*Editorial Note: Part 1 of Kyuboem’s article, entitled “Seminaries in the Crucible: What is Being Forged?” posted on January 24th. We encourage you to return to this piece if you haven’t read it and then continue to Part 2 below.

Part 1 Review: Seminaries Must Return to their Missiological Calling

The seminary cannot remain apart from the reality on the ground; it must demonstrate that we are in this kingdom work together in this unique time and place. Leadership and faculty who embrace an identity as co-laborers in a larger mission will be able to remake the seminary in service to that mission. What would such a seminary look like? I am not entirely sure, but it would be a worthwhile work to explore further. (Part 1’s conclusion)

 

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Cultivating Communities of Spiritual Formation within Theological Education

Seeing the seminary as more than conferrers of degrees but as a part of the larger Missio Dei (Mission of God) means that theological educators must steward not only how much more knowledgeable the student has become, but also how much more Christlike the student has become. When a student does not demonstrate growth in Christlike character, seminaries have often dismissed the issue, concluding that “This is the local church’s responsibility.” Denominations have also struggled in this area. Ordination exams have historically focused on a candidate’s theological knowledge and agreement with official denominational doctrines, or how skilled they appear to be in drawing a crowd, but have neglected their overall spiritual health and emotional maturity. What seminaries have passed off onto church, the local church has largely tended to ignore as well; what seminaries have focused on, the church has tended to imitate. Obviously, this is a problem.

The cultural upheavals of recent years have severely tested the resources of these under-developed leaders, and the church now finds itself in a leadership crisis of its own making as pastor after pastor burns out, leaving their posts. “Trauma’s Shadow”¹ is a fascinating recent article written by Matt Hufman in the Autumn 2022 issue of In Trust magazine, and is a compilation of an interview with Dr. David C. Wang of the Seminary Formation Assessment Project. In the piece, Dr. Wang points out how both churches and pastors suffer under a system of religious toxic positivity that squelches lament or healthy processing of trauma. “A vibrant spiritual life is one that knows how to walk with Jesus during the light of day and also knows how to walk with Jesus in the night because God is still God in the night,” Wang says. “And frankly, we need more leaders that know how to lead in the night. And in order to do that, they have to go into their own night.”² 

Missional spirituality requires this kind of spiritual depth, and this needs to be distinguished from what we have previously prized: the ability to debate theology or the skills to platform a charismatic personality that will quickly grow a church. Firstly, it requires the capacity to authentically enter into the suffering of others and lament with them, especially those not within our own tribe and those who have been historically marginalized. Additionally, it requires the willingness to undergo a ‘second conversion’ as Peter did in being awakened to the Gentile mission in Acts 10. Lastly, missional spirituality requires the quiet confidence that comes from security in Christ and the great humility to listen to and learn from the world. Leaders who themselves are continually being renewed in this way possess the possibility of forming their congregations in this way as well, thereby opening up the possibility of authentic intercultural mission. 

Missional spirituality requires the capacity to authentically enter into the suffering of others and lament with them, especially those not within our own tribe and those who have been historically marginalized. Share on X

This process of intentional formation does not happen in a vacuum. It requires a discipleship community. A great wound of many pastors has been their loneliness in the ministry. Too many have been without friends to journey with, and in times of stress, their isolation has been too much to bear. Instead of simply treating students as individuals working to get passing grades, theological education must intentionally cultivate spiritual communities for students during their studies, forming the ‘habitus’ of community and discipleship that will continue to nourish them in the years beyond. 

Theological education must intentionally cultivate spiritual communities for students during their studies, forming the ‘habitus' of community and discipleship that will continue to nourish them in the years beyond. Share on X

Therefore, how seminaries set a rhythm for their students in spiritual formation is critical for the overall spiritual health of the church. Tod Bolsinger points out that we default to our training,³ and we have noted this above in how denominations examine ordination candidates. When spiritual formation is central to our training, however, we will better give attention to the spiritual health of leaders we install and the churches they will lead. 

The disruptions of the past few years have demonstrated how much our polarized world and divided congregations cry out for leaders who have both the skills and the humility to lead difficult conversations. Leadership trained to platform their own voices in one-way communication are often unable or unwilling to listen to and hold the tension of disagreements while discerning the Spirit’s leading on the whole community together. But the kind of leaders we need in this cultural moment are people who have learned to process their own darkness. Such leaders are appealing to a world weary of demagogues and religious salespeople. 

Contending for Racial Justice and Unity Among Cultural Diversity in Theological Education

At the top of the list of difficult conversations that need to be ongoing within the church is in the areas of racial justice and unity among cultural diversity. The good news of Jesus who abolished the dividing wall of hostility among ethnicities and cultures, and who made those who were foreigners and aliens into coheirs and family, is sorely needed to be lived out among God’s people and into our society at large. Theological education today must form disciples who will deeply and wisely address the original sin of our nation with the good news of God’s kingdom where justice, reconciliation, and unity among diversity is realized. 

At my institution, Missio Seminary, we have been taking small steps forward in this regard. As faculty, we have the privilege of looking around our classroom (or Zoom screen, depending on the class mode) and seeing diverse ethnicities and cultures helping each other learn to be kingdom citizens from their unique cultural vantage points. This is a glimpse of what Andrew Walls had in mind when he spoke of our time as possessing the possibility of an “Ephesian moment.”⁴  When the different gifts of culture, as unified parts of Christ’s body, speak the truth in love to each other, we will have the possibility of being built up and reaching maturity. 

For this ‘Beloved Community’ to be realized, our seminary classrooms need to look more like the nations that make up the global church today. Segregation, both by law and by choice, continues to define American residential patterns and American congregational patterns. In order for this to change, we need leaders who are being trained within a diverse learning community, and who embody and articulate a vision of diversity that is firmly rooted in the gospel of the kingdom and the mission of God. The classroom must be the laboratory for such a ‘Beloved Community.’

We need leaders who embody and articulate a vision of diversity that is firmly rooted in the gospel of the kingdom and the mission of God. The classroom must be the laboratory for such a ‘Beloved Community.’ Share on X

The Continued Necessity of the Seminary

To return full circle, why are institutions that focus on theological education still necessary for the future health of the Church?

• In summation, because a church leader who acts as their own theological educator will not benefit from the rich community of learning that seminaries can provide — if those seminaries are vitally connected to the mission of God locally and holistic in their approach to community, formation, and the holistic shalom of the world, without being straitjacketed by Christendom traditions or falling victim to the neoliberal siren songs of the spiritual marketplace.

Such a leader wouldn’t even know what they were missing. As Andy Crouch says repeatedly throughout his powerful book Playing God, “Institutions are necessary for flourishing,”⁵ and institutions of theological education are necessary for the flourishing of churches in their life of mission.  

This is a challenging season for seminaries, and we are tempted to reach for quick fixes, making decisions for expediency’s sake rather than discerning the truly missionally strategic pathway forward. But out of this season of upheaval and disruption, I hope and pray that more missionally faithful models of theological education for our time and place will emerge. Such models will need the support of God’s people. Donors will need to step up; churches who share a local mission with the seminary in the same ecosystem will need to share the financial burden of the seminary.

Where are the financial partners, both individuals and churches, of institutions who seek to innovate for the sake of faithful mission in our post-Christendom context? This is a critical question that needs to be answered for the flourishing of the mission of God in North America in the years to come. 

 

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¹ Matt Hufman. “Trauma’s Shadow: Theological schools grapple with how to deal with the reality of trauma.” In Trust Magazine, Center for Theological Schools. Autumn 2022 issue. https://intrust.org/Magazine/Issues/Autumn-2022/Traumas-Shadow, accessed on January 24th, 2023.

² IBID.

³ This concept of Tod Bolsinger’s is adapted from his book Canoeing the Mountains.

⁴ Andrew F. Walls, The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002), 72-84.

⁵ Andy Crouch, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power (Westmont, IL: IVP Books, 2013).