|
 Greetings from Taylor!
January 8, 2009
Greetings from Edmonton, As you no doubt have heard, in late December we announced the closing of the University College branch of the institution effective at the end of the winter semester 2009 (see the Taylor web site for more details on this). You are probably aware that the University College has struggled for a number of years to find its stride after the transition from North American Baptist College to Taylor University College. During this time we have had faithful support from you, our churches, donors, alumni, and friends to help us through this time. In the most recent years we have had what I consider to be extraordinary support from so many of you. For your faithfulness, prayers, and support, I want to extend a very heartfelt thank you. As abrupt as this decision might seem to some of you, it has actually been a long time coming. Declining enrolments, limited programming, numerous staff transitions, aging facilities, lack of communication, mounting financial challenges, and deep and lingering questions about the purpose and mission of the University College have gathered into a perfect storm with the building up of a red-hot Albertan economy and then it coming to a grinding halt in the early fall. We have had a rough go of it and now we believe God to be moving us in a different direction.
As you might remember at last summer’s Alumni Homecoming event we suggested that the face of Taylor was in a process of dramatic change. Walter Goltz reminded many of us then, and in his recent book on the history of Taylor, that change has been one of the defining characteristics of this institution. Many of you know that for the past 18 months or so we have made a concerted effort to listen to you and others of our constituency for the purpose of discerning the voice of God in what we heard from you.
As I communicated last summer, we believe that we have heard clearly that God wants us to re-focus and re-commit ourselves to serving the educational needs of the church, even if those needs do not fit easily into either a University College curriculum or a Seminary curriculum. It is this discernment that has led to the recent formation of the EP Wahl Centre at Taylor.
The EP Wahl Centre at Taylor will be a Christian Training Institute for the 21st century. Like our predecessor institution, the EPWC will work with other Kingdom minded people and will develop programs to prepare non-professional ministers (that is, any Christian) for service to the Kingdom. As a Christian education Centre we will be highly collaborative, practical, academically credible, and responsive to the changing educational needs of the Church. Programs to be developed will include offerings for specific skills for service within the church (such as Sunday school teachers, children/youth workers, deacons/elders, etc.) but it will also have the wider focus of educating people for faithful ministry outside the walls of the church (at home, at work, in the local community, and in the global community). Leader development will be central both as a curriculum of its own, and as a part of all of what we do at the EPWC at Taylor.
In coming months, we hope to set up a wide array of curricula that will start one’s education right where they are, but will also be an entry point to an educational process that could lead them into professional ministry training (i.e., seminary). And finally, we envision the EPWC as providing educational opportunities in a wider variety of settings/locations, pedagogical methods, and formats than Taylor has previously been able to offer. We are excited about the opportunities that this educational focus is already opening up. Keep an eye out for the programs and initiatives that will be launched in the future.
We believe that the EP Wahl Centre at Taylor is going to make a significant contribution to the Church and the Kingdom and will realign the institution with the original vision of our founder Rev. EP Wahl. We invite you to view our web site and see some of the events that are hosted by the EP Wahl Centre.
The development of the EP Wahl Centre is not the only thing that is happening here at Taylor. We are also attending to a comprehensive curricular assessment of our programs at Taylor Seminary. You are perhaps aware that the Seminary has also struggled in recent years with declining enrolment. We are seeking to address that issue as quickly as possible. For the Seminary to be sustainable for the long term we understand that we need to work in stronger partnership with others, provide greater flexibility for students to gain an education while continuing in ministry, address the educational needs of those with a wide variety of ministry experience, and keep very close connections with our churches and those currently in ministry. We also think that it is imperative that we begin to provide continuing education opportunities for Pastors and those in other professional ministry positions while they are in ministry. We believe that changes to our curriculum can be made to address these issues and make Taylor Seminary the seminary of choice for a greater number of students than we have in the past.
One program change that has recently been made to the Seminary curriculum is the addition of a Spiritual Formation track within the Master of Divinity program. Taylor has partnered with the Urban Institute for Spiritual Formation to provide this experiential, evangelical approach to spiritual formation. This track draws on the deep resources of the Christian tradition by bringing age old wisdom into forms that make sense in the present time. To complete this concentration, students will be immersed full-time in spiritual formation for ten months. We are hopeful that this will provide an important niche program for our seminary and uniquely prepare someone for life and ministry.
We are excited about the possibilities that are before us for both the Seminary and the EP Wahl Centre at Taylor. We want to assure you of our commitment to the educational mission of the Church and to continuing our rich heritage of faithful Christian education. It is true that things are changing at Taylor. We may not like all of the changes, but we believe that what is happening is completely in God’s hands and thus we are confident that God is making us into the institution that will best serve the work of the Kingdom.
Transitions can be painful and anxious times. But we serve a God who promises to guide and comfort us through whatever comes, and who promises to redeem loss with unimaginable gain. As we go through this transition we covet your prayers, your words of encouragement, your words of advice, and your continued support. Please direct your thoughts to me at david.williams@taylor-edu.ca, or by phone 780.431.5206.
Shalom,
David Williams, Ph.D.
President
Taylor College and Seminary
|
