Future Seminary

A better vision for pastoral education.

Christian education and practice must change if some form of seminary system is to sustain into the future. There are many reasons for this. The cost of education is to high and creates a barrier to knowledge. Additionally, the high cost often leads to students taking loans which effectively make them into indentured servants to the State or to the organization which provided the loan. Costs aside there is also the reality that learning in a classroom setting isn’t necessarily a prerequisite to being a skilled leader. If anything, too much leadership education without actual experience runs the risk of sending out people to lead with a briefcase full of hubris. Lastly is the isolation and insulation of being held up in the ivory tower of academia. Colleges, universities, seminaries are a privileged space for all who get the chance to walk those halls. In this space the student can easily forget that it is not reality. The world is not structured with a room with chairs facing the front waiting to be warmed by an uncomfortable body absorbing knowledge being passed down to them. When the student leaves the institution they find themselves in a space not like this. Boardrooms have round tables, professional relationships won’t revolve around a shared reading list and syllabus. All these begs for a different approach.

It is my position that Christian education MUST take on a structure similar to that of trades work. This would look like a master-apprentice type experience common in automotive shops and trades unions. In the vision for education that I have less time is spent in the classroom and most time is spent in the field. This isn’t unlike what a vicar is engaged in. Under such a system apprentices connected to a “master” would have requirements for subjects like the languages which require a more structured setting but beyond these instances it would be all field education. The apprentice would be in the pulpit, in counseling sessions, marriage/family counseling etc alongside the master who will be in constant evaluation of the different aspects of clergy roles. As the apprentice builds skill more and more work will be done without the master’s direct supervision and guidance until he or she gives the final approval the apprentice can be sent out on their own. After some time and some form of evaluation this once apprentice can become a master and take on an apprentice of their own.

This is the method used by Christ, Paul, and the rabbi before them. It’s more than an effective tool for learning real skills it’s a form of spiritual discipline. This requires a rhythm of work and learning which isn’t unlike the rhythm of creation. This form of learning is a space created which is intended to be filled which is intended to be declared good and then charged with the reproduction to the next generation. In this modeling of Christ, Paul, and scriptures themselves it becomes an act of worship which transcends the intellectual and catechetical platitudes of our seminary system’s Jesuit roots.