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"Organizer, thinker, planner, artist, person of faith, trusted friend" are some of the ways Linda Isham's colleagues have described her. These aspects of her personality emerged as she journeyed from a small community in Wisconsin to a large state university and a national position in her chosen field of church education.

Roots in Elkhorn, Wisconsin

Linda Isham was born on May 24, 1938 in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, the daughter of Webb and Ardilla Isham. She was the middle child, with an older and younger brother. A good student, she was active in the Latin Club and Girl Scouts, played basketball with the Girl's Athletic Association and drums in the school band, and gave humorous declamations. Her public speaking reputation was slightly tarnished when she forgot a line in the Pledge of Allegiance at a Grange Meeting, but with typical resolve she overcame the setback and earned a bronze medal at the Wisconsin High School Forensic Association competition.

Isham was active in the youth group at the First Baptist Church of Elkhorn and taught a primary church school class while in high school. "I had beautiful bulletin boards, but teaching was a struggle," she says. "There were two brothers in the class who really acted up and there was bedlam. I would never believe then that I would go into church education as a career."

From the time she was a ninth grader, Isham worked at after-school, Saturday, and summer jobs. She cleaned house and worked as an assistant at the Chicago Store, then, at the 5 & 10, where she earned 60 cents an hour. Her fortunes changed when she took a bookkeeping job at the International Harvester store for $1.25 an hour, a position she kept during summer breaks from university.

A Wider World at the University of Wisconsin

At the University of Wisconsin, which she attended from 1956 to 1960, Isham was introduced to a broader world view. She lived in a Baptist-sponsored dorm and ate in a Baptist eating co-op with people from many different backgrounds. "It was my first experience of multi-cultural living," she says.

She also participated in the Community of Life and Faith, a disciplined community that gathered regularly for worship and study. "There was a thick manual of articles to study," Isham says, "including writings by Buber and Bonhoeffer. It was a powerful experience. I'm sure it was that exposure that made me think about going into Christian education." In 1958, she toured Europe with a group led by Rev. George (Shorty) Collins, an American Baptist chaplain at the University of Wisconsin. Isham says this trip provided her first real exposure to the peace movement. The group spent a week in a community in Germany, visited cathedrals that were being rebuilt in London and Berlin, and went into East Berlin on a restricted route. She credits Collins, as well as another American Baptist chaplain at the University of Wisconsin, Rev. Richard Broholm, as her mentors during this period of her life.

Focus on Christian Education at Colgate Rochester Divinity School

Following her graduation from the University of Wisconsin, Isham enrolled at Colgate Rochester Divinity School (CRDS). She received a Bachelor of Divinity in 1963 with an emphasis in Christian education. There were only seven women students when she entered CRDS. "We took a lot of flack from the guys about why we were there," Isham says. In order to receive maximum exposure to the field of Christian education, she worked out an arrangement with her advisor, Dr. J. C. Wynn, to take extra educational courses in place of homiletics.

Her first field placement was at the Charles Hubert Hall Christian Center which was related to the Mount Olivet Baptist Church. She supervised programming for girls while her colleague, Harry Wright, designed programming for boys. Her second placement was at the South Presbyterian Church where she worked with junior-age children. Both of these experiences introduced her to the challenges of urban ministry.

Isham credits her experience at CRDS with establishing her focus on Christian education and also opening her up to a broader view of biblical scholarship, noting especially the influence of three of her professors: Dr. William Hamilton, Dr. Winthrop Hudson, and Dr. James Sanders.

Centering on Children on the Local Church

Isham was called to the First Baptist Church of Ithaca, NY following graduation from seminary. She worked with senior pastor Rev. Chris Jensen, whom she calls a "gentle mentor." Although she was responsible for the total education program, she found herself drawn especially to ministry with children. Lynette Martin, the state Christian education director for American Baptists, appointed her to the state children's committee and invited her to administer the Keuka Lab School for Workers with Children. She also attended a national children workers' conference at Green Lake, WI and a children workers' lab school in Philadelphia. At the lab school, Isham had a very positive experience with three-year-olds that sealed her focus on ministry with children. "I had never thought of myself as a teacher, but when the kids called me 'teacher,' it became a defining experience," she says.

A Career in Ministry with Children

Isham joined the national staff of American Baptist Educational Ministries in 1966 and spent the next 14 years developing her own unique contribution to children in the church. As a program associate in the Department of Ministry with Children she worked closely with Lois Blankenship, who had established high standards of professionalism in the field. In the words of one of her colleagues, she "not only maintained that tradition but she enhanced it." Isham staffed children's lab schools and children workers' conferences and helped administer the Children's Center (a summer-long lab school) at the American Baptist Assembly in Green Lake, WI. She also served as a frequent workshop leader in local churches and regions, and at ecumenical gatherings.

In 1971 Isham became director of the national Department of Ministry with Children. She focused much of the department's energy on developing practical printed resources and training events. At the heart of her ministry was a concern that children be valued as persons. A colleague says, "Linda challenged the church and all those who work with children to see and hear children as persons with gifts to share, not simply 'little pitchers' to receive the church's teachings. She taught and modeled a ministry WITH children, a giving and receiving ministry between children and adults. She believed that in such a ministry the adult leaders grow along with the children as they share their experiences." This philosophy is examined in Isham's book, On Behalf of Children , published in 1975.

Isham planned and directed short-term training events and conferences, including two major American Baptist national education events: Direction '80 and Preview '88. She also developed many resources for Ministry with Children. She participated in the planning and implementation of several curriculum series, including the Faith and Work Graded Series, Bible and Life Graded Series, Discovering the Bible with Children, Living the Word, Children's Bible Series and Judson Bible Series. She wrote a curriculum unit in the Bible and Life Graded Series: "Mission in Oklahoma." She also developed resources for the Winning the Children for Christ program, the International Year of the Child (1979), Christian Education Sunday packets, and a series of teaching suggestions called "Ideas that Work." Under her leadership the department developed a filmstrip, "Keys to Communicating with Children" and a newsletter called Minders . They also reached 2,000 workers with children in a leader development effort.

Isham contributed to many ecumenical programs related to ministry with children. She was supervising editor of the Children's Bible Series, a curriculum developed by Joint Educational Development (JED), a consortium of denominations who banded together to share resources and staff in developing church education resources. She attended both the World Council of Churches "Children and the Eucharist Consultation" in Germany (1980) and the White House Conference on Children (1970). She was a leader in the Asian American Writer's Conference in 1983.

In addition, her skills were used in wider denominational projects of the American Baptist Churches. She co-staffed the General Board Task Force on the Partnership of Women and Men in Church and Society (1983) and the Board of Educational Ministries Policy Statement Task Force on the Educational Mission of the Church (1995). She was also a member of the team that developed and implemented Baptist heritage materials.

Throughout this period she engaged in postgraduate study at the University of Maryland, the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Immaculata College. She spent one sabbatical in an individual study program related to the faith development of children and a second sabbatical exploring mission education in Asia. She also participated in management seminars and a creative planning seminar.

A Broader Portfolio

Isham became associate director of the Division of Church Education in 1984 and director of the Church School Department in 1989. In these positions, she shifted her attention to the wider mission of the church, focusing especially on planning for church education. As associate director of the division, she assumed responsibility for editing the denominational magazine for Christian educators, the Baptist Leader , and many of her ideas related to planning can be found in her editorials in this magazine. She also wrote an occasional column, "Notes to Christian Education Planners," and articles for special emphases, such as Christian Education Sunday, schools of missions, and persons with special needs.

Isham served as chair of the JED coordinating committee in 1991-1992. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Baptist Assembly from 1989-1994 and a member of the American Baptist Historical Society Board from 1989-1994.

When the Board of Educational Ministries was reorganized in 1991, Isham became director of planning for congregational education. Her philosophy is described in a chapter she contributed to The Teaching Church at Work , "Planning for Effective and Vital Christian Education" (1993), where she describes the characteristics of a strong educational program and the ways to implement them.

In 1994, Isham developed a unique model of programming that allowed her to test some of her own concepts of planning, as well as to focus on her broader concern for renewal of the church's commitment to church education. Recognizing that the local church and the regions to which they belong are the places where church education needs the strongest leadership and training, she agreed to continue on a part-time basis with her national responsibilities while serving as part-time director of one American Baptist region (the American Baptist Churches of Connecticut) and resource person to four other regions in New England which, together with Connecticut, became the New England Educational Ministries Partnership (NEEMP). A regional minister who participated in this partnership said she "knew what it took to pull together an amorphous group, to develop and focus on common purposes, and to provide key time for resource sharing."

This model allowed Isham to develop and test some of her most creative ideas. She introduced Christian Education Roundtables that brought Connecticut educators together to share ideas and support one another. One participant at the meetings of this network described her presence as a "quiet host and wise counsel."

She also developed the annual statewide Christian Education Fair in Connecticut into a significant multicultural, intergenerational day, increasing the attendance from 35 to 150. She gave key leadership to a Christian Education Consultation sponsored by NEEMP in 1996 and was instrumental in developing the Discipleship Partners, a corps of lay leaders trained to give leadership in Christian education in regions, piloted in New England in 1999. In response to the growing number of Hispanic ABC churches, she encouraged the Board of Educational Ministries to translate the Christian Education Planning Guide into Spanish.