By Bob Allen
The Center for Healthy Churches, an organization formed last year after Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center announced it would phase out its 21-year-old Center for Congregational Health, is moving from North Carolina to Tennessee in a new partnership with Belmont University.
The Center for Healthy Churches, which works through a nationwide network of congregational and clergy coaches and consultants, will relocate its national office on the Belmont campus in Nashville, Tenn.
Bill Wilson, the center’s founding director, is a native of Brentwood, Tenn., a Nashville suburb, and is a former Belmont student.
“I cannot think of a better national partner for our efforts to cultivate healthy clergy and churches than Belmont,” Wilson said. “Belmont’s facilities and connections are remarkable. They have a heart for the church in its many manifestations, and they genuinely value congregations and clergy and the vital role they play in America. Their faculty, staff and students provide a unique opportunity for us to integrate academic and research methodology into our work.”
The partnership enhances leadership training already going on at Belmont including the Moench Center for Church Leadership, the H. Franklin Paschall Chair of Biblical Studies and Preaching and the Center for Executive Education.
“Our agreement with the Center for Healthy Churches helps extend our focus on developing young leaders and equipping and strengthening churches. It means more opportunities to serve the local church,” said Darrell Gwaltney, dean of Belmont’s College of Theology and Christian Ministry.
Wilson, a pastor for 33 years, led Wake Forest’s Center for Congregational Health from 2009 until January 2014, when he launched a new free-standing organization to accept referrals from the center after it shifted focus away from congregational leadership to engaging local churches in community healthcare.
Recently Wake Forest re-launched the Center for Congregational Health, saying during the last year leaders learned that churches needed those services as much as ever.
Editor’s note: In the interest of transparency and disclosure, Bill Wilson is a member of the Baptist News Global board of directors.