by abe huyser-honig

Guest Writer

Although the current flurry of construction at Calvin Seminary might give the impression of prosperity, the school is actually dealing with one of the most financially pressing periods in its history. According to Phillip Vanden Berge, the seminary's chief financial officer, ``the cost to maintain the program is growing faster than revenue streams.''

Venden Berge says the new construction has not contributed to the strain on the seminary's pocketbook. Donors had already committed to the entire cost of the building project.

One major source of the dilemma began about a decade ago when the seminary suffered a drastic reduction in CRC funding. For most of its history, practically all of the seminary's budget was covered by ministry shares--contributions, calculated on a per-family basis and required of every congregation, which support the an array of organizations.

In a pattern that organizations across the CRC are struggling with, these ministry shares have ceased to provide sufficient revenue. For the last five years, ministry shares only covered about 50 percent of the seminary's budget, and this year they will reach a low of 46.8 percent. This is still in striking contrast with Calvin College which depends on ministry shares for only 3.4 percent of its budget.

``The only place to go for the shortfall is increased tuition and asking for gifts,'' says Vanden Berge.

To this end, the seminary is undertaking an image and mission reevaluation process, much like what the college has done, though on a smaller scale. ``We've come late to the game of spreading our ministry--funds development [for us] is a new phenomenon,'' says Mark Muller, vice chair of Calvin Seminary's board of directors and chair of the committee for finance and development.

``Of primary importance is for us to reconfirm, reidentify, and realign ourselves with the needs of the church. People aren't going to include us in their gifting ministry unless they feel with great confidence that we are doing the work of the church.''

One strategy has been to hire more staff people--a total of seven in the past four school years. Two of these are new vice presidents for administration and academics, which the seminary's new president Cornelius Plantinga Jr. brought into the program, insisting on a team approach. In the short run this adds to the already strained budget, but the seminary hopes in the long run the added personnel, which also include a new position for a director of development, will make them more attractive to students and church members.

Whereas Calvin has hired outside consulting firms to direct their image and mission clarification, the financially strapped seminary is relying on Plantinga to direct their effort. In his first month in office, he wrote letters to every single seminary alumnus asking for the comments and criticisms. After reading the letters of all 600 who replied, Plantinga led the first ever board/faculty retreat to discuss how, in light of these comments, the seminary can better reach out to church members and prospective students.

Says Muller, ``We're learning how to do it, and as we do we're being blessed.''