A few weeks ago, after Pittsburgh Seminary had announced that I would be its next President, the editor of The Presbyterian Outlook asked me, “Bill, why are you leaving the parish to return to the academy?” The short answer might be “the three great things about academia: June, July and August!”, but real scholars know better. It never really slows down that much in the summer months with all the Hebrew and Greek courses, and all the continuing education events. Administrators and staff especially plow right on. Faculty members put the finishing touches on those tomes they have been trying to write all year.
Still, the editor’s question hung in the air waiting to be answered.
Actually, there were two parts to the question: (a) Why are you leaving the church for the school and (b) What should the school be doing for the church these days?
Here is a summary of the answer I gave:
Thirty years ago, I taught at Pittsburgh Seminary for a year then taught at what is now Union-PSCE for seven more years. In 1983, when the call came to pastor First Church in Dallas, I thought, I could serve in this parish for a while then go back to teaching someday, and be a better teacher. However, as opportunities to teach again presented themselves across the past 22 years, I found myself loving the parish (I still do!). On July 1, 2005, I became the longest tenured pastor in First Church, Dallas’ 150-year history, surpassing Andrew Pickens Smith who was a chaplain in the Battle of Gettysburg. A. P. Smith died eight days before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (US) met at First Church, Dallas. Some say he died getting ready for the GA meeting! Woodrow Wilson’s father was Stated Clerk of the General Assembly at that time. After passing A. P. Smith, I thought I would retire in Dallas.
So, why leave now? The reason is simple: God called me back to the academic world. We all have our own variations of Frederick Buechner’s famous line about the call. Here is mine: “Your true calling is the grand coalescence of your greatest joy and the world’s deepest need.” At this point in my life, it is time to give something back to theological education. After all, our seminaries are the ‘seed-beds’ from which future faith gardeners will come, those who remember, to paraphrase Paul, that “some plant, others water, but only God brings the growth.”
When I left Union-PSCE, I was 34 years old, which was roughly the average age of entering students. In fact, the whole time I was there I could never get older than each entering class. For the past couple of decades, that average age has remained virtually the same, which means seminaries have had to accommodate second career students and their families. Now something different is happening. The average age is dropping dramatically with more and more students coming straight out of college. What an exciting and interesting time to be returning to the academic world!
After 22 years serving one of the nation’s great downtown, inner city congregations, I am now ready to take on the challenges of theological education in the twenty-first century. What are those challenges? There are many but let me name at least three:
1. We need to learn how to blend evangelism and social justice ministry instead of seeing them as enemies. Jesus never separated them. Neither did religious leaders in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Only in the twentieth century did we see the divorce between the two, a split that has spilled over into our present red-state/blue-state nationwide divide. Look at how Jesus brought the two together in the Luke-Acts tradition.
There is a revival of religion going on around the world, a kind of “great awakening” that we barely recognize in Europe and North America except in the mega and giga churches. We don’t want to miss it here in this country, especially within the mainline (which some are now calling ‘sideline’) churches. Of course, I am not referring here to the rabid sorts of fundamentalism that can and often do lead to various kinds of terrorism. Instead, I am referencing the strong, healthy movements of faith that seem to be sweeping the globe particularly in the East, in Africa and South America. While lecturing and preaching in South India, Moscow, the Ural Mountains, in black township churches in South Africa and witnessing first hand the excitement over the Gospel in Seoul, Korea, I have been amazed at how little of that has rubbed off on our Western churches.
At the same time, this revival has also signaled a new care for the poor of the world who desperately need our help. Social justice ministry is not only seen in Jesus’ encouragement to care for the widows, orphans and strangers but his admonition to help even “the least of these.” As government assistance declines, local churches and local communities need to pick up the slack as they did prior to the twentieth century. First Church, Dallas has taken the lead in encouraging other congregations around the country to participate joyfully in Matthew 25 ministries.
Following the twin covenants in the Old Testament (Abrahamic and Sinaitic) that talk about building up the body of believers and being involved in a global moral imperative, our churches need to quit seeing themselves as either evangelistic or social justice and understand that God is calling us to do both. In other words, “love God, love neighbor” both need to be part of seminary curriculum. Keep in mind Jim Collins’ admonition (author of Built To Last and Good To Great) that we should avoid “the tyranny of the or“ and embrace “the genius of the and.”
2. What are we going to do with Gen Xers and Millennium Kids who find traditional worship boring? Do we dump 2,000 years of liturgical tradition in order to be relevant? Of course not. George Buttrick used to say, “Any fool can fill a church.” We see that happening all around us today. Yet, what mainline (sideline) Protestant pastor wouldn’t like to see more people in the pews? A little openness and a little more passion within an informed, Reformed worship structure and a little more ardor to go with all our order might actually be a good thing. Seminaries can help our churches experiment and think theologically about responsible but meaningful liturgical experience that will keep our young people coming and encourage participation by the seekers among us, the Philips and the Nathanaels who appear on the back pews of our churches every Sunday morning.
3. How can we maintain our beliefs and identity in an increasingly ecumenical, interfaith and secular world? There are two great problems in the church today: biblical illiteracy and a theological identity crisis–we don’t know who we are as Christians and we don’t know what we believe. How do we solve these problems? The answer is to know both Bible and theology then figure out innovative ways to bring both to bear on the questions other denominations, religions and the world are asking. That’s a tall order, but doable.
What’s it going to take for students to be prepared to enter today’s praise-singing, internet-oriented ecclesiastical world? It’s going to take: (a) creative preaching grounded in Scripture and theology; (b) the spiritual growth of members individually and in small groups; (c) great worship that is Reformed in form but also enthused with the power of the Spirit; (d) sound teaching that is relevant to contemporary questions; (e) committed care that is theologically informed (read Andrew Purves’ Reconstructing Pastoral Theology: A Christological Foundation), (f) good servant leadership that is both street-smart and worldly-wise while avoiding mega-church personality cults; and (g) hands-on service to community and world.
What difference can we who are seminary trustees make? We can support and encourage our administrators and faculties with our time, our energy and our financial resources as we move ahead into the twenty-first century.
What difference can you who are laity make? Take courses at the seminaries. Invite professors to do sabbatical leaves in your churches. Make sure your churches are giving their fair share to the Theological Education Fund, and give generously yourselves.
What can pastors and educators do? We can keep learning, growing and sharpening our skills as we continue to encourage the two-way conversation between parish and school.
Why am I leaving the pastorate to return to academia? Because I want to participate in the exciting resurgence of Christianity both here and abroad, and help others do so in a theologically responsible way.
William J. Carl III, PhD, is senior pastor of First Church, Dallas and will, on October 1, 2006, become President-elect of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
