Multiplying Laborers for the Urban Harvest

M u l t i p l y i n g L a b o r e r s f o r t h e U r b a n H a r v e s t M u l t i p l y i n g L a b o r e r s f o r t h e U r b a n H a r v e s t

In missionary situations throughout the world, tens of thousands of church leaders have been trained using innovative methods in theological education that allow people to access formal theological training without leaving their jobs, their churches, their culture, or their social networks. Today, as the missionary task has been transformed from the old distinctives of “Home” and “Foreign” to a model that is “from everywhere to everywhere” the need for innovative theological education that combines the best of the old (seminaries, Bible Institutes, TEE) with new forms of distance education has never been more important. The urgency of reaching those who have not heard in every nation compels us to find new ways to invest in all those whom God has called to lead his Church, especially among those who are at the margins of any society. An Educational Opportunity Perhaps the most important educational argument for innovation in theological training is a growing awareness that learning happens best when a person can move back and forth between theory and practice. Learning is best facilitated in an environment where there is dialectic tension and conflict between immediate concrete experience and analytic detachment (Kolb, 1984, 9). The best education happens when a learner stays “in context” so that the concepts and skills learned in the classroom can immediately be applied and tested in the real world of practical ministry. Being absent or extracted from active church involvement in ministry puts the learner in a learning about or for situation rather than a learning in or of situation (Freeman, 1999). The extension seminary model offers “field-based” education to learners who are already doing ministry, not merely preparing for it. Thus, doing theological education using extension models “is not an attempt to make the best of a bad situation. It is part of a world-wide trend based upon substantial research about how people learn” (Ward and Rowen, 1972). Robert E. Freeman observes that:

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