As it seeks to rebuild after a tumultuous year of internal controversy, Northern Seminary has added three new board members, bringing the total number of board members to 16 and increasing the diversity on the governing board.
Two other new board members were added in the fall, and the former chairman of the board resigned. A “Statement of Lament” posted to the school’s website in December said the board “is committed to adding new trustees who fully endorse Northern’s mission, values and standards, and who wholeheartedly commit their talents to serve the seminary.”
News of the three newest board members came just three weeks after one of the Baptist seminary’s best-known professors announced his resignation. On Jan. 3, New Testament professor Scot McKnight notified trustees and Interim President Karen Walker Freeburg he will leave the faculty at the end of the current academic year.
Scot McKnight
“I lament Northern’s years-long descent into a toxic campus culture of complaint, gossip, sidelining and sabotaging,” McKnight wrote. “I lament how the machinations of Northern’s toxic culture have impacted the joy and career of others … . In addition, I lament how the board handled the revelations about our former president and how its lack of a survivor sensitive and trauma-informed perspective harmed the whole Northern community, especially the survivors and students.”
The “toxic culture” McKnight references came to public light in February 2023 when then-President Bill Shiell was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into allegations of abusive behavior and bullying. One month later, Shiell resigned, and more allegations of mismanagement by the board of trustees circulated.
Freeburg is the second interim president to serve in the past year, having returned to the Chicago seminary in April.
Karen Walker Freeburg
The December “Statement of Lament,” which was not attributed to any person or group in particular, acknowledged “the recent past at Northern Seminary has been one of both great sorrow and one marked by the reminder that ‘in Christ, all things are made new.’”
“This past year has been marked by lament — lament over what some of our current and former students, staff and faculty have shared of their experiences; lament that the image of Christ was tarnished on multiple levels; and lament that our initial response was not as it should have been — swift, final and filled with grace for those who were impacted,” the statement adds.
“We lament that, in multiple ways, this past year was a deviation from what Northern has held strong to for over a century. Women’s voices matter. Those who hurt matter. Black and brown voices matter,” the lament said.
Former board chair Wyatt Hoch has left the board. The new chairman is James Stellwagen, a farmer who is a member of Marley Community Church in Mokena, Ill. The vice chair of the board is Fay Quanstrom, who briefly resigned that role last year amid the struggles. She is associate pastor of Gold Canyon United Methodist Church in Arizona.
The first two new board members added are Charlene Quint, a Chicago attorney dealing in issues of abuse, and Patty King Bilyeu, executive minister of the Great Rivers Region of the American Baptist Churches USA.
The three newest board members are Gary G. Hayles, founder and senior pastor of The City of Promise church in Fairfield, Ohio; Brian Johnson, executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of Michigan; and Jon McCumber, a corporate financial manager in Chicago.
The board currently is comprised of 10 men and six women and includes multiple ethnicities.
The Association of Theological Schools lists Northern Seminary as enrolling 325 students with a full-time equivalent enrollment of 234.
Northern was founded in 1913 and is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. The school offers master’s and doctoral degrees through live-streaming classes and on-site intensive classes.
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