A DESIGN FOR PASTORAL FORMATION

IN

PEACE-JUSTICE-NONVIOLENCE

Previously, I presented a theological and practical foundation for the necessity of renewed pastoral formation in the areas of peace-justice-nonviolence.  What follows is what was affirmed by the Joint Peace with Justice Committee of the Minneapolis and St. Paul Area Synods and presented for consideration to the Curriculum Committee at Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.

When a seminary student graduates from LTS, we believe the student

OUTCOME AND COMPETENCIES

Be equipped to address socio-political-environmental issues from a biblical and confessional

        perspective, as well as having formed their personal views

Be versed in the various social statements of the ELCA

Be familiar with strategies of nonviolence and how to empower transformative change

Recognize that being a pastor also means being prophetic

Dare to embrace times calling one to be counter-cultural

Know how to engage and preach prophetically on socio-political issues

Develop skills in working ecumenically to address community issues

Develop skills in addressing local, state, national, and global issues

Develop skills in recognizing stewardship to include working for peace and justice

Know the difference: charity and justice, personal and systemic

BIBLICAL-THEOLOGICAL-ETHICAL GROUNDING

Familiarity with Major and Minor Prophets

Familiarity with New Testament Ethics: Gospels and Letters

Familiarity with theology and methods of historical and modern activists such as: Cesar

         Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jim Wallis, Gandhi, Desmond Tutu, Robin Meyers,

         Shana Claiborne, Dorothy Day, and others

Familiarity with Luther's Ethics

Familiarity with ethical giants: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr, Douglas

         John Hall, Walter Brueggemann, Walter Wink, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Joan

         Chitester, Sallie McFague, Diana Butler Bass, and others

Professors in various courses integrate peace-justice-nonviolence into their material

CONTEXTUAL EDUCATION

During seminary, become part of a group which deals with nonviolent socio-political

         change: ISAIAH, JPJC, Minnesota Without Poverty, Protect Minnesota, various

         environmental groups, and others

Preceding the above design details, were several texts and quotes fro PJNV giants, such as:

God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted

up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent

the rich away empty.

Luke 1:52-53

We call you...to speak for justice in behalf of the poor and oppressed....

From: LETTER OF CALL

"Christians need to know that six million Jews were murdered by 

baptized Christians in the heart of Christendom.  There would

not have been a Third Reich if Protestants and Catholics had

not betrayed their Baptism."

Dr. Franklin Littell

"When someone says the word 'pastor' these days, what image

come to mind?  We still occupy a respected profession, but we tend

not to be 'resisters.'  We are not sent off to seminary to learn the

arts of noncompliance.  We learn how to run churches, how to

be present in love, how to preach sermons that won't get us fired - 

all good things.  But who teaches us how to be subversive?....

How many ministers could honestly be described as threats 

to the status quo?"

Robin Meyers

Already there is a hopeful sign.  A seminary professor has contacted me about getting together and developing an experiential PJNV experience for seminarians when they would meet and work with local people committed to nonviolent social change.

Pray for the Church and the seminarians.

Peace!