Global Theological Education

They actually are working all around the world, but that's how I got connected with them…was through the work in Africa; the seminaries that I had contact with around the continent they were also partnering with. And their role around the world is to select a number of different seminaries – we work with about 100 altogether now in about 70 different countries. And our goal, then, is to train Christian leaders by partnering with these vital seminaries worldwide. So it's through the partnerships that we have with these seminaries that we desire to see the flourishing of the church through well-trained leaders.

And the amount of work that these men and others like them did with seminaries – literally globally around the world…I think Manfred's visited, I don't know, in the hundreds in terms of seminaries in terms of what he was involved. Really opened up – for me, at least – a global awareness about the different kinds of institutions that exist; the different kind of training that's going on, the needs; in some cases how, what goes on in Western schools doesn't entirely fit what's needed in other parts of the world. Just a whole lot of dimensions of that. Michael, tell us both your role at Dallas and then also your role with ICETE. And tell people a little bit about ICETE.

And we'll get into more of that later if you want to, in the details of that. But also, what we do with ICETE is we want to focus on enhancing quality and community – both quality and community – in global theological education for the sake of the church, really. We have a manifesto that was developed right around the time that ICETE was founded. And if you read that manifesto, it is fascinating to see how closely-connected from the very beginning ICETE wanted to be with the church. And as International Director now, like I said, it's an important value for who we are and what we intend to do with ICETE.

But in essence, we were instrumental in starting an accreditation agency in Cuba that eventually developed a relationship with CETA, which is the Caribbean member for ICETE. And of course, Overseas Council and Scott Cunningham and José Fernandez. Many of the people have been really heavily-involved in Cuba as well. So I got – it was a way to introduce me to theological education and really rather smaller setting. And then from there, expand from there.

In fact, sometimes it didn't need money at all. What they needed was advice. They needed learning. They needed to learn how to do something better, to work smarter. And so, that's when we began moving more in the direction of what you would call consultation or advisement. We began to provide training for seminary leaders. We now have a network of what we call our regional directors. International/regional directors. Michael mentioned one of them, José Fernandez who's our Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. He works with in Cuba.

And those regional directors are indigenous. They know the language, the culture, the people, the networks. They can leverage resources that are local within the context, and then they partner with the seminaries that we've selected. So it is one of our values, really…is contextual. Contextual nature of theological education. I think earlier on, you mentioned, Darrell, that these are not necessarily seminaries that you would find in the United States. It's not like we take a Dallas Seminary and we air-lift it and, you know, [laughs] drop it into India and Columbia or Havana, Cuba.

And then, how do you design programs that particularly respond to those needs with the resources that God has given you to steward in your context? So we're very strong on the contextual nature of theological education because we understand it as missional. It's serving the needs of the church. So an understanding of the needs of the church and partnership with the church is critical in our understanding of what sound theological education looks like.

But they're doing it more and more along the lines of an undergrad type of training program. Now, some of these seminaries do have, of course, master's degrees programs and even some doctorates as well. But for the most part, they're usually undergrad. And then if we tried to unpack that even further and try to understand, "What are the – what are the scope of those programs, and how long are they? And how are they staffed, and how are…where does the faculty come from," and so on – there's a huge variety of that.

I mean, it's not uncommon to have most of the professors be bi-vocational or even sometimes tri-vocational. Their pastor even might have a job outside of their church. They're teaching. All sorts of things. And students, of course, that are…sometimes they have to travel miles, if not – sometimes even days to get to the seminary to study. And some of the commitments that some of these students make are really astronomical. I just received a little blurb article from the Middle East about a student who – despite the COVID, despite the CVOID crises that we're in – he still has committed…he's committed to continue his program as best as he can. Of course, the school is no longer able to meet in person.

So what this student is actually doing is, he is traveling hours each day to get a café; a location where he could have good internet access And he doesn't have, you know…he doesn't have a high-speed train that's taking him there or anything like that. And he's got to figure out, "How is he going to get to this place so he can study?" So that's another layer. You know, "How are the faculty designed and then put together students? Where do they come from? What are they capable of?" Curricula, the facilities, internet – all of these different layers that come into play that are really varied all across the world; especially in a majority world context.

You go to – again, I'll use India as an example. You've got multiple languages you're dealing with in any particular location. You got to other places, people are dealing with three and four languages. In South Africa, I think there's somewhere between 9 and 11 languages that are spoken in the country. I mean, it's just an amazing array of possibilities. But the thing I remember most is, I think you – I remember you talking a curriculum. And it included things like agriculture, you know, and things. I go, "You know, I don't think when I walked on the campus at Dallas Seminary that I was going to sign up for a class on farming." And so, explain what in the world's going on there.

So they tend the see the world as more holistic; not as sacred and secular, but as integrated and together. And they tend to learn that way also. So they don't tend to learn only in what we think of as the narrow disciplines of biblical studies, historical studies and theological studies, but tends to be more of a blended type of approach, integrated type of approach; a multi-disciplinary type of approach. I think those are all healthy things, by the way.

So the whole thing is more woven together, if I can say it that way. I mean, holistic is a good word, but what does that actually look like? That's what you're talking about. It's these networks of influence and, in some cases, decision-making that end up impacting not just the church but he society as a whole in which the pastor is functioning. So what is required of them in terms of ministry and care extends beyond just the passing-on of Biblical information. Let me ask the question – it'll sound like an odd question, but I think it's an important thing to raise because it shows how context does impact.

You know, sometimes if you were to say, "Well, a seminary curriculum has curricula like farming or finance or development," or something like that, that you're moving somehow – and I’m going to use this phrase – in a social Gospel kind of era. And there can be discomfort with that with some people in the West. But that's not really what that represents. It really represents this connection to life thing that we've been talking about that is so important to ministering effectively in pastoral care for you people. Scott, develop that a little bit. 'Cause I think that's a misunderstanding that sometimes can come about, "Well, are they really doing the work of a seminary?"

I think SETECA is like this. I know the Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary in the Middle East is an example. I mean, there are loads of examples that we could bring forward. But then, there are – I'm going to use this figure of…they're the mom-and-pop theological seminaries. You know? They aren't quite as well-resourced, et cetera. What challenges, particular challenges are they facing in this particular moment? And frankly, challenges that appear – if they're not actually completely – overwhelming to those institutions because of the limits that they're operating with and the limits that the current situation has placed them under?

So they have developed strategies that will not only have first-stream, second-stream but third or fourth-stream revenue sources. Well, those third and fourth-stream revenue sources – those are gone. They're just not available at this point in time. An example of that is a conference center or using your facilities to host events. Well, we're not gathering any longer. And this is truly a global pandemic. That's something I think our listeners need to really understand. This is – we see it on the news. But, man, when you start to talk to folks from these different continents in different parts of the world, you realize this is the real deal.

So a financial disruption is one. The other is the educational disruption. Okay? And this is the disruption caused by the fact that we can't meet together. It's happening, of course, all around the world. Schools have been closed and so forth or severely restricted. And so, many schools have already begun using online or remote education. And that has given them a sort of leg-up, an advantage, if they've already started that. But there are a number of schools that haven't begun that yet. And so, they had to quickly shift over to what we call emergency, remote training.

Probably the best analogy in the West is to think about how people gather at Starbucks, you know, to use their own personal accounts. But that's not an internet café. Internet café is a place that has internet capability that you go and you – I take it you pay to use their facility – so again, another expense – and it's guaranteed to give you whatever internet capability is delivered. But it's not the same as working in your living room. And you might have to travel to get there, et cetera. So that's a whole other layer of this alternative way to connect if you can't gather.

And it shows the challenge of what it means to not be able to gather in a singular location where all that is already available and provided. Well, I want to – our time has flown. I want to thank you all for this kind of a dip of the toe in the water of global theological education in terms of the challenges that are involved. I'm sure I'm going to ask you guys back to talk about kind of the other half of the story, which is where we may be headed as a result of all this and the kind of changes that might be coming that people are having to wrestle with on the other side.

But I think this introduction to the way in which theological education has to work with these variety of factors and variety of realities and even the different way in which theological education takes place will help people get a sense of the challenges of what global theological education is involved. And we certainly thank you for your ministry and service to your respective organizations and to what that means to theological training around the world. So thank you, Scott and Michael, for being a part of our discussion today.