In the keynote address of Karam Forum 2023, Amos Yong of Fuller Theological Seminary spoke about the challenging moment we and our schools are facing, in an increasingly globalized, pluralized and networked world. Building on his recent book Renewing the Church by the Spirit, Yong asked: How can we look to the Holy Spirit, poured out on the church at Pentecost, to empower us for the mission of theological education in the coming generation?
Following Yong’s address, three longtime members of the Oikonomia Network community gave their reflections on the subject. Philip Thompson of Kairos University shared how Kairos is building new models with a competency-based model, and emphasized that theological education must be cruciform; we must expect pain and sacrifice before we can experience joy and flourishing. Lisa Slayton of the Denver Institute for Faith & Work described the crisis of discipleship in our churches and how theological schools can better prepare future leaders for the challenges they will face. And Fernando Tamara of Assemblies of God Theological Seminary gave moving testimony about openness to the movement of the Spirit in the classroom and in the work of education.
Below are selections from Yong’s address, and the responses. Check out the full video for more!
Yong: What Church? “Evangelicalizing.” How Church? “Networking.”
When I think about our particular context, North America – what is the nature of the church? And of course, that’s such a big question, at one level. I mean, the church ecumenical is in North America, right? With all of its pluralities and complexities. But in every particular context, we try to get some handles, something to make some connections – recognizing that this only gives us a slice into the reality. It gives us an opportunity to talk about this, recognizing that whatever we might say about that particular slice is – a slice. But that slice names an important dimension of this particular context.
I would say that one of the important contexts about world Christianity, and particularly also in the west right now, is its evangelical character, its evangelical history, its evangelical plurality. Yes, the word “evangelical” has all kinds of – yes, yeah, exactly. Right? Connotations, baggage, challenges. But yet the global character of the church in all its diverse histories informed by this evangelical movement is plural. It’s growing! Right? So we can’t just ignore that. It requires us to name it.
And I think one of the ways we name it is also using theological language. The evangel is the good news, the gospel. If we don’t like the word “evangelical,” we still have to name that evangel. And all of the different ways in which all of our churches both live into that partially, or very little at all, or whatever – we try! I think we all know to say “we try,” right? How do we name this evangelical evangel, in the church, called by the gospel but in so many ways falling so far short?
Thompson: The Unofficial Hymn of Kairos University
For some time I’ve commented that the informal Kairos hymn should be a hymn that’s found in many 19th century Baptist hymnals, that begins: “’Tis God the Spirit leads, in paths before unknown/The work to be performed is ours; the strength, the Spirit’s own.”…An important dimension of Incarnation for church and theological education – that is certainly implicit throughout Amos’ entire argument, yet it needs to be made explicit, and it also needs to be extended in a direction that I don’t think Amos does pursue – is that of institutional identity and philosophy….In last week’s Kairos blog post it was written: “When the Spirit says, ‘I am doing this new thing, you need to give away your power and influence to join me,’ we don’t jump right up and say: ‘Sign me up!’ But at Kairos we are called to this Spirit-led cruciform divestment.”…We have to be willing to divest, to give away authority, precisely in those areas where most schools seek to hold on to it. We give away our power externally to our partners, and also internally through the practice of what we call “trust-based collaborative governance.”
Slayton: Pastors Are Still Disintegrating, because They Still Have Not Been Discipled
I work in the marketplace as a consultant, and I do a lot of organizational development work. But my unique niche is around the deep vocational, stewardship and discipleship work. And that has led me to work with quite a number of pastors over the years. Because pastors are disintegrating. All the time. In heartbreaking ways. And they might be theologically educated but they – to your point – have not been discipled. And I feel like I’ve said that before on panels at Karam Forum, but I’ll say it again. To me it is the big missing piece of theological education. I come out of the faith and work world, and…all of that matters to me as a practitioner. But if we want the church to take up its role as the church in discipling people for all of life, we have to do a better job with our pastors. And they need to be able to live into, not just the call of the office of pastor, but their unique way of inhabiting that role. And the pastors that I work with them, many of them, come because they can’t inhabit the role as it has been defined, so they can’t meet anybody’s expectations. And they’re getting their butts kicked every day, to put it bluntly. And they don’t want to stay in ministry any more.
Tamara: Is Education Merely Cognitive, or Are We Prepared for the Spirit’s Touch?
Back in 1998 I was taking a class on theology, I remember, at a private Pentecostal university. Now, I’m not going to mention the name of the of the institution. But I was there, and I was rediscovering a Greek text. The Professor was encouraging us to study, and get all of the resources we could. And I remember it was so moving to me at that moment that I, in class, started weeping. And I did not want it to make any noise. And I could not hold it.
It’s very emotional when I share this story! My professor called me out in the class. And he asked this question: “By the way, are you feeling good, Fernando? Would you like to go to the restroom?” And I quietly took a few seconds to digest that question.
Here I was, a future pastor, someone who wanted to study the words of Jesus Christ, someone who was willing to be enriched by the holy scriptures, the written work of the Holy Spirit. And I was thinking: “So, if I’m coming to this place just to learn about this cognitive experience, how about the affective? How about the emotions? How about the responses? How, about my personal response and my reaction, when I see this word vividly in my life? How this work is penetrating my life?”
So I was completely – I felt miserable. Then I felt like: What am I doing here? I’m coming to this school it’s to learn the Bible. But at the same time I want the Holy Spirit to train me as well, and to search my heart and my soul.” And this is something that has led me to throughout the years just to investigate, do some research about. In recent years, I’ve seen that there is quite a separation between the technicalities of the theological education in colleges and universities – and they’re more eager to train people in the word of God. But sometimes they’re not prepared to respond when someone has been the recipient of this powerful touch of God.
