Austin Seminary

One of the great parts of my job it is to get to visit our PC(USA) seminaries.  Earlier this month, we were at Austin Seminary in Austin, Texas - "we" being Cliff Kirkpatrick; Lee Hinson-Hasty, Rose Niles and Joe Small of our Office of Theology, Worship and Education; Carol Adcock of GAC and her wonderful husband, Bob; John Purcell of the Office of the General Assembly; and Nicholas Yoda and Joseph Doh of the Committee on Theological Education.  Over a day and a half, we met with Austin's president, Ted Wardlaw, members of the seminary faculty and administration, students and the Board of Trustees.

Austin emphasizes its residential community character and Ted describes the seminary as being committed to "developing a strong and serious theological foundation for the practice of ministry."  We joined in the groundbreaking celebration for Anderson House, a new residence hall, and the completion of the capital campaign that made this building possible, and at night in a dinner with the trustees that also celebrated a generous new gift to endow a chair.

Our conversations were rich and stimulating, many of them centered on the subject of imparting the Reformed tradition.  Some comments from our conversation:  "In our tradition, it's impossible to separate worship from learning."  "Reclaim the language of teaching elder and ruling (as in measuring) elder (which the Form of Government proposal will do)."  "Our research showed that lay people most of all want pastors who are humble, who listen and take them seriously, and that pastors who report being most satisfied are engaged in study formation groups and are excited about life-long learning."  "Tradition is sustained conversation over time."  "Engage traditional writings as conversation partners, which includes recognizing their blind spots and wrestling with ideas."  "As a pastor, I found that community is strengthened when there is energy about teaching."

We spoke about shared concerns of support of pastors in critical first years of ministry, developing habits that will set the ground for a lifetime of discipleship and ministry, opening the church to new expressions and forms of worship and ministry and exciting new ideas and approaches that are emerging in some students that, while very Reformed, both challenge existing structures and processes and show hope that God is moving among us in new ways.

This is one of a series of conversations that we have had with our Presbyterian seminaries which are such a valuable and important part of the ecosystem (to borrow Marcia Myers' expression) of the church.  Oh, how very stimulating these have been.