Bill Bosker concluded, rightly in my opinion that there is no way of avoiding all the weaknesses of campus based theological education without losing some of its strengths.
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11 comments:
Hmm. So, how to decide? It is a question of weighing up the losses and gains I guess...
I think I'd default to the deeper, richer experience of campus-based, with in-house internships before or after college to make up the losses.
Your key leaders, the first priority, will be best trained this way.
But in a place like Sydney, where there is the time, energy and resources, I imagine there'd be great benefit in offering campus-based training for second-tier leaders. Not everyone needs, or even fully benefits from, campus-based study.
I'm only a semester into campus-based training, so I no nussing --
But I reckon the key to making campus-based training count is to integrate it with in-church training/mentoring/leadership, which doesn't seem to be especially consistent anywhere (even outside of college years).
Arthur
I think Luke got way more out of college ( spiritually and ministry experience) than i expected. I thought he would just have more knowledge and I was concerned about his opportunities for ministry experience, especially considering he didn't do an internship first.
But given the opportunities and challenges that Luke had doing his placements and being on "chapel teams" he is pretty well prepared. plus the "curacy" model of the Anglican church is a good way of easing a new minister into full-time service.
We'll see in two years...
Some colleges do indeed do a great job.
I suspect that in many colleges the practical focus can be improved while retaining a solid basis, by better linking "theoretical" subjects like Scripture, Theology, and Church History to practical dilemmas.
That's true for just about every kind of vocational university training (Medicine, Engineering, etc.)
Still, all those vocations agree that campus-based training plus mentored practical experience is the best combination.
Yes, we are thinking through some of this here at Moore. I think adding ministry/practical subjects as extra discreet subjects is not the way to go - it leads to an inflated course programme, and it isn't the best way to learn that stuff. However, every teacher of a core academic subject HAS to be fired up about ministry and thought through on how the subject hits paydirt in the gritty real life of day to day ministry...
sorry in my first comment i should've written
"In a place like Sydney... in offering church-based training..."
Michael - I'm inclined to agree. You need a different kind of training institution for practical training and it confuses the goals of a theological college to try to do both.
Once you start offering preaching classes, why not counselling classes, spreadsheet classes, cooking classes, netiquette classes, group dynamics classes and phone answering classes? All of these are key practical outworkings of minsitry and theological graduates can be poor at all of them!
wrt mentoring/student minister positions/curacy:
I suspect that many students find the attempted practical dimensions of theological colleges a little annoying at times.
I also suspect that student-minister positions are token at best and taxing at worst. Perhaps admitting they are token is a helpful thing!
And lastly, I believe that mentoring is best encouraged in the culture rather than legislated by the institution (eg curacy).
Not everyone needs, or even fully benefits from, campus-based study.And I'd say this would include elders. Not every church elder needs or would benefit from a campus-based theological education. I think it's important NOT to make a degree a requirement for eldership.
@Mikey. Once you start offering preaching classes, why not counselling classes, spreadsheet classes, cooking classes, netiquette classes, group dynamics classes and phone answering classes? All of these are key practical outworkings of ministry and theological graduates can be poor at all of them!When SMBC began its School of Preaching I initially felt that by putting a priority on preaching they were, impicitly, choosing to neglect other areas of spiritual disciplines. I think I said at the time that a "School of Listening" would be as good an idea.
But I'm not so sure now. We need more and better preachers as a first priority. Yes we need more and better listeners etc. But preaching must be a priority. Which I assume is why you are helping out in Melbourne at the Xpose Preaching Conf. If it's important, why not have a Bible College reflect that in its curriculum.
@Michael Jensen. However, every teacher of a core academic subject HAS to be fired up about ministry and thought through on how the subject hits paydirt in the gritty real life of day to day ministry...I reckon that most teachers would agree with you. But the way they put their passion into practise differs so broadly that students don't get the benefit. eg. For some thought out teachers, knowing Greek back-to-front is the best way to be prepared for day to day ministry while for others, distilling theology down to bite size "big ideas" will cure all ills.
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