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Pastoral Intelligence: A Book Review

In  Pastoral Intelligence:  Why Your Emotional Health is the Key to Your Church’s Health , Maurice Graham has shared not only from his lifetime of ministry, but what he has learned from two decades of counseling clergy. Although Graham incorporates the work of emotional intelligence by Daniel Goleman, the concept of Pastoral Intelligence adds theological intelligence or one’s relationship with God to the mix.   The first part of the book, Graham describes the Transforming Self Triangle.   He shares not only the results of his research related to clergy experience that inform this model, but examples of how this process has been used in his work with clergy.  He builds this personal development model on the work of the Holy Spirit in the clergy person’s life.  From the theological perspective, he notes, “Ministers have to understand that God is always at work in the background. The invisible God is made visible in Christ as redemption is taking place, not only in our past and present bu
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The Editors: A Book Review

I know enough about the Internet, websites, and digital media to be dangerous.  I have no idea about how some of these things work, but I find them useful.  One website I use regularly is Wikipedia.  I occasionally see notes there about “insufficient citations”, “major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with the subject,” or “article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.”  I did not have a clue what these notations mean, who provides them, or how corrections are made until I read The Editors .   The Editors by Stephen Harrison (no relation) provides some insight about this type of resource.  With assistance from some within the Wikipedia community, Harrison has written a “reported work of fiction” about Infopendium.org, a global source of information, and its impact on society.   Harrison’s characters help us understand what drives a person to devote a significant portion of their lives to editing a worldwide encyclopedia—power, greed

The Future of Theological Education: New Approaches to Curriculum, Degrees, and Learning

In recent years, seminaries have made many changes in their basic degree program, the Master of Divinity.  This degree has traditionally prepared individuals to serve churches and is required for ordination in many denominations.    The number of hours in the program have been reduced, and most schools offer a full degree online. Even so, the enrollment in MDiv programs has declined.    During the same period, Master of Arts programs have grown. Some of these have provided basic theological education for those who will serve churches in specific areas and have designations such as the MA in Christian Ministry, Christian Leadership, and Educational Ministry.  Other programs are more oriented toward research and may be designated as the MA in Theological Studies or Biblical Studies.  Some programs are professional in nature such as the MA in Counseling or Christian Counseling.   Concentrations and options continue to multiple, but often the common denominator is that these degrees requir

The Future of Theological Education: Hybrid and Online Programs

Twenty years ago, the Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship partnered with Central Seminary in Shawnee, KS, to open a satellite center in middle Tennessee.  The seminary also opened two other sites at that time.  Classes took place on Friday evenings and on Saturdays.  Professors came from Kansas to teach, and we also enlisted supplemental faculty from the local area. In the following years, Central added online classes that our students could access. Eventually, the seminary was able to offer a full Master of Divinity degree online.  When COVID struck, this strategy was a godsend! Today most institutions of higher learning including theological schools offer both hybrid programs and online programs. Hybrid programs combine online and in person experiences. Online learning offers flexibility, accessibility, and scalability and in-person learning providing opportunities for hands-on experience, collaboration, and networking. It is clear, however, that online learning will continue to

The Future of Theological Education: The Changing Context

Theological education as we have known it will never be the same. The changes that seminaries must adopt are driven by the North American context in which they work and the constituencies they serve.   First, the church constituency has changed.   The number of Christian churches is in decline.  It is not just that many churches are closing their doors.   One source indicates that more than 4000 churches close their doors every year, but there are just over 1000 new church starts!  The number of churches is not keeping up with population growth. Every year, 2.7 million church members fall into inactivity. In addition, half of all churches in the US did not add any new members to their ranks in the last two years. Those mainline churches that are still active tend to have fewer participants and a lower level of giving.   In a recent article , Denise Craig noted that church salary increases are not keeping up with the rate of inflation. For ministry employees, this means the money they

Tomorrow's Seminary Students

If you are involved in a church or denomination, you may has asked the question, “Where are our future clergy leaders?”     Many denominations struggle to find pastors or to bring women and men into the ordination track.     Seminaries address this from the standpoint not only of how they can serve the churches’ needs, but how can they provide theological education and spiritual formation for the society at large.     They ask, “Who is in the next generation of seminary students?”   If I may use the term, here are key “markets” for theological education to consider in the new future:   “Pipeline” clergy.  These are individuals who are active in their congregations and have experienced a vocational call to ministry.  In the past, these tended to be young adults who either came to faith in the church or in a parachurch ministry. There are still many of these folks out there, but increasingly the seminaries are enrolling women and men who are mid or late career individuals.  They have ser

Today’s Seminary Student

What does today’s seminary student look like?    This is a big question, but I would like to address this from one perspective.   This week I will wrap up two years as interim director of Contextualized Learning at Central Seminary in Shawnee, KS.  Over the past twenty years, I have been associated with the seminary in various ways—director of the Tennessee site in Murfreesboro, supplemental instructor in several areas, designer of the contextualized learning component of the CREATE program, interim director of the Doctor of Ministry program, faculty advisor, and financial supporter.   Over those twenty years, the Master of Divinity program has evolved in structure and in accessibility.  Central aggressively developed satellite centers in the early 2000’s and programs specially for Korean students.  Central had already moved to an online program prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, so they were ahead of the game in offering a degree that was affordable and accessible for student wherever th