In any given semester, on any given day, the doors of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University open virtually to a constellation of students – including Latino, Korean-American, African immigrants and others. They are ministers in an array of denominations, sole practitioners in storefront churches and tireless leaders within the non-profit sector; by and large they have baccalaureate and other graduate degrees but not advanced theological degrees, such as the M.Div. and D.Min. They are deeply engaged in their faith and in diverse congregations, curious, and ambitious to pursue a learning program designed to teach intercultural competencies that will strengthen their ministerial roles.
These students (now numbering 55) are part of Emory’s La Mesa Academy for Theological Studies, a central facet of Candler’s $5 million Lilly Endowment Pathways for Tomorrow Phase III grant awarded in 2022. A joint submission by Candler and its longstanding partner, the Asociación para la Educación Teológica Hispana (AETH), the grant proposal grew out of an “asset-based community organizing process that we started with the planning grant for Phase I” several years earlier, said Ted Smith, Ph.D., Charles Howard Candler Professor of Divinity at Candler. Smith is part of the leadership team that conceived, and is administering, the Lilly grant programs.
The multi-year planning efforts included dozens of meetings with various small representative groups, Smith said, “and we were typically starting with the question: ‘What is God doing where you are, and how can we collaborate with you.’
“I remember the meeting when the plan came together, where some of us were adamant that we did not want to design a program on the fifth floor of Candler in the Dean’s suite, and then try to retail it out there,” he said.
Instead, the planning group began by identifying groups with which Candler was not yet in missional collaboration. “It was taking into account the changing nature of Atlanta, and our constituency,” Smith said. “At the top of that list were Latino ecclesial communities, Asian-American – especially Korean-American – African immigrant communities, and Pentecostal communities that we felt we weren’t in touch with.”
“What do you want to build?”
The discovery meetings revealed significant interest in ministerial education tailored to community needs: cost-effective and accessible pastoral training that is contextually relevant, learning opportunities untethered from traditional U.S. undergraduate prerequisites, and flexibility for working ministers, many of whom also have jobs and families.
“One of the things we heard from our partners is ‘we need a different kind of education to train pastoral leaders in our communities,’” Smith said. “They were candid about the barriers that we would confront: Costs, for example, needed to be affordable. Studying full-time is not workable. The need for a B.A. or B.S from a U.S. college is not necessarily feasible.”
A key design principle, Smith said, emerged from an observation by an African immigrant pastor who warned against offering programs that might trap clergy in “permanent second-class status. He told us his clergy did not need another cul-de-sac. They needed a bridge. That became our guiding image.”
That principal, and the emphasis on community, also nudged Candler’s thinking about costs for its emerging ideas, Smith said.
“The whole community idea here is that we really want the communities to be paying a large part of the costs, and individuals in the program to pay a smaller amount so that they have some skin in the game,” he said. “And honestly, every version of theological education in the United States that I know of has had that model. It can’t be individual tuition-driven; we don’t think that’s sustainable.”
As the contours of the project began to emerge, Candler began searching for someone to create and direct a program suited to the needs of the missional collaboration groups it had identified; they did not need to look very far. The school had previously worked with Joanne Solis-Walker, Ph.D., principal of Camino Road, an intercultural and leadership development company that provides praxis-oriented consulting to churches, non-profits, and higher education institutions across the United States. Her first consulting work with Candler was co-leading with Ted Smith the conversations that eventually would lead to the creation of La Mesa.
Solis-Walker brought a wealth of entrepreneurial experiences not often found in theological education. After earning her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (with a specialization in Industrial Psychology) from Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, she formed a Christian artist booking agency, a coaching and consulting research firm, and Camino Road, a leadership development company focused on strengthening intercultural competence. Along the way she earned a Master of Divinity degree and Ph.D. in Organization Leadership and Development.
Just and durable means we belong to one another. We journey together. And we’re going to do this in equitable ways.
Her earlier consultation at Candler proved fortuitous: She was asked to apply to be Associate Dean for La Mesa Academy for Theological Studies, a central educational offering that had been envisioned in the Lilly Phase III Pathways grant.
“Dean Jan Love (previously Candler’s Dean, then serving as Interim Provost for the university) asked me: ‘Will you build our Hispanic program’ and I said ‘thank you. I am honored, but no.’ And she came back, which totally surprised me, and asked ‘Well, what do you want to build? Everyone wants to build something.’
“That question changed everything,” Solis-Walker said. “From that moment on it was just really going into a discernment process. She opened that door, and ultimately I knew this was what I wanted to build, what I felt called to build.”
At the table
La Mesa (Spanish for “the table”) is a two-year certificate program Solis-Walker has nurtured since its inception, with two pilot cohorts that began in 2024 and 2025; the official launch is slated for August 2026.
Interactive classes are offered online, punctuated by residency in the summer in Atlanta, which allows students to meet and learn in person.
The two active cohorts have established a distinctive community-forward pedagogy, according to Ted Smith. Students come from communities, study with their communities, and remain embedded in communities. These cohort models are deliberately diverse – by nationality as well as ethnic and cultural identity, gender and sexual orientation, and a broad spectrum of Pentecostal and charismatic traditions.
That diversity has been carefully tended; at times, the religious and denominational traditions, the spoken languages, the constructs of gender and sexuality of the students are sources of friction, Smith said. In response, La Mesa’s leaders have introduced the concept of “just and durable” partnerships, characterized by a central tenet, according to Solis-Walker.
“Just and durable means we belong to one another. We journey together. And we’re going to do this in equitable ways.”
To that end, La Mesa’s pedagogical framework rests on four literacies: academic and research readiness; theological literacy; cultural literacy; and digital literacy. Together, these pillars equip students to engage with graduate-level work, understand and respect diverse ecclesial traditions; navigate cultural complexity; and use technology meaningfully in ministry.
Instruction is offered in English, Spanish and Korean. La Mesa also has established a partnership with the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, a multi-denominational network founded by Bishop Yvette A. Flunder in 2000 to unite Christian leaders and congregations around a theology of radical inclusivity that includes affirming LGBTQ+ people and others excluded by some traditional religious institutions.
“It helped that Bishop Flunder’s network was there on the very first day,” Smith said. “And Joanne said ‘God has called everyone here, everyone in this room today. And if God called somebody here, you don’t get to tell them to leave. Nobody has to change their mind on any issue, but nobody can make someone feel unwelcome.’
“And that has been great to see, to see that it’s not just tolerance but it is love in those bonds of praying for each other and worshiping together.”
Matters of Perspective
Abel Padilla is 33, the son of Puerto Rican immigrants to the United States. Born in Detroit, Mich., he grew up in Florida and today is a husband and a father of two children, a five-year-old and a newborn. He is bilingual (Spanish and English), and for the last decade has worked as a business banker while also operating an independent business management company.
Padilla, who enrolled in the online program in its first year, also is a devout Christian. He grew up in a Hispanic denominational church with Pentecostal roots, and served as a worship leader for youth there. He plays piano, and his wife sings, and together they had an opportunity a few years ago to join a new pastoral team as associate pastors, which they did for nearly four years. After a short respite, the couple is now serving as youth ministers for a church in Charlotte, NC.
Now in his second year of the Candler’s La Mesa program, part of the first cohort of approximately 25 students who enrolled, Padilla said he values the broadening of perspectives that the program affords: intellectual, theological, and cultural.
It’s been a learning experience on a lot of levels,” he said. “A lot of us come from opposite sides of the spectrum: some have very, very conservative views of Christianity, and there are people that are very progressive. In our first residency, I would say it was a culture shock because it brought together people from all different aspects and were like, ‘hey, we’re going to learn and we’re going to talk about God.’ But a lot of us disagreed, had opposing views and people would say, ‘Hey, either you’re completely wrong or I’m completely wrong.’ It was great that they were doing that, but it was also learning hurdle for us at first.”
Padilla, who views himself as theologically conservative, also enjoys the “pioneer” aspect of participation in La Mesa, and has noted that the program has been flexible in changing directions based on student feedback, seeking, he said “to find that balance of academic and cultural responsiveness.”
As time has passed, Padillo believes people are finding new perspectives and depth to their theological understanding and journey. “La Mesa is redefining what theological education can be about. People speaking different languages understand things through the cultural lenses present in their language and culture. I think they (program administrators and faculty) are really creating a space where you are able to present and understand theology through your culture, but are also they’re teaching it in a way that is exploring that idea of seeing through other cultural lenses, as well.
“It really has been blessing in disguise because it really allows the premise of one body in Christ to really pull that together, that you’re not interested in echo chambers of conservative or progressive thought, or the sense that you’re going to get this and you’re going to be fed that. It really trying to press the idea that we all come from the same branch, which is God, and we all have different views, but we can learn together and come to the table.”
“I think the biggest change is how I view what my church would want to look like specifically. I’ve learned that there’s space for other perspectives, that just because I have one that’s not the only perspective. And I think overall it’s an allowance of flexibility or nuance to really explore the idea of the body of Christ in His fullness.”
The theological suitcase
Elizabeth Arnold, Ph.D., is a self-described “hardcore extrovert,” voluble and witty. She has been part of The Candler Foundry – the public-facing arm of the school and a broker between the academy and the Church – since 2018 when she was a Candler graduate student pursuing a doctorate in Religion at Emory. Ordained as a Baptist minister, today she teaches one Candler class each year; the majority of her teaching engagements are in churches, which she calls her “dream job.”
In 2024 she was invited to teach “Re-reading the New Testament” for La Mesa, which she calls “one of the most inspiring classes I’ve ever taught. I don’t know if I inspired any of them, but I remember crying on our last meeting because I was just so encouraged by the future of the Church, the future of the seminary, by the incredible engagement of the people who are part of this.”
Her emotional connection stemmed from two revelations: first, that the program is bridging a gap between the La Mesa students’ current circumstances and their destinations, and second, their spiritual maturity and commitment.
“Their goal isn’t ‘I need to get this degree done so I can do this or that;’ it’s a discernment of what’s really useful and edifying. I have never seen so much of what I would consider Christian love and engagement.” she said.
Arnold likes to use the metaphor of a “theological suitcase” in her teaching. “If you’re coming to seminary or doing any theological education it’s like opening a suitcase you’ve been carrying with you through life. There’s been stuff put in there by all kinds of people, parents, friends, ministers and churches, things you’ve read, movies and TV shows.
“And when we are in theological education settings, we have an opportunity to open it up and examine it and, and, and look at what’s actually in our suitcase and make decisions. Do we want to keep this? Do we like our reasons for keeping it? Are there things that are getting a little too heavy for the suitcase?”
She said that the class decided to do its final conjunto (group project) on this metaphor. In a word, they aced it.
“The word that comes to mind is discipleship, that to be authentically in discipleship means to be authentically yourself,” she said. “It’s not fitting a model. It provides space for generosity, for creativity and collaboration. It’s a sanctuary.
“We’ve created this space where they are free to be learners.”
