Curriculum reform is rooted in several driving forces, Aleshire said. Since more and more working students are attending seminary part-time, they need courses to be interchangeable and not part of a rigid sequence

For more than 200 years, Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS) has trained future pastors to have expertise in biblical studies, pastoral care and preaching.
But in today’s world, the nation’s oldest school of theology has decided that’s 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. They 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 recent (Oct. 23) regional meeting of the United Church of Christ. “We really have to reinvent it; the profession has totally changed.”

Andover Newton’s new standards are part of a larger movement to reconsider what future pastors need to learn. Curriculum revisions are underway at about a quarter of the 262 institutions in the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), according to ATS Executive Director Daniel Aleshire.

A generation ago, seminaries were less eager for curriculum reform as they felt pastors could learn practical skills on the job, Aleshire said. But now, churches increasingly need pastors to arrive ready to tackle a myriad of challenges, from addressing alcoholism and domestic violence to creating access for the disabled.

“A lot of schools are rethinking how they educate religious leaders,” Aleshire said.

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