“View from 2040” was the theme of the activities around the Inauguration and Installation of the Rev. Dr. Frank Yamada as the 10th President of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. I was glad I could attend, not only to witness the historic event of the installation of the first Asian American President of a major seminary, but also to learn more about the state of theological education today. Also, I was excited to engage in these kinds of deep conversations with both my friends from McCormick and the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago (LSTC) in the same location.
All the speakers surrounding this event insisted that theological education institutions must change because by 2040, there will no longer be a racial/ethnic majority in the U.S. and technologies will continue to impact how we communicate and form communities. I was particularly inspired by Frank Yamada’s inaugural address in which he invited those present to consider how theological education can be faithful, relevant and sustainable in a diverse and fast changing world. At one point, he quoted Chris Anderson’s book Free in which he said that digitized “information wants to be free.” Yamada also use Khan Academy as an example through which one can get over 2800 educational video free on the internet.
So, under such condition, what is the role of an educational institution if it is going to be sustainable? If we think of an educational institution as the place where information is disseminated to the students, then it will not survive because eventually, no one will pay for information since they can get it all free through the internet.
Perhaps we can learn from the music industry as they struggled with the reality that digitized music was going free. In a number of examples from Anderson’s book Free, he described how the creators of new music deliberately offer it free in the form of CDs and on the internet; then they put great efforts in promoting the same artist’s concerts in local communities in which they provide face-to-face, real experiences of the music. People may not pay for digitized music, but they are willing to pay for a real hi-touch experience, which cannot be replaced by technologies. Since dissemination of the free music is also free, the distributor can reach millions of people without incurring any cost, and if only a small percentage of the people wanted the hi-touch experience, the concert halls would be full and the music industry becomes sustainable.
What if a seminary like McCormick or LSTC does a similar thing like the music industry? A seminary can draw from the resources of its faculty and library and create thousands of videos and other media that cover the foundational material of a theological curriculum and put them on the internet free! If these free materials, given that they are inspiring, can reach, for example, 10,000 people, and if only 5% of the people are interested in having a full community experience using these materials for real-life ministries at a location like Chicago, one would have 500 students making their pilgrimage to seminary to experience in-person formation. They might even be willing to pay for it.
This means the roles of seminary will be very different in at least two major ways. First, instead of classes that disseminate information, classes will be a place where teachers and students create relevant materials to be put on the internet so that the free curriculum will be continuously updated. In additional to writing research papers, students will be creating videos and other forms of media to be shared not just with their teachers but with a wider ever expanding global network.
Second, a seminary might be organized around a number of community-based ministries that are missional and self-sustaining, using a model similar to Social Business as defined by Muhammad Yunus, Every student and faculty member are involved in at least one of these missional projects. Some examples of these social business-like ministries might be a restaurant modeled after Soul Kitchen, or an after school program to supplement the arts and music education of the local schools, or consulting groups consisting of professors and students to resource local congregations. These missional projects will become places where students and professors do active theological reflection from all the disciplines. A sustainist seminary would become a place where resources flow between the seminary community and the wider neighborhood – these resources are not just financial, they include relationship, truth, wellness and gracious leadership.
Students would join an existing missional project in their first year. In their second year, they would form a new missional group and incubate a new social business/ministry and then in their third year, they would actually implement the missional project and leave the ministry with the seminary to be continued by future students with the support of faculty. Since all of these missional projects are self-sustaining, they will not cost the educational institution any money. More importantly, they will actually create jobs and provide services for the local community. What better way to form church leaders than having them actually create sustainable missional ministries as the foundation of their education!
As you can sense, I am passionate about this, and these are just preliminary ideas that I came up with through conversations with colleagues while I was in Chicago. I would invite more dialogue with any leaders of theological education institutions who found what I shared here exciting and worthy for further exploration.
Invite members of your community to come together for time of dialogue on technology and change.
Reflection Questions for last Sunday after Epiphany (Year B)
2 Kings 2:1-12
Eric H. F. Law
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
Come to Los Angeles in 2012 to study with The Sustainist, the first two opportunities:
February 27–March 2, 2012