During this quarter, part of the home stretch in my seminary career, I have been thinking about education in the context of a congregation. In “The Congregation as Learning Community,” we’ve been emphasizing a holistic kind of education, using buzzwords like “discipleship” and “missional church.” I came into the class thinking that we’d be mostly covering practical aspects of education within a church. But we spent a great deal of time thinking more about the purpose of the congregation and the people who fill it. We should not merely be dumping information into people’s minds, but educational leaders in the church should be guiding and equipping people in becoming transformed disciples.

It makes me wonder: how do we conceive of the student in the classroom? It seems like its easy to forget that students are whole human beings and not just warm bodies behind desks, or numbers on an excel spreadsheet. I have often thought of my pursued vocation as not only a professor, but as a pastoral kind of professor. If I connect the dots, then, I should broaden or deepen my understanding of the people I will be teaching in the future. I should also broaden or deepen my understanding of what my role is as a future educator.

“Disciple,” after all, is just another word for “learner” or “student.” Isn’t it natural to connect the dots between the two? Just like at any church, there will be a hundred different things on the minds of those who show up. Just like at any church, those who come are hoping to “get something out of it” for themselves. What if we could transform a classroom in the kinds of ways that the “missional church” movement is trying to transform the church? How can we not only engage the minds of students but provoke them towards action? How do we not only impart information but also help students to grapple with cultural implications to what they are learning? How do we make contextual connections inside and outside the classroom? I am certain the answers will differ from one topic or classroom to the next. But I think it’s good for me to start asking these questions before I dive headfirst into life as a full-time educator.