Theological Education for ALL the Church
Historically, theological education was viewed as specialized training for a few specific people with a call to full-time ministry. As God called out men and women to ministry, the local church would send them to seminaries (usually far away) to receive specialized training. In recent history, theological institutions began to offer extension sites, hybrid classes, and online options for theological study. These initiatives were a response to the need and benefit of offering theological education closer to the local church. Today, many churches, like Brainerd Baptist, offer apprentice programs and accredited degrees through partnerships with theological institutions for those pursuing ministry. Churches are more and more aware of the benefits of marrying theological education with real-life experience within the local church for those exploring or pursuing a call to ministry.
But, should theological education be limited to those with a call to ministry? What about the rest of the church? Would everyone not benefit from classes that lead to a greater understanding of the Bible, theology, and mission? The answer is obviously yes, so the question becomes how do we deliver these types of classes to everyone in the church.
Any plan for delivering theological education for all the church has to be appropriate, accessible, and applicable. Here’s what I mean:
Appropriate: We want to deliver the appropriate material at the appropriate level. The average church member may not need the level of depth or consideration of diverse views offered in a Master's level seminary class. But, they would most likely benefit from a focused study of the primary issues of the class. Identifying the appropriate material helps determine which classes to offer. We’ve decided on three core classes:
Story - The Narrative of Scripture
Belief - Basic Theology
Mission - What does a life on mission look like?
Accessible: We wanted the classes to be accessible at the most opportune times in the life of our church. Sometimes this would mean offering live teaching from a pastor or staff member. But, it also means offering these classes in an online format and including the teaching plans so that others can teach the material in existing groups within the church. So, when we offer a class, we offer a couple of live teaching sessions, record the sessions, and also provide our teaching notes online for others to use. We’ve made the material as accessible as possible.
Applicable: First, we want to answer “What does this mean to me tomorrow?” in every session of every class. This application will look different in each class and each session, but we seek to answer the question. Second, we believe what is taught must be applied. So, we try to ask how the content will be applied. The online versions of the classes are delivered in such a way that we ask the participant to write down a response, pray for something specific, or answer a question. Asking for a response leads to understanding.
This year, we have completed our first two core classes (Story and Belief). You can access both classes here. We will be teaching our third core class (Mission) in the fall. If these resources are helpful to you, you are welcome to use them and adapt them to your context.
We’re excited to offer theological education to ALL of our church family and hope initiatives like these continue to increase in other churches like ours.
