Monday, October 03, 2005
A Conversation on Seminary Education
If you could enact one major change in UMC seminary education, what would it be?
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12 comments:
maybe there should be more practicum, ie. visitations, preaching, dealing with church politics, buying flowers for secretary(s), etc.. wait, i've never graced the halls of a seminary (maybe vanderbilt if you count them) so what do i know?..
I'd eliminate GPA requiremnts to enter seminary, and I'd make financial aid entirely need-based. God sometimes calls people who do not have high IQs, or people who are afflicted by severe learning disablities to be ordianed ministers in God's Church. Sometimes people have trouble in college because they couldn't get an adiquite college-prep education in high-school. For all of these people the MDiv requirement seems to present an insurmountable barrier.
I fully support the ideal of an educated clergy, but an inclusive clergy is more important.
Here's a wild idea. Instead of having a church you go to for an internship at the end of seminary, attach yourself to a healthy, growing church before you go, stay closely connected throughout seminary, and enjoy constant interaction between seminary education and real world ministry. This would work best if two things happen:
1. The church is open to incorporating what you learn in seminary.
2. The seminary is open to the needs and realities of the local church (and not just beholden to academia).
I would add mandatory electives like: "How to kiss up to your D.S. and Bishop" and "Excercise and Fitness in the Pastorate" and "Let me tell you again, sexual harrassment is WRONG!"
I would expand the list of approved seminaries to provide for greater theological diversity and to enable greater flexability particularly for those who are entering seminary later in life and have family obligations. Some people don't go to seminary because it is geographically impossible to do so (e.g. commuting from where they live, where the have a secure job and home.)
We could develop a program to get the required "Wesleyan" triology requirements met post seminary, similiar to what the Episcopal Church has.
Oh, and Candler at Emory has a great contextual ed program. (But they still don't require Greek and Hebrew, oddly enough).
I suspect that in order to make church life and seminary education more closely tied than they are at present would require that M.Div programs be scaled back in size.
Colewake,
I'm an Asbury Seminary grad. Here's something for you to consider: most of the largest and fastest growing churches in my Conference are all pastored by Asbury graduates. I think we need more Asbury's.
I'm an Asbury grad, too, but I think that the winky smiley means, at least in this context, that any school willing to admit "John" should be condemned immediately.
Frankly, Cole may be right.
;-)
Asbury offered me not a cent of scholarship money. Garrett-Evangelical offered me 75%. So by that reasoning, Evanston, Illinois should be nuked.
As always, ;)
Kick out non-Wesleyans.
Derek, do you mean among the profs or the students? Because kicking out the non-Wesleyan students could be a crippling financial blow to any seminary.
1) John Wesley had an M.A. Good enough for J.W., good enough for us. Most M.Div. programs are obscenely long. Asbury is now at 96 hours. 96 hours?
You know, school teachers just need a bachelors degree and then have to fulfill so many hours of continuing education to keep their credentials up.
I will agree that graduate level work is helpful for ministry, but how about 45-60 hours tops plus required continuing ed to keep the credentials up?
2) Seminary is too expensive. What ever can be done to curb costs must be done.
3) I wish more classes at seminary were taught by people who are full-time pastors and part-time professors. Not only would this give students a better glimpse of things to come, it would go a long way to addressing my second comment.
4) Anonymous suggested a sexual harassment class. Look, gang, I think we who watch God's flock just need to keep the same rule as real shepherds- Never, EVER, date the sheep. Is that so tough?
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