seminary & church

President’s Schedule

August 29: Preach, First Presbyterian Church, Lufkin, Texas

September 19: Preach, Theological Education Sunday, First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport, Louisiana

November 14: Preach, University Presbyterian Church, Austin

from the president |

I went to seminary in the late 1970s, which was a particularly creative time for theological education. In great measure, what made it so creative was an experiment that my seminary (Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond) was conducting with what at the time was a brand-new degree—the Doctor of Ministry or DMin. The DMin degree was arriving at the doorsteps of many mainline seminaries in those days, and seminaries were opting to shape it in one of two different forms. Many schools were treating the DMin as a postgraduate degree. Their assumption was that, five to ten to fifteen years after a seminarian had earned the Master of Divinity degree, she would “know what she didn’t know” about how theology and all of a seminary’s other disciplines shaped practice, and so she would enroll in a DMin program. Such a program was designed to enable her to go back to seminary and focus more purposefully upon tooling up in particular areas of ministry even while remaining in her ministry setting.

Other seminaries—like my seminary, and such sister institutions as Austin and Columbia and so many others in and beyond our denominational tradition—were approaching the DMin degree not so much as a reflective experience but as a formational experience. An internship year—year three of what had now become a four-year degree program—was a critical piece of one’s theological/ecclesial formation, and those of us opting for that sort of DMin program were sent out to work in outstanding congregations with outstanding pastors. When that year was over, we came back to campus with a taste of parish experience and far greater clarity about what the shape of our ministries might be like beyond graduation.

In due time, the DMin degree became universally modeled upon the “postgraduate” program, and Austin Seminary and all of its fellow outliers adjusted to that model. It is a very fine model, by the way.

But, forty years later, many seminaries are still intrigued with praxis-based models in what we now call “residencies.” These residencies, generously endowed as ours are, enable graduating seniors to be ordained—most often in parish-based settings—where they can still hone their gifts and skills for two additional years after graduation amid mentoring pastors and congregations. We’re going to read about some of these residents and some of their supervisors in the pages ahead, and you will get an inside glimpse of the difference that these residencies are making in the vocational lives of a couple of our recent graduates. Elsewhere in this issue, note the latest news from our campus—specifically our plans for re-embodying on campus, beginning in the fall. Note as well the annual donors’ list, and join me in thanking God for the gift of generosity!

Faithfully yours,

Theodore J. Wardlaw President