John Vissers
John Vissers is Principal of The Presbyterian College, Montreal; Director of the Montreal School of Theology; and Faculty Lecturer in Christian Theology at McGill University.
1) What would you describe as the single most important thing that you hope graduates of your College will take away with them when they graduate?
Integrity. Let me explain. The word integrity (Latin integritas) means wholeness, soundness of health in body and soul, uprightness, honesty, and purity. In the history of Protestant theology, integrity referred specifically to the condition of human beings as created in the image of God (imago Dei). People of integrity, therefore, are those who are truly integrated in the way God intends. At Presbyterian College we hope that our graduates will be men and women of faith who have integrated serious theological learning (their heads) with a deep love for Jesus Christ and his people (their hearts) and a commitment to the reality of the practice of ministry in today's culture (their hands). We are committed to shaping transformational church leaders who are themselves in the process of being transformed in the image of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We long to see ministers of Word and Sacraments who can provide faithful and prophetic leadership, rooted in the Scriptures, committed to the historic creeds and confessions of the church, and alive to the realities of our world with all its wonder, ambiguity, beauty, and suffering. We pray for graduates who are sound, integrated, and whole; whose lives are marked by character, competence, and commitment.
2) How do you see Theological Education addressing the matter of the church in decline in light of the year 2000 Assembly Report (Acts & Proceedings p.32, 1999) that the leadership of our church has no sense of urgency to the decline?
Theology. Again, let me explain. In its most basic sense theology is about God — who God is, what God has done and is doing, and what it means to live in response to the God who is there. Christian theology is centered on the revelation of the triune God in Jesus Christ. The most important thing that a theological school can do is to teach students how to think about God — and how to think about their lives, their church, and their world in light of the God who has been disclosed in God's crucified Messiah. It has been said that what comes into our minds when we think about God may well be the most important thing about us. For this reason the most important question before the church, especially a church in decline, is God. A true sense of urgency in regards to the challenges before our church will be instilled when there is a new sense of urgency in relation to God, God's Word and God's Gospel. A false sense of urgency, on the other hand, assumes that the decline can be overcome if we simply try a little harder and develop new strategies, methods, and practices. This is a profoundly theological problem and the most important thing that theological education can do to address it is to be truly theological.
3) What assumptions do you make about the level of Christian formation that candidates sent to the College by the Presbyteries have?
It used to be the case that we assumed candidates for ministry had been baptized and raised within the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Not so any longer. Students arrive at the door from diverse backgrounds. Some have been life-long Presbyterians while others have only recently become Christians.
Some know their Bibles well and have learned the disciplines of the Christian life, while others are only making a beginning in the things of God. This poses, as you can well imagine, a tremendous challenge to any theological school today, and in many cases we are being asked to deliver something in less than three years that is virtually impossible.
Nevertheless, the formation of Christian character is foundational to what we are about. To this end we require all students to participate in English Bible-reading tutorials, pastoral formation seminars in ministry and spirituality, small groups, regular chapel services, and life in a local congregation. When it grants the diploma of the College to a student, the faculty and senate not only confirm that the candidate has passed a prescribed course of academic study; they also acknowledge that there has been evidence of Christian growth in the candidate during the course of the student's preparation for ordained leadership, and that the candidate possesses the gifts and graces for gospel ministry.
4) What do you see as the biggest challenge facing your College at present?
In general, the College serves a church that is facing significant challenges within a culture that is rapidly losing any Christian memory. The disestablishment of the church in an increasingly secular Canadian culture, as well as the decline of resources available for Christian ministry, impact the life of the College. We feel this acutely in Quebec. We cannot proceed with business as usual. At the same time, the challenges confront us with incredible opportunities for mission. The challenge facing theological education is whether the church and its colleges can rise to meet the new opportunities.
5) What new initiative is your College providing that you think will make the most significant contribution to the life and health of the church?
Let me mention three important initiatives. First, we have instituted a program of globalization in theology for all third-year M.Div. students. Each student who intends to be a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Canada is required to participate in a significant intercultural mission experience. In recent years students have gone to Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, and Ghana. We want our students to begin to see their experience of the Presbyterian Church in Canada in terms of what God is doing around the world.
Secondly, we have developed a new program in lay leadership which is intended to train men and women in the basics of Christian faith and ministry. This is offered both onsite in Montreal and offsite in various locations. One aspect of this program is the training of lay preachers for congregations unable to call ordained ministers.
Thirdly, we have been involved in new cooperative efforts with both Knox College and St. Andrew's Hall in the delivery of theological education across Canada for the Presbyterian Church in Canada and beyond.
6) Have you any other comment you would like to share with our readers?
Presbyterian College belongs to the Presbyterian Church in Canada and seeks to serve it faithfully and creatively. We are grateful for the support we receive from across the Church through Presbyterians Sharing and in so many other ways. Please pray for us — our students, faculty, staff, and senate members. If you're a person who is considering leadership within the Presbyterian Church in Canada, we'd be delighted to talk to you about the exciting possibilities of study in Montreal.
J. Dorcas Gordon
Dr. Gordon is the Principal of Knox College, Toronto.
1) What would you describe as the single most important thing that you hope graduates of your College will take away with them when they graduate?
Central to my understanding of what we do at the college is the development of, or the nurturing of those qualities of mind, heart and spirit that equip our graduates — whether in ordained, diaconal, lay or teaching ministry — to serve God and their neighbour.
2) How do you see Theological Education addressing the matter of the church in decline in light of the year 2000 Assembly Report (Acts & Proceedings p.32, 1999) that the leadership of our church has no sense of urgency to the decline?
I think we all know that profound changes are occurring in Canadian culture, changes that have been felt in the European churches for the past decade. These changes, marking the end of what is called Christendom, call upon both clergy and laity to establish new ways of being church. I am one who prefers not to focus on decline. This does not mean that I have no sense of urgency about the calling that is ours in these challenging times. There is good news. The information we have indicates that concern for an authentic spirituality, questions about the meaning of life, have never had a greater urgency within Canada than what they do now. I think we are being called to ask very basic questions about where God is leading us. I mean, it is God's church and only if we have little confidence in God's presence among us in the Holy Spirit do we focus on what we don't have.
At Knox we seek to equip women and men for this time in the church's life through courses that give them a strong grounding in the Reformed tradition with its emphasis on biblical studies and theology. This will enable them to reflect theologically on all that has gone before and its relationship to the context in which they will minister. They need to know that the church has had times of faithfulness and times of unfaithfulness, that there have been periods of decline and periods of growth, that the church has always existed within particular cultures and is called to faithful witness within that context whether it is a time of optimism or discouragement. Most of all, they need to know that God is present with them in their ministry as God has always been present throughout the centuries.
There are two other equally important priorities in our education for ministry. First is an emphasis on forming the one who ministers. Because these are uncertain times, those who minister need to have resources within themselves that include a well-developed spiritual life and a strong sense of call, resources that can sustain them in ambiguous times. Recent studies show that clergy well-being is a critical area of formation for ministry. The third priority is the need to equip students with skills for ministry — preaching, teaching, leading worship, pastoral care, polity and administration, etc.
In listing these essentials of theological education in this manner I am not suggesting that one is more important than the other. I am indicating that each is in a delicate balance with the others, and any one not attended to can result in a lack of preparedness in ministry.
3) What assumptions do you make about the level of Christian formation that candidates sent to the College by the Presbyteries have?
We are very careful in the assumptions we make, and an increasing part of our admissions process is the attempt to assess where each student is in his or her formation. What we find is a great range. Some come as cradle Presbyterians, those who have been nurtured in the faith through Church School, Youth Group, and general congregational life. Others have very little understanding of either Christian faith or congregational culture. And then, of course, there are all possibilities in between. This is even more complex when we look at how individuals are formed within different cultures and ethnic groups and within the different denominations that ask us to prepare their students for ministry. At present forty per cent of our student body is of Korean background. Such diversity challenges the college to think about what formation is and how it is accomplished. It is clear that the variety of preparedness on the part of our students has resulted in an increased focus on formation within the M.Div. program.
4) What do you see as the biggest challenge facing your College at present?
Perhaps I can generalize this a little. At one time I would have focused on the lack of financial resources or the challenges of a building that was designed for another time. When I spent time teaching in Africa a few years ago, I promised myself that I would never speak of scarcity. The biggest challenge facing Knox, I believe, is a denominational challenge, a theological challenge. I think we have difficulty trusting each other. As a denomination we are feeling so vulnerable that when something goes wrong, we want to blame someone. I think we are all guilty of this — the college included. The biggest challenge for Knox, and I think our denomination, is to remember that we are the body of Christ, and when one part is honoured, all share in the joy, and when one part suffers all suffer.
5) What new initiative is your College providing that you think will make the most significant contribution to the life and health of the church?
I can speak of a couple of initiatives. The faculty at Knox has spent the past three years on a major revision of the M.Div. program. The work builds upon focus groups that took place a few years ago, the work of Ministry and Church Vocations on the Candidacy process including the Guidance Conference and Psychological Assessment, and our frequent conversations with presbytery ministry committees. This revision rests on a tripartite goal: a focus on the traditional subjects, Bible, theology, church history and pastoral theology, as well as an emphasis on personal formation and ministry skills.
The second emphasis is on educating the laity through degree programs and a lay certificate. The great desire of congregational members to learn more about faith and the Christian life has resulted in certificate courses in English and Korean taught at Knox, and the English program in extension in Winnipeg and New Glasgow, and recently in Guelph. Two new degree programs have been developed primarily for lay people who want to study part-time, one in Christian Education and one in general theological studies.
A third emphasis is an increasing commitment to Continuing Education, especially a commitment to programs that provide ongoing education for ministers five, ten, and twenty years out. Medicine and law have mandatory requirements for ongoing educational development in the practice of their professions. Knox speaks with great seriousness of the need for ongoing equipping of those in ministry. It is a fallacy to think that those newly graduated are leaders in ministry. They are new graduates who need to be mentored by both presbytery and congregation. One of my growing concerns is that new graduates are being called to congregations that want and need ministers with five/ten years experience.
A final initiative that I would like to mention is our ongoing commitment to be a college where the diversity that is the Presbyterian Church in Canada can gather to learn together and so respect and, indeed, bridge those differences that tend to divide us as a denomination.
6) Have you any other comment you would like to share with our readers?
I would like to end with some of the positive trends that we are noticing:
- Our student body is getting younger;
- The Asian churches in increased numbers are sending their students to study at Knox College;
- There is an ongoing interest and continuing growth in our lay education programs.
Stephen Farris
Stephen Farris is the Dean of St. Andrew's Hall and teaches at Vancouver School of Theology.
1) What would you describe as the single most important thing that you hope graduates of your College will take away with them when they graduate?
It may be a mistake to think of a "single most important thing," as if the Body of Christ in our day needs only a nose or hand, or eye and that above all. We Christians all, graduates or not, are those who have been claimed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. To that grace we all must respond. Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all that you are and your neighbour as yourself." But one can love God and neighbour and be a very inadequate minister! The church needs — and God provides — a variety of gifts. An effective minister must have several gifts and a group of ministers, a graduating class, for example, must have a wider variety still. A single minister does not need to possess them all. Perhaps what is needed would be ministers who love God and neighbour and whose particular gifts are on the way to being developed.
2) How do you see Theological Education addressing the matter of the church in decline in light of the year 2000 Assembly Report (A&P p 32, 1999) that the leadership of our church has no sense of urgency in regards to the decline?
That's a tough one! Let me say first that I suppose that in my present position, I actually am part of that leadership, and I do have a sense of urgency about church decline. It would also be arrogant of me to assume that I'm the only one who has that concern. Various studies have shown that churches grow when members lean across the cafeteria table or the back fence and ask people they know to come to church. They will only do that if they are motivated and if their church is healthy. That is to say, their church must have worship that uplifts, teaching that enlightens, fellowship that strengthens, and service that reaches out. This is not entirely the minister's job. (See my remarks on elders later in the interview.) But tending to the health of the church surely is a vital part of ministry. We need to share with our students the attitudes and practices that may, with God's help, lead to healthy churches.
By the way, "urgency" is not the same thing as "panic."
3) What assumptions do you make about the level of Christian formation that candidates sent to the College by the Presbyteries have?
I do not assume that our candidates have grown up in the Presbyterian Church or, indeed, as Christians. This means that they may not have absorbed as if by osmosis the ethos of our churches. Moreover, they may have a very shaky grasp of the content of the Bible, of core Reformed theology and of the practices of Christian devotion. This is by no means entirely a bad thing. Because of their background, they may have a sense of the wider culture that is invaluable in ministry.
It is just that candidates may have to be taught from closer to the beginning than was formerly the case. I hope Presbyteries will send us candidates with a teachable spirit so that we can do this.
4) What do you see as the biggest challenge facing your College at present?
At St. Andrew's Hall we face a twofold challenge. The first is working through the challenge of a land sale and an upcoming financial campaign and major building project. We have an Opportunity with a capital "O" before us and the decisions we make in the next year or two will affect the Hall and, we hope, the University, for two generations. We might be able to build up to a 15-storey tower. As someone with experience in the building trades once advised, if you're going to build a tower you have to count the cost.
The other challenge is this: we have to reach out to serve a wider spectrum of the Presbyterian community in the West. In BC in particular, the Christian community as a whole is small. (In BC 36% of the population claims "no religion," a larger percentage than all the Protestants put together!) The Presbyterian community is smaller still. We need to serve as many as we can.
5) What new initiative is your College providing that you think will make the most significant contribution to the life and health of the church?
I think I might highlight the work of the four-year-old Elders' Institute. The "EI" serves elders and other leaders with online courses, "On the Road" events and prepared "In a Box" courses. Ministers come and go, elders stay, and a congregation's long-term health may be as much a function of the spiritual strength of the Session as of the minister's effectiveness. This will sound like an ad, but please check the Elders' Institute website!
6) Have you any other comment you would like to share with our readers?
I write these answers just before Christmas. I suppose it is more likely they will be read as Easter draws near so a heartfelt "Merry Christmas" would be out of place. But maybe an equally heartfelt "He is risen!" will suit. A church that serves a Risen Lord need never despair.
David Sherbino
Dr. Sherbino has been a faculty member at Tyndale Seminary since 1987 where he has served as the chair of the Pastoral Ministries department and now supervises the program in Spiritual Formation.
1) What would you describe as the single most important thing that you hope graduates of your College will take away with them when they graduate?
As students graduate from Tyndale Seminary, I hope they will have a passion to reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ and realize that ultimately he is the only hope for people in today's culture. In order to do this they need to be equipped to minister in a context where the church is perceived, by many, as being irrelevant.
2) How do you see Theological Education addressing the matter of the church in decline in light of the year 2000 Assembly Report (Acts & Proceedings p.32, 1999) that the leadership of our church has no sense of urgency to the decline?
If the leadership of the church has no sense of urgency about the decline of the church then something is seriously wrong. Jesus commanded us to go into the entire world and make disciples. This command has not been rescinded. What we see today is a worldwide resurgence of Christianity in the non-Western world and a decline of Christianity in a post-Christian West. It is the task of institutions training individuals for ministry to enable the students to understand and minister in a missional context. In essence, the church in the West is in the same place as the church in the first century so we must be prepared to do ministry in a different manner than we have done in the past.
3) What assumptions do you make about the level of Christian formation that candidates sent to the College by the Presbyteries have?
As students enter seminary we need to understand they come from a variety of backgrounds and for a variety of purposes. Some students come to prepare themselves for the ministry of word and sacrament while others come to enhance their biblical knowledge in order to serve more effectively in the church and in the marketplace. Some students come from a rich Christian heritage and others are recent converts. It is interesting to note that many, even those who have been in the church for a long time have a minimal amount of biblical and theological knowledge. What has the church been doing? Surveys reveal that many Canadians have a limited awareness of basic Bible knowledge. This being so, the seminary cannot assume students who are preparing for ministry have a strong biblical and theological background
4) What do you see as the biggest challenge facing your College at present?
One of the biggest challenges facing the seminary is providing mentors and models of ministry that will equip students for the twenty-first century. These need to be individuals who are willing to share their life and ministry experience and help students discover a model of ministry that can be relevant for this generation. In order to do this they must learn how to be agents of change.
5) What new initiative is your College providing that you think will make the most significant contribution to the life and health of the church?
New initiatives from Tyndale seminary include:
a. Three required courses for all incoming students: Leadership; Spiritual Formation; Gospel, Church, and Culture;
b. All courses must have a missional focus;
c. From Sept. 2005 all incoming students will have a spiritual director.
This will help to address several issues. First, it will enable students to understand the culture and how to relate the gospel in a helpful manner. Second, they will work with a spiritual director who will enable them to grow and develop in their personal walk with God. Third, they will develop principles of leadership, which will help them to lead the church into the future.
Darrell W. Johnson
Darrell Johnson is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Regent College.
1) What would you describe as the single most important thing that you hope graduates of your College will take away with them when they graduate?
The single most important thing we hope our graduates will take away with them is a biblical-theological understanding and substantive practical experience of God as Trinity. We want our graduates to be gripped by the reality of God as a community of love, and have begun to respond to God's invitation to live in that love, to know how to live within and serve from the circle of God's inner life.
2) How do you see Theological Education addressing the matter of the church in decline in light of the year 2000 Assembly Report (Acts & Proceedings p.32, 1999) that the leadership of our church has no sense of urgency to the decline?
We believe that the renewal of the church in our time, though having many others factors, is primarily a function of the renewal of the life and vision of pastors. Men and women alive in God's life bring that life to their places of work and service.
3) What assumptions do you make about the level of Christian formation that candidates sent to the College by the Presbyteries have?
We assume that students have been walking with Christ for some time, have had some serious Bible study, and have been active in the worshipping life of a congregation. We would like to assume that they have also been personally mentored, but find that most have not had that privilege. We are finding more and more students coming to us disillusioned about preaching (and wanting to find it!) and not so sure that authentic Christian community is happening in their parishes. The overwhelming majority, however, come sensing that a "new way of being church" is emerging, and want to be part of it.
4) What do you see as the biggest challenge facing your College at present?
Our biggest challenges include (a) our student-faculty ratio, making it hard to be engaged in careful, intentional mentoring, and (b) the increasing costs involved in offering first-rate theological education (we do not like to see students leave us for parish ministry with such high indebtedness).
5) What new initiative is your College providing that you think will make the most significant contribution to the life and health of the church?
We are now moving into a new curriculum. It will involve two new initiatives: one, requiring all students in all degrees to work through four core courses (involving Biblical Studies, History of Ideas, Culture) all seeking to foster what we will call "a Christian humanism"; and two, a new first course called "The Soul of Ministry" in which we help students discern call, identify giftedness, and pursue a deeper self-knowledge (looking at issues of personality and temperament that make or break a ministry).
