The Evangel Dean Basic Training Resource Handbook

A PPENDIX • 147

Why Develop Extension Centers for Theological Education?

Do Christian leaders from among the urban poor deserve access to formalized and excellent theological input? To those of us that would answer “Yes,” the immediate questions are “How will this happen?” and “What would it look like?” For the urban poor, only rarely will such education take the form of traditional seminary education. Although often excellent and thorough in their training, traditional seminaries are too expensive, too culturally distant and too removed from the immediate issues which dominate the theological concerns of the poor to be the primary answer for their theological education.* Instead, innovative extension centers for theological education need to be established that: • are located in the urban church context, • prioritize the needs of people already in ministry, and • address themselves to the cultural and socioeconomic realities of inner-city Christian leaders. We believe that such innovative new approaches stand squarely in the evangelical tradition, provide a unique educational opportunity for quality investment, and are an essential response to the challenges of the urban setting. An Evangelical Tradition The evangelical impulse at the heart of the Church has always had a sense of urgency about the task of mission and the unreached. This urgency has prompted Christian educators to identify and prepare those called to leadership for their mission and ministry. * Robert E. Freeman offers a helpful perspective when he says: “The traditional U.S. Protestant seminary has in the past sixty or seventy years become prominently two things: a) a community of scholars carrying on research as professional academicians (which is sorely needed to deal with the many complex issues of today), and b) a place where candidates for the ordained ministry (and Christian scholarship) are trained. The extension seminary . . . does in no way intend to replace or play down the first crucial function, but it does intend to operate parallel to the latter by a new method which allows a wider, and perhaps superior, selection of students since it allows proven leaders to participate . . . . The task of the seminary is not to make leaders, the calling of the seminary is to train the leaders that God has already made“ (Freeman, 1999, p. 2). ________________________________________________________________________