Convocation 2024

The following is an excerpt of the 2024 Convocation address, given at Western Theological Seminary on August 27, 2024. It has been adapted for print. A recording of the Convocation service can be found here.

Every year, on many college and university campuses across the United States, campus communities gather for a convocation service, much like we are doing now. 

The definition of the word Convocation is straightforward. It is a large formal assembly of people. For many schools, Convocation symbolizes the beginning of a new academic year. If you are not the symbolic kind, perhaps you could enjoy the fancy gowns, hats, and dresses in which the faculty are dressed.

However, there is a more significant purpose for Convocation beyond just the symbolic and the fancy gowns. 

Sometimes, Convocation is an opportunity to give wise and thoughtful advice. For example, last year, Dean Becky Starkenburg, the Dean of Students at  Hope College, encouraged students to live a life of joy, which included ten practical pieces of advice.  Things like going to chapel, finding friends in different communities, communicating with grace, and learning with courage are things that I enthusiastically recommend to you as well. 

William Rainey Harper, the founding president of the University of Chicago, noted during the first-ever Convocation service for the institution in January 1893 that one of the primary purposes of a Convocation service is “to bind together into a unity the many complex and diverging forms of activity which constitute our university life and work, and thus united, to stand before the public in a way to show our appreciation of its goodwill and at the same time to show, if it can be shown, that we in turn are deserving of this same goodwill.” Convocation is a time for the many parts of the institution to return to its shared mission and express its commitment collectively.  

So, this morning, I want to call us to return not only to the mission of Western Theological  Seminary but to the heart of seminary education.

Our mission at Western Theological  Seminary is to form, by God’s grace, women and men for faithful Christian ministry and participation in the Triune God’s redemptive work in the world. As Dean Johnson noted in her address to our new students last Friday, the focus of our shared mission is formation,  especially as we live in a world that runs counter to the way of Jesus. Furthermore, the work of formation that we engage in is not on our own strength or efforts but in response to the self-giving, humbling, gracious, and merciful love of God who loved us first. 

This morning, I want to further underscore our commitment to the formation and call all of us to renew our commitment to formation, specifically to the formation of character, as an indispensable and important aspect of theological education. 

It is now commonly accepted to discuss formation as a central aspect of theological education. In fact, when the Association of Theological Schools, which accredits all our degree programs, underwent a massive revision of its accreditation standards in 2020, the Association suggested that the standards can be reduced to one focus: formation. 

While we can find a broad agreement throughout the history of theological education that the aim ought to be on formation, the goal and the shape of formation have taken on various emphases. Edward Farley, for example, noted that in the Middle Ages, the aim of  theological study was habitus, which is “a cognitive disposition and orientation of the soul, a knowledge of God and what God reveals.”

David Kelsey argued that the aim of theological education ought to be the cultivation of wisdom but must also consider the many ways that individuals develop wisdom. While rational discourse is often given primary importance in theological education, Kelsey reminded us that individuals also come to know God through other means, including contemplation, actions, or in community. 

Building upon these ideas, Dan Aleshire, the former executive director of the Association of  Theological Schools, suggests that formation done well should result in knowledge of  Scripture and capacity for ministerial leadership, certainly, but should also be evidenced by spiritual and moral maturity as well as relational integrity.

Furthermore, Aleshir observed that seminaries today tend to do a pretty good job graduating students with knowledge of Scripture and capacity for ministerial leadership but, for a variety of reasons, fare less well in graduating students with spiritual and moral maturity as well as relational integrity. This observation is what I have in mind as I think about the need for us to recommit ourselves to the task of formation and, specifically, character formation. 

On the one hand, the problem that seminaries encounter with forming character is not unique to seminaries. Eugene Peterson suggests that spiritual formation is often neglected by the Church as a whole. We live in “a cultural context in which souls are pretty much ignored in the rush of getting something or making something. The formation of souls is a major responsibility of the Christian Church—lives formed by the Holy Spirit ‘to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). But by and large, it is a neglected responsibility.” 

On the other hand, it is precisely because we live in a context that often neglects the importance of formation. As a Seminary, it must be the central focus of our task. Thus, my plea for you this morning is that we renew our commitment to the formation of character in our theological education.  

There are many reasons why seminaries tend to shy away from focusing on spiritual and moral maturity and relational integrity. Some of the reasons are good. We recognize that the Christian community is diverse and varied. We are aware that the Church has not always done a good job separating Biblical teaching from cultural preferences and, at times, notions of cultural superiority. As a result, we have become more careful about prescribing  “shall and shall nots,” recognizing that we are not immune to prejudices and blind spots. What is considered a norm in one culture may be incredibly offensive in another culture. Expectations about how a mature Christian ought to behave have shifted over time to account for differences in cultural backgrounds, denominational traditions, and even societal norms and attitudes.

Other times, seminaries have shied away from focusing on spiritual and moral maturity and relational integrity because they are hard to measure. Seminaries also realize that we have limited exposure to students. We see you in the classroom and trust that we will receive accurate and faithful accounts of how you are engaging in your internships and field educations, but we realize that we see only a sliver of who you are and never fully who you are in various settings. But, at some point, the challenges also have to meet the reality of our calling and vocation. 

Whether you are called to be a minister or a counselor, a chaplain or a social worker, a professor or a teacher, a non-profit leader or even a campus staff member, all of us, students, faculty, and staff, are in or will be entering into vocations that require us to bring our full selves to bear on our work.

I want to suggest to you today that there is no such thing as a brilliant theologian who treats others with disdain or a gifted Christian counselor who lacks compassion for others. There is no such thing as a phenomenal preacher who diminishes others or a faithful pastor who does not love the congregation.

Some may try. Some may get away with it. Some may even be successful, perhaps for a time. But I want to posit to you today that it is impossible to enter into these vocations in a genuinely and thoroughly  Christian way without an intentional focus on one’s inner formation as a follower of Jesus who is being constantly renewed and transformed by the Holy Spirit. 

For example, let me take an example from the Counseling field. Listen to these words from  Dr. Chuck DeGroat as he articulates his vision for counselors who are hopeful and humble.  It is a lengthy quote, but it is worth its weight in gold. 

“I saw the character and fruit of the Spirit embodied in counselors as crucial to the work.  Hopeful counselors hold a vision for their clients even when clients lose their sense of vision…Humble therapists have a realistic view of their capacities, mindful that we journey with clients for just a brief season of their lives. We are not saviors; we are mere guides on their wilderness journeys. And yet, we have immense power, and we’re called to steward the power we have wisely and well. The hopeful and humble therapist is committed to continuing to do her own work so that her heart remains open, curious, and compassionate. The work that we do requires us to bring our full self to bear on our work.” 

You cannot be a healthy counselor without allowing the Spirit to be at work in your life and without being attentive to the work that the Spirit is doing in your life. Doing so, in turn, enables you to see yourself in your proper place in relation to yourself, to God, and to the people that you are working with. Being a counselor, pastor, chaplain, teacher, or leader requires us to bring our full self to the work. And because the work that we do requires us to bring our full humanity, character formation on both an individual and collective level needs to be an important and indispensable aspect of theological education.  

In fact, as we can see from the text for today, character formation is an important and indispensable aspect of what it means to be a Spirit-filled Christian. Colossians 3 begins with a reminder that because we have been buried with Jesus Christ in baptism and raised with him through our faith in the work of God, we are called to live not according to our old self that is separated from the Triune God but according to the life that is in union with  Christ. We are no longer God’s enemy, but rather, we are God’s chosen people. We no longer live in darkness. We are holy, set apart, and dearly loved. Therefore, we are to put to death things like sexual immorality, lust, evil desires, greed, and idolatry. Instead, as people who walk in step with and are empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are to clothe ourselves with compassion instead of anger, kindness instead of rage, humility instead of malice,  gentleness, and patience instead of slander and lies. 

We are to clothe ourselves with these virtues as individuals, but we are also to embody these Spirit-filled characteristics on a communal level. We demonstrate compassion,  kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience when we bear with one another, forgive one another, love one another, and live at peace with one another because the peace of  God directs and overwhelms our hearts.

Character formation is not limited to just focusing on our inner life, as important as that is. Character formation is also taking place when we engage with one another, when we get into conflict with one another, or when we disagree with one another. Disagreements and conflicts are not bad in and of itself, but part of what it means to renew our commitment to character formation is for us to focus on how we treat one another and respond to one another in the midst of those conflicts and disagreements. 

You know this. You don’t need me to belabor the point on how increasingly polarized our society has become or how disheartening it is to see our inability as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to disagree with one another well. Many of you students have told me that  one of the reasons that you are drawn to Western is because there is a hospitable and  generous posture in our learning environment and a genuine desire to live into the call of Ephesians 4:3 for us to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of  peace.” 

We do this well, though I don’t claim that we do it perfectly. But we are committed to living into it. This semester, both the Student Life team and the Student Council will invite us to engage in Community Conversations and book readings that will continue to form our community. We will have opportunities to practice compassion, kindness, humility,  gentleness, and patience. We will have occasions to bear with one another, forgive one another, and admonish one another. Why do we do this? Because as followers of Jesus, all that we do, in word or in deed, we do in the name of the Lord Jesus.

We are stepping into callings where, as imagers of God, we are called to reflect the love of God to another image of God. We are entering into roles and responsibilities where we will be representing the God of Creation, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, into a world that is in desperate need to know the depth of God’s love, the wideness of His compassion, the breadth of his grace,  and the totality of his care for His creation. Our calling requires us to take our full selves in order to engage not a list of tasks, initiatives, and projects but other human beings who have been fearfully and wonderfully made, another beloved child of God, another individual for whom Jesus Christ has died on the cross.  

So therefore, in light of the gravity of the calling that we are undertaking, let us clothe ourselves, then, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, with compassion,  kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with one another and forgive one another. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.