Rev. C. Anthony Hunt, D.Min., Ph.D.
(This essay was first delivered as the plenary lectures for the 34th Biennial Consultation of the Association for Theological Field Education, January 2017, St. Paul, Minnesota.)
Section One –
Dimensions and Dynamics of Diversity in the 21st Century
In a world wrought with social, economic, political and religious upheaval – and with division endemic across much of society and much of the religious spectrum today, many people are asking the question, “Where is God?” Many students who come to theological schools today come asking the very same question, “Where is God?” Many students come today with more questions about the location of God in religion and society than they do with answers about who God is, and where God may be located.
And
it is a part of the work of theological field educators to help students locate
God so that they can then effectively lead people in the church and the world
in the broader quest to locate God.
Over
the past several years, in the United States and across the globe, we have
become more divided along various lines.
In the U.S., the social and political division that we now experience is
not really new, but it challenges our sense of normalcy in ways that perhaps we
have not been challenged in the past.
This
division exists against the backdrop of a burgeoning diversity here and in
other parts of the world. I had the opportunity
to address a group of scholars in South Bend, Indiana two years ago where those
in attendance were mostly North American, but interestingly the group included
persons who were nearly equally Christian, Muslim and Jewish – and nearly
equally white, black, Hispanic and Asian.
I sense that this type of interreligious, intercultural engagement was
not unique to that setting, but in some circles, is being challenged and
brought into question in light of the overarching concern of what it means to
be “American” today.
A
part of this nation’s sense of who it says it is is etched in one of our
national credos – the Latin phrase e-pluribus
unum – “Out of Many One.” The implication
here is that in the U.S, we have been, and continue to be, many. We are many cultures and ethnicities, many
classes and social locations, many religions, many geographies, female and
male, with many persuasions and ways of identifying what it means to be
human. And yet, the vision that we say
we share within the context of this “many” is a vision of somehow also being,
becoming one.
In
any event, today we experience the challenge of living into this grand vision
of realizing what it means to become e
pluribus unum. Perhaps it is “Divides”
which most clearly define us today, both in society and within religious
communities. These Divides are seen in
that we are Brown, White, Black, Asian and Indigenous, LBGTQI and ‘straight”,
poor, working class, middle class and wealthy, Republican, Democrat and
Independent, south and north, west and east, rural, suburban and urban,
conservative, moderate, and liberal, evangelical and progressive,
non-denominational and mainline. These “Divides”
are seen in that – politically and religiously - we are red, blue and indeed
purple (yes purple).
Washington, DC –
Anacostia – The Tale of Two Cities
I
was born in Washington, DC in the 1960’s.
It was at a time when - I did not realize until I was a teenager - the nation’s
capital was effectively a segregated the city.
I grew up in a section of DC called Anacostia. For those of us who have grown up in the
District of Columbia, lived there for any period of time, or visited and stayed
for any length of time, we have come to realize that “Anacostia” is really a
euphemism for what it means to live east of the Anacostia River. This
river effectively divides DC into east and west, and divides the city in more
general ways along lines of what it means to grow up poorer or richer – which
is generally evident in the quality of schools, hospital, roads, and so
on. In many ways, to borrow a theme from
Charles Dickens’ great novel, this speaks to the tale of two cities.
Anecdotally,
to have been reared in Anacostia carried with it a number of assumptions about
who one might become, the length and breadth of one’s social mobility, in
life. To be from Anacostia effectively
meant that one was reared in a segregated space where at the time of my
upbringing was well over 85 percent Black, and largely populated by poor, working-class,
and at-best barely above middle-class persons.
This
is to say that growing up, to go anywhere west of the Anacostia River meant to
cross over into another completely different socio-economic reality. This pronounced “Divide” in the nation’s
capital did not really dawn on me until I enrolled in Wesley Theological
Seminary in my mid-20’s. Wesley Seminary
is located on the far northwest side of the city in one of the wealthiest
neighborhoods in the nation, and taking the drive to seminary for three years
from my home, which was by then just outside the city where I grew up in Southeast
DC, I would drive across this “Divide” daily.
I’d drive across the Anacostia River past drug-infested, “blue light”
neighborhoods where many young men and women would feel blessed to live to adulthood,
then past the national Capitol building, and the grand embassies which house
international diplomats and by exclusive private clubs, which growing up, I did
not even realize existed, and finally I’d arrive at the seminary.
Baltimore - Sandtown – Another
Tale of Two Cities
The 2015 riots in Baltimore, Maryland serve as
another vivid reminder of “Divides”. The
Sandtown community was the home of the late Freddie Gray who died while in
police custody in Baltimore in April 2015.
In the aftermath of Mr. Gray’s death, Sandtown found itself in the
national spotlight as the epicenter of the riots that erupted across much of
Baltimore.
Sandtown
encompasses roughly one square mile of Baltimore, and has a poverty rate of
well over 60 percent, a high school dropout rate of well over 50 percent, an
unemployment rate of over 25 percent, and the second highest heroin addiction
rate, per capita, in the U.S. Of the 344
murders in Baltimore in 2015, over 300 were committed in the zip code where
Sandtown is located. And yet, within one
mile of Sandtown - within walking distance - one can walk in relative safety in
several different directions through the Baltimore Harbor district, the
mid-town Business district and the Arts district.
During the
Baltimore riots, we witnessed looting and destruction of several drug stores
and food markets – destruction and burning of houses, cars and church
property. We witnessed lashing out with
violence against police officers. We saw
the presence of the Maryland National Guard planted down in the city to
maintain order on the streets. We saw
and experienced what appeared to be hopelessness.
Interestingly, during
and in the aftermath of the Baltimore riots, I was contacted by numerous
students who had chosen over the preceding few years to do their intercultural
immersion studies in Baltimore. During
these Baltimore Urban Intercultural Immersions, which are a part of the
Practice of Ministry and Mission program at Wesley Seminary, and are designed
to help students integrate their classroom learning in the theological
disciplines, within the context of a culture other than their own, these
students had spent several days living in Baltimore - walking, studying,
praying and ministering in the same Sandtown community where Freddie Gray had
lived and died, and communities like it around Baltimore.
Many of the students
who contacted me first of all expressed an appreciation that they had had the
opportunity to be immersed in ministry and culture in Baltimore, and to see and
interact with people in the very neighborhoods – like Sandtown – that they were
now seeing on television. While on these
immersions – as we prayed with our feet,
exegeted communities, entered into the stories of the unhoused, the hungry,
the unemployed, and mothers who had lost children to violence on the streets, and
encountered churches struggling to remain relevant in gentrifying urban
communities - these experiences had served to add texture and relevance to these
students’ theological education process.
Two students were
so moved by what they experienced during a Baltimore Urban Immersion experience
in the winter of 2016 that they felt called to return to Baltimore this past
summer to spend the entire summer fulfilling a part of their field education requirement
serving in ministry in one of the social service agencies which serves the
homeless, and which provides healthcare and counseling services to persons
affected by AIDS and other health issues and to those who are addicted. They had essentially sensed a calling to, as
articulated by Dr. Leah Gunning Francis in her book Ferguson and Faith, pray with
their feet. (Francis, 19f.)
“Table” as a Place of
Meeting for Bridging Divides
Over
the course of more than a decade, I have had the privilege of leading groups of
scholars from Wesley Theological Seminary in immersion courses that retrace
many of the steps of the American Civil Rights movement in Alabama during the
1950’s and 60’s. These groups are
typically comprised of 7-30 masters or doctoral level students, faculty and
staff, and we travel for up to two weeks through Birmingham, Montgomery and
Selma, Alabama.
On all of these
immersion experiences, the groups of participants have been very diverse. We are women and men; Whites, Native
Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Blacks.
We are from various Christian denominations.
We
begin each day with singing, praying and reading Scripture, as was the practice
in the tradition of the Civil Rights movement.
John Lewis, now a U.S. Congressman from Georgia, and one who labored on
the front lines of the Civil Rights movement, has intimated that “We never went
out without singing and praying.” And so
before leaving each morning, we pray, read Scripture, and sing freedom songs
like “Oh Freedom,” “We Shall Overcome,” and “There is a Balm.”
As we travel,
reflect and listen together - struggling through many of the difficult paths
and realities of those who lived the Civil Rights movement - we invariably sense
among ourselves the real possibility that culturally inclusive community - Beloved Community - can be realized in
our lifetime, and that bridges can indeed be built to help us cross and
healthily engage those things that divide us.
Each
time we journey, my memory harkens back to one of our trips several years ago,
where Dr. Eileen Guenther, a professor at Wesley Seminary who was a part of that
study group, offered that it was a spiritual sung by many choirs, “I’m Gonna
Sit at the Welcome Table,” that played in her head throughout our experience
(see The American Organist, November
2008). Dr. Guenther said that she
thought about the variety of tables that we encountered as we traveled through
Alabama:
·
Lunch counters of restaurants where all had not
been welcome (in the past);
·
The dining room table in the parsonage of Dexter
Avenue Baptist Church, in Montgomery, where we were told, the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference was formed;
·
The kitchen table of the same parsonage where
Dr. King searched his soul and felt God telling him to press on with his work;
·
The tables at which the people at 16th
Street Baptist Church served us lunch, tables placed adjacent to the site of
the tragic bombing on September 15, 1963 that killed four young girls;
·
The
tables around which members of our group gathered to
share stories as victims of discrimination, of
their courageous
work in the Civil Rights movement (and other
freedom and human rights causes), and their lament over a lack of awareness of
what was going on at that time in America’s history.
·
The tables around which we laughed together and
cried together – celebrating how far we’ve come, yet realizing the pain
inflicted upon those who made it possible for us to be able to sit at table
together in light of those things that could yet still be in place to divide
us.
At the conclusion
of each of these Alabama intercultural immersions, I am invariably struck by
how far we as a society have come, and
how many “Divides” we’ve crossed, and yet how many “Divides” are yet to be
crossed. There is a real sense of hope –
and a real sense of the presence of God in our small, diverse groups - as
together we choose to be the Beloved
Community with one another. We
realize that it would not have been possible 50 years ago for 7-30 people of
faith from diverse backgrounds to travel in relative peace and safety
throughout Alabama. For me, these are
real signs of the stones of hope that, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
intimated, can be hewn out of the mountains of despair among us, real signs
that “Divides” among us can and must continue to be crossed.
Section Two –
“Theological Field Education amidst
Difference and Change”
Perhaps,
it is the fundamental role of theological field educators to help students to
discern very clearly who and what they have said “yes” to. And so, we might begin a conversation around the “who’ and the
“what” by considering a view of vocational formation and contextual education
as means of integrating theological disciplines (systematics, the study of
scripture, history, and ethics) with the more practical disciplines like
spiritual formation, leadership development, church management/administration,
and leadership in the preaching and teaching ministries of churches and other
contexts. Vocational formation and
contextual education imply a dialogical process that connects and engages the
student, the seminary and ministry settings resulting in developed/well-formed spiritual
leadership that is equipped to serve the churches and religious communities faithfully
and effectively, and lead these various ministry contexts in the transformation
of people, communities, and the world.
A Theoretical Framework for Discussing “Divide”
An overarching
concern in addressing the matter of “Divides” regards what it means for faith
communities to be relevant today. The
reality is that America and the world are rapidly changing. No longer can we simply view ourselves in
terms of black and white, Protestant and Catholic. Lewis Brown Griggs and Lente-Louise Louw,
editors of the series of works “Valuing
Diversity: New Tools for a New Reality”, suggest that differences in
culture, ethnicity, gender, race, perspectives, personality, style, values, and
feelings need to be honored and encouraged, not merely tolerated. The real value of diversity is that it
produces synergistic interactions across “Divides”. It is this synergy that produces
unpredictable consequences in terms of breakthrough and results. (Griggs and
Louw, 159)
To place the
yearning for human connectedness into context, I believe that the African
construct of Ubuntu is most helpful.
Ubuntu simply means “the quality of being human.” It manifests itself through various human
acts, clearly visible in social, political, and economic situations as well as
among family and forms of community.
According to
sociolinguist Buntu Mfentana, Ubuntu “runs through the veins of Africans.” Lente-Louise Louw elaborates on it, and
states that the quality of being human for Africans is embodied in the
oft-repeated proverb, “A person is a person through other people.” A quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu
emphasizes the criticality of Ubuntu, “You might have much of the world’s
riches, and might have a portion of authority, but if you have no Ubuntu, you
do not amount to much.”
Why is this important in the light of the
practice of theology in the West? Research
data shows that the United States continues to become more diverse or
“different”. Our difference at home is
seen in that –
·
Whites are the slowest growing segment of the
U.S. population at .5%. Projections
indicate that there will be a White minority in the U.S. by 2044.
·
There are at least 3.3 million Muslims in the
U.S., and that number is likely to double by 2050 (Pew Research Center) –
·
There are at least 55.3 million Hispanics in the
U.S. (17.4% of the population), with a projected 120 million Hispanics in the
U.S. by 2060.
·
Asians make up 5.8% of the U.S. population, and
make up 36% of immigrants, overtaking Hispanics. China is the fastest growing immigrant group
in the U.S., passing Mexico.
·
The 2nd fastest growing racial group
in the U.S. is those claiming 2 or more races (bi-racial and multi-racial
persons). This group has grown to at
least 6.6 million people; 3.1% of the population.
·
41% of the world’s migrants live in the West
(Christianity Today)
The Church and the Racial Divide
As it regards the
church and the problem of race in America (as one form of “Divide”), in many
ways, a pall remains over much – if not most - of the contemporary church. Race
continues to be the elephant in America’s living room. In their book, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race,
Michael Emerson and Christian Smith developed a theory to explain why churches
are racially exclusive enclaves despite Christian’s ideals about being inclusive:
Americans choose
where and with whom to worship; race is one of the most important grounds on
which they choose; so the more choices they have, the more their religious
institutions will be segregated. (Emerson and Smith, 154f.)
Through sociological
analysis, Emerson and Smith tested that theory and found it to be valid. Churches are more segregated than schools,
workplaces, or neighborhoods. The least
segregated sector of American society is also the least governed by choice;
it’s the military. Because white
Protestants are the largest religious community in the U.S., they have the
greatest choice as to with whom to gather.
The authors point out that ninety-five percent of churches are
effectively segregated, with 80 percent or more of their members being of the
same race.
The result is that
about 5 percent of religious congregations in the U.S. can fairly be considered
multicultural/multiracial, with the majority of Christians engaging in what
sociologists call homophily, or the desire to congregate with “birds of the
same feather,” with their congregations reflecting ethnoracial
particularism. (Emerson and Smith)
The Church and Leadership
To remain faithful
to their calling, churches and theological schools have more than a need; there
is an obligation (a divine calling, a mandate) to examine our approaches to
leadership development and vocational formation. Within the context of consistently rapid
change, the church, like most other institutions today, is crying out for
effective leadership. The church is in
need of women and men who have a vision for a better future, and who possess
the necessary skills to help move the church and society toward that
future. Without transformational
leadership, the church faces the prospects of losing its direction and failing
to fulfill its mission.
The need for
transformational leaders in the church is articulated by Dr. Lovett Weems in Church Leadership:
“Leadership is
needed for Christian communities as for other human communities, but not necessarily
leadership in a fixed hierarchical model. Churches are likely to grow toward
partnership among their members when there is a dynamic leadership behavior
among a variety of people and not just one leader.” (Weems, 18)
Weems alludes to the leadership challenges
confronting the contemporary church when he writes:
"…the church
has yet to explore the implications of leadership for the life of the church
and for the role of its ordained leaders.
The church desperately needs new wisdom that draws upon the richness of
Christian teaching and tradition, and, at the same time, mines the best of
contemporary research on leadership." (Weems)
Vocational Formation
As it pertains to
vocational formation and the role of the seminaries and theological schools in
participating in the task of developing church and religious leaders,
leadership encompasses the skills, behaviors, and attitudes necessary to move
Christian communities forward in the fulfillment of vital mission and ministry
for the transformation of communities and the world.
In
participating in the process of developing transformational leaders,
theological field educators should give attention to future leaders being prayerful
and discerning, discreet and strategic in determining what will be needed to
lead churches and other religious settings in moving people towards the
specific vision - the preferred future - that God intends.
In
essence, as theological field educators we play a critical role in helping
future leaders see, articulate and realize what
it means to be pastoral theologians – persons who think theologically and act
pastorally as they live out their calling in ministry and service to the church
and world.
A Template for Discernment, Exploration and Formation
The need for a clear sense of imperative,
imagination, innovation and integration is apparent in examining the
daily, multiple, and frequently overwhelming demands on ministry leadership
within the context of a congregation or other ministry setting today. In preparing for ministry, ministry interns
should be afforded opportunities to explore their vocational identity in these
four areas.
Imperative
Imperative speaks as to God’s
intent and purpose – God’s calling - for the minister’s life within the context
of service with and for the church and world.
Arriving at the imperative of ministry involves a careful process of
discernment with the objective of arriving at clarity of calling. This speaks to the divine and moral imperative – the calling - that is placed upon persons
seeking to engage in a life of Christian service.
Imagination
After careful
discernment of calling and imperative in relation to the complexity of
ministerial needs , the ministry intern in the ministry context might then
engage in processes of ima imagination as to the specific nature of their ministry
and the form(s) that ministry might take for the particular individual. With regard to imagination, Walter Brueggemann, in The Prophetic tic Imagination offers this perspective:
I understand imagination
is no doubt a complex epistemological process, to be the capacity to entertain
images of meaning and reality that are beyond the givens of observable
experience. That is, imagination is the
hosting of the “otherwise”… beyond the evident. Without that we have nothing to say. We must take risks and act daringly to push
beyond what is known to that which is hoped for and trusted, but not yet in
hand. (Brueggemann, 80f)
As a part of
the imagining process, students in partnership with the ministry setting and theological
school might engage in exploring questions such as, “What specific shape is my
ministry taking?” “What am I beginning
to envision, see and imagine as to God’s preferred future for me in light of my
gifts, graces and passions?”
Innovation
Innovation helps
to draw upon the creative gifts that one has been given by God in the
development of effective ministry.
Innovation speaks to the freedom and creative capacity that persons
possess. It involves the capacity to see
old things in new ways, to forge and create something viable from that which
doesn’t exist or has lost its vitality.
Innovation is the power to think and create on terms that reinforce
personal sanctity, identity, and value of all persons, and ultimately to
facilitate the creation of new shapes and forms of community.
Here, questions
that might be explored are, “What innovative and creative approaches might be undertaken
to building effective ministry and achieving desired outcomes? And what gifts has God given (music, dance,
poetry, literature, liturgy, prayer, technology, capacity-building, and consensus-building)
that might make one effective in the ministry setting?”
Integration
Finally, the
process of integration might be seen as the capstone of the vocational
formation process and involves the melding together of the various components
of the educational experience – both in the classroom and the ministry
setting. Integration involves aspects of
the being, knowing and doing of the student with the objective of forming ministry
competencies that is seen in highly effective religious leaders.
The principle of
integration is related to the notion of synergy, and is the fruit of
partnership and collegiality in the learning process, vocational formation and
performance of ministry. The intention
is to develop life-long patterns for leaders who are well-developed, collegial and adaptive within the contexts they may
be called to serve.
The Seminary Panel
I conclude by
sharing an account of a recent panel conversation of seminary students. This experience sheds light on matters that
might be given attention in thinking on the future of vocational discernment
and the formation for future religious leaders.
The first observation
about this panel was the diversity of the group of seminarians. Five of the six panelists were in their 20’s
or early 30’s. They had arrived at
seminary from six different places – Chicago, New York City, the Domican
Republic, Zimbabwe, Mississippi and Virginia – none had come from the city
where they were now attending seminary.
They were United Methodist (4), AME (1), and Baptist (1). They were Korean, Latino, African, White and
African-American. Four were women.
This diversity reflects
that of this particular seminary at-large, and points to the fact that theological
education today looks quite different than it did forty years ago, and that
perhaps this type of broadening diversity is reflective of where the church of
today may be moving, and what will be required of its future leaders.
As these students
reflected on their seminary experiences and how they thought their theological
education would impact their future role as religious leaders, it was clear that
each of these six persons articulated a vision of the church and a vision of their
role as a religious leader that would move the church beyond traditional
notions of what the church has been, and is to be, institutionally. And thus theirs were visions that shifted
conceptions of Christian ministry, and the ways in which church leadership
might be practiced in the future.
The collective insights/observations
of the seminarians pointed to prospects of the 21st century church
living into new and exciting forms of diversity, and prospects of churches of
the future being shaped in ways that give impetus to several foundational
concerns. Succinctly stated, these
concerns are that:
- The church must be led towards deeper, more intentional exploration and growth in the practice of spiritual disciplines as means towards deepening faith and creating community.
- The church must engage in processes that encourage the ongoing development of competencies in the art of leadership that is sensitive to cultural inclusion and the changes that are incumbent in new millennial reality.
- The church must facilitate reflection/action relative to the burgeoning globality in our midst.
- The church must facilitate an ongoing understanding and deeper engagement with youth and young adult cultures, which typically understand and appropriate the merging of cultures on levels that are more profound and pronounced than previous generations.
- The church must facilitate constructive engagement and theological discourse across cultures and theological/faith perspectives.
6. The
church must have the capacity to continue in organizing, developing and
cultivating strong partnerships and
collaborations (with students, local churches, judicatories, non-religious
entities).
Conclusion
In
summary, the development of competencies in these and other areas among future
leaders could serve to help leaders effectively engage in their ongoing work of
transforming churches and faith communities of the future, and play critical
roles in helping people to cross the many “Divides” that will continue to
present themselves.
References
and Bibliography
Brueggemann, Walter
(1978). The Prophetic Imagination.
Minneapolis,
MN: Fortress Press.
Emerson, Michael D. and Christian Smith (2000). Divided by Faith: Evangelical religion and
the Problem of Race in America. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Francis,
Gunning Francis (2015). Ferguson and Faith: Sparking
Leadership and Awakening Community. St.
Louis: Chalice Press.
Griggs, Lewis Brown and Lente-Louise Louw (1995). Valuing Diversity:
New Tools of a New Reality, New York: McGraw Hill.
Weems, Lovett H., Jr. (2010). Church Leadership: Vision, Team, Culture and Integrity, Nashville,
Abingdon Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment