There are two words for time in Greek. The first, chronos, refers to chronological time – seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, years, etc. The second, kairos, refers to a specific moment in time or a specific time in which an activity or incident occurs. For many years, the primary method of theological education has been…
A quick review of taglines for seminaries across North America will reveal a smattering of phrases that use terms like equipping, training, teaching, educating, or transforming. For instance, we see taglines that look something like this, “ABC Seminary: Equipping leaders for service in the Church.” Sioux Falls Seminary is no different. Our current “mission statement”…
When we talk about innovation in theological education, the conversation seems to hover around the topic of developing new academic programs, different degrees, or new content delivery methods. Henson will discuss opportunities to innovate in ways that can bring dramatic shifts and improvements to theological education as well as changing operational dynamics for individual schools….
The primary “competition” for seminaries is simply the decision not to go to seminary. Most data shows that seminaries don’t compete too much with each other. Rather, our primary competition is the option of not going to seminary. I think it is a result of the fact that our “because” is broken. Let’s look at…
What if seminaries took full advantage of a student’s current ministry? While many seminaries try to “integrate theory and practice” in their classrooms, in my experience those efforts still result in talking about something versus doing it. As seminaries, we relegate the “ministry practice” requirements of a degree to “field education,” “internship,” and “mentored ministry”…
I attended the ATS CFOS conference last week and came away encouraged by many of the conversations. Like the DIAP Conference for which I serve as a Steering Committee Member, the CFOS Conference has value in both the presentations and the conversations. People are asking good questions and wanting to create models of theological education…
This is part one of a three part series. In this post I will discuss “Integrated Innovation.” In part two we will look how what it might take to begin such a process in your organization. Finally, part three will talk about where to start. When we talk about innovation in theological education, the conversation…
For about a year, I have been talking with different people about the need for an organization which not only serves institutions where they are, but also helps them to see where they could be. In addition, I think there is a need for someone to help the industry see where it could be, to…
This is the second part of a two-part series on Agile Program Development. Today we are going to dive deeper into how to do Agile Program Development and provide two examples. If you haven’t read the first post, I strongly encourage you to do so. It provides the foundation for this post as well as…
Last week, I attended the 2012 DIAP Conference hosted by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). It was a great event. (full-disclosure: I served as the Chair for the Steering Committee, so my judgment regarding the quality of the event might be a little skewed!) I was encouraged by a number of things, but what…