wfn.org | Editorial: Revamping theological education

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3011 Edition

>November 9~15, 2009

>Editorial: Revamping theological education

>Translated by Lydia Ma

When Dr. George L. Mackay arrived to Tamsui 137

years ago, it probably never crossed his mind that he

would begin a new era of education in Taiwan and set

an example for future generations of educators on how

to “do” education. Mackay taught his students by the

river, on the street, sitting underneath a tree, by the

sea, at his home, and he would even take his students

>on excursions sometimes.

Ten years after he began teaching in Taiwan, Mackay

opened a school in Tamsui. It was there that he began

to teach his students theology in a systematic manner.

Soon afterward, he also founded a school for women –

perhaps one of the earliest girls’ schools in Taiwan.

In the span of 30 years, Mackay trained countless

people who would later become pastors, medical

professionals, teachers, and women leaders. His way

of instruction was always lively and applicable to real

life because he would often use outdoor activities and

>hands-on learning when teaching. Mackay even

allowed his students to enter and use his personal

>laboratory and museum for their own learning

experience and encouraged them to come to his clinic

>every afternoon to see him in action.

If we read Mackay’s diary, we would be amazed at

how he trained seminarians. On diary entries recorded

in 1873, Mackay wrote that he taught his students the

New Testament, anatomy, world religion, spiritual

formation, hymnody, and geography – all in one week.

Besides teaching the Bible and instilling Christian

doctrine into the hearts of his students, Mackay also

taught them modern disciplines such as geography,

physics, chemistry, history, physiology, arithmetic,

>geometry, anatomy, medicine, music, physical

education, and more. More importantly, he often used

the great outdoors as his classroom and taught about

nature’s relationship with her Creator through mountain

>climbing and travelling.

As we celebrate Taiwan Seminary Sunday on the 3rd

week of November, we urge all churches to focus on

theological formation and let Mackay’s teaching

>methods become sobering reminders of the

importance of theological formation. In the face of

contemporary challenges, theological education must

be overhauled if we want to equip our seminarians to

be ready to handle and lead the way in recent social,

economic, political, and moral crises across the

>nation.

In recent years, the infrastructure and education

>system within Taiwan Theological College and

>Seminary has been upgraded many times and we

applaud such efforts. However, for this establishment

to thrive and be continually transformed to meet the

needs of the times, we need the support of all local

churches and God’s guidance. Besides encouraging

Christians to pursue spiritual formation at Taiwan

Seminary, we urge churches across Taiwan to support

this institution through prayers and financial offerings.

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