{"id":47182,"date":"2024-11-12T14:38:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T19:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/?p=47182"},"modified":"2025-01-10T10:54:52","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:54:52","slug":"seminary-presidents-share-their-stories-and-their-insights-on-leading-theologically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/resources\/news\/seminary-presidents-share-their-stories-and-their-insights-on-leading-theologically\/","title":{"rendered":"\uc2e0\ud559\uad50 \ucd1d\uc7a5\ub4e4\uc774 '\uc2e0\ud559\uc801\uc73c\ub85c \uc120\ub3c4\ud558\uae30'\uc5d0 \ub300\ud55c \uadf8\ub4e4\uc758 \uc774\uc57c\uae30\uc640 \ud1b5\ucc30\ub825\uc744 \uacf5\uc720\ud569\ub2c8\ub2e4."},"content":{"rendered":"

During the episode of \u201cLeading Theologically\u201d that dropped Monday, the host, the Rev. Bill Davis, engaged not one but two seminary presidents \u2014 the Rev. Dr. Jos\u00e9 R. Irizarry<\/a>, president of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the \ube45\ud130 \uc54c\ub85c\uc694 \ubaa9\uc0ac<\/a>, president of Columbia Theological Seminary. Their 35-minute conversation is \uc5ec\uae30<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Davis<\/a>, the Senior Director for Theological Education Funds Development at the Presbyterian Foundation, said at the outset the purpose of the conversation was to stress the importance of theological education on forming leaders in their local communities, especially as it relates to the action of the 226th General Assembly (2024)<\/a> to address diversity, equity, inclusion and the realities of Hispanic Latino-a-\u00e9 ministry. Read more about the resolution \uc5ec\uae30<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Rev. Dr. Jos\u00e9 Irizarry<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Irizarry shared the story of growing up in a small-town church in Ensenada, Puerto Rico. \u201cOne thing I valued is the openness of that congregation to nurture and develop leadership skills in children and young people,\u201d he said. \u201cI was preaching and teaching since I was 12. I was given the opportunity to do so \u2014 with guidance, of course. I became an elder at 15 and was clerk of session at 18. It was an opportunity offered to every young person who showed an interest in the work of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aloyo was raised in First Spanish Presbyterian Church<\/a> in Brooklyn, New York. \u201cI am a child of the Sunday school. My mother was a Sunday school teacher for 58 years,\u201d he said. Elders and deacons \u201cembraced the young people that were being nurtured in that community,\u201d a congregation that gave birth to seven other Hispanic Latino-a-\u00e9 faith communities. \u201cThat sense of mission, of equipping the saints for ministry, was part of the day-to-day interactions. I was blessed to benefit from that leadership from a very young age. These mentors gave me the opportunity to participate in platforms where I could rejoice in successes and learn from the challenges and the failures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose experiences and individuals,\u201d he said, \u201care etched in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis asked the two presidents how they see theological education shifting \u201cto pay attention to the needs of the different communities your seminaries resource.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most important elements we need to acknowledge is migration all over the world, including this country, is real, and it\u2019s happening at a rapid pace,\u201d Aloyo said. Members of these people groups \u201cbring a certain level of spirituality that we ought to take the opportunity to learn from.\u201d The transformation of the church in North America \u201cneeds to include within its parameters matters of intercultural intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

More and more congregations and worshiping communities that are \u201cdynamic, robust and creative are being led by these migrant and immigrant communities,\u201d Aloyo said. \u201cHow are we as theological institutions of the church to be preparing servant leader scholars to engage the joys of this transformation that\u2019s taking place \u2014 not the burden, but the joys by which the church continues to transform.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Rev. Dr. Victor Aloyo<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt is incumbent on us to be able to embrace the philosophical thoughts and theological perspectives from the global South\u201d to \u201cincorporate them into our curricular design and learn from that,\u201d Aloyo said. \u201cIt is critical we do intentional shifting in our theological paradigm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irizarry said he agreed with \u201cthe appraisal that Victor had, especially when it comes to the direction that missionary work has taken \u2014 especially that the church that\u2019s showing signs of growth is not the church that used to be dominant.\u201d Seminaries \u201chave to become more nimble, constantly asking questions about the church that\u2019s emerging,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Davis asked the presidents what the General Assembly action means for the seminaries they lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a process person. For Austin as a seminary, we have to communicate where we have been. This is a seminary situated in the context of a borderland,\u201d Irizarry said. Austin Seminary established its first Spanish-speaking program in 1920 and had its first full-time Latino faculty member in the 1940s. Now it has five who are full-time and on track for tenure. \u201cHow do we enhance that in a way that responds to actual needs that have been identified by the community?\u201d Irizarry asked. \u201cI am a Puerto Rican. I cannot assume that my experience coming from an island in the Caribbean would translate well in the context of a borderland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we are preparing servant leader scholars to engage a variety of communities,\u201d Aloyo said, \u201cthe theological conversation in regards to the diversification and inclusion of people groups needs to be front and center, the same way we have seen with Austin and the Hispanic Latino-a-\u00e9 communities who have already been there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important to say we are engaging this conversation as a way to empower institutions to respond to the questions of other groups that have been marginalized. We want to promote engagement of these groups with the larger church,\u201d Irizarry said. \u201cAs we lead conversations, we can say, \u2018It\u2019s not only about us this time around.\u2019 Let\u2019s start a conversation so we can empower others to be part of this new phase of theological education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis then asked about the creativity congregations need to cultivate leaders for both today\u2019s church and the future church.<\/p>\n

\"\"

\ube4c \ub370\uc774\ube44\uc2a4 \ubaa9\uc0ac<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe can no longer assume that others will do the work for us, particularly in the congregational setting,\u201d Aloyo said. In Decatur, Georgia, the home of Columbia Seminary, the Hispanic Latino-a-\u00e9 population has grown 172% since 2010, he noted. \u201cWe need to assume greater authority as we continue to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing one tenet Presbyterians treasure \u2014 the priesthood of all believers \u2014 Irizarry said it\u2019s important to \u201cdeploy that important part of who you are in everything you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s where we\u2019ve started a creative movement in the church,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Learn more about the Theological Education Fund at the Presbyterian Foundation \uc5ec\uae30<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the episode of \u201cLeading Theologically\u201d that dropped Monday, the host, the Rev. Bill Davis, engaged not one but two seminary presidents \u2014 the Rev. Dr. Jos\u00e9 R. Irizarry, president […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":47185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47182"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47492,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47182\/revisions\/47492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}