in a conversation on the emergent nazarene site, it was brought to my attention that Nazarene Theological Seminary is gearing up to re-vision itself as a missional seminary. when i first heard this, i thought they were quite possibly using the term missional as a buzzword. i've posted about this before as a part of the 'missional synchroblog', here.
i have been assured by my new friend josh that this is a legit shift towards a missional seminary. he directed me to an official press release which is the only thing i've been able to find so far on the change in direction. it involves the receiving of a $500,000 grant to move forward with the changes.
"Specific areas of focus in the Re-imagining NTS Project will include: embody the missio Dei in dispersed communities; design and implement a missional curriculum; expand the repertoire of learning strategies; contextualize missional training; and increase course delivery options."
full article here
i'm still leary of believing my tradition, nazarene, about actually heading in a missional direction. particularly since we only tend to measure success by numbers. that is still how we report each year how our churches are doing and that is the first question asked at every event where we gather together. "how is your church doing? how many do you have on Sunday morning?"
we'll see. i will be checking into this more and will get back to you...whoever you are.
update: i was able to reach Dr. Benefiel, the NTS president, and after a long conversation, i am convinced this is the real deal.
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