Nurturing Leadership Development for the Now and the Next: A Denominational Perspective

The changes in our society signal a need for ministerial leaders who not only hold a nuanced understanding of the effects that these shifts have created and codified within congregations but also possess the leadership skills necessary to creatively and successfully guide these congregations through change in hopes of cultivating meaningful, contextually relevant ministries

Excellence in Supervision: Listening to Our Students

This essay reports on research, using quantitative and qualitative methods, to better understand the experience of students in relationship to their supervisors and experience of field education

Access to higher education for undocumented students: “Outlaws” of social justice, equity, and equality

The status of access to higher education for undocumented students in this country is inconsistent from state to state, region to region, and the nation at large. This inconsistency is reflected in the development of policies and legislation that either provide or limit access to an affordable higher education for these students. Beneath the external debates regarding the application of instate tuition rates for undocumented students exists an underlying struggle embedded within an inherent cultural, societal, and systemic bias around beliefs, power, and privilege. The marginalization of undocumented students in accessing higher education—as evidenced by the absence of social justice, equity, and equality—has created an underground movement that is based in feminist and critical race theory descriptions of “outlaw culture.” This framework encapsulates the phenomenon of outlaw culture within the confines of systemic barriers, whereby those in positions closest to the front lines of service and access to higher education may become “outlaws” in bending, breaking, or circumventing the rules and regulations that perpetuate inequity and inequality and inhibit a socially just process for undocumented students. Implications regarding policy and practices to address socially just, equitable, and equal processes for access to higher education for undocumented students are presented for future consideration

Listening to Our Students

The authors address how important it is to listen carefully to our students as we are working with them

Theological Field Education as a Bridge across Disciplines

Theological field education—also known as contextual education—operates as the explicitly embodied nexus of seminary-based learning, placing both practical theological and broader theological, religious, and/or spiritual educational frameworks in dialogue with one’s experiences within a particular site context. Drawing upon the example of the events that took place in March 1965 at the Edmund Pettus Bridge connecting Selma to Montgomery, as well as the bridge’s enduring function as a material and symbolic site of transformation, connections are made to the ways that theological field education bridges both practical theology and other areas of theological education, generally and as actualized specifically within one theological school’s field education program, through three overarching themes: Embodiment, reflection, and formation. In the acts of bridging that occur in each of these areas, points of commonality are discussed and illustrated. Finally, initial suggestions for further bridging between disparate academic fields and theological field education are offered toward the cultivation of a more integrative, transformative curriculum

Explore Vocational Discovery in Ministry by Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi and Matthew Floding

Reviewed by Timothy Ship