My initial thought is that this would be better suited as a 1 year pre seminary training, with potential for ongoing work during seminary. Would love to flesh this out more in conversation.
How long would you intend for the average seminary student to be at the UTC? A semester? Once a week? A few weeks every summer? I could see pros and cons for each of those timeframes. You mentioned a cohort model which is cool but could be a big investment of time unless they’re not meeting very often
Great question. I appreciate your engagement. I'm actually thinking of a 3 yr model, similar to my D.Min cohort now. The first year would teach residents how to do historical and social analysis of their urban context. This would include an analysis of diseased narratives that dominate urban communities, such as racism and economic exploitation.
The second year would teach residents how to apply their theology to the historical and social analysis done in year one. Residents would examine diverse theologies that have attempted to address these diseased narratives.
The third year would teach residents practical responses to years one and two: everything from community organizing to grant writing to ministry philosophy.
It WOULD be a significant time investment. But it pays off in the end. I spoke to a now-retired urban pastor some months ago. He said he didn't have a theology to address the many demands of the urban context until he'd been pastoring an urban church for twenty years. His first twenty years were spent in constant burnout and anxiety as a result.
That's great! So sounds like it'd be a residential model then, which I didn't catch from my first read of your post. Really cool!
One other thing you might need is an extended orientation period at the front end of year 1, to help those (like me) who hadn't grown up or lived in an urban context before, how to come with a good posture, how to be a good neighbor, how to handle cultural dissonance, engage with those on the margins, etc. Maybe that's already assumed in your model but wanted to name that. [I can think of a lot of well-meaning, super educated, more-progressive Christians who might think they have all the right theology for an urban setting but who don't know how to actually interact with the real people who live there.]
My initial thought is that this would be better suited as a 1 year pre seminary training, with potential for ongoing work during seminary. Would love to flesh this out more in conversation.
Great idea. Rich or poor, those who want to serve must be allowed to study, especially those lacking resources.
I like the idea of UTCs!
How long would you intend for the average seminary student to be at the UTC? A semester? Once a week? A few weeks every summer? I could see pros and cons for each of those timeframes. You mentioned a cohort model which is cool but could be a big investment of time unless they’re not meeting very often
Great question. I appreciate your engagement. I'm actually thinking of a 3 yr model, similar to my D.Min cohort now. The first year would teach residents how to do historical and social analysis of their urban context. This would include an analysis of diseased narratives that dominate urban communities, such as racism and economic exploitation.
The second year would teach residents how to apply their theology to the historical and social analysis done in year one. Residents would examine diverse theologies that have attempted to address these diseased narratives.
The third year would teach residents practical responses to years one and two: everything from community organizing to grant writing to ministry philosophy.
It WOULD be a significant time investment. But it pays off in the end. I spoke to a now-retired urban pastor some months ago. He said he didn't have a theology to address the many demands of the urban context until he'd been pastoring an urban church for twenty years. His first twenty years were spent in constant burnout and anxiety as a result.
That's great! So sounds like it'd be a residential model then, which I didn't catch from my first read of your post. Really cool!
One other thing you might need is an extended orientation period at the front end of year 1, to help those (like me) who hadn't grown up or lived in an urban context before, how to come with a good posture, how to be a good neighbor, how to handle cultural dissonance, engage with those on the margins, etc. Maybe that's already assumed in your model but wanted to name that. [I can think of a lot of well-meaning, super educated, more-progressive Christians who might think they have all the right theology for an urban setting but who don't know how to actually interact with the real people who live there.]