For four straights Sundays, my congregation brought in two excellent seminary professors to talk to us first about why we should care about Greek, the original language of the New Testament, and then about how to read the Bible the way seminary professors do.
My thought in inviting David May of Central Baptist Theological Seminary and Mike Graves of St. Paul School of Theology was that sometimes our own people aren’t very articulate about their own faith and need a bit of help.
This biblical and theological illiteracy can make ecumenical and interfaith dialogue difficult or fairly worthless.
The result is what Rabbi Brad Hirshfield calls “interfaithless dialogue.” Sort of the blind leading the blind or maybe the bland leading the bland. Faith communities continue to try to improve the religious literacy of their own people, but those efforts aren’t always successful — sometimes because people are, instead, paying more attention to “Dancing With the Stars” or something equally unfathomable, free and easily viewed.
Faith communities continue to try to improve the religious literacy of their own people (think “The Thoughtful Christian,” but those efforts aren’t always successful — sometimes because people are, instead, paying more attention to “Dancing With the Stars” or something equally unfathomable, free and easily viewed.
Still, among the efforts to help there’s a new (also free and easily viewed) Presbyterian initiative that you and your congregation should know about, one Leslie Scanlon writes about in this issue.
It’s called Theocademy, and is being created by the Synod of Mid-America and some of its partners.
Landon Whitsitt, Synod of Mid-America executive, told me “the content of Theocademy is by no means revolutionary. Because we are taking advantage of the precious gifts of some of the PC(USA)’s finest scholars, our seminary professors, anyone who views our lessons will be introduced to the same ideas that pastors and educators have been learning for decades. What sets Theocademy apart is the delivery mechanism. By using the Internet, anyone can access these resources at any time.”
As Leslie’s story notes, the first Theocademy projects help new members understand what they’re getting into and give elders and deacons a better grasp of the ministry to which they are called.
Sometimes years pass before new members learn things they probably should have picked up in the first few months. And although most congregations sincerely try to elect qualified (and called) elders and deacons, being qualified or called doesn’t mean someone knows everything needed to be an effective leader.
The Theocademy videos on the site respond to what Whitsitt calls a longing for such material by people in the pews. But, he says, “This craving leads people to go anywhere they can for biblical and theological education. A lot of folks listen to Christian radio or read popular Christian books that teach a message fundamentally counter to our Reformed understanding of grace and gratitude.”
Some of you know that Whitsitt, former vice-moderator of the General Assembly, has the Presbyterian logo tattooed on his left arm. So I asked Landon whether anyone who completes a Theocademy unit would be required to get one, too. His answer:
“Absolutely. In the words of the baptismal litany: ‘Marked as Christ’s own forever.’”
BILL TAMMEUS is an elder at Second Church in Kansas City, Missouri, and former Faith columnist for The Kansas City Star. Visit his “Faith Matters” blog. Read about his latest book. E-mail him at wtammeus@gmail.com.
