lifeasmission

Community, Seminary and the Church

February 20, 2006

Community at seminary is something of a mixed bag. I was just commenting to my roommate Ryan the other day, “I finally figured out what the problem with seminary is. It’s not college.”

In college relationships came first while school work and classes were a distant second. In college, if an unexpected nice day were to come around, attending classes would be quickly replaced by spontaneous games of football, basketball, angle ball, or any other activity that involved

1) being together
2) being outside
3) having fun

We really don’t have that luxury at seminary. For starters, the very nature of what we are doing is temporary and people default to being guarded about their time and levels of intimacy. Also, this ain’t cheap. Most of us have college loans and the reality of paying those off as well as the new ones incurred in grad. mandates that we take what we are doing pretty seriously.

The upside is that I can relate to the people at seminary in a way that I have never (and probably will never) been able to relate to anyone else. We are all currently more focused on the importance of theological, cultural, and psychological dimensions of the Christian faith than we might ever be again. We can have deep and profound conversations – conversations that have the chance of changing us in a moment and the kinds of conversations that have the potential to change the entire trajectory of the church in the world. That sounds kind of dramatic, but the reality is, mainline denominations don’t hire pastors with out MDiv’s and most other church traditions (mine is an exception) always look more favorably on those with theological education and pastoral training. Not only that, try being a theological educator without a PhD! Like it or not, me and my peers at Fuller and other comparable seminaries around the globe (though mainly in the US) are indeed the future shapers and guardians of the Church. So maybe it’s not such a bad idea for us to take what we are doing seriously. I’m off point…

Here’s my tension. I’m not at all convinced that the model of theological education that I am currently a part of is really the best way to get at it. In fact, I’m not even sure how biblically faithful it is. Wouldn’t it be better to integrate theological education and community/ministry involvement? Some seminaries (Fuller and Bethel for sure) have a couple degrees that you can complete w/o leaving your home context. You fly in periodically for intensives and do the rest of your stuff online and at home, but I’m not sure this is all together good either. Afterall, this education is still individually (not comunally) concerned and focused.

Here’s where I am going. I am hoping for a future in which the church communities we are a part of take primary responsibility for theologically educating and equipping their congregations. I think there’s a name for that – oh yeah, discipleship. Sounds strikingly like an idea that some Jewish carpenter had about 2000 years ago, man was he ahead of his time.

Back to the point. Community is important. Christian/Church community that much more so. Not only should people not have to leave the communities of which they are a part in order to receive quality theological education, I think the very idea is endemic to God’s vision for the Church.

Here’s what I am saying – I want a rich and challenging expereince of Christian community and quality theological education and I think the Church is the answer. Let’s go!

Related Posts

1. Discussing Church, Christ, and Community
2. Toward a Missional Vision of Theological Education: Community Rootedness
3. Northern Seminary & 3DM: Discipleship Oriented Theological Education

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