As a teaching president
(sometimes too much), I have the privilege of learning the beauty of
distinctive expressions of Christian faith represented among the varied
cultures at Central. We are a global
seminary, after all. Shortly after
teaching in Myanmar, I taught a course on Incarnational Theology with Korean
Doctor of Ministry students.
They were spending the week at Conception Abbey (a great
place to build community with available housing, meals, and life of prayer) completing
two courses, and I managed to get there for the second one. With the assistance of Dr. Greg Hunt, a
skilled scholar-practitioner who serves as Research Professor Theology at
Central, I had the privilege of engaging mature Christian leaders from all over
the country. I was amazed by the deep
biblical literacy, breath of ministry experience, and theological learning of
this cohort.
Korean Christians are a missionary people, which is a
clear response to the call of the Gospel.
They witness of their own experience of missionaries coming to Korea in
the 19th century, and they continue this work throughout the world. Korean Christians have established vibrant
congregations throughout the US, and they care deeply about the spiritual well-being
of the nation as a whole.
They
are also a singing people. I enjoyed
greatly our opening and closing music, especially concluding with a
commissioning song. At one point, we
sang in the basilica of the Abbey where the reverberations were
astonishing. Many in the class are
gifted musicians with significant vocal talent.
Some of the monks suggested to me that I invite them to sing more!
They
are also a people of deep prayer. I
mentioned a prayer request for a beloved friend of Central who has broken his
hip, and they prayed with fervor and compassion. The practice at certain intervals is to pray
aloud simultaneously; the intercession certainly informed heaven of this urgent
need. And they prayed regularly for
Central and its mission, faculty, leadership, staff, and students. In many respects their profound faith is a
source of renewal in American Christianity.
We
had very lively conversations as we sought to understand how the Triune God
grounds an incarnational presence for the missional church. Exploring varied forms of leadership that are
modeled by the self-giving of God’s trinitarian relations opened new horizons
for considering forms of ministry.
The
Gospel takes root in the soil of unique cultures, bearing part of the larger
story of that distinct people as they embrace the message of salvation through
the redemptive work of the Triune God.
The Confucian influence contributes to the thirst for continuous
learning and excellence, which prompts these learners to sharpen their
preparation for ministry at every opportunity.
I
am grateful that Central is a genuinely multicultural school that values what
each ethnicity brings to its mission.
The Body of Christ requires this kind of diversity, and we continue to
learn from one another.
Molly
T. Marshall
Central
prepares creative leaders for diverse ministry contexts.
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