"Exemplary"

By Timothy Lincoln

Austin Seminary is exemplary in at least three ways. We value faculty scholarship. We offer high quality programs. We are open to changing how and what we do to serve our mission.

In my time at the Seminary, expectations for professors to conduct research and publish their results have increased. And the faculty have responded. In the past two years, they have written eight books and thirty-six articles and took leadership roles in the creation of a brand new nine-volume lectionary commentary series, Connections. The faculty supports research excellence by serving as the sponsoring institution for Horizons in Biblical Theology, an international peer-reviewed academic journal. The Seminary’s commitment to scholarship is further shown in its new sponsorship of the Hispanic Summer Program, a program committed to supporting Hispanic doctoral students and emerging scholars.

Another area in which Austin Seminary is exemplary is through its innovative programs to address the needs of churches. For several years the Seminary has partnered with the Center for Youth Ministry Training to offer a Master of Arts in Youth Ministry (MAYM) degree. This three-year program combines academic work at the Seminary with part-time employment in a ministry setting, typically a congregation. Because students in the program are actively serving in ministry, classroom discussion about ideas and texts is constantly in conversation with the questions that students have as a result of their ongoing experiences with children and youth. Another example of a high-quality program addressing the needs of churches is the Houses of Hope initiative. Funded with a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., this program helps rural churches in Texas and Oklahoma discern the steps that they need to take to do what God is calling them to do in their communities.

Austin Seminary has set a high standard for faculty scholarship and programming because of its refusal to be content with familiar habits. Like other seminaries, in March 2020 Austin Seminary was challenged to continue teaching students despite the restrictions of face-to-face meetings during the early stages of the covid pandemic. We made the move to online teaching, and we did not simply snap back to our previous pedagogical habits as conditions improved. Instead, we applied what we learned about hybrid and online teaching. All degree programs now make use of tools (such as our learning management system) first used during the pandemic. Because of the Seminary’s openness to change, we now teach our Doctor of Ministry and MAYM programs in a hybrid manner.

The Seminary’s quest to produce new knowledge, improve programs, and be open to change are the results of leaders who care about the witness of the church and who trust that Austin Seminary’s mission will be relevant for years to come. Under the leadership of President Irizarry and the Seminary’s Board of Trustees, I am confident that Austin Seminary will continue to meet our highest aspirations of being an exemplary community of God’s people.

The Reverend Dr. Timothy Lincoln, as research professor in theological education at Austin Seminary, uses his exemplary skills to make sense of all the information at his fingertips.