In Trust Center
The In Trust Center podcast is hosted by Matt Hufman. Walk alongside theological school leaders and innovators as they explore issues relevant to North American seminaries, all while helping institutions live out their missions more intentionally. Find more at intrust.org/podcast.
In Trust Center
Ep. 90: Rethinking ministry formation: Diaconal studies and the future of theological education
Could theological schools be missing a vital piece of ministry formation? Dr. Darryl Stephens joins the podcast to explore diaconal studies — a growing movement that prepares deacons for ministry beyond the pulpit and into the community. With insights from global models and a new open-access volume featuring 21 authors, Stephens invites schools to broaden their mission, extend their reach, and equip more leaders for today’s multifaceted church. The e-version of the book, "Diaconal Studies: Lived Theology for the Church in North America," is offered without cost here. A previous open-access book edited by Stephens mentioned in the podcast, "Bivocational and Beyond: Educating for Thriving Multivocational Ministry," is available at Books@Atla Open Press here.
Hello, and welcome to the Interest Center Podcast, where we connect with experts and innovators in theological education around topics important to theological school leaders. Thank you for joining us. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Good Governance Podcast. I'm Matt Huffman. One of the things we've talked about on this podcast and in other spaces through the work of the Intrust Center is how schools are educating and where they're educating clergy and how they're bringing clergy into theological education. One space we haven't always talked about is the role of deacons and diaconal studies in terms of theological education and the church. There's a growing interest in this. I am so glad today to be uh welcomed by somebody who's been on the podcast before, uh, Dr. Daryl Stevens, who is a uh professor at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He is also a deacon and chair of an order of deacons in uh in Pennsylvania in the United Methodist Church. Daryl, welcome back to the podcast. It's great to have you.
SPEAKER_03:Well, thank you, Matt. It's good to be here.
SPEAKER_00:The last time we talked, we talked about multi-vocational uh ministry and in a volume you worked on as part of that. Um, and part of that is certainly in your role. You've been multi-vocational and done a lot of things. Uh, but one of those places, as I said in the introduction, is uh you're a deacon in in the church. Uh, and now newly, newly printed. It's uh it's available online, is a a volume um that is really quite a study. It's called Diaconal Studies, Live Theology for the Church in North America. You're a co-editor of this. 21 different authors from five continents. I mean, that alone is is a wonderful um uh testament to scholarship, I think, and and perspective. Uh, but we want to talk a little bit today because one of the things in theological education certainly is as people are looking for different ways and to uh extend the reach of theological education, uh, which is really important for the church, um, is you know, currently there's a lot of discussion the Pathways for Tomorrow initiative and ways people are coming through uh for education. But we often talk about pastors, uh, particularly in the Protestant church. And you're talking about now diaconal studies and deacons in the church. So let's start there. Um, you are, as I said, uh said it a couple of times, you're a deacon in the United Methodist Church. Um, and I found uh I found this book fascinating. I mean, it it, for example, in the forward, um you say, we realize that the ministry of a deacon is wide because it is not limited only to the church. Deacons are called to deal with issues that arise in the community. And you mentioned it, like child abuse, gender-based violence, poverty, homelessness, injustice, and oppression. Deacons play a role of lending compassion to improve people's daily lives. In addition to their liturgical service in the church, they are God's representatives in the community. Uh, that's a powerful statement that I think sets the tone for deacon that we don't often think about. So tell me a little bit about how you came to this and what you're seeing that you felt the church needed and the and and educators needed this volume.
SPEAKER_03:Well, deacons are uh God's representatives in the community, and deacons um are typically ordained in Lutheran, Episcopal, and Methodist denominations or Catholic denominations. Uh the the what is understood as the vocational or permanent deacon emerged or re-emerged after Vatican II, when the Catholic Church reinstated a vocational diaconate. Previously, the the deacon was a stepping stone to the priesthood. Uh in the new emerging ecumenical consensus, uh, deacons are an order distinct and complementary to the priesthood. So when we talk about pastors, um we also need to talk about deacons. Um deacons are often not pastors, they're often functioning in many different kinds of ministry other than the pastoral ministry within a congregation. Um, the diaconate as a whole spans more than just clergy as well. There are lay members of the diaconate, some are consecrated to a lifetime of service of love and justice. Other lay members of the diaconate are commissioned for a season or for a particular purpose. Um, there are lay people who live out their faith through um vocations of service in the world who may not know anything about the diaconate, but who exemplify and illustrate the diaconate in ways that we can say that's what a deacon or deaconess looks like.
SPEAKER_00:But tell me a little bit about your sense of the need for uh maybe a what would you say, a bolder, richer, more a bigger role for deacons in the church? Because again, you know, we've talked about this before. I some people don't see that necessarily in the Protestant Church as robustly, maybe. But what is it in the context today that you you look at, you say in the church, we need this role or we need more of this?
SPEAKER_03:The World Council of Churches, um, along with the Lutheran World Federation, has articulated in recent years what they call the diaconate of all believers. This is a complement to the idea of the priesthood of all believers. The diaconate of all believers is an idea that um all Christians are called to the diaconate, to um acts of love, justice, and service as a part of their baptism, um, just as they are called to be um leaders in churches and congregations, they're called to live out their faith and vocations in the world. So um within the church, we have um many different roles of diaconate, not only ordained deacons, but also deaconess um roles. Um and I should say that the the modern-day deaconess movement, which emerged in the 1830s in Germany among Lutherans in Germany, and then migrated to the United States and other parts of Europe, um, is the foundation for a modern understanding of the deacon or the diak. So the the women um were the trailblazers in this um new development. Um that role of deaconess was embraced by women, um, many of whom were teachers or nurses or social workers. They were working in helping professions in their community and wanted to um develop a robust understanding of their secular vocation as an expression of their faith, of their discipleship. And that is the modern diaconal movement, is um faith-motivated social service. Um, the the idea of deacon or deaconess or the larger diaconate has since evolved from simply social service um to in the mid-20th century one of development, helping communities around the globe um develop economically and prosper. Um and then that as an understanding of more liberatory um theologies came about, uh, the more um patronage of development theories then um evolved into a sense of solidarity, um, working with communities and asset-based community development to help them solve their own problems. So working alongside of rather than um providing service or money, rather providing solidarity in uh more justice-oriented um ministries. Now, in the church, um what does that look like? I think that was your question. Um so deacons in the church um are a way of uh uh exemplifying this is what we're all called to do. We're all called to go out into our communities and um be neighbors to especially the oppressed and marginalized in our communities.
SPEAKER_00:So talk to me a little bit about in in some churches, I think we would just uh we might say, hey, just be a good Christian in your field, right? I mean, be a good Christian, and if you're a social worker or teacher or nurse, doctor, or whatever it is, why become a deacon? Is it is it the sense of the church representing more training? What would you say to that?
SPEAKER_03:So to become a deacon or a deaconess or other recognized category of the diaconate is to say, I have a call on my life. So it's the God's call, but sometimes that's the internal call. The external call is the community of faith saying we affirm God's call in your life. We see that too. And then being in covenant to have a faith community that supports, encourages, and holds me accountable to my call. Um, that's the public aspect of ministry. So good works by an individual is an act of discipleship. Is it ministry? Well, some would argue that it's not ministry until it's affirmed and supported by the community of faith, because ministry is done on behalf of the church.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Um that's a way that uh we live out our discipleship in a public way to step forward and say, I'm gonna be held accountable as a representative of the church in the way I live out my vocation.
SPEAKER_00:Well, let's talk a little bit about this because I I note that um, you know, in in making deacons and deaconesses, and I'm using the term deacon to mean, you know, in whatever expression, deacon or deaconess, um, but in in this, you know, there's the part of the book is you argue that um I think it's in the forward, it says most theological training institutions are meant to train priests with no attention to the diaconate as a separate ministry requiring special formations. And then later it says the traditional way of educating ministers misses the opportunity of having well-trained deacons, right? I think in in certain church traditions where there may not be deacons where we believe we may believe in the priesthood of all believers and training people well, but let's talk a little bit about this in training. Um, because much of theological training involves creating um, you know, capital M ministers or Capital P pastors or Capital P priests uh and scholars. We don't talk necessarily about sending someone to a seminary necessarily, and not saying that's true across the board, but certainly I when I went to seminary, there weren't people training to be deacons. There were people either training to be scholars or missionaries or you know, pastors, ministers. Um, so talk a little bit about what first you think a you know the training of a of a deacon ought to look like.
SPEAKER_03:Well, let's start in the church and then move outwards to the world. Because many people think of if they know what a deacon is at all, they think of the person who might serve as liturgist or read the gospel lesson or assist at communion alongside a priest. Um, if that's all a deacon does, then you might think, well, that doesn't require a three-year degree and master's level education.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_03:But that's only the tip of what a deacon does, because most of the ministry, 98% of the deacon's ministry, is outside the walls of the church in all of these other social service settings. Um well, likewise, a priest is not or a pastor is not simply someone who works for an hour a week.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Um being a pastor involves so much more than just what happens during a Sunday morning worship service. Um, so it it goes for both roles, but for a deacon, the role in the community is is often um invisible or or not as recognized, uh, because that's the primary role. Whereas for the pastor or priest, the primary role is in the congregation, for the deacon, the primary role is outside of the congregation. Um so that's one distinct difference. Now, for theological education, um, imagine if our pool of potential students was the entire congregation rather than only the priest or pastor. What a wondrous opportunity for theological education for us to open our doors widely to laity and those called to vocations in the diaconate. Um, let me introduce the idea of diaconal studies. Yeah, please talk about the idea for the book and where that came from. So our book, um, diaconal studies, lived theology for the church in North America, was uh co-edited by Dr. Reverend Dr. Craig Nasson at Wartburg Theological Seminary. Um he invited me to join a group of four people. We had uh an episcopal deacon as well as another Lutheran member of Wartburg Theological Seminary faculty, and the four of us, um, Manhe Yip is the faculty person, and Laurie Mills Curran is the Episcopal Deacon. Four of us met every month for a year talking about how can we bring what is done in Germany and in the Nordic countries of diaconal studies to North America to enrich both our churches and theological education on this continent. And we ended up convening a um a series of online consultations. We had 21 contributors from five continents. There were scholars, there were reflective practitioners, there were folks who are in the diaconate, and folks who are either pastors or lay people also supporting the diaconate. We all wrote from our lived experiences and practice of being Christian and our vocations in the world. Now, diaconal studies is a model, as I said, that comes out of Europe where people going into social work will go into a diaconal studies program, they'll have a year of theological studies to complement their training and licensure as a social worker or as a nurse or as a teacher or um maybe they're running an NGO of developing countries in many different professions, but they combine that professional training with uh a year or more of theological studies in order to express and articulate and understand the work that they do in service to others as a theological vocation in the diaconate.
SPEAKER_00:So for North American seminaries, again, what you did is you looked at these European models. Uh, what's the opportunity, do you think, for first for the seminaries in North America to take a look at this?
SPEAKER_03:Well, as I said, if we think of um expanding the graduate theological education beyond the professionalized model of a full-time pastor to include potentially the entire body of lay members who are also serving in some helping profession. What would it mean to have a theologically educated congregation? To have doctors and nurses and teachers and social workers in your congregation who have also studied theology and can understand their vocation in that way. Um, it enriches both the church as well as our theological classrooms, it widens the reach of theological education, it um breaks the mold. Well, it's already broken this model of professionalized ministry, but that is full-time and fully compensated. But but it recognizes that the mold of ministry is much broader than that. Um what it can do for programs is uh particularly seminaries embedded in universities, uh, let's say there's a counseling program. Well, many people in the counseling program may be Christian and understand this as an expression of their faith that they are serving other people by being trained as a counselor. Well, what would it mean to combine a year or more of theological education with that counseling degree as a form of diaconal studies?
SPEAKER_00:Right. And I know there are several schools that use, you know, there's across degrees, uh, MBA, there's nursing, doctoral, medical studies, and all the difference here, as you're saying, is moving more toward this as not just a knowledge field, right? So not just like I would get an MBA with it, but that I would use the if I were a nursing student or a social work student, counseling student, I get this theological training, not just to have, but also now to use as a deacon, potentially affirmed by a church. And I see this as a ministry field, which the church would affirm, is what I'm hearing you say.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, it it's theological education at its best is a form is a formation. So it's not, as you said, it's not simply acquisition of knowledge of different subjects, but it's formation as a Christian and understanding our vocation in the world, whether that be priestly, pastorally, or um in some other vocation.
SPEAKER_00:So, what does this look like if I'm a if I'm on the board of a seminary or I'm a seminary president? I'm like, you know, Daryl, this is really good stuff. This is interesting. It's love the idea of extending even the church into these career fields with a trained, I mean, ordained deaconal kind type of ministry. Um, what am I going to need to look at in terms of my, whether it's my curriculum, my formation, uh, my schedules, to take on this as part of what I see for theological education? What do I what do I need to do? Because it doesn't sound like I'm I'm going to have them go through an MDIV program, um, but there's a program I'm gonna need to develop.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, and that program can be a combination of existing elements as well as um added um courses in um the methodology of diagonal studies, which we can uh get to. But if if your seminary is embedded in the university, you likely already have programs and people who would be interested in understanding what they are doing as an expression of their faith and who would um embrace the opportunity for formation in uh as a deacon or deaconess or um other other type of ministry. So um for standalone seminaries, this may mean partnering with um professions, say um if there's um hospitals nearby, or there are always teachers nearby and social workers in every community, um, to provide opportunity for them to have an addition, an added formation in their faith, it doesn't steer them away from the vocation they're called to, um, but it emphasizes and upholds that vocation. Um, just as a side note, I I hear the story from students repeatedly of they had one vocation, they quit their job, went to seminary, and to become a pastor, realized that the job market wasn't there to hire them as a pastor, and then asked, Well, why did I quit my job?
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_03:And some of these folks are genuinely called to um pastoral ministry instead of what they were doing. Many of these folks actually might find a melding of their secular profession and their theological and their vocational formation as an expression of their faith, not as uh an impediment to a call, but an expression of call.
SPEAKER_00:I find it uh you did a previous volume, and and I'll link the books in the podcast uh on our podcast page so people you can have easy access to it. But you previously did work on multi-vocational ministry, and that's what I find interesting, part of what I find interesting here in the diagonal studies world. And and I'll say, look, the book's got uh 21 chapters. There are multiple 21 authors, as you said, five different continents, looks at how it works in in Germany, the Philippines, different church traditions. Uh, it's a really comprehensive volume and a great place to start. Um, but the formative piece, I mean, we we've and you and I've had this conversation, I think, a little more on vocational ministry of pastors and multi-vocational ministries. But what does for if I'm looking at it from a perspective from a theological school, I'm am I looking to form people differently? Am I looking to form uh the deacons, this order of deacons, um in ways that again, in pastoral ministry, I've got to be concerned with the board and I've got to be concerned with what's happening in the church. In a diaconal ministry, you're making ministers for the community. Talk to me a little bit about the formation.
SPEAKER_03:We are making ministers for the community. Um in diaconal ministry, we're all about sending people out. Uh diaconia is a missional um vocation. So um it's about sending people out into the community in mission. And the formation that we're we're looking at, um, there's a methodology to diaconia that is not simply doing good works, it is also about justice and about liberation. So diaconal studies can promote a liberative approach to ministry that uh can address current struggles in theological education, can um find a resonance with the the hopes and joys in the world and the struggles in our communities. And um when we are forming people for diacomia, we have to think missionally, we have to think beyond the walls of the church. Um, we have to think of ministry that is more organic and evolving and um not as conservatively um defined in particular institutions because we as deacons and deaconesses and home missioners, uh, we are in all kinds of institutions. We have to navigate um many different ways of expressing our ministry in many contexts. So it's it's it's very organic um expression of ministry, and and that means um not imposing a one size that's all. So just um an anecdote. When I am with a group of pastors, um and they talk about their ministries, it many times sounds like same song, different verse. Each one could and could be appointed to the other church. They could replace each other in each other's positions, right? And often do in the itinerant system. When I'm in a group of deacons, every one of us has a unique ministry that is different from everyone else in the room. There's no way that I could serve in the capacity of the others, sure, they're all different, and so that's the uniqueness that deacons and deaconesses bring to ministry. It's also the difficulty that institutions have in defining us and putting us in a particular box, is they all look different.
SPEAKER_00:I appreciate that, and I appreciate that's that would have to take a little more or a little different work, perhaps, in training, in terms of what uh diaconal training would look like. And in so in the the few minutes we have remaining, I'd love for you to talk about first, you know, what else do schools need to think about? Because that uniqueness, as you say, in each deacon's ministry uh is important and that that takes its own attention, whether that would be through, I think, uh a degree program, a certificate program, continuing education. Um, I know you do uh significant work in continuing education in the field. Um, talk to me a little more about things that you think that either we haven't talked about so far or that you would want theological educators to know about diaconal studies.
SPEAKER_03:So for um schools of theology to embrace diaconia and diaconal studies, uh, we can't assume that everyone in the classroom is preparing for pastoral ministry in the congregation. All the ministries are going to look different. And They have unique expressions. Each person brings their own life experience and expertise to that. So it's not a matter of breaking down and then building up in a certain way. It's a matter of how do we understand who we are and what we bring to this rich conversation of diversity. And that means that I'm the expert in my own ministry context. That means the community is the expert in that community's context. So I have and likewise my other students are the expert in their context. And so when you're teaching adult learners, this is the lifelong learning piece. When you're teaching adult learners, they're there to be formed and develop tools to solve problems in their context. And their expertise needs to be recognized. That focuses on solidarity with communities and working with local communities to find their assets and their expertise to work with them to solve their problems. So it's very much a liberation themed approach to ministry and education. That is, we don't have experts in abstract, we have experts on the ground. And that's a very community-based way of understanding.
SPEAKER_00:It's called a competency-based mentor-assessed path for diaconal formation. Um, because certainly being in the community looks a little different, and in certain contexts, it looks a little different. Um so appreciate that as well. I mean, you've certainly with the the book has certainly provided a well-balanced picture of a variety of ways uh that this can be done. Um, last thoughts on what you might tell a board or a president of a theological school uh that might want to get into this or might want to see this as a future for their their own ministry to the church and how they prepare people.
SPEAKER_03:Well, invite a deacon or a deaconess to be on your board. Um, that's the the way to get that insight um as to what else ministry can look like. Um as you've mentioned multi-vocational ministry several times. Um, whenever I talk about multi-vocational ministry or bi-vocational ministry, I have to put an asterisk and say, you know, deaconesses and deacons are almost by nature multi-vocational, bivocational, because their work is beyond the church and in the communities, in addition to being the representative, you know, during worship of a certain role of service. Um, pastoral ministry um becomes multi-vocational, bivocational when we get out of the church and when we are in other um jobs and professions. Um, so the more we resonate with and understand the needs of bivocational or multi-vocational pastors, the more equipped we are to understand and resonate with the needs of deacons and deaconesses and those who are almost by definition um multi-vocational.
SPEAKER_00:Is there anything I failed to ask that you'd like to add at this point or that uh you think people need to know?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I would like to uh lift up my co-author, co-editor, um Craig Masson, and the wonderful work that um he and Manhei Yup are doing in diagonal studies at Wartburg Theological Seminary. Um I was blessed with a rich um array of colleagues uh in putting this book together. We had support from the Carpenter Foundation, we had support from the Oxford Institute of Mission Studies, and um also from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry for the United Methodist Church to make this book open access so that it's just available to people all over the world.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. It's available, it's it's uh there's ways to get electronic copies uh at no cost, and there's ways to order it in hard copy. It's widely available. We'll put those links um in the podcast uh chat or in there in our caption. Um Daryl, it's always always wonderful to visit with you and chat with you. Thank you so much for your time.
SPEAKER_03:Great to be here. Thank you, Matt.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for listening to the Intrust Center's Good Governance Podcast. For more information about this podcast, other episodes, and additional resources, visit intrust.org.