wfn.org | Shaping leaders for the times: vision of new

["Communication Ministries" <wshuffit@cm.disciples.org>]

Disciples seminary president
Date: January 15, 2002
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Curt Miller
E-mail: cmiller@cm.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

02a-4

	LEXINGTON (DNS) -- A well known Disciples pastor-scholar
has been called as the 15th president of Lexington (Ky.)
Theological Seminary (LTS).  The Rev. R. Robert Cueni,
pastor of Country Club Christian Church, Kansas City, Mo.,
will take over leadership of the Disciples-related school
from interim President Harold Watkins April 1. 

	Cueni has served the Kansas City congregation for 10
years.  Prior to that ministry, he served churches in
Texas, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.  Additionally he has
authored seven books on congregational ministry. He
believes his call to the position is a sign "that Lexington
is reaffirming its historical stand, which is to be
primarily a place that produces leadership for the church -
grass roots leadership - particularly the training of
pastoral ministers."  

	The new president sees a need to tailor seminary training
to the times.  "What we want to do is shape leaders for a
post-establishment, post-modern church," he said. 
According to Cueni, ministers have to be prepared for
conditions in which the church no longer directs the
culture. One implication of that reality is a need for LTS 
to be involved in "discerning how we do lay ministry
training as a church. One piece of my vision is that
Lexington might help to facilitate that and be the leaders
in that sense,"  he said.

	Still, he sees a fundamental need for theological
education to result in well-trained ministers who have a
deep love for and appreciation of the church. "I want to
help shape leaders who know the distinctive nature of being
Disciple, which is, by definition, ecumenical. But we are
not generic ecumenists. There is a distinctiveness about
Disciples," Cueni said. 

	LTS Trustee Harry T. Richart describes Cueni as having
"extensive experience in parish ministry and an
understanding of the dynamics of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ), as well as the changing face of
mainline religion. He is an active fund raiser and has
boundless energy for the job ahead."

	Cueni graduated from Kent (Ohio) State University with a
bachelor's degree in biology in 1964.  He earned a master's
of divinity degree from Christian Theological Seminary in
1971 and a doctor of ministry degree from San Francisco
Theological Seminary in 1979. Bethany (W. Va.) College
awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2001.   
	Among the incoming president's books is Dinosaur Heart
Transplants: Keys to Renewing a Mainline Church (Abingdon
Press, 2000). His latest book is: Questions of Faith for
Inquiring Believers (C.S.S. Publishing,  2001). The
Transforming Power of a Changed Perspective is the next to
be published (C.S.S. Publishing, Spring 2003). 

	Cueni has served on the General Board of the Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ) and on the Task Force on
Funding of New Church Establishment in the 21st Century. He
has been a member of the Christian Theological Seminary
Board of Trustees; the Disciples Ministers Association in
Kansas City; National City Christian Church Corp.,
Washington, D.C.; and a variety of other church-related and
secular boards and committees.  

	Cueni succeeds the Rev. Richard L. Harrison, Jr., who
resigned in December, 2000, to accept a call as pastor of
Seventh Street Christian Church, Richmond, Va.

	"We have to have leaders well entrenched in the story of
who we are as Disciples," said the new seminary president. 

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