A new graduate theology initiative is taking shape at Tabor College, the Mennonite Brethren institution in Hillsboro, Kan., with the hope of offering a master’s degree in ministry starting in Fall 2025. The effort is intended to help address a national ministry leadership shortage through partnership with MB churches.
“This is a collaborative effort, and it’s centered around the local church,” says Wendell Loewen, Tabor professor of youth, church and culture. “Leaders are identified within the church, they practice what they’re learning in the local church. Ideally, then, when they complete the program, they’re sent back into that church or to an MB church. That’s what we’d like to see happen.”
A Midwest option
Conversations began as denominational leaders attempted to address the shortage of young leaders, including at a January 2024 vision summit in Phoenix.
As district ministers Brian Harris (Southern) and Daniel Rodriguez (Central) spoke with pastors, an idea emerged. Would Tabor, jointly owned by the Southern, Central, Eastern and LAMB districts, be willing to offer graduate-level theological education?
Fresno Pacific University—the MB institution owned by the Pacific District—houses Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary in California, but the Southern and Central districts sought a Midwest option for MB theological training.
After denominational leaders evaluated questions about which constituencies the two colleges were intended to serve with graduate-level instruction, there was agreement that Tabor was free to serve the Midwest.
In August 2024, Harris called a meeting with denominational leaders and pastors in Hillsboro, and a seven-person steering team was identified and commissioned to explore what graduate-level theological education at Tabor might look like.
In addition to Tabor’s Loewen, Harris and Rodriguez, the team includes pastors Aaron Garza from Bethesda Church in Huron, S.D. and Aaron Halvorsen from Community Bible Church in Olathe, Kan., and two individuals from Tabor, Provost Frank Johnson and Eric Foster-Whiddon, assistant professor of biblical studies.
“Where are we going to get our upcoming pastors, missionaries, church planters and more?” asks Garza. “The answer that our team has been working on is to say, ‘Right here at Tabor College in our own USMB family.’”
Accessible and collaborative
The initiative will require two years of study and is for students who want to serve in church ministry positions but who lack undergraduate degrees in theology or ministry. Anyone who wants to participate must have a supporting church in which to implement learning.
Current pastors without formal training are also eligible.
“We care about those pastors who never had any opportunities for formal training,” CDC’s Rodriguez says. “Hopefully by learning and practicing, they can have a more effective ministry in their local context.”
The initiative involves five elements, including a mentor to walk alongside the student; retreats offering face-to-face experiences with instructors and fellow students; cohorts providing students with a community in which to learn, connect and grow; courses to provide essential learning content and context within the local church where learning is applied and skills are developed.
Halvorsen celebrates the initiative’s accessibility for people ministering in multiple contexts and its collaborative nature.
“From its inception, (this initiative) has been a collaborative work of the church and the academic institution,” says Halvorsen. “Those who take part in it will receive investment from both professors and practitioners. My hope and anticipation is that this will be a prime example of the good that can be done when the ‘whole family’ works together.”
Hybrid format
Courses will be offered in a hybrid format in which students meet regularly as a cohort online and occasionally face to face. The application will be broad, Loewen says, serving a wide variety of ministry positions.
Students will take two, seven-week courses in each of the fall, spring and summer semesters, taught by Tabor faculty or pastors serving as adjuncts. A cohort facilitator, put forth by a district and vetted and brought on by Tabor, will work alongside the instructor to shape content and delivery.
The initiative focuses on 11 competencies: preaching/teaching, theological acumen, pastoral skills, spiritual formation/character, doctrinal faithfulness, biblical/systematic theology, church history, leadership, church administration, cultural engagement and discipleship and evangelism.
“We want to see leaders who can apply what they’ve learned and do it well,” Tabor’s Loewen says.
The conferred degree is yet to be determined but will likely be a Master of Arts in Bible and theology or ministry. Lay leaders may also audit courses.
Tabor would like to have a pilot cohort this fall.
Bridging the gap
Courses will be offered at the graduate level, though accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission is pending. Students joining before accreditation are expected to be grandfathered into the program once accreditation is approved, Loewen says.
Loewen is hopeful the initiative can help bridge the gap between institutions of higher education and the church, he says, as tension sometimes exists between academic and on-the-job training.
“We’re working together, not working against each other,” Loewen says. “We’re excited about that.”
USMB National Director Aaron Box echos the sentiment.
“I am thrilled to see new opportunities for our pastors and potential leaders who might not easily access traditional higher education,” Box says. “What makes the program unique is the true partnership between the college and the local church.”
Learn more by visiting Tabor’s website.
Janae Rempel Shafer is the Christian Leader associate editor. She joined the CL staff in September 2017 with six years of experience as a professional journalist. Shafer is an award-winning writer, having received three 2016 Kansas Press Association Awards of Excellence and an Evangelical Press Association Higher Goals award in 2022. Shafer graduated from Tabor College in 2010 with a bachelor of arts in Communications/Journalism and Biblical/Religious Studies. She and her husband, Austin, attend Ridgepoint Church in Wichita, Kansas.
