PRESIDENT'S CORNER
NTS: A MISSIONAL SEMINARY SERVING A MISSIONAL CHURCH: We have adopted this as our theme for the 2009-2013 quadrennium. Rather than a convenient or catchy slogan attached to any outreach or missionary activity of the Church, the concept of being MISSIONAL is theologically rooted and intentional with significant implications for the future ministry of the Church. Further, the understanding of NTS as a missional seminary emerges out of months of conversations and strategic planning that include the re-visioning of NTS around missional themes.
So what does this word MISSIONAL mean anyway? As I have been thinking about what it means for the Church to be MISSIONAL, there are several key ideas that continue to surface, including:
- The mission of the Church begins with the mission of God. The Church has no mission of its own apart from its participation in God’s mission. The mission of God is best understood through the sacrificial redemptive mission of Jesus and the presence and power of the Spirit. To be missional means that the Church participates in God’s mission (the missio Dei) in the world. As the Father sent Jesus into the world, the Church, following Jesus in the power of the Spirit, is sent into the world to proclaim and embody the gospel.
- The mission of the Church ultimately is to participate in God’s mission in the world in ways that bear witness to the in-breaking Kingdom of God. The Church in its nature and activity anticipates the coming Kingdom. Who we are and what we do give witness to the whole world about who God is, and what the coming Kingdom will look like when Jesus returns. When the Church looks and acts like the Kingdom in its proclamation of the gospel, its care for the poor, and its character of peace and reconciliation, it is missional.
With these thoughts in mind, I have been talking with a number of other people about what a working definition of MISSIONAL might look like. I’m still working on it, but this is what I have so far. Your responses and suggestions would be welcome:
the people of God (the Church) in the power of the Spirit
participating in the Triune life of God
and the kenotic,
incarnational,
cruciform,
redemptive missio Dei
in ways that bear witness to the holy character of God,
the gospel of Jesus Christ,
and the present and coming reign of God
to the glory of God.
So, what does a MISSIONAL SEMINARY look like? What does it mean for NTS to be a MISSIONAL SEMINARY SERVING A MISSIONAL CHURCH? Actually, it means a lot. And it means that NTS is becoming a different kind of seminary. Some of the changes you can see at NTS include:
- Less of an attractional model of education (come to the hill where we will teach you about how to be MISSIONAL, out there) and more of an interactive model of education (partnering with local churches in a variety of contexts in the preparation of men and women for pastoral ministry).
- A review of our curriculum around missional themes: In the final analysis, are students being prepared to be ministers of the gospel in a diverse, complex, volatile world?
- A venue for MISSIONAL thinking and conversation (NTS as a theological resource for and with the Church around the ideas of what it means for the Church to participate in God’s mission in the world).
So… big changes in the works at NTS, A MISSIONAL SEMINARY SERVING A MISSIONAL CHURCH!
Grace and peace,
Ron Benefiel