Practices and strategies for sustaining resilient spiritual leadership are critical in this time of climate crisis. Learnings from participants in the Seminary of the Wild eco-ministry certification program offer guidance for engaging in practices of education and formation that can help people of faith meet the challenges of these times and…

Hindu sacred scriptures are a rich interweave of cosmological revelation that is embedded in melopoeia (melodic poetry) and sung in designated meters during rituals, liturgical services, festivals, and personal prayers. Revelation is conveyed through enigmatic dialogues, debates, parables, anecdotes, legends, and narratives. These occur between…

This paper addresses a surprising phenomenon in the evangelical theological classroom. Evangelical theological students often approach theology as an exclusively analytic subject, failing to use imaginative criteria in "doing theology." Specifically, they fail to use their literary imaginations or what some call narrative imagination.…

This dissertation describes a contextualized instructional design process based on key missionary-training practices that helps Beautiful Feet missionaries grow in their ministry of making disciples. The issue prompting the study was a misalignment between the current missionary-training process of Beautiful Feet and its vision and mission…

This study explores the ways the leaders of three American congregations of women religious have prepared their sisters for the teaching apostolate both in the past and in the present. The study includes information on the founding of the communities, how their apostolates have evolved over time, factors that have contributed to the development of…

Given that spiritual formation of students is a key pursuit of theological training and in light of the evolving landscape of Christian spiritual formation, designing an effective educational model for the goal of students' formation is challenging. This article explores the educational means and factors of self-awareness that enhance spiritual…

Problem: The fact that evangelism in the Unorganized Territories of the Chinese Union Mission was done mainly as personal evangelism and that public evangelism was limited to a one-day seed sowing meeting had led to a serious need for equipping pastors in effective public evangelism methods. It required a model of public evangelism, which is…

The member institutions of the Association of Theological Schools share a legacy of collaboration. Recently, a renewed urgency for such partnerships has emerged. In this article, the collaborative tradition is revisited, longstanding approaches are scrutinized, and emerging models are explored. The historical motivations for…

This project sought to revise the Pastoral Theology program at Shepherds Theological Seminary in Cary, North Carolina. Chapter 1 presents the history and ministry context of Shepherds Theological Seminary and the goals of this project. Chapter 2 provides exegesis of three passages of Scripture (1 Tim 3:1-7; 1 Tim 4:6-16; 2 Tim 2:1-6) to show that…

I have the rewarding experience of being an administrator operating out of a denominational leadership role in Christian education. I have served in this role concurrently for over a decade as a full-time professor of Christian education at a seminary. In this autobiographical reflection, I discuss how I define my roles in the church and academy…

Perceptions about remote theological education inevitably cluster around questions of embodiment, community, and unity. The letters of the apostle Paul have quite a bit to say about these themes. This essay examines Paul's treatment of distance in the formation and education of Christians, focused around the image of the "body of Christ"…

The purpose of this project is to enable the teacher community to improve the capacity for spiritual growth and dedication through discipleship-forming teacher education. This project is designed to help the discipleship formation training of teachers at Joseph International School over a 12-week period. Discipleship formation as a method of…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study is to describe what style of leadership is self-described by Academic Deans of Bible Colleges and Seminaries in the United States to impact student success. The study will also seek to identify how these Academic Deans describe student success. This study used a qualitative descriptive method and…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how experiences with mentoring lived, professional turning points, and crises of faith influenced post-seminary professional development for Christian church leaders in Southern Michigan. The theoretical foundation that guided the development of the study was based on Mezirow's…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how seminary and institute students describe their spiritual and learning experiences when studying scripture in a digital format in Alberta, Canada. Cognitive flexibility theory provided the theoretical framework and lens whereby the researcher explored the phenomenon and was used…