R on Sider Transition After much prayer and reflection, I have decided that June 2013 is the right time for me to retire as president of Evangelicals for Social Action. One good reason is that I will be 74 that September. Another is that I feel ready to pass the reins to new leadership. That decision feels very good and also personally momentous. Almost all my adult life of ministry has been wrapped up with ESA. I was only 34 when I pulled the group together that organized the Thanksgiving workshop (1973) where the Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern (ESA’s founding document) was written. The titles have changed over the years, but I have led ESA for all but one of these four decades. It is time, however, for that to end. I had the privilege of working with wonderful people to develop ESA for the 1973 event. Prominent older evangelicals like Carl Henry, Frank Gaebelein, and Vernon Grounds joined with (then!) young evangelicals like Jim Wallis, Rich Mouw, Sharon Gallagher, John Perkins, and me. Over the years, God has sent wonderful, dedicated staff as partners in the work. We have never had a better ESA staff than today. Absolutely crucial have been the many, many thousands of ESA members and supporters who have made our work possible. The ESA board has been thinking and planning a transition for well over a decade. About 10 years ago, ESA’s board decided that the best way to guarantee ESA’s future after I retire would be to create a center at a significant evangelical seminary. ESA had had its offices at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (where I was professor of theology) since the late 1980s. So when EBTS (now Palmer Seminary) decided to establish the Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy in 2002, the ESA board chose to make ESA a part (by far the largest part) of the center. ESA remains a national organization with full freedom to continue its work—and it must also raise its own funds. Partnership with the seminary has
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been a great blessing. We have three joint appointments—I am part-time professor of theology, holistic ministry and public policy and part-time president of ESA; Al Tizon is professor of evangelism and holistic ministry at Palmer and director of ESA’s Word and Deed Network; and Paul Alexander is professor of Christian ethics and public policy and director of ESA’s public policy. The partnership with Palmer has also brought us the Sider Scholars, a group of full-time students who receive a half-tuition scholarship and who work with and are mentored by ESA staff 10 hours a week.
Ron Sider at Messiah College in the early 1970s.
The transition process is clear. This fall, a six-person search committee (three named by the ESA board and three by Palmer Seminary) will conduct a search for someone to replace me.* That person will become the Sider professor of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy; director of the Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy; and president of Evangelicals for Social Action. The search committee plans to complete its work and announce my successor in the late spring of 2012. I ask every ESA member to pray that God guide and direct this search and transition. That includes praying for me that I know how best to make the transition smooth and effective as I work for a year with my successor. I promise not to start a new organization! I trust that ESA’s best years are still in the future, and I ask each of you to be ongoing partners to make that happen. I do not plan to retire to a life of golf, dinners out, and boredom. Fortunately,
Palmer Seminary has a half-time senior professor position that I plan to take. That will enable me to continue teaching about three courses a year. I don’t believe “retirement” is a biblical concept! I love teaching, speaking, and writing and hope I can continue to bless the church in small ways on into the future. But I will also slow down—lots of time for five wonderful grandchildren and even more time with my wife, Arbutus, at our little cabin along Lake Nicatous in Maine. At this point in my life, I am filled with gratitude: first of all to God, then to my darling wife of 50 years, then our children, ESA, and all the people God has enabled me to meet and work with. My life has been full of joy, meaning, happiness—and, yes, some real struggle along the way Perhaps the scene outside as I write this piece at our cabin in Maine is a good symbol of my feeling: Hurricane Irene blew through yesterday, with the rain coming down in torrents as I returned from a successful fishing trip in the morning. The wind blew fiercely last night without creating significant damage, and this morning the sun shines brightly on the sparkling water even as a strong wind reminds us of the earlier storm. But the scene is gorgeous and the future is bright. Thank you, heavenly Father, for protecting me through life’s inevitable storms and for blessing my life with meaningful ministry and incredible joy. Gratitude overwhelms me for the many blessings you have given me over the years. They roll on and on like the spectacular whitecaps I see as I look out my window on Lake Nicatous. *Editor’s note: For details on the position, see “job openings” at Eastern.edu/centers/ HR/Employment_Opportunities.html. Ron Sider is the founder and president of Evangelicals for Social Action, author of dozens of books, and professor of theology/holistic ministry/ public policy at Palmer Seminary of Eastern University.