This presentation, in various forms, has been circulating around thein board rooms, class rooms, social networking websites like Facebook, and the blogosphere. I wonder what you think about it?
The research presented talks about the shift from West to East and from a paper to a digital age, among other things. I wonder if theological education in the PC(USA) and the larger Church will become more valuable as if, when, and as shift takes place and gaps widen? Will we not need gifted interpreters with sharpened skills to exegete and make sense of the culture through scripture and theology more than ever.
I firmly believe that we need good pastors, analytically trained in our seminaries, to make sense of the global shifting taking place. This has been true in the past and the present.... and surely will be in the future.
It has been posited by a Presbyterian, blogger, and author Carol Howard Merritt that "We no longer can afford an educated clergy." After making this case based on growing educational debt, fewer churches willing to play a living wage, and the increased use of Comissioned Lay Pastors, Merritt asks some pointed questions worth considering:
[W]ill we begin to figure out ways to pay our seminary graduates? Will we begin to shift our resources, so that they are no longer feeding their families with food stamps? Will we stop shaming the clergy for being greedy, and calling on them to make more and more sacrifices, when they already made an incredibly huge sacrifice to Sallie Mae? When will we acknowledge that we can no longer afford an educated clergy, and do something about it?
She does not seem to be so much a critic of educated clergy as much an advocate for fair pay and sound and accountable financial habits.
One thing seems clear, there is a lack intentionality about addressing these and other leadership and funding issues as the world changes all around us. I agree with people like Dan Aleshire, the long time Executive Director of the Association of Theological Schools, there will be more change in theological education in the next 25 years than in the previous 25 and that we as the church would not be wise to abandon our theological schools. It would resemble, as he says,
a farmer's decision to sell the seed corn because he needed the money. In the short run it may help; in the long term, the results could be disastrous for the church.(Earthen Vessels (2008),133).
Adam Copeland, among a dozen or more other commented on this blogpost by Carol by asking another good question: "...How about CPM's carefully limiting the numbers of candidates and then getting them more funding?"
Carol wrote her post on Holy Saturday, at the end of a long Holy Week. I wonder if we might be able to find Easter resurrection in this story? Thanks for the questions! What do you think?
Peace to you,
Lee in Louisville
Meeting tomorrow with the Presbytery and Synod leaders of the Theological Education Fund Seminary Support Network.
