Program Overview
In response to the call of the Spirit and the needs of the church for faithful leaders to steward the Gospel of Jesus Christ particularly in underserved communities that worship in languages other than English, Wartburg Theological Seminary has created a Competency Based Education approach to the ELCA’s TEEM pathway to the ministry of Word and Sacrament.
The program – Journey Together – will free people to pursue the call to ministry placed upon them by the Holy Spirit.
Competency Based Education is similar to an apprenticeship model of education that values learning in context through the rhythm of praxis and reflection. Journey Together values learning in community, a value that is commensurate with the Wartburg way of embodying theological education. Formation takes place in three distinct learning communities: local parish, a mentor-mentee group, and with a personal assessment team. As language and culture play critical roles in the formation of head, heart, and hands for ministry, the program will be available fully in the candidate’s first language. Journey Together will launch with parallel tracks in English and Spanish.
Learning Communities
There are three primary formative communities that accompany the student throughout their program: local parish (the congregational context where the learning takes place), assessment team (the faculty advisor, site supervisor and mentor), and mentor group (a small group of Journey Together peers facilitated by mentor).
As with all students invited to pursue TEEM as an alternate path to ordination in the ELCA, students in this program are attached to a local parish. While situations vary from placement to placement, the student normally has a pastoral leadership role in the parish under the supervision of a local pastor (a.k.a., local advisor), who will serve on the student’s assessment team.
An auxiliary resource will be provided to the local congregation to assist them in taking on the role and responsibility of being a learning community in service of the student and the wider church.
Students are accompanied throughout the program by an assessment team, comprised of the student, a faculty facilitator, a local advisor, and a mentor. Together, this team is responsible for tailoring the program in ways that meet the needs of both the student and the context in which they are serving. Critical to the student’s success is an open, trustworthy relationship among the people on the team and regular meetings to engage and evaluate the student’s progress. The recommendation at the beginning of the program is a bi-weekly check-in with a monthly conversation. At critical junctures, monthly conversations could include the Director of Journey Together and/or a representative of the student’s Candidacy Committee.
The third community for the student is the mentor group. Convened by the mentor, these groups, which are comprised of students and mentor that share a first language, are venues for building collegiality with care towards the spiritual well-being of the student. The mentor groups will meet bi-weekly and be comprised of students at a variety of places in the curriculum.
Accompanied by these three communities, students will work through curriculum in their context with the aid of a pre-loaded iPad received at the beginning of the program. There are no scheduled courses online or on campus. Students work through the program’s nine modules at their own pace, with touchstones with learning communities and candidacy within and between modules.
