Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Craig Van Gelder is professor emeritus of congregationalmission at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota. His otherbooks include The Missional Church inPerspective and The Ministry of the MissionalChurch.,

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The Missional Church and Leadership Formation

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

Preface..................................................................................................................................................................viiContributors.............................................................................................................................................................ixIntroduction: Engaging the Missional Church Conversation.................................................................................................................1SECTION I: MISSIONAL LEADERSHIP FORMATION IN RELATION TO THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION...........................................................................................91. Theological Education and Missional Leadership Formation: Can Seminaries Prepare Missional Leaders for Congregations? Craig Van Gelder...............................112. Missional Theology for Schools of Theology: Re-engaging the Question "What Is Theological about a Theological School?" Kyle J. A. Small..............................453. Developing Evangelical Public Leadership for Apostolic Witness: A Missional Alternative to Traditional Pastoral Formation Richard H. Bliese..........................72SECTION II: MISSIONAL LEADERSHIP FORMATION IN RELATION TO CONGREGATIONS..................................................................................................974. Cultivating Missional Leaders: Mental Models and the Ecology of Vocation Scott Cormode...............................................................................995. Forming Lay Missional Leaders for Congregations and the World Sharon Henderson Callahan..............................................................................1206. Vision-Discerning vs. Vision-Casting: How Shared Vision Can Raise Up Communities of Leaders Rather than Mere Leaders of Communities Dave Daubert.....................147SECTION III: MISSIONAL LEADERSHIP FORMATION IN RELATION TO RECENT RESEARCH...............................................................................................1737. Characteristics of Congregations That Empower Missional Leadership: A Lutheran Voice Terri Martinson Elton...........................................................1758. Leadership and the Missional Church Conversation: Listening In on What Leaders in Four Denominational Systems Have to Say Kristine M. Stache.........................209

Chapter One

Craig Van Gelder

Introduction

Significant changes are taking place in theological education today regarding the formation of church leaders. There have been previous periods of transition in this ongoing journey, but this present one represents what appears to be a strategic shift. The nature of this is quite complex, but in simple terms it involves the following: today new insights from an emerging missional theology are interacting within an expanding system of congregations to redefine the purpose, the method, and, to some extent, the location of theological education. This chapter uses a historical framework for understanding these changes and offers a proposal regarding how seminaries and schools of theology might better engage the opportunities now before them.

Argument of This Chapter

Significant developments have taken place in theological education in the United States over the past 250 years. It is helpful to identify the key institutional and cultural frameworks that shaped the various approaches to theological education that have emerged and morphed over time. The first part of this chapter maps the earlier stages of these developments through four somewhat distinct periods, with a time of transition occurring at the end of each period that in turn contributed to the formation of a changed framework in the next period. The second part of the chapter picks up the most recent transition, which took place during the last several decades of the twentieth century, and discusses the substantial conversation concerning theological education that emerged at that time. The final section offers perspective on a fifth period of development, the one we now appear to be in, and offers some suggestions about how a missional theology might help theological education better engage the opportunities that are present.

This analysis proposes that a key for understanding each of the five periods of theological education development is to explore the expansion of the system of congregations and the subsequent rise of new seminaries and schools of theology — as well as the changes taking place within them. This hermeneutic of reading the development of theological education through the lens of the expansion of the system of congregations suggests a crucial historical connection: theological education as a system tends to follow the development of new congregations. This premise is somewhat self-evident; however, if we take it seriously, it has profound implications for our understanding of what took place historically and also what is taking place today in the developments currently underway.

Historical Development of Theological Education in the United States

Period One — Foundations, 1600s to Late 1700s: Early Schools and Institutions and the Minister as Resident Theologian

The settling of the colonies in Northern America in the 1600s by European immigrants, especially those coming from England, marked the beginning of the extension of the Protestant church into the New World. The earlier Spanish colonization had introduced the Catholic faith into territories to the south and southwest. But the vast majority of the new immigrants arriving on the Eastern Seaboard were Protestants, except for modest numbers of Roman Catholics settling in what became Maryland. Some of the newly arriving immigrants represented the established European churches, often referred to as "churches from the left." They attempted to repeat in the more northern colonies the pattern of establishment that was initiated by the Anglicans in the southern colonies. Other immigrants represented the persecuted sects of the Protestant Reformation, such as the Quakers, Baptists, and Mennonites, that are often referred to as "churches from the right." These groups came to the colonies primarily for the purpose of pursuing religious freedom. The Puritans in New England represented an interesting blend of these two traditions: while being persecuted as a sect by the Anglican Church in England, they proceeded to establish the Congregational Church in most New England colonies.

The development of Christian congregations in what eventually became the thirteen colonies — and later the first thirteen states — has been told numerous times. It is not necessary to repeat the details of that story here, but a few things did have an impact on the development of theological education. These diverse, early-colonial congregations required qualified leadership, and different patterns emerged for supplying this leadership. Churches from the left initially continued to look to Europe to supply the necessary ministerial leadership for their congregations, but they often encountered problems in securing an adequate supply of qualified personnel. They soon...