“The most vital global missiological endeavor of our time is theological education,” said Dr. Michael Ortiz as he kicked off the 19th global consultation of ICETE, the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education, in Tirana, Albania yesterday (Mar. 3).
With over 600 participants from nearly one hundred countries – a majority from the Global South, 30% women and 10% younger leaders – it is the most diverse gathering in the network’s 45-year history, according to Ortiz.
During his opening address, he challenged participants that considering the overwhelming need for theological training globally, “we must rethink, reimagine, recalibrate the whole of theological education for the sake of all of God's people in every land and for every aspect of the church.”
“We can evangelize all we want. We can plant churches in as many places as we want. We can translate the Bible into all the languages – and all these things must happen, and they are globally happening at a rapid pace, thank God for that. It's happening like never before. God is at work in all areas,” he said.
“But every one of these missiological endeavors needs well-equipped biblical leaders to sustain those ministries and their church communities over time. Without the work that we do in equipping future leaders, they can only get so far.”
Ortiz emphasized that he was speaking about all types of theological education, not just formal education at seminaries and colleges but also non-formal and informal theological training programs that tend to be more flexible and closer to the new realities at grassroots.
A challenge in theological education has been the slow adjustment to changing societies, Ortiz acknowledged.
“We must help each other to know staying tuned to what's happening. What are the current realities of the church, the people of God, that they're facing?” he said, and added, “We must help the Church be anticipatory, understand what's working, what's coming down the road because theological education traditionally has been far too reactive.
“How do we move forward together to have theological education become more alive, more vibrant, more relevant?”
Ortiz said that as he was traveling through Africa, through Asia and throughout other regions, he noticed that all these theological institutions essentially faced the same challenges in their respective contexts. Therefore, a collaborative approach to facing these challenges together is essential, he said, especially considering that one of the greatest contemporary issues in the global Church is the overwhelming number of Christian leaders in need of training.
“The rate of growth of the Church is so monumental that there is no single course, no single curriculum, no single teacher or professor, no single program, no single sector of training that will be able to meet the needs of the Church around the world today,” he emphasized.
However, while theological education needs to scale up to meet the need, Ortiz cautioned against launching many new programs without considering whether these have real-life impact on students. “We do not need more training programs. We need transformed lives through transformed training programs,” he said.
He also reminded participants that this shift can only happen if all those engaged in theological education work together. Therefore, significant space in this year’s consultation program has been allocated to collaboration in issue-focused groups.
“How do we get past these challenges? How do we become innovative? How do we think about new ways of handling these challenges? For each of these challenges we have Impact Teams,” Ortiz said.
Impact Teams to ‘impact the way that we do theological education into the future’
In an interview with Christian Daily International ahead of the consultation, Ortiz talked about a shift in ICETE’s core strategy towards Impact Teams. These are defined as “communities of practice that facilitate global relationship building, research, publication, advocacy, cross-pollination of ideas, and innovative best practices for what’s next in theological education.”
Ideally, each of these teams should reflect the diversity of the Church in terms of gender, age, geography as well as connecting formal and non-formal programs. Through prayer and discussion, Impact Teams could generate the kind of ideas and initiatives needed to ensure that theological education is relevant and effective at equipping pastors and Christian leaders.
“Right now, we have 20 impact teams that cover things like creation care, children and youth ministries, polycentric missiology, AI and technology, next generation pastor development,” Ortiz said. “There's a whole host of topics that we are bringing to the surface through these Impact Teams, and we hope that they will impact the way that we do theological education into the future.”
Ortiz said that taking into account all the constituents and ministries that are currently connected to ICETE, the network touches around 300,000 people around the world that are preparing for ministry. Considering the vast need of theological training globally, however, Ortiz said he hopes to see that number grow exponentially.
“I would love to see us be over the next few years to have millions, two, three, four million people that are preparing for ministry around the world,” he said, adding that he doesn’t see ICETE as the sole driving force but rather hopes for the network to “be a mechanism, a way of encouraging that globally.”
As he concluded his opening remarks on the first evening, Ortiz challenged participants to be hopeful and active as they face a significant task ahead. He repeated his first statement that “the most vital global missiological endeavor is theological education,” and said to participants, “God has not brought you here simply to listen and to watch, but he has called you to step up, step in and move forward.”
And he shared his prayer for this consultation: “Lord, may ICETE C-25, Tirana propel us forward together in our common aim – strengthen the Church for its mission.”
