lifeasmission

Bi-Vocational Ministry & Theological Education

November 6, 2009

I think this will be my last post in a series on bi-vocational ministry.  If you’re looking to catch up, feel free to check out the earlier ones:

1) Bi-Vocational Ministry

2) Bi-Vocational Ministry & the Missional Church

3) Bi-Vocational Ministry & Spiritual Formation

4) Bi-Vocational Ministry & Support Raising

Thinking on this topic has stirred up a number of thoughts, ideas, and connections that I think will take shape in a next series of posts, so I won’t say too much here.

What I will say is this…

In 2004 when I began my education at Fuller Theological Seminary, I was on the fence about doing an MDiv.  I wasn’t sure that my future was going to be in professional, paid, church staff ministry.  I also wasn’t so sure that the structure of the degree was all that well equipped to prepare people for that sort of ministry given the trajectory of the Western church anyway.  To my utter shock, I soon discovered that these sentiments were widely shared and many of the people who would have been the best candidates for MDiv’s were opting for less traditional and more flexible routes. (FYI – Fuller has since done some major and commendable course correcting regarding all their programs, including the MDiv!)

My hesitations confirmed by the sentiments and decisions of my peers, I chose to do an MA in theology which gave me the ability to take 1/2 my classes out of Fullers’ School of Intercultural Studies enabling me to craft a degree that explored a missiology of Western culture.

In contrast to the average School of Theology student, many of the students doing degrees in the School of Intercultural Studies had widely marketable skills and trades.  Whereas the average SOT student was there to get an academic credential in order to get a job, the average SIS student was in school to learn how to be better a better missionary or to do more study regarding a particular area of interest.  Unlike their SOT counterparts, they weren’t looking for a degree to get a job.

Now, Fuller as a school didn’t create this reality per se, they were merely filling two different needs, augmenting on the one hand, and preparing on the other.

If, as I have tried to say, churches being led by a team of bi-vocational leaders is more sustainable, healthier for leaders and congregations alike, and all-around positively spiritually formative, then theological schools would do well to intentionally structure themselves for the sort of education that Fuller’s SIS was offering de facto.

There is a lesson to be learned here from Christian Liberal Arts schools (yeah Malone!) which prepare men and women of God for service in all areas of life… AS FOLLOWERS OF JESUS.  That people would “graduate” from this sort of education to one of specialized, professional theological training is a regrettable reality.  I say this as one with the highest of value for theological rigor and advanced training.  But, I also say it as one who thinks these things should never come at the expense of extending to Christian leaders the opportunity to lose touch with “the world.”

A missional ecclesiology calls for a missional approach to theological education that would be best described in terms of formational training.  This is what I hope to explore further in my next series of posts.

Posted in: bi-vocational, church, fuller, leadership, malone, spiritual formation, sustainability, theology, western culture