Ultimately, this partnership is not about Bethel Seminary or Seminary of the East. Rather, it is about the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ among all people in culturally sensitive ways.

ome with me to visit a renovated white New England church building in Auburn, Massachusetts, where seminary students meet weekly. Journey south to join a cosmopolitan mix of students meeting in midtown Manhattan. Then migrate to a large remodeled warehouse in suburban Baltimore, home of Grace Fellowship Church, where many of the church's cell group leaders attend seminary classes. Finally, travel to offices in an older home next to the Chelten Baptist Church near Philadelphia, where classes are held for yet another group of students preparing for ministry. And in each location, hear the greeting: "Welcome to Bethel Seminary of the East!"

Sharing Values on Two Tiers

The reason the partnership between Bethel Seminary and Seminary of the East has gone so well is found in shared core values. There are at least two levels of these shared values worth mentioning.

The first level is common to many evangelical seminaries and includes such matters as an unqualified commitment to God's Word as our only infallible guide for faith and practice; adherence to doctrinal statements that uphold the evangelical understandings of God's Word; and a commitment to serve members of diverse faith communities within the evangelical family. These values, along with a deep commitment to Baptistic distinctives, have always been integral to Bethel, just as they are woven into the founding fabric of what is now Bethel Seminary of the East.

What makes schools unique within the larger family of seminaries is found in a second level of core values. The leadership of Bethel Seminary and Seminary of the East made a crucial discovery at our very first meeting when we explored our respective histories. Though the two institutions have very different pasts--Seminary of the East is only 15 years old and Bethel is more than 125 years old--both schools have embraced a very similar vision of what seminary education should look like. Those core values include:

• non-negotiable commitments to develop and equip leaders through a distinctive curriculum employing mentors, peer groups, and church-based settings;

• creative efforts to render character formation an essential part of seminary education;
• a willingness to provide flexible delivery systems that serve students where they live;
• the development of an ethos steeped in the ministries of Christ's church; a passion to advance God's worldwide missionary movement; and
• a sense of urgency to make every student aware of contextually sensitive models for ministry.

Though sometimes described differently -- Seminary of the East has majored inmentoring and Bethel in St. Paul has focused on covenant groups--these educational objectives comprise a unified vision.

Dismantling Denominational Barriers

It also is noteworthy that the churches of the Conservative Baptist Association and of the Baptist General Conference in the Northeast region share a history of strong support for Seminary of the East. There is something unique to celebrate in this cooperative venture between two Baptist groups. Baptists can easily count more instances when we have divided over issues than when we have united in common ministries. But in the Northeast region, pastors and lay people from Conservative Baptist and Baptist General Conference fellowships have frequently gathered in joint retreats, shared camping facilities, and worked together for such mutually supported ministries as Vision New England. (continue story)

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Philadelphia Freedom
Quaker William Penn founded Philadelphia in 1682 as the base for his
"holy experiment" to create a land of tolerance and religious freedom.
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Vision New England

Advancing the Kingdom on the Coast, and Around the World

What can surpass the importance of preparing a generation of leaders within churches and ministry agencies devoted to evangelize and plant churches in New England and the Northeast Corridor? The region in which the Bethel Seminary of the East teaching sites are located (and adjacent states, within driving distance) has a population of more than 56 million people, encompassing hundreds of different ethnic groups. If we do it right, the preparation of persons for ministry in this contextually diverse segment of the nation also will equip people for ministry on a much larger, indeed global, scale. In fact, learning the languages for many of the world's people groups can begin within these population centers.

These dynamics only underscore the importance of strategic alliances, illustrated so powerfully by such outreaches as the aforementioned Vision New England. Both Bethel and Seminary of the East have embraced the excitement of cooperative partnerships whenever the end result is the advancement of the gospel of Christ and the strengthening of His church. At Bethel, students represent more than 40 denominations. And the denominations represented among the alumni of Seminary of the East already number more than 30. At both schools, these students bear witness to the value of a positive, biblical, Spirit-empowered, kingdom-based, proactive commitment to ministry.

Counting the Blessings

One cannot describe the region without identifying some major mutual benefits to this partnership:

• Overcoming the regionalism that increasingly characterizes residential programs. Bethel is now one seminary in three diverse locations in the nation, and Bethel Seminary of the East has access to all that is happening in St. Paul and San Diego. As we develop a seamless curriculum, students will be able to take advantage of the various regions rather than be defined by only one geographical location.
• Infusing into all parts of the curriculum the development of sensitivity to unique cultural dynamics. Increasingly, cultural sensitivity will be the hallmark for future effective ministries--within the United States or elsewhere. Seminary students will gain insight into different worldviews, and learn sensitivity to the remarkably different ethnic groups that characterize the Southwest, Midwest, and Northeast regions of our own country.
• All campuses enriching the ethos of one another. At the St. Paul campus, for example, we know we are not isolated in an Upper Midwest bubble. Rather, we participate in a national movement to prepare the next generation of leaders within Christ's kingdom. Anyone who has lived in California or Boston or New York knows that another kind of isolationist ethos can develop on either coast.
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Sherrie McDonald

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Busy Baltimore
An important East Coast port since the 17th century, Baltimore's strategic location
has been pivotal to its development as a key transportation hub.
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Phil and Joya
Prestamo

• Receiving accreditation for the Northeastsites much sooner than otherwise would have been possible. It is always easier to achieve accreditation for an extension center than it is to gain independent accreditation as a freestanding institution. Think of the benefits of being able to say: "These courses have been thoroughly reviewed and are at least equivalent to the accredited courses at Bethel Seminary." Or, "In addition to this basic start-up library, students have access to all the resources in Bethel Seminary's libraries at St. Paul and San Diego."

Maximizing flexible delivery systems with quality curriculum as never before. The St. Paul campus, for example, is accredited to offer three degrees in the InMinistry format--the Master of Divinity, the Master of Arts in Children's and Family Ministry, and the Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership. Many of the courses offered in these programs are common to all of the seminary's degree programs. The flexible scheduling represented among these delivery systems creates a user-friendly synergy at the program level that benefits students regardless of their specific degree pursuits.

Reaching Lost People

Ultimately, this partnership is not about Bethel Seminary or Seminary of the East. Rather, it is about the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ among all people in culturally sensitive ways. That's Bethel's passion. Our target audience is the same as that of local churches--the lost for whom Christ died.

We constantly must ask, "What kinds of churches and ministry agencies most effectively fulfill the Great Commission?" The next question is, "What kinds of leaders most effectively guide those churches and ministry agencies?" And finally, "What kind of seminary most effectively prepares those kinds of leaders so that churches and ministry agencies can be used mightily to reach the lost for whom Christ died?"

Bethel Seminary's educational goal in all of our geographical locations is to move beyond institutional to missional, beyond informational to transformational, and beyond professional to personal. Such a seminary education must be Spirit-empowered. Faculty must be exceptional in their fields and united in a team effort. Administrators must model the leadership skills we strive to teach our students--to be authentic, to continue to grow, and to be single-minded in vision.

Each time we have brought together the collective faculty and administration from Bethel Seminary St. Paul, Bethel Seminary San Diego, and Bethel Seminary of the East, we have sensed anew the magnitude of the challenge it is to offer such a distinctive kind of seminary education-- and how much we need each other and the Lord. But isn't that the way it always is when we partake in the grand adventure of following God's lead?

Leland Eliason, Th.D., is provost and executive vice president of Bethel Seminary, and serves as dean of the seminary's Center for Spiritual and Personal Formation.