What’s TEAC?
of Lenoir-Rhyne. Today, he said, “seminaries are becoming more interactive with the real world, which, of course, provides the students with a more practical education.” Cooper-White said the Gettysburg union with the
Philadelphia school was not just a “merger, but a new approach to formation and leadership development.” Seminaries will seek more “partners” in the education
of church leaders, said Louise Johnson, president of Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. The partners will include other schools, synods, congregations and other agencies, she said. For example, working through the campus ministry program at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Wartburg has five undergraduates taking seminary courses while still in college. The seminary is exploring similar partnerships in Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota. The Philadelphia seminary works with congregations
in Rochester, N.Y., and Boston to develop local sites for theological education, said David Lose, president of the school. Curriculum and teaching style is also changing
dramatically because the church doesn’t have “the same center of gravity or cultural prominence that it once did,” Lose said. “Congregations can no longer imagine that they are a spiritual destination that people informed by the culture will come to seeking inspiration.” Rather than a “concert hall attended by people who love music,” churches need to be more like a “community music school that equips people to better play music, to play the faith,” he added.
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The reorganization of ELCA seminary training is guided by the report of the Theological Education Advisory Council (TEAC), a group appointed in 2013 to look at leadership development for the church.
The group recommended that the ELCA:
• Set a higher priority for theological education, involving synods and congregations, and develop a “common learning platform” of internet-based resources for theological education.
• Actively seek out new leaders for the church, expanding programs that introduce young people to church leadership and asking synods and seminaries to designate people to help congregations, colleges and groups such as campus ministry to encourage people to discern whether they’re being called to ordained ministry.
• Ask seminaries to develop more cooperative programs, do common research on future needs, and work toward balanced budgets and increased reserves and endowments.
Alternate path to ordination
Candidate is approved for ordination by candidacy committee of the synod.
The ordination takes place after the candidate receives a call to a congregation.
Theological Education for Emerging Ministries (TEEM) is a way of ordaining people “who by reason of age and prior experience” seek an alternate program of preparation for ordination. It is for people who are identifi ed for ministry in a specifi c context, taking into consideration “the leadership gifts, ministry skills, cultural learning styles/experiences and/or age” of a candidate. TEEM candidates will serve in “emerging ministries” or “ministry settings that are without ordained pastoral leadership.”
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