Sunday, October 23, 2005 AD
Theological Education
Lutheran Angles
What follows is not a direct answer to John's questions, but is nevertheless pertinent, I believe.
I am utterly convinced that, ultimately, the heartbeat of any church is its seminaries. Show us the seminary and I will show you the kind of church you will have in two decades' time. It requires little knowledge of the continental scene, for example, to realise that the demise of the once-confessional Lutheran state churches has followed in the wake of the complete liberalisation of their seminaries. Likewise, the spread of the 'Church Growth' movement from the '60s has had a dramatic effect on the landscape of the Christian Church, including the ELCE, and again the seminaries have been a point of entry for the movement within the various church bodies.
The size of the ELCE appears to undermine my conviction slightly in that the majority of the currently active pastors were not trained by the ELCE. However, I believe this too is part of the same, larger picture. Much of what will happen in Lutheran congregations (and beyond them) over the following years will be determined by the kind of training that takes place at Westfield. The seminary is fortunate to have a couple of native students at the moment, who will hopefully be able to receive calls within the ELCE. Hopefully others will be sent from the congregations from time to time. The preparation that they receive for congregational life will, to a significant extent, shape the ways in which (and whether) the Lutheran faith is to be known in the UK.
This is not to say that the onus should be solely, or even primarily, on pastors and those who train them. The church is not in any way coterminous with its clergy. However, pastors are the shepherds and the diet they feed the sheep makes a huge difference to congregational life. And all this begins at seminary.
This, of course, is a theoretical observation, but it may nevertheless be of great importance. The future of the ELCE is bound up to a significant degree with the future of Westfield House. Things there seem to look immeasurably brighter than they did when I joined the ELCE 10 years ago, and this should be a source of godly optimism.
What follows is not a direct answer to John's questions, but is nevertheless pertinent, I believe.
I am utterly convinced that, ultimately, the heartbeat of any church is its seminaries. Show us the seminary and I will show you the kind of church you will have in two decades' time. It requires little knowledge of the continental scene, for example, to realise that the demise of the once-confessional Lutheran state churches has followed in the wake of the complete liberalisation of their seminaries. Likewise, the spread of the 'Church Growth' movement from the '60s has had a dramatic effect on the landscape of the Christian Church, including the ELCE, and again the seminaries have been a point of entry for the movement within the various church bodies.
The size of the ELCE appears to undermine my conviction slightly in that the majority of the currently active pastors were not trained by the ELCE. However, I believe this too is part of the same, larger picture. Much of what will happen in Lutheran congregations (and beyond them) over the following years will be determined by the kind of training that takes place at Westfield. The seminary is fortunate to have a couple of native students at the moment, who will hopefully be able to receive calls within the ELCE. Hopefully others will be sent from the congregations from time to time. The preparation that they receive for congregational life will, to a significant extent, shape the ways in which (and whether) the Lutheran faith is to be known in the UK.
This is not to say that the onus should be solely, or even primarily, on pastors and those who train them. The church is not in any way coterminous with its clergy. However, pastors are the shepherds and the diet they feed the sheep makes a huge difference to congregational life. And all this begins at seminary.
This, of course, is a theoretical observation, but it may nevertheless be of great importance. The future of the ELCE is bound up to a significant degree with the future of Westfield House. Things there seem to look immeasurably brighter than they did when I joined the ELCE 10 years ago, and this should be a source of godly optimism.
