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Note #8285 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04299
June 21, 2004

Different sorts of seminaries

Northwest Graduate School, People's Seminary plow 'Tierra Nueva'
in theological education

by Jerry L. Van Marter

BURLINGTON, WA - The storefront that houses Tierra Nueva ("New Land") is a
veritable beehive of activity.

	The seven staff members and a host of volunteers, including a
Princeton Theological Seminary intern, scurry about teaching English as a
Second Language classes, shepherding uncertain-looking mothers, fathers and
kids into the family support center, directing shabbily-dressed street people
to the "emergency clothing" room downstairs, stopping to offer words of
encouragement to the myriad local residents who just seem drawn to the place.
Tierra Nueva is also home to a worshiping community - Road to Emmaus - that
holds two services weekly, led by Presbyterians and Lutherans.

	It's an island of hope and promise to the largely Hispanic immigrant
population that comprises much of this agricultural town 30 miles north of
Seattle. This is where many of their immediate needs are met - but Tierra
Nueva is much much more.

	The second floor of its building is home to The People's Seminary, an
innovative theological school designed to develop Hispanic lay church leaders
and to help equip Anglo Christians who want to serve Hispanic communities.

	"We provide perspectives informed by both the street and the
sanctuary, the jail and the monastery, the fields and the academy, the
marketplace and the migrant camp, the South and the North, the mainstream and
the margins," director Bob Ekblad writes in the seminary's catalog.

	Luz Maria Cabrera, Tierra Nueva's director of training for the
Spanish-speaking communities, says: "It's important, because it's the only
program at this level of theological study that's in Spanish. Many churches
want to start Hispanic ministries, but they don't have enough trained
leaders. We want to help churches open their doors and hearts, which will
really empower our community."

	In 2003, 750 students participated in the two programs offered at The
People's Seminary. The diploma program consists of four courses and is open
to students of all ethnicities. The certificate program, which provides entry
into Master of Divinity degree programs, is open only to Spanish-speakers.

	Seattle Presbytery is a key booster (and client) of The People's
Seminary, sending many of its new immigrant church leaders there for course
work in advance of being commissioned as Lay Pastors in the Presbyterian
Church (USA).

	The seminary is ideal, Seattle executive presbyter Boyd Stockdale
says, for immigrant leaders "who are hungry for theological education and
training, but who don't have the time, money or cultural inclination to
attend our more formal theological institutions."

	For those who wish to pursue advanced theological degrees, The
People's Seminary partners with Northwest Graduate School (NGS) in Seattle,
the brainchild of renowned urban evangelist and theologian Ray Bakke.

	Seattle Presbytery regularly channels its new immigrant leaders
through The People's Seminary and on to NGS.

	"We are trying to reach the last, the least and the lost," says John
Sharpe, TITLE of NGS. "The academy gets so far away from the people who need
it most, and it winds up only being for the privileged few."

	NGS offers a Master of Theological Studies degree. "We're trying to
create a seamless road from The People's Seminary's certificate to all other
degree programs, including ours and the M.Div," says Sharpe.

	The 250 NGS students come from all around the world. Twenty to 30
percent are international students. The program is modular and intensive;
students immerse themselves in courses, one week at a time.

	The school strives to achieve what Bakke calls "global urban
transformational ministry."

	Clarke says that means "taking people who are effective leaders, not
in academy but in mission, and bringing them into the educational grid, so
they can teach the next generation of leaders."

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