Today I was shocked to find out that the president of my alma mater, Southeastern University in Lakeland, Fl, was resigning and headed to Oral Roberts to take over where Richard Roberts has left a huge void. (Thats another crazy scandel within the books of the Charismatic movement!)
Immediately my mind began spinning with the ties between ORU, SEU, Dr Rutland, and the Lakeland Revival. Southeastern is the largest of the Assembly of God schools and is its pride and joy. Why would Rutland leave this? Was it the money? The opportunities? Well I heard he signed a multi-year contract with SEU last year so why the sudden change of heart?
I think it has to do with the revival. Before Bentley was ever invited to Lakeland there were major connections between SEU and the Straders. Carpenters Home Church was in talks with SEU about sharing buildings and technology. Then as Carpenters died out and Ignited rose up the connections slowly seemed to disintegrate. Then Bentley arrived and the ties were cut by Dr. Rutland. As an alumni of SEU I know some staff there, Dr Rutland held meetings asking staff to not attend the revival. I have heard some reports of these request to not attend not only the revival but the church. Just a few months before the school and the church members were working together with multi million dollar building plans in the works, then a request to cut off all ties with the church. Rutland and the Straders were friends, then all ties were cut because of the revival.
The shunning of the revival by SEU didn't go over well with some students, as they not only attended the revival but were helping host it, preform in it, and benefit from it.
There had been a move within the school to create a more charismatic movement long before the revival come to town. I attended a chapel service one day where the singers and band played until people began falling on the ground, jumping around, and hollering. In the height of this chaos Dr. Rutland walked out. Many of those who put on this chaos of a chapel service also helped put on the revival.
The Assemblies of God did not support or speak against the revival publicly, but I have heard from those within the inner workings of the local district that the revival was a major point of disagreement.
Back at SEU the faculty itself was broken into two camps, those who supported not only the revival but the new charismatic signs themselves, and those who do not support these actions. Dr Rutland has tried to keep the laughter, dancing, flags, etc from taking over the school.
At its height some staff even left the school because of the new charismatic movement within the lcoal area, others left because SEU did not support the revival. There is still a major group at SEU trying to create the school into the university of the new charismatic movement.
At one point there was even talk of the SEU leaving the AG to be more appealing to those outside of the denomination. The AG has been getting more and more charismatic (As we discussed in Trails to Lakeland) but Dr Rutland has long been open about his Methodist roots. His wife to this day claims to be "a little methodist girl".
As one group pushed towards supporting the revival, another pushed agianst it. Dr Rutland was the final word and thus the school never supported the revival. Now he is leaving. And I expect the new charismatic movement to rise up within the school, I expect the Southeastern to now become the mecca of the new charismatic movement.
At the same time Oral Roberts is reeling from a huge scandal that once again involves a televangelist. From the few friends of mine who attend there I have heard that ORU is now trying distance itself from the televangelist crowd. It is well known that gifts to ORU have dropped since the scandel first broke. The best way to renew trust is to swing the opposite way. Dr Rutland is the opposite of a televangelist but still well known enough to run such a high profile university. The question now is who will run SEU? I put my money on a televangelist, but I will wait to tell that information.
What do you think about all this? Please post more information as you find it. I am sure todays announcement is only the begining.
12 comments:
wow, interesting points here Kenny, many of which I feel are relevant. I know one thing though, if I see Todd Bentley standing in Dr. Rutlands place when I cross the stage to graduate in May, I am NOT shaking that man's hand.
you know, as much as I have had some issues in the past with SEU, I am saddened by this news. Dr. Rutland has helped make the school into what it is today, and we are now losing probably the greastest President our school has ever had. So yeah, it sucks. He better be there for graduation this term though. I don't want my pic with some guy I don't know.
I agree. I love both of the Rutlands. I'm pretty sure it wont be Bentley at the school, but I bet it will be a semi-famous person. Rutland was and if the school wants to stay relevant and take on Christian TV as it seems to be doing it will need a face people know.
Sorry Kenny. While I think this is a decent bit of reasoning, it has very little to do with the revival. It has everything to do with the 50+million dollar debt that Rutland has built by deficit spending, building buildings that weren't properly fundraised, a Jerusalem site experiment that has gone horribly wrong, massive internal restructuring, job layoffs, disgruntled employees, and the exodus of key staff members. Those things are a major reason that the Board of Regents is accepting 20million dollars from ORU to release Rutland from his contract.
Wow, this is the best work of fiction that I have read in a while. Having been close to all of these events that you have referenced I can say without a doubt you have no clue what you are talking about. I find it very interesting that you have tied so many unrelated things together. Your blog space is entitled Kens Therapy i think you should just do that get some therapy and stop perpetuating things that you obviously know nothing about.
I agree with the previous anonymous comment. You have no clue what really this is all about. This has nothing to do with the revival. I know for a fact, because I have friends on staff at SEU as well, that they were not directly told not to go to the revival. Dr. Rutland's leadership style is the type that goes into "ships" if you will that are sinking, he mends them back together, gets them floating again, and pushes them in the right direction and moves on.
As much as I would like to see Rutland stay long term, I am not at all surprised by his departure. ORU is a sinking ship. He intends to go there and did the same thing that he did at SEU and Calvary Assembly in Winter Park, FL. Get them afloat again and sailing in the right direction.
So get your facts straight before you start blabbering about what you obviously do not know. The school will not go into the hands of a false person. Oh, by the way, get some therapy.
“renovatioblog blog” you also obviously do not have your facts straight. First of all it is a 10 million dollar gift not a buyout. Second the Jerusalem project has just started and is fully booked so I am not sure what you are measuring it's failure by. Third the University is not 50 million in debt. There has been no mass exodus by anyone, it has been normal turn over, like every year. As for layoffs you strike out again much like everyone in this economy they have tightened budgets but have not laid anyone off due to your so called miss management. I really think you all need to wake up and come to grip that you do not understand what it takes to run an organization like SEU. If not for the Rutland’s there would not even be an SEU. I think maybe you should keep your arm chair quarterbacking for Sundays football game, and realize you are not as much in the know as you think you are.
anonymous,
im sorry you feel this way. unfortunately, the statements on the "renovaioblod" post are factual. I know...primarily because i was a staff member at SEU as recent as last semester. Certainly, Rutland was responsible for the rescue of the school. However, you need to understand something. Nobody called the funds payed by ORU a "bailout." Your words,I believee. The school massively in debt, as you can ask any of the faculty members to verify. In fact, Rutland was offered other opportunities prior to ORU that he refused because he felt an obligation to get the school out of debt.You can also look at the budget, or ask a member of the board of regents if you know any of them. I do, although I have no idea how Furthermore, there HAS been a mass exodus...I could name a few if you'd like..
Myself
Matt Williams
Mike Rakes
Dan Schoonover
Omar Rashad
Steve Reddy
Will Young
Allen Galindez
Matt Huett
Steve Gallagher
April Diaz
Chris Diaz
to name only a few who have left in the last 1-2 years for reasons mentioned above. I could name many more.
Finally, the Israel thing is a disaster. If you have viewed the financing, as I have, you would know that the school cannot afford it, as they cannot make it mandatory right away. Also, I'm not sure if you have taken notice, but Israel just broke into all out war.
Good try though "anonymous." Renovatio, I am not sure abut the 50m stat. Where did you get this information?
Wow.
Here's the reality folks: the likelihood of anyone knowing the real reason behind Dr. Rutland's departure is unlikely. Truth be told none of us have any sort of knowledge of the matter even if we'd like to think we did.
Everything here is speculative at best. Even I have my own speculation as to why he has made this move having made the announcement less than 3 years ago when he signed a 10 year contract to stay at Southeastern. At that time for all intents of the purpose he stated that he was exactly where he needed and wanted to be. So this move while not completely suprising sort of is.
I'm not one for singling folks out but 'Benjamin'...it might be a wise idea before you name names that you know what exactly it is that you're talking about. :-) My departure from Southeastern was not in any way, shape or form related to Dr. Rutland. I left because I had distinct differences in theology from the Assemblies of God and was almost primarily based on the Assembly of God's mishandling of the handover of the trailer park to Southeastern. It was getting old having my non-Christian family members ask me how I could work for an organization that would treat it's own so terribly. My continued employment at Southeastern was a huge hindrance in my ability to live the life that I felt called to live. I, like many of the others you decided to name, also left because better opportunities had presented themselves. Wait a minute...I think someone else is leaving because better opportunities have presented themselves to him! :-)
While, part of me feels there is some sort of agenda in his departure I wish Dr. Rutland and Allison the best of luck and hope they have the health in them to take ORU where it needs to be. As for Southeastern I hope they are able to find another capable leader who is able to take SE to it's next level...whatever that may be.
As for you all, enjoy bickering amongst yourselves but please leave the names of other folks out of it. Especially when you clearly have no clue what it is exactly you're talking about. :-)
will
i only mentioned you as a part of the larger exodus that has happened at seu, and did not mean to imply that it was because of dr rutland specifically. apologies
ben
Well Ben, the fact that you put that little list together proves to me that you don't know what your talking about. Since I know all of those that you have listed, and their reasons for departure both good and bad I really do not see any connection to their departure and Rutland.
connection is simple.
people are leaving = massive turnover
massive turnover = internal disgruntlement
internal disgruntlement = one of the reasons dr rutland is leaving. not the reason they left. the question was why is rutland leaving. the answer is "because of such and such," one such reason being staff exodus. those names were indicative of an exodus. that's all
Benjamin, I knew some of the names on your list had left.
Does anyone know why Dan Schoonover, Matt Williams, Matt Huett, Steve Gallagher, & April Diaz left? Guess I'm curious what happened to Student Life?
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