Congregational Mission Reshapes Theological Education
By Scott Hagley

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Although the conversation at the “Sustaining Missional Leadership” Conference revolved around missional transformation in congregational and judicatory structures, there is no doubt that the missional conversation also poses a challenge for our denominational institutions of theological education. In what ways can seminaries develop and sustain missional leadership in and for congregations? Two interesting stories emerged at the conference.

In South Africa, the Highveld Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church began a visioning process five years ago to discern the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit moved the synod to enter into the missional church conversation as they sought to understand and participate in God’s work locally and nationally. This initiative gave birth to two Partnership for Missional Church (PMC) clusters, of which the second is in the “embodiment” stage. Dawid Venter, the CEO of the Highveld Synod, says: “We have started seeing big changes in the lives of congregations in terms of the worship, the leadership, and the focus of congregations…shifting from concerns for survival toward community involvement.”

Although the Dutch Reformed Church is congregationally-oriented, such transformation has not been limited to the congregational and synod level. Venter explains: “As a synod, we wrote a short paper to the governing body of the faculty of theology at Pretoria University. We asked them to redefine the contents of the whole subject of missiology, from a mission-field focus to an understanding of missiology as a subject that cuts through the theological disciplines—church history, practical theology, hermeneutics, systematics, dogmatics. We wanted the theological disciplines to be read through an understanding of what it means to be a missional church.” The paper opened up a conversation that resulted in hiring Nelus Niemand, a pastor and theologian who has been engaged in missional transformation at the congregational level, to begin rethinking the way in which pastors are trained missionally.

In Abilene, Texas, the Churches of Christ have experienced a similar symbiosis between congregations and Abilene Christian University. For a number of years, the ACU seminary has been involved in conversation around the missional church. As a part of this conversation, the seminary has worked with ministers, elders, and congregations on an individual level. However, in the past year ACU began two different PMC clusters with 16 congregations. Dr. Jack Reese, dean of the College of Biblical Studies and the Graduate School of Theology at ACU, noted that PMC has given the university an opportunity to work with congregations in groups rather than on a one-to-one basis. In a movement described by Reese as “a radical free-church fellowship where every congregation is radically independent,” the involvement of the university in PMC means that “we are now working with a cluster of churches, being committed to them and with them for three years. This is a whole new way for us to relate to the churches.”

Moreover, the continuing conversation around missional transformation at the university has extended well beyond biblical studies and graduate theological education. ACU has joined the seminary’s project with Church Innovations and Allelon, and is beginning to re-imagine its entire university curriculum and vision in light of missional issues. Reese says, “We are playing a significant role in helping the university, as a liberal arts, comprehensive Christian university, see itself as a missional institution. Our university mission statement is that students would learn to think globally, locally, and missionally—this is not just for the pastors and trained theologians, but for all the degree programs. We want to see a new engagement with culture in a post-Christendom era.”

Scott Hagley is a PhD candidate in the Congregational Mission and Leadership program at Luther Seminary.