“…if anyone is in Christ there is a new creation.” —2 Cor. 5:17
Dear friends,
In our vision statement we note that “… we will be a learning community where sound Christian scholarship meets creative practices addressing the traumas of our times and witnessing to the new creation in Christ.” In this issue of Story we invite you to glimpse some of the ways we are living into this vision.
Our students and their mentors are engaging in God’s work for the sake of the world. In their ministry they bear witness to the power of Christ to bring renewal. Whether renewal is through a bread baking group in a rural community which assists a food shelf, ministry in a pediatric intensive care unit, ministry among a racially and ethnically diverse urban congregation or the many places across the country where our distributed learning students bring their service learning to bear witness to God’s presence in the midst of the traumas and troubles of our world. An important aspect of our education is continued learning both in the classroom and in ministry settings like these throughout students’ time at the seminary.
Internships, a core part of the experiential learning component, are also being reimagined and we continue to explore alternative pathways. For example, one student’s was shaped as a three-year concurrent internship. One student is serving in Berlin, Germany which helps broaden experiences and global knowledge. Our students learning online continue to be deeply engaged in their local congregation as a primary context for bringing their scholarship and learning in conversation with the creative practices of ministry which bear faithful witness to God’s renewing work. The consistent theme in this issue is the vital importance of partnerships with congregations or other supervised ministries so our students can experience firsthand the ways that God is working and “making all things new.”
If you are in need of renewal in your ministry, congregation or personal life perhaps reading some of these stories of renewal will remind you of the ways that God is working in the world and the promise that “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.”
Peace and joy,
Robin Steinke, President