wfn.org | Seminary Presidents Ask for Help Identifying New Students

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18-June-1998 
GA98085 
 
    Seminary Presidents Ask for Help Identifying New Students/ 
    Offer Answers to Theological Education Questions 
 
    by Allison Politinsky 
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C.--During the 210th General Assembly Theological Issues and 
Institutions Committee meeting, the presidents of the 11 theological 
schools of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), had a chance to share exciting 
news about their ministries, and to answer questions from others. 
    The presidents and other leaders participating included: Tom Gillespie- 
Princeton; Louis Weeks-Union/PSCE; Barbara Wheeler-Auburn; John Mulder- 
Louisville; Don McCullough-San Francisco; Cynthia Campbell-McCormick; 
Robert Shelton-Austin; Genevra Kelly, vice president for Institutional 
Advancement-Columbia; Dean David Wallace-Johnson C. Smith, and Interim Dean 
Bradley Longfield, University of Dubuque.  Pittsburgh and Puerto Rico 
Seminaries were not in attendance. 
    In this Year of Education, Moderator Douglas Oldenburg summed up his 
commitment to representing all the Presbyterian seminaries which are 
committed to preparing future leaders for the church. 
    Don McCullough-San Francisco:  We are the only Presbyterian Seminary in 
the west. This gives us a unique position for ecumenical training and we 
are reaching out with programs in San Francisco for those who cannot travel 
to San Anselmo. 
    Cynthia Campbell-McCormick:  Within a very few years, the vast majority 
of people will live in urban settings. Our commitments to urban ministry 
and our commitment to the variety of world people's gives McCormick a 
unique place. 
    Tom Gillespie-Princeton:  The first thing that comes to mind is 
endowment. We have an $800 million endowment. For that reason, I have my 
trustees reading Luke 12 every day. Our problem is to exercise the greatest 
stewardship with the resources we have. 
    Louis Weeks-Union Seminary/PSCE:  Colleagues in the Assembly last year 
will remember the plan for the federation of our two institutions. That was 
accomplished on July 1st and we have had one year of life together. This 
gives great promise for the life of the church...The purpose of our 
federation is to put together these two institutions and retain the very 
best out of both of them and make something new that serves the needs of 
the church in the 21st Century. 
    Barbara Wheeler-Auburn:  We offer an outstanding program for continuing 
education. We are the only institution that has a center that studies 
theological education. A study this year will examine what the public 
thinks of theological education. 
    David Wallace-Johnson C. Smith:  We are our denomination's only 
predominantly African-American theological seminary. One of the most 
significant things that has taken place this year was a pilgrimage to 
Ethiopia... which brought together all African representatives and diaspora 
in this country. Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds on that 
continent. This helped us to think of how we can help prepare leaders of 
the church in Africa. 
    Robert Shelton-Austin:  We have just completed a self-study involving a 
large part of our constituency. We're learning a great many things about 
ourselves and how we can be better servants in the church. We will have a 
master plan for the 21st Century as well as for our centennial in 2002. 
    John Mulder-Louisville:  Much like the Church, Louisville Seminary is 
expanding its commitment to families and racial/ethnic ministries. The 
Center for Congregations and Family Ministries has been created to assist 
congregations in strengthening families, family life, and their role in 
communicating Christian faith from one generation to another. The seminary 
also reached two unprecedented agreements with regional bodies of  two 
predominantly African-American denominations, African Methodist Episcopal 
Church and Christian Methodist Episcopal Churches, to prepare their 
candidates for the ministry. The seminary also hired three new 
African-American faculty members 
    Bradley Longfield-Dubuque:   Dubuque is in the middle of a capital 
campaign to renew the library.  The seminary has also doubled the number of 
United Methodist students in the last few years. 
    Genevra Kelly-Columbia:  We are expanding our continuing and lay 
education building.. We are also preparing a long-range plan, by pulling 
in a lot of faculty and trustees to carry the seminary through the year 
2020...That is 22 years. 
    Douglas Oldenburg-Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.):  All 
the theological schools are the best kept secret of the church. These 
institutions are one of the most important things in the task of preparing 
intellectual centers for the church to continue searching God's word and 
probing theology and the Word. We appreciate your support and the task of 
taking this meeting seriously. 
    Question and answers 
    How are students selected? 
    Weeks-Relationship of prospective student to the church. Many of the 
students come out of the life of a local congregation.  When a person 
doesn't exhibit that kind of background then we're very careful.  We 
receive twice number of applications we admit. It is competitive. In the 
Doctoral program there are six applicants per student. We pay attention in 
that program to an individual's life in Christ. Schools are paying more 
attention to the spiritual development of students. We're looking more at 
the spiritual gifts of students and I'm delighted to see how that shift has 
occurred. 
    What do you see as the capabilities that the seminaries will need most 
to prepare future church leaders? Will there be enough students, and enough 
high quality students, to meet these needs? 
    Wallace-Theological schools will be quite capable of producing the kind 
of leadership the church needs. We need not only racial/ethnic persons but 
we need theological seminaries to develop spirituality, evangelism, new 
church development. I'm also excited about the fact that many seminarians 
are second-career persons and they bring lots of unique gifts to the 
seminary experience. 
    What is the process by which you determine that you are teaching what 
churches want them to know? 
    Shelton-All the seminaries are eager to respond to the needs of the 
church and pastoral leadership. We bring our graduates back to find out how 
we have served them. We try to learn about our constituency and needs of 
the church. Just as important is the way in which we support our faculty 
and administrators to be involved in the local congregations. The faculty 
members are often out in the church and they try to fulfill the church's 
needs. 
    There seems to be a perceived tension between churches and seminaries. 
In what way can we support this relationship? What churches are now 
participating in the 1% plan. 
    John-In one sense there will always be and always should be a tension 
between seminaries and the church because it is our job to raise questions 
about witness and quality of witness in contemporary setting. But our only 
consistency is the church and when the gulf between the seminaries and 
congregations is too great, we're in a difficult situation.  In two and 
half decades, I've been in theological education our relationship is now 
more constructive than earlier in my experience. All of us are recognizing 
the tremendous need for us to take seriously the changing character of 
congregational life in the 21st Century. One way to address that is in 
strengthening field education for all seminaries. A great deal of first 
hand experience in congregational life is valuable. 
    To churches not part of the 1% plan, I would encourage you to 
participate because it is the only way congregations can participate in the 
funding of theological seminaries. We no longer receive any centralized 
money. This funding is critical for congregations to recognize just as we 
provide pensions for pastors there should be some funds to prepare the next 
generation of pastors. They need an awareness of the 1% plan and of their 
responsibility to call forward candidates for ministry in the future. We 
have as a denomination underestimated the importance of congregations 
nurturing the next generation of pastors in our church. We train only the 
people you send to us and you have to send to us only the best. 
    How are seminaries preparing students to respond to calls to small 
churches? 
    Weeks-People are called primarily in the nurture they receive from 
congregations. If that nurture is deep, broad, and challenging then those 
who are gifted will be good ministers. If you look at earlier decades, 
large portion of ministers came from rural areas and went to towns and 
urban areas. Now the reverse is true. Some seminaries have courses on small 
church ministry. But part of the work is for congregations to challenge 
talented individuals and help them understand that their call can be to 
nurture a congregation that is different in size and location. 
    One of the new phenomenon is the second career student. Average age in 
many schools is between 35 and 40 years of age. Should we be challenging 
more students in colleges to go directly to seminary? 
    Wallace- It can be an advantage and a disadvantage to have more 
second-career people. I think it is very positive because they bring gifts 
and experiences. It is a negative in the fact that they won't be able to 
serve very long. Our congregations need to take seriously the fact that we 
need more young people coming right out of college. Some congregations are 
doing a very good job and are involved in the process. I'm always 
encouraged by coming to General Assembly and I have been very involved in 
training. 
    Mulder-One footnote to this phenomenon has a flip side. The people who 
are coming into ministry don't stay in ministry for their careers. The 
mobility in careers in American society is the same in ministry. That 
creates a problem when we try to retain people in ministry. How do we deal 
with people who decide ministry is no longer for them? 
    What vision of preaching and worship is held by your faculty for the 
21st Century? 
    Shelton-Across the board there is a strong commitment to proclaim the 
word and the community. We would subscribe to the notion that sacraments 
and preaching are still strong in ministry. We have tried to do that at 
Austin for at least my 27 years. We are studying what is basic and critical 
in this context. But if you do not know what is at stake in preaching and 
corporate worship you become a victim of whatever comes along. We need to 
undergird our graduates in the basics and purpose of what preaching is, 
make sure there is a worshiping community centered in the purpose and 
various expressions of historical traditions. 

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