Former President, The Fund for Theological Education
March 26, 2009
I just finished reading an article in the March 26 edition of The Chronicle of Philanthropy about Benjamin Jealous, the new president of the NAACP. At 36, Jealous is the youngest person to have ever served as president of this historic and vital organization. He completed his bachelor’s degree in political science at Columbia University in 1996 and a master’s degree in comparative social research at Oxford University in 1998. As I look at his accomplishments, at the evidence of his values and commitments, and at his remarkable courage to accept the call to lead the NAACP at such a difficult economic moment in our history, I am reminded quickly of so many of our FTE Fellows who, like Jealous, have heeded the call to service with such courage.
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Vice President for Ministry Programs and Planning
March 04, 2009
Newsweek recently reported that applications to seminary and divinity school may be on the rise in the wake of the economic downturn. In Divine Refuge in the Storm, Lisa Miller suggests that people are entering the world of theological education to re-evaluate the cynical world of commerce and capitalism. The Dean of Yale Divinity School says people are turning to religion; one of his students says, “People turn to God when things are so grim.” These re-evaluators will indeed find riches in theological education—the luxury of reading and writing about ideas that not only quicken the mind but also move the heart and soul, the adrenalin high of talk about things that really matter with other smart people who love to learn. I see how theological education could be a refuge from empty work or no work or work confusion. I also know that engaged solely for our own sake, to satisfy our own personal needs, theological education can turn us back into ourselves rather than opening us up to the life of God and the people of God.
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Former President, The Fund for Theological Education
March 02, 2009
Motivation matters.
Lisa Miller’s quick take on projections of rising seminary enrollments (“Divine Refuge in the Storm”, Newsweek Feb.16, 2009) offers hope for growing numbers of churches in need of qualified pastors. But it misses a fundamental point about Millennials who seek the mantle of ministry.
Sure, graduate school enrollments go up in economic downturns. But in this current storm, suggesting that students go to seminary to find “divine refuge” is a little like saying that firemen responding to an alarm are looking for a safe place away from the station. The truth is that seminary students today make a courageous and countercultural decision to take on significant debt—followed by an uncertain future and sparse starting salaries—even as clergy positions are cut or go unfilled. Not many today opt for that return on investment.
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Associate Director for Fellowships
February 09, 2009
From the FTE Doctoral Programs Facebook Page.... 1. Not where but who! The prestige of the school is not nearly as important as the scholars with whom you’ll work. 2. For the Ph.D. in humanities disciplines, the average time to degree completion rate is about 10 years. 3. In the U.S. one out of every two (50%) students who are admitted drop out of a Ph.D. program!
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Vice President for Ministry Programs and Planning
February 03, 2009
As the political life of our country makes a sharp 90-degree turn from choosing a new president to being governed by one, we let certain civic practices rest for a while: campaigns, debates, conventions, constant polling. I am happy to let them lie and will be excited when their time comes again, but I really miss Tim Russert.
Mr. Russert—Washington Bureau Chief for NBC, 16 year host of Meet the Press, familiar commentator on MSNBC and The Today Show—died unexpectedly in June 2008. It felt like an especially cruel time for him to go. A lot of people counted on his smarts, his wisdom, and his presence as ports in the rough political seas. But even more than that, he himself loved it so.
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Former President, The Fund for Theological Education
January 26, 2009
A week has not passed as I write this post, and yet the pressure on the new president’s administration could make diamonds out of coal. This week, pundits expect some of the worst economic news from companies that represent every sector of the global marketplace. News stories of new atrocities to young women in Afghanistan show the renewal of Taliban strength. A tense truce continues in Gaza, but the clock is ticking. A generation of children have been recruited as warriors in central Africa, and the potential for real change seems remote. As the global economy declines, human trafficking and the seduction of profits from illegal narcotics also seem to increase. The expectations of the new president are simply overwhelming, and yet the need for immediate intervention is critical. And because the systems and processes involved in all of these matters are so complex, measures of success will largely be determined by historians.
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Vice President for Ministry Programs and Planning
January 15, 2009
The New York Times magazine gives us this week a story about “the cussing pastor,” Mark Driscoll, 38-year-old pastor of the Mars Hill Church in Seattle. If you are fascinated by American culture as I am—and especially what Americans do with Christianity—you should read this very well-written article by Molly Worthen, “Who Would Jesus Smack Down?”. I come to this story from a place of attention to the call and formation of young leaders for the church. It sounds like a prototypical American story of revival: charismatic leader emboldened by the Gospel radicalizes people hungry for salvation from meaninglessness, loneliness and isolation and forms a community set apart by its convictions. The Mars Hill Church in Seattle meets on seven campuses around the city, with a reported total weekly attendance of 7,500, and a growing ministry, mission and organization. Clearly, something is going on that attracts people.
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