My
friend Terrell Carter is something of a “renaissance man.” A former police officer and now artist, entrepreneur,
pastor, and academic, Dr. Carter has a new book coming from Wipf and Stock in
the fall entitled "The Lord Gave Me This: Understanding the Historic
Leadership Development Practices of the Black Church in Order to Prepare Its
Leaders of Tomorrow.”
Carter
explains that preaching, community, and calling are the key requirements to
become an effective pastor in the African-American church and, therefore, are
important to the pastor’s preparation for ministry. The centrality of
story-telling and an oral tradition in the African culture makes proclamation a
true sign of one’s divine call. The call is affirmed by the community and the
gift of proclamation is nurtured in community.
This
approach sharply contrasts to the western model where ministerial identity is
shaped through reading, writing, and reflection in a community apart from the
church where one may have “felt the call” to the ministry. This is a more “professional” approach to ministry
formation. Carter argues for the
vitality of the African-American model and the challenge for established
theological schools to understand this. In fact, the African-American model is often
seen as inferior and ineffective.
Carter
is not anti-education. He serves as Assistant
Professor of Practical Theology and Director of Contextualized Learning at
Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kansas, where he seeks to
implement an approach to theological education that values and builds upon the
learner’s culture.
If
we take seriously his observations, we will understand that this concept applies
to other settings as well. Central
Seminary has programs for Koreans, Burmese, and other ethnic groups. How do members of those groups learn? What concepts of western academia are
transferable and which need to be translated for a different cultural milieu?
I
encountered this in June when I taught a Doctor of Ministry seminar that
included a minister from Myanmar (Burma).
He graciously explained that some western concepts like personal autonomy
had to be tempered in his culture where community life and tribal connections
are paramount. The Burmese struggle with
our practices of individualism and ego-centrism which seem very “foreign” to
them.
Culture
does matter. The way we perceive reality is shaped by our experiences and
expectations. When we ignore that truth,
learning becomes not only difficult but unlikely. Accommodating culture while still nurturing effective
Christian leaders is one of the significant challenges of our time.
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