Seminary: Growing Roots, Spreading Wings

Last updated on: November 6, 2011 at 10:35 pm by Elizabeth Nordquist

10 Comments

Seminary: Growing Roots, Spreading Wings 2011-11-06T22:35:19+00:00 Elizabeth Nordquist

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

For thirty years I was deeply connected to seminary life: a student, a pastor supervisor, a trustee, and a faculty member. In each of those roles, at each of those times in my life, I was given gifts and I was left with longings. As the discussion about what and if a seminary should be and do swirls around this website, I remember a quotation I read once about good parents: “There are two things we can give our children: one is roots,the other is wings.” If we believe that the Church in the faith community is the body of parental elders that prepares the following generations for ministry in the Church, then I look both retrospectively and ahead at each of my stages of seminary involvement to ask how roots and wings were and could be provided for women and men who are discerning and training for a vocation in ministry of Word and Sacrament.

As a student, in both courses, 15 years apart, at different seminaries, I was given deep roots in Scripture, in my tradition and its denomination, and in the focus areas of my discipline. That has grounded me solidly, and has been a well of resources to which I could go, over and over again. In the year in which I was a student, I was not given much energy and imagination to develop wings, those resources with which I could both imagine and pursue avenues of ministry and my own gifts which could be of use to God’s intended rule, outside the already well-trodden roads on ministry within the Church. As a woman starting theological training in an evangelical seminary in the late ’70s, I felt little prodding or room to dream of possibilities beyond the ones where women were already in place in the Church.

As a pastor supervising interns, I began to celebrate the rootedness I saw in those who served alongside me, but began to see that for many of them, already the changing church and the changing world was compromising the depths to which their roots could go. Added courses, added demands from churches, added financial pressures, both diluted the solidity of content that could be absorbed and circumscribed the freedom with which student interns could imagine arenas and ways in which Christ could be served in the world.

When I was a trustee, my roots tapped into the history of the institution that I served, and my wings continues to be clipped severely by the continual stress of the care and nurture of finances, which were always cause for worry and grief. How I longed that as a trustee, I could really have the resources that could help students, in the moment of the school find bread for the journey and strength for the day!

My last connection was my 12 years as a seminary faculty person: a commuter seminary, classes at night and on weekends, multi-cultural, multi-denominational. My belief is that the students had good roots in what we offered, but as a small school in a particular location, we could not offer a curriculum that fit the wishes and/or needs of every person. Our students’ wings developed because they had to develop their own resources, both alone and together: community, flexibility, faithfulness. The seminary offered classes which aimed to integrate the academic learning with the field experience.

An added piece of formation to my belief about training for ministry came when I participated in a five year reflection group of 18 people, many ethnicities and roles in the Church, in my denomination committed to asking the question: “Who is the pastor for the 21st Century?” What surfaced clearly out of those conversations was the conviction that in this present time, even in one denomination, there is not a one size fits all way or place or even curriculum for training people for the ordained ministries of Christ in the world. As a world we are diverse theologically, economically, racially and ethnically. As a Church we are one at the communion table, but not too often in the quotidian paths of living in our lives.

My belief has become that the primary equipping for ministry is the development of rootedness in the Holy and wings that can catch the updraft of the Spirit. Each institution, proto-institution, or community that understands itself to be called to participate in that development for God’s sake in the Church is responsible to discern what it is that it does best and offer that to the world wide Church of Christ. There is space enough in God’s reign for a variety of offerings, a variety of venues, a variety of styles in theological education.

Until today I have not ever made a post at the request of someone else, in this case the website. I offer it from my location with humility, with humor, and with trust that it adds something to the conversation.

To God be the Glory!

This blogpost is one of a number of perspectives from the Symposium on the Future of Seminary Education at Patheos, and originally appeared at Elizabeth Nordquist’s blog A Musing Amma.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 2, 2011

Seminary Ed: What To Do? A Follow-Up to "Renew or Plan the Funeral"

Next Post

November 8, 2011 New Voices on Seminary Education

Recent Comments

10 Comments | Leave a Comment

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Author Interviews Battle Over the Body and Blood of Christ Bearing Beauty Book Reviews Christian Education christian spirituallity christianity Christmas Church Church Leadership Contemplation Creation Care Death and Dying Death Penalty Disruptive Change Disruptors Series Easter Education Evolution and Faith Future of Progressive Christianity Gun Violence Health & Wellness Holy Week Interfaith Israel-Palestine Leading Differently Lent LGBTQ Living with Cancer Meditations on the Cross Mental Illness millennials Mimetic Mondays Monday Meditations Movie Reviews New Monasticism Pando Populus Parenting Patheos 10+1 Q&A Series PC(USA) Politics Pop Culture Practical Theology Series Prayer progressive christian Race Relations Reformation religion Religion and Politics Religion in America Rethink Church Social Justice Spirituality Spirituality of the Body Stump a Scholar Technology and Faith Thanksgiving Theodicy Trust Me Church Uncategorized Why I'm Still Christian Youth Ministry

Select a Month December 2025 April 2025 January 2025 September 2023 September 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 November 2021 October 2021 May 2021 February 2021 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 June 2019 March 2019 January 2019 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the wise woman who saved her city from Joab by throwing a man's head over the wall?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Abigail A woman of Abel Michal Bathsheba