Seminaries – financial crisis = time for change?
USA Today reports an interesting take on how seminaries are having to cut costs and deal with the impacts from the financial crisis. Some could argue seminaries have been well insulated from the real-world boom & bust cycle that is affecting most (if not all) other industries & institutions & this article discusses the approach some schools are taking. A Gordon-Conwell Charlotte campus student is mentioned as one example of the changing approach to seminary.
Leonard Sweet offers a different take on how seminaries need to evolve. In the March/April 2008 edition of Rev! magazine he makes a compelling argument for the transformation of what a seminary education looks like.
While most seminaries now offer online classes, so do most local community colleges. Sweet argues much more needs to be done to train future leaders of the church. Read ‘Not Your Fathers Seminary’ (link opens .PDF document on Sweet’s site).
Sweet argues that much of the learning going on in today’s schools prepares students for a world that just is no longer there. For example, while most all in seminary understand the need & reason why we write 15 page research papers many wonder if they will ever use that skill again. Yes, it builds critical thinking & writing skills, of course. But the method & delivery to impart those skills needs updating for a ‘Google’ world. What if we were able to deliver our research and show we’ve learned our skills through other resources? Why not utilize the 5 major media sources we have today: print, audio, video, internet or software? What if for my church history class I developed a interactive website that guided people through an interactive guide to the Reformation, highlighting the work of Luther, Zwingli and Calvin? What if a video project was done that illustrated the different church planting movements through the ages? Or how the Inquisition impacted the people of that time?
What’s really intriguing is the impact projects like these could have on the world outside seminaries. Most research papers, once graded will never see the light of day again. Projects like what I mentioned above could be used in many ways to educate & inform those not in seminary. For example, using the video project in teaching a small group or discipleship class.
Sweet continues on to say the “accumulation of knowledge does not lead to the formation of the person. The accumulation of courses does not lead to the formation of a pastor.” By significantly transforming the shape of a student’s approach to learning and what the core curriculum looks like much different results will happen. While not neglecting the standard parts of a curriculum such as theology, church history, and a core knowledge of the Bible a larger focus is placed on leadership development, character, missional passion & spiritual authenticity.
This all ties into Sweet’s overall belief in the need for a more fluid approach to ministry (see Sweet’s book AquaChurch 2.0). There are many logistical questions raised by this approach to seminary education, but due to the financial concerns raised by the USA Today article it may be time to rethink the approach in the future.
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