Endorsements
I’ve known Brenda Salter McNeil for the past decade and have hosted her as a speaker on numerous occasions on our campus. However, a year ago we engaged Salter McNeil and Associates in a consulting relationship to assist Bethel College in assessing the diversity initiatives of our mission. Following this assessment, SMA has served as a valuable resource for the college as we are implementing a campus wide strategy for intercultural competence.
I trust Dr. Brenda and her associates. This trust is based upon personal integrity, biblical values, and professional skills demonstrated by SMA. In all of Bethel College’s efforts to address issues related to ethnic diversity and a healthy approach to multiculturalism, I have not encountered another organization that has provided all the pieces for a biblical resolve consistent with the college’s objectives. SMA is doing something I have yet to discover elsewhere: wrestling through the morass of politically correct rhetoric to provide substantive training, consultation, and recommendations for achieving intercultural competence.
I have no reservations in recommending Salter McNeil and Associates.
— Dennis D. Engbrecht, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President
Bethel College, Mishawaka, IN
It gives me great pleasure to write this letter of endorsement of the ministry of Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil and Salter McNeil & Associates. Salter McNeil & Associates were consultants at Woodland Hills Church, St. Paul, MN, for two and a half years, helping us move forward in our call to be a community of reconciled and reconciling disciples of Jesus. We are a predominantly white congregation with a weekly attendance of around 3,500 people, and racial reconciliation has been one of our core values for more then a decade, however it has been the value we have been least successful at living out. As a result of Salter McNeil & Associates’ ministry, a foundation has been laid that positioned us to move forward on this central value.
There are four aspects of Salter McNeil & Associates ministry that empower it so effectively in helping organizations move forward on reconciliation. First, Brenda is a powerfully anointed and exceptionally gifted communicator. Second, Brenda and her team know how to listen to and follow the Spirit. Reconciliation isn’t only-or even primarily-about getting the right information into the head, it is more fundamentally about getting the right dispositions into the heart. Thirdly, because of her own life experience and education, Brenda is one of the foremost experts in multicultural studies in the country. Her background, education and personal aptitude uniquely positions Brenda to be a “bridge” between ethnic groups and to teach others to do the same. Finally, Brenda’s husband, Dr. Derek McNeil brings an insight and understanding to organizations, social systems and small group dynamics that rounds out the ministry of Salter McNeil & Associates in a most amazing way.
The two and a half years our church spent with Salter McNeil & Associates, was as impacting as it was enjoyable. For any church or organization looking for assistance in moving forward in reconciliation, this team is quite literally a God send!
— Rev. Gregory A. Boyd, Ph.D.
Senior Pastor
Woodland Hills Church, St. Paul, MN
Working with Salter McNeil & Associates throughout 2006 has been catalytic in spearheading biblical reconciliation throughout our church. Two examples in particular are noteworthy both because they came as part of Brenda’s initial assessment of our congregation and because we actually have followed her recommendations! This year Mr. Steve Rivera was added to our staff as the Assistant Pastor of Community Relations. Salter McNeil & Associates recommended that we should hire a Latino person from the community if we were ever going to do anything substantial and lasting in our church’s neighborhood. Pastor Steve has a special passion for biblical reconciliation and a knack for connecting the church with the community. Our church is so clearly better equipped to be and bring Christ’s hope to the world because of Pastor Steve being in leadership.
During the year that Salter McNeil & Associates consulted with our church, a Multiethnic Leadership team was also formed called the Rec’ing Crew. They met to learn about the biblical basis for reconciliation and to lead our congregation forward in this initiative. They are now under the leadership of Pastor Steve Rivera and the emphasis on biblical reconciliation has been incorporated into our church’s organizational structure. This ministry has now become “prioritized and mainstreamed.” I know that Brenda is thrilled to learn how our church has taken action on these recommendations and I know that I am confident that she and S.M.A. have pointed us in the right direction.
— Rev. Dr. Ken Fong,
Senor Pastor
Evergreen Baptist Church
Los Angeles, California
“Brenda Salter McNeil was instrumental in the shaping of a workshop experience [for 800 Evangelical Covenant Church pastors] which was transformational as well as educational. Her keen sensitivity to group process and knowledge of human development helped assure that the end product accomplished its intended outcome.”
— Mark Olson,
Dean of Enrollment,
Director of Church Relations,
North Park University
“For the past several years I have had the privilege of knowing and working closely with Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil. She is an outstanding individual with a deep personal, biblical and professional understanding of the need for reconciliation throughout society. Dr. McNeil also has a winsome way of leading others to a better understanding of the values of diversity and of the ways to promote positive relationship.”
— Dr. John Bowling,
President,
Olivet Nazarene University
