
seminary community should be part of the
planning process? How will the views of
various constituencies — faculty,
denominational partners, students,
alumni, church leaders, neighbors — be
taken into consideration? How will we
communicate during the process and
how will we position our decision?
keeping our current property, including
needed capital improvements, routine
maintenance, loans and interest, and
energy requirements? What are the
estimated annual costs of an alternate
campus? What are the estimated one-time
costs of moving, including lawyers’ and
brokers’ fees?
> Real estate market. Are we currently
in a buyer’s market or a seller’s market?
> Benefits. What are the nonfinancial
benefits of staying on our existing
property? What are the nonfinancial
benefits of moving to a new campus?
> New neighbors. If we’re considering
selling only part of our property, what
kind of neighbors are we seeking? Will
the property need to be rezoned?
> Calendar. What time restrictions are
we facing?
> Experts. What kind of expert advice do
we need to move forward? Appraisers?
Brokers? Attorneys? Others?

18 IN TRUST SUMMER 2OO7 | w w w. i n t r u s t . o rg


Internet
Gordon-Conwell’s
experience with
satellite campuses
provides examples.
Its board has had
to ask about the
extent that the
tools of distance
learning have been
made available to in-
house learners, whether
this shift has changed the
relationship of the learner to the
campus, and what implications
Partnering
Continued from page 19
assets, tell their stories more
effectively to potential donors
and foundations, realistically
assess the condition of their facilities
(and how those facilities are used),
and ultimately energize their
congregations and raise money
for their buildings and programs.
Called “New Dollars/New Partners
for Your Sacred Place,” the program
was developed with support from
Lilly Endowment Inc. Now a program
development grant from the Henry Luce
Foundation is enabling Partners for
Sacred Places to bring seminaries and
divinity schools to the table, sharing
its knowledge about congregational
development with the seminary
community and placing seminarians
into congregations as coaches.
As the program currently stands, in
each location, congregations are brought
Real estate Continued from page 18
than 200 acres, and “we were obviously
swimming in a lot of land for a
seminary,” said Roberts. “We thought
this was a smart move and a good chance
for us to do some of the projects we are
working on.”
Acquiring the 24 acres back in
2002 was a project the administration
spearheaded — they brokered the deal
and essentially got board approval to
proceed with the purchase. Once they
bought that parcel, however, they
this shift has for building management.
The board has grappled with the
question of whether a satellite campus
requires new faculty and whether
these new arrangements change their
perspective on full-time enrollment.
The very asking of the questions moves
the board from offering just fiduciary
oversight to thinking strategically and
even generatively. (For more on fiduciary,
strategic, and generative thinking,
see “Rethinking the Board’s Central
Purposes” in the Autumn 2005 issue
of In Trust.)
While board members are, of course,
bound by the corporate nature of their
together by a sponsor — often a denom-
inational judicatory like a diocese,
conference, or synod. The sponsor
chooses the participating congregations,
provides the venue (usually a church
hall), pays a fee, and passes along part
of the cost to the congregations, to
encourage buy-in. Participants agree that
the pastor and three lay leaders will
attend four all-day workshops. Partners
for Sacred Places provides speakers,
handouts, homework assignments, a
listserv, and the combined wisdom of
nearly 300 other congregations that have
gone through the program since 2004.
The training focuses on the congrega-
tion’s heritage, the church building, how
it’s currently used, the congregation’s
human and other assets, and capital
campaign planning. Each congregation
hires a professional to assess the needs
of its building, and team members create
a realistic plan for stewardship of the
building and strengthening the con-
gregations’ programs. The seminarian-
established a land use committee to look
into the possibility of selling off some
other acreage.
“It’s a very busy retail corner, so
we knew there was a lot of potential —
we’ve had constant appeals and
approaches made to us about selling it,”
said Roberts.
In order to streamline the process, the
school engaged a negotiator who helped
with vetting the appeals. Qualified offers
were then passed on to a committee of
trustees who reviewed those elements
w w w. i n t r u s t . o rg | IN TRUST
TECHNOLOGY
authority, these paradigm shifts have
transformed their roles too — they can
interact with the institution online, as
students do, in their critical quest for
information. Between meetings, they can
monitor dashboard indicators (for more
on dashboard indicators, see “Toolbox:
Pulling Together on Behalf of the
School” in the Spring 2005 issue of
In Trust) and dig behind the numbers to
the functions they represent. They can
explore new avenues for the school to
achieve its mission with economic
vitality. They can ask the questions that
reveal the gaps and overlaps. They can
bypass Western Union and simply pick
up the phone. ■ IT
coaches will help the congregations
achieve reasonable progress along
the way.
Can involvement in this program
benefit a theological school? A. Robert
Jaeger, executive director of Partners for
Sacred Places, believes that it can.
“New Dollars/New Partners” can create
stronger connections between seminaries
and congregations, he says, affirming the
connections between academia and
congregational life. If the program is
integrated into the curriculum as an
elective or as a lecture series, education
becomes a two-way street — field ed
students take new knowledge about
fundraising, history, domestic missions,
community and urban outreach,
religious art and architecture, and
theology to the congregations they are
coaching. Meanwhile, they bring back
their real-world parish experiences to
the classroom, enriching their fellow
students as well. ■ IT
and brought a proposal to the board
for the sale of the property.
A number of people did approach the
school about selling the entire campus.
But to move, they wanted enough money
to build another campus with the same
square footage and acreage. “They
suddenly lost interest when we let
them know how generous an offer we
expected,” said Roberts wryly. For now,
the proceeds from the property sale will
help Midwestern stay put — and focus
on its mission. ■ IT
SUMMER 2OO7 21