• Archive of "theological education" Category

    Dr. Rozko?

    August 30, 2010 // 26 Comments »

    I have a decision to make.  Several months ago I wrote a post about Fuller pulling together a DMiss cohort around the topic of Anabaptist Perspectives in Missional Ecclesiology.  I applied to this program and it is scheduled to begin this November.

    In the meantime, I accepted a job here in the Chicagoland area at Northern Seminary which is pulling together its own DMin cohort around the topic of missional leadership.

    Of course each program comes with its own features and benefits.  Both programs are cohort-based and non-residential, but let me lay out some of the distinctives of each program and see what sort of thoughts and advice you might have to offer.

    The DMiss…

    The DMiss, like a PhD, is a research driven program.  The program moves from theological/missiological considerations to issues of context and culture, and finally, to leadership and change dynamics.  The final year is given to integration, assessment, and dissertation writing.  The cohort will be led, primarily, by Wilbert Shenk and James Krabill.

    The DMin…

    The DMin is a course driven program, the topics such as, “The Church in Post-Christendom, The Gospel and Culture, Missional Theology, and Misional Leadership.”  The program culminates in the writing of a thesis.  David Fitch is leading the cohort while Al Roxburgh and Craig Van Gelder will be involved as well.

    I think very highly of both of these schools and their programs.  I think both programs will do immeasurable good in equipping men and women for service in and to missional churches, but I go back and forth on which one is the best for me, at this time, given the larger scope of all that God is doing in my life.

    What sort of questions would you be asking if you were me?  What aspects of doctoral level education do you believe are most important and relevant?

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    Posted in Fuller Seminary, Northern Seminary, leadership, missional, theological education

    Kiss Those School Loans Bye-Bye!

    March 17, 2010 // 6 Comments »

    A few weeks ago Amy and I were having dinner with some friends.  We were talking about student loans and as we were leaving they started to tell us about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Income Based Repayment (IBR) programs.

    The PSLF is a federal student loan program that forgives whatever debt you have left after 10 years of payments made while in public service or under the employ of a 501c3.

    The IBR is another federal program that structures the amount of your payments based on your family size and income level.

    You’ll find links to Q&A pdf’s regarding both of these programs on this page.

    Since Amy and I envision giving the better part of our lives to work in and through non-profit organizations, we are beginning the process of getting into these programs.

    The first step is to get your loans from whatever lender they are currently with over to Direct Loans, a federal loan provider.  You can do this online here.

    That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far, but from what I understand, once we’ve moved/consolidated our loans to Direct Loans, we can then take advantage of the IBR and PSLF programs.

    It’s more than mildly unfortunate and upsetting that (at least in my experience) Christian schools, whose student populations are largely focused on non-profit work, aren’t doing a better job of informing students of these programs so maybe you’ll help me get the word out!

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    Posted in money, theological education

    Anabaptist Missional Ecclesiology – Doctor of Missiology

    March 15, 2010 // 6 Comments »

    All good missional ecclesiology is owing to the Anabaptist tradition.  I came to understand that at some point in grad school and have only become more convinced of it since.

    This is why I want to let everyone I can know about an incredible opportunity coming up this fall.  Ever heard of a DMiss? If you haven’t, you need to familiarize yourself.

    The DMiss is an applied research doctoral degree designed for ministry practitioners as opposed to straight academics, but its focus is missiology – an increasingly vital dimension of study for those engaged in ministry within Post-Christendom.

    This fall Fuller Theological Seminary is launching an “Anabaptist Missional Perspectives Cohort” for those interested in the DMiss program.  From Fuller’s page on the DMiss program…

    The Doctor of Missiology degree equips leaders to effectively integrate theory into missional praxis within the global reality of the twenty-first century.  With this program, key leaders will continue their ministries in-context, attending a cohort-based seminar once a year for four years at Fuller’s campus, and interacting with a Fuller SIS faculty member.

    The DMiss program is designed for leaders with a minimum of five years of missional experience who desire:
    1. To assist mission leaders in context.
    2. To have direct impact on practical ministry.
    3. To maximize their leadership potential within their organizations.

    If you’re interested in anabaptism or missional ecclesiology, have already got a masters degree, are looking for some more education, and are convinced, like me, that the best forms of education are those rooted in a learning community of engaged Christian leaders, you really need to check out this program.  Deadline for applications is the end of May and if you hurry, you might even be able to get a refund on your application fee!

    Learn more about the cohort model of education here.

    Learn more about the program structure here.

    Let me know if you have any questions, I’d love to talk more about it.  And please forward this on to others you think might be interested.

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    Posted in Fuller Seminary, anabaptist, missional, theological education

    What do Missional Leaders Think About the Future of Theological Education?

    January 18, 2010 // No Comments »

    While I really enjoyed writing out my own thoughts on a missional vision of theological education at the end of last year, I was really wanting to get around a bunch of missional leaders to get their opinions on some key questions.  Being at the Missional Learning Commons two weekends ago was a great opportunity to do just that.

    Here were the questions we wresteled with…

    1) What are the skills necessary for missional leadership which differ from those needed for  pastoral roles within Christendom?

    2) Currently, what are the most important resources that seminaries have to offer for the equipping of missional leaders/communities?

    3) What resources for the formation of missional leaders/communities are offered through other avenues?

    4) To whatever extent I feel prepared to live or lead missionally, the thing which has equipped me most in that regard is…

    You can see how people responded to those questions here.

    I also invited everyone who attended to do a brief online survey answering some different questions on the same topic.  If you’d like to participate, you can find the survey here.

    And of course, for the sake of discussion, feel free to offer any responses here in the comment section.

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    Posted in leadership, missional, theological education

    Cultivating Missional Communities (& the Rozko’s)

    January 1, 2010 // No Comments »

    In a new book, Fresh + Re:Fresh: Church Planting and Urban Mission in Canada Post-Christendom, Dave Fitch offers an introductory chapter entitled, “Fifty Years of Church Planting: the Story as I See it…” in which he summarizes the dominant approaches to church planting over the last few decades and discusses some of the major differences within Post-Christendom.

    In speaking of the differences in the multiplication of church communities in Christendom vs. Post-Christendom, Fitch says,

    Among the new missional leaders, church is the name we give to a way of life, not a set of services. We do not plant an organized set of services; we inhabit a neighborhood as the living embodied presence of Christ.

    In agreement, I’d say that “cultivating missional communities” might be a better way to describe what we have more often known as “church planting.”  In that vein, Fitch goes on to talk about the sorts of leaders necessary to cultivate missional communities suggesting that…

    – they will be survivors

    …the new missional community leaders must have patience, steady faithfulness and the ability to live simply. They must be able to get jobs and not see the ministry as a privileged full time vocation. They must have a mental image of how they are going to sustain their lives financially, relationally, spiritually and personally.

    – they will be communal shepherds

    They are not starting and managing an organization. They may not even be good at organization. Instead they are cultivating a communal sense of mission identity among a gathering people ‘for this time and place.’

    – they will be interpretive leaders

    Interpretive leaders do not dictate from the pulpit a list of do’s and don’ts and solutions from God for every problem. They interpret the Scriptures to open our eyes to what God is doing and where He is taking us. In other words, they cultivate other interpreters/listeners.

    – they will be directors of spiritual formation

    We must ever navigate against putting on a show that will attract; rather we must develop a liturgy that is simple, accessible and Scriptural and that guides our lives into Christ and guards us from the distractions that would take us away from Mission. …there will be no missional community of people formed and shaped for mission if we just preach Mission as a legalistic requirement. Mission requires patience, a sense of vision and a level of self-denial that can only be formed inwardly in living bodies, trained in the simple organic disciplines/liturgies of the historic church.

    – they will be leaders who give away power

    Hierarchy is the product of Christendom. It hails to a day when Christianity still held power in society…  It is my belief therefore that missional leadership needs always to be multiple. Most missional pastors/leaders need to be bi-vocational (bi-ministerial) for their own survival. Such leaders must learn to mutually submit to the other leaders as they guide the journey of the community. They must mutually learn to mentor leaders and give away power.

    A final insight from the chapter is this little gem,

    This kind of leader often does not come from our (all too often) modernist seminaries. They are grown in a community which gathers to worship the Triune God so as to discern Him at work in our midst. (my thoughts on that here)

    Beginning the year with this post is no coincidence.  Amy and I have committed to serve alongside others from Life on the Vine to help cultivate a new missional community in 2010.  There’s a lot more questions than answers at this point, but we’re excited to see what God might do as we make ourselves available.

    While I am sure to offer tid bits on this process on the blog from time to time, if you would like to get the inside scoop on a regular basis as someone who would commit to be praying for us, leave a comment or let us know through the contact page. Peace to you in the New Year and thanks for your prayers & support.

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    Posted in LOV, bi-vocational, chicago, christendom, church, community, leadership, missional, theological education

    Toward A Missional Vision of Theological Education: Cultural Pioneering

    December 31, 2009 // 1 Comment »

    Previous posts in this Series:

    Preliminary Thoughts | The Root of the Problem | The Fruit of the Problem | New Soil | Community Rootedness | Character Formation | Conviction Shaping | Contextual Training

    Christendom bore no real need for leaders who were cultural pioneers.  After all, if the culture is already Christian, what do we have to pioneer?  It would be logical to conclude then, that as Christendom crumbles, the need for leaders with the skills for cultural pioneering would increase.  This would be true and mistaken at the same time.  It’s true that we have a greater and greater need for cultural pioneers, but the crumbling of Christendom isn’t the reason.  Rather, a missional vision of the church carries with it an inherent need for leaders who serve as cultural pioneers which means we need a vision of theological education capable of equipping men and women for this task.

    Allow me to offer just 2 basic points to support my argument for this need.

    First, missional churches operate out of the assumption that mission is part of God’s very character and nature.  God sends the son, the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit, the Trinity sends the Church as the Body of Christ.  Little wonder then that missional church leaders lament the modern phenomenon of churches playing the role of vendors of religious goods and services that spend the bulk of their time, energy, and money trying to get people to come.  Missional churches are not those who focus on offering the best “Christian” stuff (teaching, programs, groups, etc.), but those who focus on engaging with world’s darkest and toughest needs.

    Second, missional churches tend to be marked by their attention to Jesus’ announcement of the good news of God’s Kingdom, the new reality inaugurated in Jesus.  Just as Jesus stood at odds with the culture of his day on account of his allegiance to God’s Kingdom, so too the missional church of today will find itself at odds with the culture of our day as we seek to embody God’s Kingdom through faith in Jesus.  To understand the local church as an expression of a new reality, however, means that we recognize the need for leaders capable of cultural pioneering.

    Current models of theological education seem to come up short in terms of their fit to equip male and female leaders on both these counts.  How then are we to go about doing so?  I offer three ideas for the training of cultural pioneers.

    1) Deep involvement in a missional community

    There is no better way to learn how to be a cultural pioneer that to participate in a community that is seeking to do this very thing.  My hope and expectation would be that to a great degree, the various aspects of this missional vision of theological education that I have been describing would all serve to produce leaders who think and act in terms of cultural pioneering.  I have a hard time imagining that someone could give themselves to a process of formation that is rooted in community and centered around character formation through the shaping of Kingdom convictions and contextual training and emerge as someone who would rather manage a program driven group of individuals than lead a community into the world as an expression of God’s alternative reality.

    2) Encourage Cultural Creation & Cultivation

    I am indebted to Andy Crouch and his book, Culture Making, for my thinking (and language) on this.  The power and trajectory of Christendom resulted in a church that, at various times, thought of “culture” as some monolithic thing that it could condemn, critique, copy, or consume.  Only now, as we increasingly find ourselves on the margins of society, are we rediscovering the postures of creating and cultivating culture.  We create culture through values, practices, and imagination.  However, as Crouch says,

    We cannot make culture without culture.  And this means that creation begins with cultivation – taking care of the good things culture has already handed on to us.  The first responsibility of culture makers is not to make something new but to become fluent in the cultural tradition to which we are responsible.  Before we can be culture makers, we must be culture keepers.

    This leads us directly to the third ingredient in forming cultural pioneers.

    3) Practicing Discernment

    The need for skilled discernment is going nowhere but up!  Never before in human history has so much information and so many opinions been so easily accessible.  Add to this the pervasive individualism and relativism of Western culture and you are left with a cultural nightmare for those who believe in such a thing as contextual faithfulness to biblical truth.  As Jesus’ disciples were, we must be taught to see, hear, and feel with eyes, ears, and hearts attuned to the reality of the Kingdom of God in our midst.  How are we ever to create culture unless we can discern our way through it as followers of Jesus?  This takes years of practice within community and remains a lifelong discipline.

    Are there other aspects of cultural pioneering that you think I’m missing?  How else might we equip others to this end?  Anxious for your (end of the year and end of the series!) thoughts.

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    Posted in God, Jesus, christendom, church, community, creation, culture, kingdom, leadership, missional, modernity, spiritual formation, theological education, theology, western culture

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