Seminaries look to update ministers’ skill set

For more than 200 years, Andover Newton Theological School has
trained future pastors to have expertise in biblical studies, pastoral
care and preaching. But the nation's oldest school of theology has
decided that in today's world, that is no longer enough, and other
schools are starting to agree.

Under a recent curriculum overhaul,
ANTS students must prove competency in key skills for the 21st-century
church, including high-tech communication and interfaith collaboration.
Students still study theology, but unless they can use it to help others
find meaning, they don't graduate.

"This is not a case for
fine-tuning the [educational] model," Andover Newton President Nick
Carter said at a regional meeting October 23 of the United Church of
Christ. "We really have to reinvent it; the profession has totally
changed."