EFC's Significant Church Report and Seminary Education

I was perusing the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's 2023 Significant Church Small Church Research Study the other day. The section entitled, "Quality of formal theological education." caught my attention. The authors conclude:

Clearly the small church pastors we interviewed and surveyed felt their ministry preparation was inadequate, especially their formal theological education. Theological institutions tend to prepare pastors to be specialists, concentrating on specific areas of ministry (i.e., preaching, youth, evangelism, etc.) which, in reality, is preparing pastors for specialized roles in large church ministry. Too often pastors told us they were learning by trial and error, a situation considered unacceptable in other professions such as medicine or law. Bible colleges and seminaries need to develop small church ministry tracks that include training for the competencies small church pastors need. If Bible colleges and seminaries cannot or will not teach these, then other means of ministry preparation need to be developed by denominations and other ministries that support small churches and small church pastors (p. 91).

These findings confirm other things I've read about pastors feeling ill-prepared for ministry upon graduation. I've written about competency-based theological education (CBTE) in my dissertation and I think it has some merit, although I'm not convinced it is the right path forward for small church preparation. 

I just finished re-reading a convocation address delivered on September 16, 2003 in Miller Chapel by former Princeton Theological Seminary president, Thomas W. Gillespie. The title of the speech is "Why A Theological Education?" His address provides, I think, an excellent perspective for those of us hoping to do a better job of preparing clergy for ministry, especially in small churches. Near the conclusion he states,

The problem for the theological seminary is that sciences can be taught and learned, but arts can only be exemplified and emulated. As Michael Polanyi explains: "An art which cannot be specified in detail cannot be transmitted by prescription, since no prescription for it exists. It can be passed on only by example from master to apprentice" (Polanyi, Personal Knowledge, 53).

Gillespie then recounts a personal story from his past about meeting with ministerial colleagues wherein one person surprised him asserting, "we learn ministry from the significant pastors we have known, not from theological seminaries." Gillespie was taken aback since his seminary experience had been so positive. The following week he continued thinking about his colleague's statement, reflecting again and again on where and how he learned how to practice the art of ministry. He concludes, "to my surprise, I traced every single activity back to the pastors who had influenced my life."

I am beginning to wonder how I can take this knowledge and use my position as a Seminary dean to make a meaningful shift in how we think about education that will make a difference in the lives of Canadian pastors and churches. The classroom may be important, but opportunities to observe seasoned practitioners, learning with and from them in ministry contexts, are also desperately needed. I covet your thoughts, ideas, and prayers.

 

Free Online Counselling for Multivocational Ministers and Families

Here's a great opportunity:

The Canadian Thriving Multivocational Ministry project (CTMM) offers free online counselling to people who are multivocational and work in ministry, and to their immediate family members. The CTMM is a funded 5-year project that is a partnership between Briercrest College and Seminary and New Leaf Network to support multivocational leaders by providing a variety of supports. If you are interested in learning more about the free counselling available for yourself or your immediate family, please email CTMMCounselling@briercrest.ca.

CPE and Chaplaincy MDiv

I was inspired by Regent College's summer announcement that they have started a chaplaincy focused MDiv. They are giving twelve transfer credits for 2 units of Clinical Psychospiritual Education (CPE). If you are not familiar with CPE units, they are 400 hours of immersive education in a clinical setting (usually a healthcare setting like a hospital) meant to prepare spiritual care practitioners and religious leaders for ministry.

Chaplaincy education, with an integrated CPE program, is something I am interested in exploring. I think it could be a good fit for Briercrest Seminary, especially with my work in military chaplaincy and we have a CPE teaching centre located just down the road in Regina. I am hoping to teach an introductory course on spiritual care and chaplaincy this fall, as a way to educate those who many be interested and gauge interest levels in a possible degree program. If you are interested in Saskatchwan's CPE programs, you can read more here. If you want to know more about the Briercrest chaplaincy course, be sure to check the Seminary website. The course schedule should be posted in the coming weeks.

New Year's Goals

Every year our family looks back at some of the most significant moments. We each write our most meaningful or important memories on pieces of paper and slip them into a jar. Every year we fill a new container and reflect back at the jars of former years. We also set some goals for the year ahead.

Three years ago I set a goal to get a book review published. It happened. In 2021 I wanted to get an article published. It happened in early 2022. In 2022 I wanted to get my dissertation published. I signed the contract the past fall. This coming year I want to see my dissertation published and I want to have another book project proposal accepted. It's amazing how small, incremental goals lead toward larger ones that seem unattainable at the beginning.

Here are some of my other goals in no particular order:

Run 10km (not every day, just once).

Open my prayer journal every day.

Drive to the mountains with my wife.

Write two book chapters.

I am grateful that I have been able to see so many goals accomplished. I am looking forward to digging in again this year.

 

Doug Moo

Ever have a flash of inspiration that leads to rejection? It happens to me fairly regularly. The inspiration and rejection. Yet, sometimes inspiration leads to a breakthrough.

One of my roles as Dean of the Seminary entails finding course instructors. This is quite a task for a school that relies heavily on adjuncts to teach courses. Since most of our courses are week-long modular intensives, it is not as daunting as it would be if I had to find locals in small town Saskatchewan to teach specialized graduate level courses. 

Since I have only been on the job five months, I am still figuring out how things work. In this case, I decided to reach out to some of the best educators I could think of. Douglas Moo was my first choice for Pauline Epistles. If you don't know Doug Moo, here's what Wikipedia says about him:

Douglas J. Moo (born March 15, 1950) is a Reformed New Testament scholar who, after teaching for more than twenty years at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, has served as Blanchard Professor of New Testament at the Wheaton College Graduate School since 2000. He received his Ph.D. at the University of St. Andrews, in St. Andrews, Scotland.

Moo has published several theological works and commentaries on the Bible; notable among them are An Introduction to the New Testament (with D.A. Carson and Leon Morris) and The Epistle to the Romans (part of the New International Commentary on the New Testament series). His current research interests are Romans, Pauline theology (and exegesis) and environmental theology. He has been a member of the translation committee that produced the NIV and TNIV since 1996, and is its current Chair. He previously edited Trinity Journal.

In 2014, a Festschrift was published in his honour. Studies in the Pauline Epistles: Essays in Honor of Douglas J. Moo included contributions from G. K. Beale, Craig Blomberg, James Dunn, Grant R. Osborne, Thomas R. Schreiner, and N. T. Wright. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_J._Moo)

Now that you know a bit more about him, you might appreciate how this "flash of inspiration" would almost certainly result in rejection. I emailed him asking him to consider coming to southern Saskatchewan to teach. In the subject line I wrote "Shot in the Dark". 

Doug emailed back and accepted my offer. Yes, you read that correctly. He's in. So, Doug Moo is coming to teach a one-week Pauline Epistles course at Briercrest Seminary. Please join us in October 2023 to learn from one of foremost New Testament scholars. Stay tuned for more details.

 

Update on making time to write

I thought it would be helpful to provide an update on my Sept. 12th blog entry, "Making time to write". At that time I was just starting to roll out of bed early. Now, three months later, I am astounded how much I've accomplished and the ideas that are emerging.

In these short months, I've written and submitted two articles to academic journals; both are currently undergoing peer review. I sent one to Teaching Theology and Religion and another to Canadian Military Journal. Now I am in the final stages of editing my PhD dissertation for publication. By the end of the month I will submit it to Wipf and Stock. My editor is concerned with the title, "In Vitro Education" so I am revising it to be less edgy and more mysterious. I'm toying with the term "Glassroom" as a way to hold onto "In vitro" (meaning "within the glass" or "inside glass") while avoiding the ideas associated with fertilization. I am aiming to submit my manuscript at the end of this month and the title may be something like "Glassroom Learning: virtual culture and online pastoral education".

In the new year I have more projects to tend. I've committed to review two books: one on multivocational ministry for Faith Today and the other deals with chaplaincy and spiritual care for Religious Studies Review (RSR). I am also hoping to start two book projects, one on technology and theology with my colleague, Joel Houston, and the other on multivocational ministry.

It may sound strange but I think these ideas are from God. They seem to be part of my new vocation as a professor and academic administrator. I have such clear ideas about things to write about and the energy and capacity to do them, I'm becoming convinced they are part of a calling into academic service; they are truly gifts from God. I'm grateful for this new calling and I look forward to seeing these projects and others become reality. 

Spiritual Theology

I have been teaching Spiritual Theology in the college this semester. It's a first year course focused on learning how to live Christian theology in the world. We've talked about spiritual disciplines, money, sex, and power. We've also taken time to read excepts from the writings of long dead saints. It has been amazing.

The best part has been hearing how the students are processing the ideas that arise in the class. They have inspired me to look at things from a different perspective and I suspect I've done the same for them. This past Tuesday I divided students into two groups and asked them to prepare for Thursday's class but researching one of two approaches to handling Scripture: one group was asked to look at traditional Bible Study methods while the other was invited to dig into Lectio Divina. On Thursday they squared off in a lighthearted debate about which approach is better. There were so many excellent perspectives raised on both sides!

This week is our final week of class and I'm sad it is coming to an end. I celebrate meeting and growing with the Spiritual Theology students. After Christmas I get to do it all over again with a whole different group of students as I teach a totally new subject, public speaking.