21st century Seminary
Some questions that I would love to hear some answers to:
1. What will seminaries "look like" as we move forward in the 21st century?
2. What do you value in preparation for ministry?
3. What skill sets are important?
4. What kind of ministry are people preparing for?
1. What will seminaries "look like" as we move forward in the 21st century?
2. What do you value in preparation for ministry?
3. What skill sets are important?
4. What kind of ministry are people preparing for?
Tags: leaders, ministry, preparation, seminary, skills
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jasmine Flores on -
1. Full ONLINE accredited programs.
2. Spiritual formation
3. Pastoral Counseling, Negotiation + conflict resolution, Communication across cultures
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Roach on -
I love #2 and #3...but wonder how you could learn those online? All of those require face to face time, right?
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Permalink Reply by Jimmy Reader on -
Your concern about F2F time is the standard objection among many seminary faculty to online learning. Even with spiritual formation and conflict transformation skills, there is a lot of content to learn and discussion to engage in. That can be done quite well online. At some point, though, I agree that there does need to be F2F time. That can be done with weekend intensives led by adjunct faculty (perhaps seminary alumni) located geographically - or by faculty who schedule regional intensives - or by a requirement of perhaps a week or two of week-long intensives at the seminary campus (as with most D.Min. programs.
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Roach on
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Jimmy,
If there is a f2f aspect that is substantial, I think it could work (though I think it needs to be with PhD level people, not just graduated Mdiv's.)
I am in my 3rd year of seminary and feel it has been very transformational because of the f2f time - with professors and with other students. It would just be impossible to replicate that in some isolated online situation where someone is simply learning about formation, and not actually being engaged in it. Seminary cant just be about content mastery.
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Permalink Reply by Jimmy Reader on
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Thanks for your ideas, Jasmine. You're the first to respond. Hopefully others will join you and we can have some helpful discussion.
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Permalink Reply by Jacy Green-Sprehe on -
1. I agree with Jasmine on the online accredited programs.
2.Having a supportive and prayerful group of family and friends.
3. Compassion with good listening skills.
4. House churches and involving ALL in the ministry and not just the "ministers".
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Permalink Reply by Connie Waters on -
The challenge for Seminaries in the 21st Century is helping students who are called to ministry in a time of great change. How do we prepare people to minister to our older members while also preparing them so that at the same time they can be building the church of the future. As a Seminary graduate, I feel that I was given a skill set that did not perpare me for that. Also, I was not prepared for anything but pulpit ministry, many of us are also asked to work in the realm of non-profit ministries like food pantries, soup kitchens, day care, thrift shops, medical clinics etc...I had to learn rules and regulations on the fly, nothing prepared me for this!
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Permalink Reply by Jimmy Reader on
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I appreciate the excellent thoughts so far and look forward to an ongoing conversation. I will certainly take these ideas back to the seminary I work for.
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Permalink Reply by Steve K. on -
Jimmy, I would add an affirmation to Jasmine's online course opportunities suggestion and to Connie's suggestion for good, practical preparation for ministry. I would also add that good, practical preparation is needed in the realm of media, in particular online media and social media. Not only the HOW (e.g., how to use social media) but also the WHY (e.g., the philosophy/theology behind social media). As more and more people engage spiritual life in a mediated fashion (via online webcasts, etc.), there is a need for seminaries to better prepare men and women to minister in church contexts that engage Internet media intelligently. That would be my biggest suggestion as a "must-have" for a 21st Century seminary.
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Permalink Reply by Callid Keefe-Perry on -
I'll loudly second Steve on the media thing, especially on the WHY. It is not just because it is a cool new thing for kids: it actually changes the way we think/interact and the Church can be present in that way as well.
-C
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Permalink Reply by Jimmy Reader on
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Can you say more about how "it actually changes the way we think/interact"? Not everyone believes that, as you know.
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Permalink Reply by Jamie Arpin-Ricci on
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Well, as a missionary of 15 years, church planter and pastor in the inner city, I hope that experience can make up for the fact that I only have a high school diploma as I answer these questions.
1. Seminaries needs to address the reality that high tuition costs will invariably exclude many pastoral options in favour of more highly funded ones. In other words, too many pastors need to go to larger suburban churches in order to pay off their debts. The dependency on wages can also influences the prophetic aspects of pastoral ministry, too often softening the blow (so to speak) when challenging those same communities. Too few pastors are going to communities in crisis, as those community churches often require bi-vocational pastors (or are commuter churches that are not reflective of the local neighbourhood).
Further, there needs to be far more hands on, experiential training from early on in the process. While by NO means anti-intellectual, there can be a very big gap between the academic aspects of seminary education and the practical workings of ministry. By doing this the academic content will also inevitably be challenged to respond better to the current, contextual realities of ministry, rather than perpetuating models that are rarely relevant in the wider culture.
2. Similar to the previous question, I value hands-on, experiential, relational opportunities to serve as a central aspect of ministry preparation. In addition to testing our own skills, gifts, etc., it exposes us to the (often messy) realities of ministry and life. Preparation should also have a degree of flexibility and adaptability that allows the individual student to more clearly explore and define the direction their training might head.
3. The skills sets that have been important to me have been largely defined by my convictions on the nature of the community we are seeking to build. As we are Anabaptist, developing a community hermeneutic (for example) requires a very unique set of skills. In addition to this, other aspects of community based spiritual and missional formation are critical. Too much of our training and too many of our models are primarily (sometimes exclusively) focused on "individual discipleship".
4. I am not sure what this question is asking. Are you asking about what kind of ministry people are being prepared for in current institutions? Or are you asking what SHOULD they be prepared for? I will briefly answer both. To the former, I think too many people are being prepared for models of church and community too deeply defined by a Christendom identity. The resulting attractional models seem to perpetuate growth of a very specific and narrow kind, often dependent on accommodating cultural failings to do so (i.e. consumerism, individualism, etc.) To the latter, I believe that people need to be prepared for ministry that calls people to deep community, active missionality and sacrificial lifestyles relevant to, but often in contrast with, the surrounding culture.
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