Theological Education at Winebrenner Theological Seminary: Establishing Cultural Priorities

by Dr. Brent Sleasman, WTS President

Since becoming President of Winebrenner Seminary in December 2015, much of my time has been spent on day to day items required for operating a seminary. All of these items are guided by our mission and strategy and serve the greater purposes of God’s kingdom. Focusing on operational items has made sense in light of the internal challenges that were present when I arrived, along with the external challenges of a global pandemic and changing role of higher education in North America.

At a recent off-site Quarterly meeting, I shared with our faculty and staff that it is now time to shift to prioritizing organizational culture and recognize that healthy organizational practices emerge from a healthy culture.

Peter Drucker is credited with the statement, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” His point is that organizational culture always “wins” when there is conflict between various priorities. There are many definitions of culture –one helpful way to think about culture is provided by Andy Crouch in Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, where he writes, “Culture is what we make of the world – we start not with a blank slate but with all the richly enculturated world that previous generations have handed to us” (73).

There are times that culture can be aspirational in which we dream about what life could be like in the future. Think about someone like Martin Luther King Jr. speaking a particular kind of culture into existence with his “I have a dream” speech. However, we will often find that seeds of our culture are already present, but we haven’t yet brought them together and named them clearly.

In the first few chapters of Genesis, we see God’s power evident in creation. In Genesis 2:20, one of Adam’s first acts is to name the animals in God’s creation. Unfortunately, in our efforts to build and develop organizational cultures, we often fail to name the important elements and miss an important step in the process of creation. In this article, I name various elements of the culture of Winebrenner in an effort to identify the ways that God is at work in our midst. As Andy Crouch suggests in the previous quote, we are not developing these elements out of thin air but are building upon our inherited narratives and traditions. The work of Jesus is central to all we do and, therefore, we will spend time anchoring each cultural commitment within the words of Jesus in the Bible. If culture is “what we make of the world,” then there should also be evidence to demonstrate how the culture is lived out.

The first cultural cornerstone of Winebrenner Theological Seminary is stewardship

There’s no question that the experience of a Winebrenner student in 2023 is very different from previous eras. I began my studies at Winebrenner Theological Seminary in the fall of 1996. As a member of the Allegheny Region of the CGGC, I was fortunate to receive full reimbursement for my tuition. My home church, the Indian Head Church of God, also had a small scholarship available for students who attended the University of Findlay and Winebrenner Theological Seminary. When I graduated from Winebrenner in 1999, I had not accumulated any additional financial debt during my time in seminary because of the generosity of these bodies.

Much has changed for students at Winebrenner Seminary over the past 25+ years. We, at Winebrenner, are committed to offering an affordable education to those who respond to God’s call to kingdom service. But, unfortunately, the financial challenges faced by churches and denominations have greatly minimized their ability to subsidize the education of interested students. In 2020 Winebrenner’s tuition was changed to $300/month and continues to allow Winebrenner to offer affordable, accessible, and high-quality graduate-level tuition. Our commitment is that no student should be unable to pursue God’s call due to lack of funding, and we are committed to assisting each student in finding the funding to continue their educational journey.

One of our commitments is to create an environment in which those called can pursue that call without taking on unnecessary financial burdens. Perhaps you’ve heard some variation of the phrase “God equips those he calls.” Since the mission of Winebrenner is to equip leaders for service in God’s kingdom, we should pay special attention to those who fit within either category –the called or the equipped! When seminary is part of a person’s call, every person called by God should have the necessary funding to pursue that call.

In order to fulfill this commitment, Winebrenner has made many difficult decisions to intentionally lower our overall operating costs. Since 2015 we’ve lowered our annual expenses by almost one million dollars. We continue to prioritize being good managers of what God provides.

A second cultural cornerstone of Winebrenner Theological Seminary is discipleship.

The invitation to approach theological education as discipleship is accompanied by the challenge to align our daily activities and decisions with those of Jesus. Some of the last recorded words of Jesus are found in the book of Matthew 28 when he says in verse 19, “…go and make disciples of all nations…” This is part of a larger passage of scripture often called the “Great Commission” and is considered a key teaching of Jesus. Since we’ve identified discipleship as a key component of Winebrenner’s culture, what are a few coordinates for better understanding this teaching of Jesus?

There are many helpful interpreters of this teaching, but I find the work of Mike Breen, founder of 3dm and author of multiple books, including Building a Discipling Culture, especially helpful. Breen writes that Jesus invited “his followers into an intimate relationship with him while also initiating a direct challenge to behaviors he knew were either wrong or unhealthy” (17).

For example, in Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus is recorded as saying, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” What an invitation!

But a few chapters later in Matthew 16:24-25, Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” A very challenging teaching.

We see this rhythm throughout the teachings of Jesus. Invitation. Challenge. Invitation. Challenge.

There are many ways that this understanding can be incorporated and expressed in a context that prioritizes theological education. Since my primary tasks are related to administration, I only teach occasionally at Winebrenner Seminary. However, when I do teach, I begin almost every class session with something that resembles this understanding of discipleship. Currently, I am co-teaching with Dr. Kim Shifler a course exploring biblical interpretation and begin almost every next session by asking those enrolled to take a few minutes and reflect upon

• What did you find as an encouragement to your discipleship journey?

• What did you find as a challenge to your discipleship journey?

Depending upon the content of the particular course, almost every class provides some connection to the topic of the evening. Biblical studies invite opportunities to see this rhythm in the life of the followers of Jesus. Leadership invites conversation about how our days are often filled with invitations and challenges to our leadership styles. History, theology, counseling, etc., all have some elements of invitation and challenge.

Even the classroom experience itself falls into the rhythm of invitation and challenge. The root for discipleship and the root for discipline are shared. Discipleship requires an element of discipline. As we discipline ourselves to see how God invites and challenges us in our spiritual journey, we have the opportunity to continue to grow in our relationship with Jesus and our understanding of discipleship.

The dual commitments to stewardship and discipleship name two of the areas of biggest change over the past few decades at Winebrenner. As a collaborative partner with the CGGC, Winebrenner remains committed to working with the current and future generations of kingdom leaders. This extends far beyond just those training to serve as pastors or missionaries, although we continue to train and equip many who are called to these roles with the church.

There are many within the Churches of God, General Conference, who either graduated from Winebrenner Theological Seminary or attend a church with a pastor who graduated from Winebrenner. Since first being established in 1942 as the Graduate School of Divinity at Findlay College—now the University of Findlay—Winebrenner has been training and equipping leaders for service in God’s kingdom. A significant portion of Winebrenner’s revenue comes from the generosity of givers from the CGGC, so it’s imperative that you know what we value as we follow the Spirit’s leading.