For generations, theological education has largely been organized around degrees: students enroll, take courses, earn credits, graduate, and enter ministry.
But ministry does not stop changing when the diploma is handed out. Neither, a new book argues, should theological education.
Sustaining Ministry Education: Cultivating the Ecotone of Lifelong Learning, edited by the Rev. Darryl W. Stephens, Ph.D., and published by Atla Open Press, examines what its contributors describe as the fastest-growing, yet among the least-resourced, areas of theological education in North America: lifelong learning.
Stephens, who directs lifelong learning programs for Moravian University School of Theology and the Greater New Jersey Conference of The United Methodist Church, argues that non-credit education is essential to the work of theological schools.
“Simply put, there is no future of theological education without non-credit offerings,” Stephens said. “Formation for ministry is a lifelong endeavor involving churches, communities, and schools – accredited and not.”
The book describes that emerging educational landscape as an “ecotone,” borrowing a term from ecology for the transitional area where two ecosystems meet. In theological education, the ecotone exists where church, society, and academy intersect – and where learning may take the form of webinars, coaching, workshops, continuing education, peer learning, digital resources, or other programs removed from a semester-long course.
That location at the edges may also make lifelong learning particularly fertile ground for innovation. The book brings together essays written by leading program directors, theological educators, and librarians to examine adult learning, artificial intelligence, information literacy, culturally responsive education, webinars, theological literacy, storytelling, microlearning, and other approaches. Contributors also explore programs serving Hispanic and Asian American communities and examine emerging models.
The challenge for schools, Stephens suggests, is resisting the temptation to simply pull these forms of learning into the traditional academic structure. Instead, he said, schools should “learn from, collaborate with, and support the innovations and creativity already happening beyond the confines of credit-bearing classes.”
Learn more about the book at: books.atla.com
