A little while back, I noticed that Faytene Kryskow had yet another new name for some of the activities that she does--Campus Ministries International. I wrote a post wondering out loud what this could mean.
Then, I tried to do some follow-up, asking some questions about what would properly be called the free transfer of the CMI name to Faytene Krsykow. I have recently received an e-mail reply from Ernest Culley, the respected pastor of one of the larger charismatic churches in Vancouver. Pastor Culley was, and remains, the chairman of the governing board of CMI. So, unless there has been a turnover of the membership CMI governing board, there may well remain checks on Faytene's use of the CMI name and assets.
I would like to thank Pastor Culley for his time and for the courtesy of his answering my questions.
He writes:
Thank you for your inquiry regarding Campus Ministries International. You posed several questions that I will attempt to answer. You asked why we decided to wrap up operations and pass on CMI. There were several reasons, but the chief one is that CMI had basically become redundant. Local churches had discovered that they could administer campus ministry operations without the oversight of an international organization, and were choosing to do so.
Your second question regarded Faytene herself, and why she ended up with the CMI registration. We have all known Faytene for many years, have watched her develop her ministry, she was won to Christ though CMI, and we would like to see CMI expand from a campus wide ministry scope to a Canadian wide ministry scope. Her ministry obviously embraces that. To the best of our knowledge Faytene’s beliefs are in line within Christianity.
You are in error about the transfer of CMI in that it was not a sale. No money or considerations of any kind changed hands. We had about four options to consider regarding our future direction, and after much prayer we all felt Faytene’s vision for a Canada wide ministry would conform to the transition of CMI from a Campus wide ministry to a Canada wide ministry, fitting our vision for the ongoing life of CMI. We have ongoing conversations with Faytene regarding her ministry and were aware of the development of her vision.
I remain the chairman of the board of CMI, and maintain continuity of the former vision and focus of CMI. I have been the chairman of the board of over 10 years now.
I am guessing by what he writes, that practically this means that CMI will move away from directly working on college and university campuses and move towards having more of a generic national youth ministry.
My comments? Well, it is great that Faytene became a born-again Christian through CMi, which speaks to the value of the focus that CMI used to have.
After seeing Pastor Culley's work--now at Life Centre in Vancouver, a mainstream charismatic church where he now pastors. I respect his wisdom and his ministry. So it is good to see a sure hand behind the scenes at CMI, at least technically at the helm.
We would differ, though, on Faytene and her theology. Pastor Culley and I would agree about her passion for the Lord and for Canada. He knows her personally, while I do not, which helps him to have a rosier view of her than I tend to have. But I would suggest that Faytene has gone beyond being a mainstream charismatic in some ways.
I would be concerned that Faytene, whom I believe has a more theocratic theology than that I have heard shared at the churches where Pastor Culley has ministered, may want to steer CMI towards the rocky shore of political and theological extremism. But we may agree to disagree on that.
Pastor Culley may be right in trusting Faytene, based on his personal knowledge of her, with CMI's future. But I do pray that his trust is not misplaced, as I would guess that Faytene may be more radical than the various youth leaders that he has worked with over the years .