A Free Mainline Seminary Education

2011/12/14 By 1 Comment
LPC

Recently Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary announced that they will become the first mainline seminary to charge no tuition for "students in its master’s degree programs in divinity, marriage and family therapy and religion beginning in 2015."  Rather than cutting costs or quality, the school intends to finance this initiative by increasing its endowment and decreasing the number of students admitted (moving from 150 to 130). So What? Many students begin their seminary studies Read More …

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The Future of Seminary Education

2011/11/01 By Leave a Comment
direction

During the months of October and November, Patheos is providing a unique look into the future of seminary education.  They have invited 25 leaders to write blog posts exploring the topic.  In reviewing the October contributions, I found the following remarks of considerable interest: Jim Burklo: "I envision a time when seminaries are better known as retreat centers for lay people than as schools for professional pastors.  If seminaries have a much wider cultural focus and impact, I Read More …

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Being Prepared for Church Administration

2011/09/13 By 1 Comment
Truett Seminary at Baylor University

Yesterday I reviewed Robert Welch's Church Administration: Creating Efficiency for Effective Ministry, 2nd edition (2011).  In that post, I noted that his research shows most pastors graduate from seminary with little or no preparation for church administration even though the average pastor spends around half of her or his time on such tasks. When I entered seminary, I already had a solid educational and experiential background in administration outside of the for-profit sector.  I had Read More …

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Seminary President Discounts Online Theological Education

2011/08/19 By 2 Comments
paige_patterson

Paige Patterson, President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, recently made remarks that counter conventional wisdom and practice in theological education.  Tammi Ledbetter, writing for the Southern Baptist Texan, reports: Patterson’s definition of theological education is to expose students “to great men and women of God, to their lives, their homes, their habits and their commitments,” a process that requires sacrificing the comforts of home. If it were nothing more than Read More …

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Imagine an Institution

2011/06/06 By 2 Comments
imagine

A short illustration, posted on April 20 by Jerry Bowyer on the forbes.com blog, was printed in the May 31, 2011 edition of the Christian Century: Imagine an institution that requires its leaders to attend not only college, but graduate school.  Imagine that the graduate school in question is constitutionally forbidden from receiving any form of government aid, that it typically requires three years of full-time schooling for the diploma, that the nature of the schooling bears almost no Read More …

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Reshaping Seminary Education

2011/03/28 By 1 Comment
Frederick Schmidt

Earlier this month, I wrote "A Shift in Theological Education" to highlight the shift in seminary education from primarily an on campus face-to-face learning experience to one that includes hybrid (using both face-to-face and online components) or online courses.  This shift mirrors what has happened in higher education more generally where online enrollment grew 20% over the most recently available seven year period from 9% to 29%. Interestingly, The Reverend Dr. Frederick W. Schmidt, Jr. Read More …

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A Shift in Theological Education

2011/03/05 By 6 Comments
online students

In the last two weeks two United Church of Christ (UCC) related seminaries have announced plans to launch or expand hybrid or online educational offerings. Andover Newton Theological Seminary will partner with The Alban Institute to offer "courses in church leadership and vitality . . . using Andover Newton’s online learning system and Alban’s authors as instructors."  These four week offerings are designed primarily as continuing education for clergy. Eden Theological Seminary will Read More …

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A Youth Movement in Pastoral Ministry

2010/08/14 By Leave a Comment

Many mainline denominations face or will soon face clergy shortages.  As a result several denominations have and others are in the process of creating guidelines that allow multiple paths to ministry especially to facilitate providing enough clergy to fill pastoral positions in smaller congregations.  Young clergy in their twenties and thirties are increasingly rare and makeup a small percentage of the clergy in any given denominational tradition, especially in traditions where a seminary Read More …

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