“New beginnings” is a theme not only at the start of a calendar year but also at the start of the academic year. The days of a seminary campus being largely idle during the dog days of summer, if that time ever existed, is not an accurate description of the various kinds of intensive courses offered throughout the summer months. Faculty teach a wide range of courses during the summer intensives, staff host many kinds of groups that come to campus and our faculty and staff work on a rich variety of online resources over the summer. Despite the full summer activity, when Sept. 1 rolls around, there is a feeling of newness in the air.
Our new students are arriving. Our incoming first-year class is up more than 10 percent over last year, with most of the growth in our residential M.Div. program. New staff and faculty also enrich our common call to educate pastors, teachers and other leaders for Christian communities.
New strategic planning looms large on our agenda for fall. We are poised to engage our campus community, our online community, our boards and our alums to join together for creative conversation on what God is doing in our midst. We’re prayerfully considering together what our vision will be for preparing a new generation of leaders for God’s work in the world. I am very hopeful about the future, but also know that it may well mean changing a lot of this institution’s traditional patterns. Our faculty have led the way with a new curriculum, but this work is just the beginning. We have enormous questions ahead concerning how we serve the need for more theological education, in more formats, for more parts of the world—all for the sake of God’s mission. Stay tuned for an update on how you can join the conversation. We are all in this together—and we will need your wisdom as we discern together new patterns of sustainability.
I ask for your ongoing prayers as together we try to creatively reimagine how we educate pastors and other leaders to bear faithful witness to God’s work in a changing world.