Why TEEM is the best thing we’ve done in theological education in the ELCA

By Christian Scharen

The Lutheran tradition is, by all accounts, a university tradition. The Lutheran branch of Christianity emerged from the work of an Augustinian monk and professor at the University of Wittenburg, Germany, Martin Luther. One of the first things Lutheran immigrants to the United States did was found colleges and seminaries. Over generations we’ve prided ourselves on having an educated clergy, steeped in bible and theology, and grounded on confessional commitments that orient our particular “take” on the Gospel. My grandfather’s clerical education at Concordia, St. Louis, was entirely in German, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In pre-seminary studies at Pacific Lutheran University, I took a full year of Koine Greek, cutting my chops on John’s gospel in its original.

While I’d be the last one to disparage in-depth study, many problems evolve from this, shall we say, “style” of theological education Lutheran’s have committed themselves to in the ELCA. The first is a kind of Lutheran “certainly,” as if we’ve finally got it (what, God? the Gospel? Christian life?) right. Such epistemological arrogance nearly always leads to lobbing insults and sometimes worse towards “others” who’ve clearly got it wrong. Martin Luther himself led the way in this, and it has been (and is!) a particular stumbling block for Lutherans. The second is related, amounting to a kind of ‘better than you’ academic arrogance, as if our years of classroom study and long nights in the library to master ancient languages and arcane concepts make us the only theologians that matter in our congregations and communities. Too often, pastors become petty tyrants carrying on the arguments of their favorite professors in whatever new congregational circumstances they find themselves. Neither of these results of theological education make for wise pastoral leaders; no, quite the opposite!

This is why some (yes, I’ll name it) whisper that candidates for pastoral ministry through alternative routes like The Theological Education for Emerging Ministries (TEEM) and Synodically Authorized Ministers (SAMs) create a two-tiered system in which we have adequately trained pastors (those with a traditional seminary-based M.Div.) and those with subpar training (those with a TEEM or SAM certificate, but not a degree). It wouldn’t be surprising if underneath such whisperings is blatant racism, given that large numbers of TEEM candidates are BIPOC leaders in the whitest denomination in the United States.

It turns out that the ELCA’s fifth Presiding Bishop, Yehiel Curry, is not only its first Black Presiding Bishop, but is also its first to come up through the TEEM program (he subsequently received the M.Div. degree from LSTC, as well). While I won’t pretend this Substack will have much impact on the ELCA’s views, nor its specific bias against alternative pathways to ministry, I thought I might take a moment to suggest the reasons why the TEEM program is actually the strongest theological education offering in the ELCA, and ought to inform how we reimagine the more traditional classroom-based master’s degree pathways.

If you’ve been reading the press releases (and LSTC’s rightly enthusiastic example is case in point), you’ll know of his winding path into ministry. After stints as a social worker and teacher, he got involved in a ministry for young Black men on Chicago’s south side which developed into Shekinah Chapel where he became a lay mission developer. Part of the genius of TEEM is its intentional commitment to candidates staying in their home communities and congregations while they pursue their pastoral training. Curry did just this, becoming ordained alongside Shekinah Chapel incorporating as a new congregation in the ELCA.

During Curry’s years in TEEM, I was on the faculty Luther Seminary, then as now doing research on theological education and pastoral formation. At the time, Luther was part of the Western Mission Cluster with PLTS in Berkeley, with whom they shared responsibility for TEEM. Luther contracted with one of the leading experts on adult education, Stephen D. Brookfield, then University Professor at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, MN, to do an in-depth study of the TEEM program. During this period, he was also mentoring the pre-tenure faculty group of which I was a member. I remember having a conversation with Stephen as he prepared his study report, and he said something like, “I don’t get it…you Lutherans have the best model for theological education I’ve seen, and you act like it is a barely acceptable, second-rate exception.”

After two years of extensive research, Brookfield wrote a one hundred page report detailing all of his findings. (I don’t think it is online, but do email me and I’ll share a copy with you.) His final section, Recommendations, begins with an affirmation underscoring exactly why he thinks so highly of TEEM. He notes the overwhelmingly favorable views of the program from students, and begins his recommendations by trying to succinctly state what it is exactly that TEEM gets right:

The cohort model, the residential on campus study periods, the flexibility of the program, the accessibility of program staff, the mentoring arrangement, the quality of professors, the overall organization of the program and the relevant content of the curriculum – all these are crucial aspects of the program that were, on the whole, viewed favorably by the great majority of students. I applaud the TEEM program’s designers for this visionary approach to theological education. It stands squarely in the best traditions of adult education – learner centered, balancing group and individual learning, constantly seeking to build connections between knowledge and students’ lives, and highly respectful of learners’ experiences and abilities. It has been a revelation to me just how highly the students regard the program and its staff. For many of them it is no overstatement to say it has been a transformative experience. In a 40-year career in adult education I have never encountered a program that exhibited such high levels of students satisfaction. The program should be a shining jewel in the ELCA crown.

Nearly twenty years later, I hate to say, TEEM is a far cry from the shining jewel in the ELCA crown. But as traditional seminary programs, and the M.Div. degree specifically, continue to struggle, perhaps the moment has come to see if TEEM might have a key to a newly vibrant future not only for theological education but for our church. Bishop Curry was, after all, planting a church when he went through TEEM, a still vibrant congregation currently led by pastor Jason Williams (also an LSTC TEEM graduate).

In his remarks after his election earlier this week, he made sure we all know that he’s still a church planter. “I won’t end my career in a Bishop’s office,” he said, a sly smile on his face. “I’m a builder, a mission developer, and I have to build it again.” While the Spirit may have many reasons for leading the church to elect Bishop Curry as the next Presiding Bishop, his experience as a scrappy, faithful, creative mission developer from the south side of Chicago might just be the most important for a denomination whose national leadership, despite constantly clanging the cymbals of “vision” and “innovation”, has yet to land either.

This was originally published on Rev. Dr. Christian Scharen’s substack. You can read the original article here.