Those who read this issue of the Presbyterian Outlook likely bring different assumptions about theological education. To focus my own thoughts on the future of theological education, I consider three different conversations. The distinctions among them are important, for they touch on my concerns and hopes about how we regard theological education in the days ahead.
The industry, the institution and the baptismal right
- Theological education can be thought of, first, as an industry. In this industry, much alert and even alarmed attention is churning right now. Daily articles in varied publications explore the present and future of higher education. Schools are merging. Schools are closing. A new generation wonders whether the benefits of college or graduate school merit the investment. In some circles, credentialing is becoming more flexible. AI, on the heels of internet accessibility and virtual connectivity, is sharpening questions about the shape and even purpose of formal schooling.
- A second conversation centers on theological education as institution. Seminaries are institutions. In June, administrators shared in learning and missional encouragement at the Association of Theological Schools biennial assembly, followed by cherished time among Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminary leaders at the General Assembly. This is good and valuable company. Together we listen deeply to the voices of the church, study the needs of the world, foster theological reflection, refresh our missions and strengthen best practices. Some readers may wonder what our seminaries will look like in 10 years. Those who think of schools with interest may ask: Who will be teaching? What will be studied and taught? How? Who will be learning?
- That last question reflects a third understanding of theological education, which I hold as an urgent hope for the future. Namely, theological education may be understood as the nurturing, formational, baptismal right of every child of God.
Theological education as a God-given right is my ultimate focus here. Church-facing institutions can serve this aim deliberately and well. And by the grace of God, an industry can generate fresh insights and resources to bless the world and the church. But theological education cannot be understood as belonging to institutions and industries seeking to serve God’s mission.
Stewards of the mission of learning
At the Presbyterian university where my seminary is embedded, we are exploring what it means to steward a mission of learning with the surrounding community. This work has been inspired by the vision articulated by David J. Staley and Dominic D. J. Endicott in their 2023 book Knowledge Towns: Colleges and Universities as Talent Magnets. I have participated in conversations reframing colleges as knowledge enterprises: teaching and learning with and for the sake of the cities where they are located.
The familiar model of a college – as a select population of traditional students, sitting together at the same time in traditionally configured classrooms, with content delivered via traditional lectures on a campus that may be near or far from students’ homes and jobs – is not adequate today for promoting a far-reaching mission of learning and formation. Rather, in a knowledge enterprise that is embedded and embodied in the wider community, there is a vision of stewarding gifts and resources across the neighborhoods and city center. All are invited to contribute to and benefit from learning and development.
This vision seems to be more in step with the call to kingdom flourishing in God’s beloved world. Schools may be well-poised to convene or “cluster” talent — but the talent is now found across the community. Schools may host or generate scholarship, reflection and innovation — but scholarship, reflection and innovation now include people who are not employed or enrolled at the school. Talents abound.
Education and formation are essential to a strong church and a flourishing world. This understanding is not just something I read in a book; I also have witnessed it among congregations responding to God’s Spirit. Between 2019 and 2022, my seminary supported a partial teaching release so that I could serve bivocationally. I ministered as presbytery leader among the churches of Glacier, one of two presbyteries in Montana. Of the numerous gifts I received during that time, two were particularly influential.
The familiar model of a college – as a select population of traditional students, sitting together at the same time in traditionally configured classrooms, with content delivered via traditional lectures on a campus that may be near or far from students’ homes and jobs – is not adequate today for promoting a far-reaching mission of learning and formation.
First, the pastors and congregations I served were diverse and resilient. The churches were often small; many lacked installed, full-time pastors. So these leaders and churches leaned into change and ministry with flexibility and curiosity. They explored training their own commissioned pastors. They strengthened yoked and union churches. They organized a small-town ecumenical parish with shared leadership. They supported rotations of ruling elder preachers as the supply for Lord’s Day worship. They helped their neighbors when COVID-19 struck. I was inspired by people on both sides of the pulpit and pews who were running with their gifts and carrying on being church to God’s glory and the blessing of their towns. They redoubled my commitment to support them in every way possible so that they might worship and serve with every measure of confidence.
At the same time, I had the second privilege of meeting with supportive and talented leaders through the acute phase of COVID-19. I have similarly been moved by the earnest and devoted service of colleagues in mid-councils who are leading congregations through today’s shifting realities. The wisdom, scholarship and creativity found across our denomination, and indeed the wider ecumenical church, are a great wealth. God has provided abundantly for the nurture of a church that is salt and light in a world longing to experience good news.
Deliberate attention is needed
In this general call to support and enjoy the perpetual and lively education of the whole church, I see particular aspects of theological education that need deliberate attention in the future that is arriving now.
If we want the church to be strong, anchored, steady and faithful amid changes, we must correct any misperceptions about those for whom our theological education is intended. Our invitation and practice must insist that such education belongs to the whole church. I love the prayer in the daily office on Mondays for “the ministry of all of the baptized.” Each Monday morning, I pray that all the baptized will experience support for their daily lives as ministry. In addressing this, we continue to need the “clustering of theological talent” represented in part by the scholarship of dedicated theologians. They devote their gifts to research and publication and teaching and reflection in service of the church. And we continue to need robust education and formation for those whose professions require degrees not just as credentials but as relevant training.
However, learning, ministering and even “doing theology” and “thinking theologically” need to be widely comprehended – again – as the baptismal right of every child of God. The professionalization of ministry has left a sad legacy for many nonclergy who are not understood to have a vocation. It also has placed a great burden upon the smaller circles of professional ministers.
The professionalization of ministry has left a sad legacy for many nonclergy who are not understood to have a vocation. It also has placed a great burden upon the smaller circles of professional ministers.
I was struck the first few times I heard individuals express that they would like to take a formal class on the Old Testament or participate in a workshop on visiting the hospital, but that they were not called to be a pastor or to be ordained as a teaching elder. In recognition of this perception, our seminary changed the name of our certificate program to the Congregational Equipping Program. In schools creating a variety of educational offerings for the church, including brief courses of study, some fear that theological education for the church will be watered down. But we are not arguing for less education for anyone — rather, we want to offer more education for everyone.
The narrative that centers formal theological education – for a small, select group of people who either are called to seminary because they are special, or become special because they go to seminary – is stirring, but it is not good theology. Many seminary admissions essays have humbled and encouraged me. I have my own journey story. However, my ultimate vocation was not to be a seminarian, any more than it was to be a collegiate or a confirmand.
Every member of the body of Christ benefits from theological education that deepens faith and builds confidence in the ministry represented in daily life.
All relationships of teaching and mentoring have been greatly, maybe even indispensably, useful in following Christ. But pastors, leaders and disciples are raised in and across the church by the grace of God. Schools, even seminaries, have the privilege of serving the church with dedicated expertise and resources, but none can claim to be the alma mater. The PC(USA) has a rich tradition of Christian education. We have a dedicated process to offer care and intentional education for those seeking ordination as teaching elders. In some cases, the process also exists to support those receiving commissions or certification. These values and baptismal commitments apply to all. Every member of the body of Christ benefits from attention from other members in comprehending the full meaning of their baptism and discerning their gifts. Every member of the body of Christ benefits from theological education that deepens faith and builds confidence in the ministry represented in daily life.
Intentional collaboration is needed
Along with being broadly available, theological education at its best is collaborative. We must be increasingly intentional to practice it as such. In a technological age of unparalleled accessibility and connectivity, the tragedy is that we can use these qualities to our diminishment. While we can find fresh and diverse company for doing theology, we also can endlessly curate a circle of those like ourselves.
With personalized playlists and channels, for example, I never have to listen to a song that is not my music. In theological education, we similarly become impoverished in the absence of the songs, voices, perspectives and gifts of others. We become less the people whom God has called us to be. Beyond the church, our society is growing brittle and thin, assisted by tools and systems leveraged toward polarization, marginalization and isolation. But the church can share gospel hope in both substance and form.
To benefit from theological education as a whole body of Christ, we must continue to choose to exercise relationships, engage in formation and do theology together. We must do so across culture, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, generation, education, nationality, economics, denomination, theology, political party and other distinctive perspectives and contexts. When we engage in life and theological reflection together, our understandings of humanity, God, the gospel and the kingdom expand and deepen.
Education and formation are essential to a strong church and a flourishing world.
For collaborative education in the future, I hope we will also expand partnerships among congregations, councils and seminaries. The shared sense of mission among our PC(USA) seminaries is already encouraging. But substantial partnerships between church and academy hold particular fruitfulness. This commitment lies behind some of my school’s partnered educational offerings, which pair professors and church leaders in teaching. We value the church engagement of those who teach, and we value the teaching of those who minister in the church and world. Together churches and seminaries are called to equip members to be theologically rooted and capable wherever they find themselves.
Good collaboration assumes that one brings something to offer. Theological education must deliberately nurture a deep understanding of one’s primary tradition. For the PC(USA), this is our Reformed tradition. As we refresh our curriculum, my seminary has heard this appeal in focus groups conducted with some committees and presbyteries. In the swirl are such questions as these: What beliefs do we hold that are common to our faith family? Why do some of us choke up when we sing “Amazing Grace”? Why are we compelled to keep wrestling with the Bible in our thirst to encounter the living Word? Why does even a glimmer of the lordship of Christ nourish hope and justice as we make our way through life? Every member should have the opportunity to fully steward this faith, to be glad that this faith is in them in their daily lives and communities.
In the AI age, theological education also needs to protect its commitment to forming hearts, minds and lives. Are we a people who pray? Do we share fellowship and communion? Will we disciple one another? AI has made available tremendous access to (and interpretation of) information. Already this access is both exciting and overwhelming. We need to equip people to find, evaluate and engage the best and most relevant information. But we also must remember that receiving or producing information is not the whole of education, which is incomplete without forming lives.
With agentic or generative AI, one can already delegate reflection or discernment to agents or bots. I am concerned that the day is here when, seeking efficient approaches in the complex demands of practical ministry, many reach primarily for AI advice and tools. As we share in education, will we equip and form the members of the body to attend to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to seek the wisdom of the community of faith and to love God and neighbor with personal “energy, intelligence, imagination and love”?
We have an important choice to navigate AI in ways that strengthen rather than weaken our learning and faith practices. That navigation requires us to resist offloading the struggling that grows us and forms us. Under heavy demands, we can find it easy to wield technological efficiencies to the point where we diminish the “inefficiencies” of spacious reflecting, wondering, waiting, trying, engaging, wrestling, maturing. We need to call one another to choose, again and again, to do ministry distinctively as embodied humans, called by a God who chose to become incarnate, empowered by a Spirit poured out upon a gathered people. We must choose to wrestle prayerfully with a biblical text — to discern its message in light of what is happening in the world this day. We must choose to exercise the compassion of Christ — required to uniquely articulate the gospel at the graveside of a child. We must choose to make ourselves vulnerable to the suffering of others — in order to justly serve the world that God so loves.
One of the treasures of the PC(USA) that I cherish most is our articulation of the Great Ends of the Church. They ring true and transcendent, serving God’s glory and the world’s blessing across the ages and around the globe. We have innumerable means by which we can participate in the Great Ends, thanks be to God, and the call is common and good. Theological education and formation are relevant for strengthening any and all of us in any and all of them. Much is up in the air about what the industry or institutions of theological education may look like in the future. But I pray that they will be serving alongside the church to nurture and form all the baptized, so that we may participate in God’s redemptive work with hope, fruitfulness and love.
