Something else bursts with new life, here, too: the theology program at Seattle Pacific Seminary, a branch of Seattle Pacific University. Evangelical, Wesleyan, socially-active and culturally-aware, it may be one of the best hopes for renewal of Methodism in the Pacific Northwest, with ripple effects nationwide. (And I write that as a loyal Dukie.)
Founded in 1891 as Seattle Seminary, SPU started with 34 students and two faculty members: Alexander Beers (whose Christian name still graces the oldest building on campus) and his wife, Adelaide. Free Methodist by association -- a large FM church and the local FM annual conference headquarters buildings are both located across the street from campus -- the original mission of the school was to train missionaries for overseas service. That commitment to Christian faith and learning -- embraced in Charles Wesley's famous dictim, "Let us unite the two so long divided, knowledge and vital piety" -- remains at the core of SPU's DNA and mission. That commitment was deepened further by the leadership of its recently-retired latest president, Dr. Philip W. Eaton, who determined that the School of Theology should be at the center of the intellectual life of the university, and who was the institutional patron and champion of the expansion of the SoT into the new Seattle Pacific Seminary, under the deanship of Dr. Douglas Strong.
At this point, I should come clean: our elder son, John, is a third-year student and is about to walk at commencement in the first graduating class of Master of Divinity candidates. (The first students in the Master of Arts in Theology program, a two-year curriculum, graduated last year.) And Doug Strong is a man whom I admire professionally and count as a good friend personally. So I may be just a touch biased. But still and all, I know quality when I see it, and the potential and budding of great things -- and all that is here.
It has just been my privilege to attend two days of sessions in the third meeting of the Advisory Council for SPS, one of two East Coasters to serve on that body. We celebrated the accreditation of the program by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), and its acceptance by the United Methodist Church's University Senate, which means that UM students can officially study here in preparation for service in the ministry of the UMC. All good news.
Still, the really good news is not in the recognition SPS is receiving -- important as that is -- but in what's actually happening here. Committed to the "three A's": the Academy, the Abbey, and the Apostolate -- or classic study, spiritual formation, and hands-on ministry in the world -- SPS also has cutting-edge programs in Reconciliation and Intercultural Competence and Asian-American Ministry, rounding out a strong academic palette. In a time when many of the pastors of dynamic and influential independent churches are not seminary trained -- in the East, we ask about how to make seminary relevant and in the West, they ask if it can be relevant -- SPS is deliberately positioning itself as the "anti-Seminary", an institution with a difference that will prepare students for service in the ever-shifting landscape of today's world. At the same time, there is an insistence on community, spiritual depth, and integrity of service in the form of outreach to the poor or otherwise at-risk that turns the classroom inside-out and deepens students' appreciation for, and commitment to, the life of ministry.
But even that is not the best news about SPS. You will find that in its students. Even discounting the one who grew up under my roof, the level of passion and commitment, and the personal stories of these scholars -- who range in age from their early 20's to their 50's -- are extraordinarily inspiring. It has been my privilege as an AC member to hear several of them offer their testimonies; and if the future leadership of Methodism in the region looks anything at all like them, we are in good hands, indeed. Add to that the personal nurturing and formation they receive from a faculty who literally gives themselves away in discipling as well as in academic preparation, and it's a powerful mix. One can feel the Holy Spirit moving in this place.
There are 13 official United Methodist seminaries. Some of them (Duke in North Carolina, and Wesley in the District of Columbia, to name two) "get it" when it comes to serving well the church which brought them into being and continues to rely on their leadership. Others don't get it so well, or not at all -- yet we pour hundreds of thousands of dollars as a denomination each year into what amounts to divinity welfare for some of these schools. Asbury in Kentucky is not one of the 13, yet trains more UM pastors than any other institution. Meanwhile, the University Senate has been pruning its list of "approved" schools, narrowing the reservation for those UM braves, young or old, responding to a call of God to become leaders and elders in the UM tribe. The UM bishops' "A Call to Action" is premised on the sad, sorry, sick state of our denomination -- which is particularly acute in the Western Jurisdiction and highly evident in the Pacific Northwest. Yet here is a small, upstart institution, belonging to a denomination once described by Leonard Sweet as belonging to "the Methodist farm system" or minor leagues, which is responding vigorously to the very needs articulated by the UM bishops and which are acutely felt by the PCUSA and other mainline denominations, as well.
It is a great cause for rejoicing for Methodists of all stripes, and truly all Christians, that this little seminary is taking root and growing. And perhaps it could only happen in Seattle, with its creatively rebellious roots, charmingly iconoclastic outlook and out-of-the-box thinking.
The town which buried the whole bottom story of its downtown buildings when they got in the way, the window to the Far East from which the Alaska Gold Rush was launched. The home of the Space Needle (now 50 years old!), where environmentalism is not merely a good idea but a matter of local creed. The birthplace of grunge rock and Microsoft, which gave us Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and Bill Gates.
And now, the Anti-Seminary.
Alexander and Adelaide would be proud.
(Seattle, Washington)
