Mentors complete an end-of-term survey that helps [...]]]> Mentors – Valuable OUTSIDE Evaluators

Rockbridge Seminary learners recruit a local mentor for EVERY course – someone to help apply what’s learned in the course to the ministry context. Most mentors are senior pastors (44%) or church staff members (36%).

Mentors Surveyed at the End of EVERY Term

Mentors complete an end-of-term survey that helps Rockbridge Seminary evaluate the effectiveness of courses.

Mentors Overwhelmingly Affirm the Practical Ministry Value of RS Courses

In the most recent term, 99% of mentors agreed or strongly agreed that the course taken by the learner they mentored “will be useful in his or her practice of ministry.”

Helpful links

• Admissions information
• Contact an admissions coach
• Apply to Rockbridge Seminary

Reggie McNeal’s book, Missional Communities: The Rise of the Post-Congregational Church, is one of the required textbooks for the course “Theology & Practice of Fellowship,” a course offered [...]]]> Hear author Reggie McNeal present the core ideas found in his book Missional Communities: The Rise of the Post-Congregation Church. 

The Course: Theology & Practice of Fellowship

Reggie McNeal’s book, Missional Communities: The Rise of the Post-Congregational Church, is one of the required textbooks for the course “Theology & Practice of Fellowship,” a course offered fully online by Rockbridge Seminary in the Master of Divinity (MDiv), Master of Ministry Leadership (MML), and Diploma in Ministry Studies (DMS) programs.

Boyd is the President of Church Teams, a data software solution for small groups and churches. He brings to the learning cluster a vast experience as a small groups pastor.  The learning cluster will run [...]]]> We’re pleased to have Boyd Pelley leading a learning cluster on how to measure the health of small groups.

Boyd is the President of Church Teams, a data software solution for small groups and churches. He brings to the learning cluster a vast experience as a small groups pastor.  The learning cluster will run between May 6-10.

To participate: Log in to our learning community (students, faculty, alumni only) and go to Rockbridge Café. Open the learning cluster on Measuring Health of Small Group.

Feel free to ask Boyd any question you may have about small groups.

Theology itself- as the search for orthodoxy (theological correctness)- began with the challenges posed to Christian teachings by cultists who presented themselves within the church and to the pagan world as truer or higher Christians than the leading heirs of [...]]]> The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform

By Roger E. Olson

Theology itself- as the search for orthodoxy (theological correctness)- began with the challenges posed to Christian teachings by cultists who presented themselves within the church and to the pagan world as truer or higher Christians than the leading heirs of the apostles. These challenges to the apostolic message and to the authority of the apostles’ appointed successors were so successful in creating chaos and confusion that the rise of formal theological reflection to answer them became necessary.

The bishops- who in second-century Christianity simply were overseers of a group of churches in a city or territory- responded to critics and cultists by remembering what the apostles had taught, gathering, preserving, and interpreting their written legacies and writing letters and booklets to be circulated among churches.

In that process Christian theology was born.

Contents

I. The Opening Act: Conflicting Christian Visions in the Second Century

II. The Plot Thickens: Third-Century Tensions & Transformations

III. A Great Crisis Rocks the Church: The Controversy about the Trinity

IV. Another Crisis Shakes the Church: The Conflict over the Person of Christ

V. A Tale of Two Churches: The Great Tradition Divides between East & West

VI. The Saga of the Queen of Sciences: Scholastics Revive & Enthrone Theology

VII. A New Twist in the Narrative: The Western Church Reforms & Divides

VIII. The Center of the Story Falls Apart: Protestants Follow Diverse Paths

IX. The Overall Plot Divides: Liberals & Conservatives Respond to Modernity

The Course: Church History I

This is one of the required textbooks for the course “Church History I,” a course offered fully online by Rockbridge Seminary in the Master of Divinity (MDiv) and Master of Ministry Leadership (MML) programs.

Today, seminary students are more likely to view God’s call in terms of Kingdom, journey, and relationship. Rather than entering seminary with [...]]]> How will your seminary help me understand and fulfill God’s call?

A generation ago, students entered seminary with a calling to one of a handful of ministry roles. Seminary courses were developed accordingly.

Today, seminary students are more likely to view God’s call in terms of Kingdom, journey, and relationship. Rather than entering seminary with a calling to a specific ministry role, they are more likely to be committed to a journey of obedience that could include multiple ministry roles.

Seminaries are beginning to adapt to this new kind of student. Some provide an entry course that helps incoming students clarify God’s call and process how they are designed and shaped uniquely for Kingdom influence. With the average age of incoming seminary students approaching forty years old, help is often provided so an older student can understand how life experience and secular work skills relate to God’s call.

Without some perspective of calling, a student can be overwhelmed with the vast assortment of programs and courses from which to choose. Charting a course of study is easier when a student has a clearer perspective of God’s call and a sharper focus of where ministry development is needed.

How will your seminary help me be more effective in ministry?

The root of the word “seminary” is “semen” or “seed.” The original idea was that seminary would be a season of planting seed into a young minister’s life – seed that would start bearing fruit after the student left the protective care of seminary life and assumed his first ministry position in the real world. Traditional seminary education was built on the assumption that a student would complete seminary before assuming full-time ministry responsibilities.

Students entering seminary today are more likely to be serving already in a full-time ministry position. Instead of enrolling in seminary for credentialing in order to find a ministry position, they enroll in seminary because they need help in being more effective as a minister.

Increasingly, seminaries are seeking to make theological education more directly relevant to local church ministry. Some are responding by designing curriculum that is competency-guided. Others are building assignments in a way that use a student’s ministry position as the primary platform for learning.

When I graduate, how will I know if your seminary has helped me?

Seminary is more than passing courses and receiving a diploma. It is a learning journey of growth and development. The entrance into seminary represents one point in your journey. Graduation represents another. In between, seminary study has influenced you. After three or more years of study, you have a right to ask how.

Did seminary study help you grow? Are you better prepared to minister? Did the seminary program influence you in the way it was intended? These questions will be difficult to answer unless a seminary has embedded these evaluation tools into the learning process from start to finish.

At the front end, a seminary should help you construct learning objectives based on God’s call and your ministry development requirements. As you take courses, a seminary should help you capture learning snapshots that track your progress. As you near completion of your academic program, a seminary should help you evaluate the degree to which your learning objectives were met.

Perhaps you are considering seminary education. If so, gather and study information on your prospective seminaries prayerfully. And as you do, be sure you ask the most important questions.

Helpful links

• Admissions information
• Contact an admissions coach
• Apply to Rockbridge Seminary

DEVELOP and STRENGTHEN MINISTRY COMPETENCIES through a fully online, 8-week, Rockbridge Seminary course starting April 30. The 2013-T3 Term runs April 30-June 24. The last day to register is April 22.

Master’s classes offered next term:

This video clip by Francis Chan, author and founding pastor of Cornerstone Church (Simi Valley, CA), is included in the materials for the course “Theology and Practice of Worship,” a required course offered fully online by Rockbridge Seminary for the Master of Divinity,  Master of [...]]]>

This video clip by Francis Chan, author and founding pastor of Cornerstone Church (Simi Valley, CA), is included in the materials for the course “Theology and Practice of Worship,” a required course offered fully online by Rockbridge Seminary for the Master of Divinity,  Master of Ministry Leadership, and Diploma in Ministry Studies programs.

Course Schedule

• 2013 Term 3 (April 30-June 24) – MDiv, MML
• 2013 Term 6 (Oct 22-Dec 16) – DMS

Courses are taught fully online in 8-week terms. Each course allows students to build learning from the context of their own ministry roles while enjoying the stimulation of a global learning community. Learners are guided by academically qualified professors with current and relevant ministry experience.

Links

More about Francis Chan

Rockbridge Seminary course descriptions

Admissions process