An open letter to all potential applicants for full-time core faculty positions at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology:
Every person who enters the formational community that is The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, is just that… a student of both ‘Theology’ and ‘Psychology.’ This is vital to our shared identity and our integrative mission. From our school’s inception, our collective mission has been abundantly clear: to train people to be competent in the study of text, soul, and culture in order to serve G-d and neighbor through transforming relationships. potential
Recently, we gathered as a learning community for our “State of the School Address,” delivered annually by the school’s current President. As I presenced myself with Dr. McNeil’s address I felt the urgency of this moment. The Western church is in decline, the world of Christian higher education is in upheaval, loneliness is epidemic, and isolation and cultural fragmentation seem to be accelerating. This is not news! Regularly, we hear of faculty layoffs, of local church communities closing and selling their buildings, and of seminaries sunsetting programs and even shutting their doors. Why would any intelligent person consider joining a small, independent, non-denominational graduate school seeking to train and educate people at the intersection theology, psychology, & culture?
Honestly, I have no idea how you answer this for yourself, but here’s where I found myself as I contemplated the incredulity of this question… I found myself lingering in the story of the birth of the church: It is commonly claimed that the church began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, as recorded in Acts chapter two; but I resonate with scholars like Andrew Root, Blair Bertrand, and others who sense the origin of Christ’s church is more wisely located just prior to the story of Jesus the Christ’s ascension, in Acts chapter one.
It is in the first chapter of Acts where we witness Jesus communing with the disciples, instructing them to remain together in Jerusalem (not their home), to listen and wait for God to act; “until the Father sends you the promised gift… the Holy Spirit.” The church doesn’t begin at Pentecost. Pentecost is when the church goes public. Rather, Christ’s church finds its origin gathering together in Christ; waiting, watching, listening, and discerning for the Divine to deliver on Their promise.
Let’s not kid ourselves; waiting and listening is hard work. We would rather do just about anything other than wait or listen for G-d to act. Very often we take matters into our own hands. We seek to innovate. However, we are convinced that seminaries cannot innovate their way out of this current circumstance. But we sure try… and all too often we seek to manufacture a way out of our fear, confusion, and unknowing. We, as The Seattle School core faculty, sense Jesus’ dare is to wait and watch for G-d to birth something new.
The fear of death is real. Deep in our heart of hearts, we all know that living things… living people… living systems… living institutions must die. Empire wants us to act out of scarcity. Empire wants us to succumb to desperation, to innovate so as to stave off death (at least until retirement). As The Seattle School core faculty, our hope lies not in our ability to innovate but in G-d’s proclivity to birth new life in impossible places. Christ’s dare to the disciples then, resonates with what we sense Christ whispers to us in the waning days of Christendom: “Gather, wait, watch, and listen for Spirit to act, then join!”
As a core faculty, our calling is not primarily to The Seattle School, nor to modern higher education. Rather, our calling is to serve Christ by training leaders and healers who are competent in the ongoing contextual work of surrendering to and learning from text, soul, and culture, all the while learning from the ‘other,’ in order to love and serve G-d, neighbor, self, and all of creation in and through transforming relations.
Increasingly, our concern as The Seattle School’s core faculty is that our school might do something similar to what Jesus’ first disciples did… take matters into its own hands; to innovate or administrate a way out of the pain of waiting and listening. The dare of Jesus the Christ is to wait. To wait, watch, and listen for the action of the Divine. Then, and only when the community discerns Divine movement, comes the invitation to join G-d in birthing of something new. Acts chapter two is the work of Spirit, not the acts of the apostles.
As the core faculty at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology we are all too aware of the human tendency to – out of fear – take matters into our own hands, to bandage and apply salve, hoping to administratively stave off the death we fear. We as a faculty resist the idolatry of our own innovation.
Donald Winnicott famously declared, “the catastrophe you fear will happen has already happened!” Could it be that the institutional death so many fear could happen, has already happened? Or that the Western systems of institutional church as we’ve known them have already failed? Or the seminary as we’ve known it has already died? Or even that The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology as we’ve known it is already obsolesced? Yet… we do not grieve as those without hope! Christ’s dare remains… gather, wait, listen, discern, and join the Spirit.
Our identity as a learning community is not in innovation borne of scarcity. Our identity is not in saving ourselves. Rather, our identity is found in gathering together as we seek to follow Jesus of Nazareth, waiting, listening, and joining the new movement of Spirit who brings together all peoples, languages, and cultures whom the reigning empire has fragmented in a vain attempt at self-preservation.
So, we wait, listen, and discern collectively, as The Seattle School’s core faculty. At this moment – we as the core faculty – don’t know who or where you are. Yet, this we believe… If you are passionate enough to apply for a role amongst The Seattle School’s core faculty, you are joining a ragamuffin crew scouring the forest floor for signs of the in-breaking of the Divine… our confidence is that G-d is doing a new thing. While the structures, systems, and institutions of yesterday may not survive; real people, who are part of real communities, in real places will still need leaders and healers formed to competently study text, soul, and culture, who faithfully love and serve G-d by loving and serving neighbor and neighborhood in transformative relationships. The people of today and tomorrow will need real communities of faith and practice to provide spiritual, emotional, and communal care, formation, and meaning.
Frankly, serving as part of the core faculty at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology is not for everyone. That said, if you can’t seem to shake an ever-expanding imagination of G-d’s dream for all and everything then we invite your application.
G-d grant us all the courage to hold in open hands the educational systems and structures that shaped and validated us while we wait together and listen for the action of the Divine.
Welcome to The Seattle School.
Peace, dwight
[Practical Theologian @ The Seattle School since 2004]
