Northern Seminary President William Shiell is taking a leave of absence after accusations of bullying prompted the seminary’s board of trustees to launch a formal investigation.
According to reporting by The Roys Report, the Chicago seminary is investigating the president’s leadership approach and expects to finalize the inquiry or give a status report within a month.
Bill Shiell
Northern is a century-old evangelical seminary in Lisle, Ill., outside of Chicago, with Baptist roots. The university has a diverse student population and a long history of educating women in ministry.
“Every voice matters at Northern, and I am very grateful that our board of trustees has a process for our community to express their views,” Shiell said. “Northern students, faculty, staff, alumni and trustees are devoted Christians who lead the church and engage the world. I respect this process, and I want to give our beloved institution the time and space to do their work.
“In the meantime, I remain in prayer for all involved and will respect the board’s decisions and the outcome of the investigation,” he said.
Shiell served on the Baptist News Global board of directors from 2006 to 2011.
The board is responding to complaints from female and male leaders of misogynistic and controlling behavior by Shiell that resulted in a loss of key talent. But micromanagement and bullying extended to male members of the staff, too, according to Tommy Lee, executive director of the university’s Grow Center for Church and Mission.
“When things go wrong, he throws people under the bus. When anyone dares to challenge him, he belittles them,” Lee said in an interview. “If it was anyone else, we would fire that person. He’s become an embarrassment; let him go.”
Lee sent a scathing letter to the board and other leaders describing Shiell’s behavior and advising them if Shiell returns, the Grow Center will suspend all activities until the leadership issues are resolved.
Among Lee’s frustrations is the loss of key female talent, including the resignation of Dean of Academic Affairs Lynn Cohick, which he said was announced earlier this week. Cohick didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Roys Report quotes multiple women who resigned from leadership posts at the seminary because of controlling, bullying or retaliatory behavior by Shiell.
The Roys Report quotes multiple women who resigned from leadership posts at the seminary because of controlling, bullying or retaliatory behavior by Shiell.
The blog quotes Jill Sidler Fleagle, who resigned in 2019 as Northern’s director of supervised ministry and student formation: “The lack of integrity and mistreatment of my colleagues made it an oppressive environment that I chose to no longer work in.”
The accusations come as Baptist institutions are reeling from reports of pastors abusing women and at a time of sharp divisions over the role of women in ministry. Earlier this week, the Southern Baptist Convention announced plans to hire the Guidepost Solutions firm to create and administer Ministry Check, a database of known sexual abusers in the convention. The next day, it expelled Saddleback Church, the SBC’s largest congregation, after the California church installed a woman as teaching pastor.
Shiell joined Northern Seminary in 2016 after working as senior pastor of several churches, most recently First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, Fla. He’s a native of Pensacola, Fla., and earned an undergraduate degree from Samford University and Ph.D. and Master of Divinity degrees from Baylor University.
Students and professors have expressed solidarity with those accusing Shiell of mistreating them. According to The Roys Report, 65 of Northern’s 325 students signed letters to the board calling for transparency, and one letter urged the board to bring a victim advocate into the process.
Scot McKnight, a prominent professor at the seminary, posted on Twitter: “We, the faculty members at Northern Seminary, are grieved by and lament the stories of abuse of power that employees and former employees have told about their relationship with the president at our seminary. We stand with the victims.”
Elizabeth Souder-Philyaw is a freelance writer based in Dallas. She most recently worked as an editor with the Dallas Morning News.
Editor’s Note: As this article reports, Bill Shiell is a former member of the Baptist News Global board of directors. Because of that connection, as well as longstanding relationships with staff, BNG contracted with an independent journalist, Elizabeth Souder-Philyaw, to report and write this article.