The Society for the Advancement of Ecclesiological Theology

October 17, 2009 by Gerald Hiestand

2009 Symposium Reflections

The 2009 Symposium has come and gone, and now that I’ve had a week to dig myself out of all the missed e-mails and phones messages, I’ve finally found some time to reflect a bit on our time together. The symposium was fantastic on multiple levels – relationally, pastorally, and theologically. It was great to reconnect with some old faces, as well as to meet a few new ones. This was our second full-fledged symposium, and each time we’re together the SAET vision becomes sharper, more realistic, and exciting. I’m convinced God is doing something significant in and through the SAET and other like-minded organizations. A few takeaways from the Symposium, in no particular order expect for the first one…

1. Doug Sweeney, this year’s Senior Theological Consultant, reminded us of the need for a healthy division of labor between the academy and the church.  His insight here was worth the whole conference for me. I’ve got more to say about this in a future post, but Doug’s basic point (as I remember it) was that academic scholars such as himself should continue to do primary level research, but that systematic theology  should move back into the pastorate. This is a profound insight, and something that has lurked around in the back of my mind before, but not with the clarity that Doug articulated it. The present division between the academy and the church is “Professors should do the thinking,  pastors should take care of the practical stuff.” But Doug was suggesting, “Professors should do the research, pastors should do the theology.” This comports with Vanhoozer’s comments, which I just saw today (see his closing sentence).

2. We saved a few seats this year for doctoral students who are not yet in pastoral ministry, and I think that worked well. The intent was to give the next generation of theologians a view of what ecclesial theology in a local church context might look like. So it was great to meet Dane Ortlund (PhD candidate at Wheaton) and Mark Rodgers (PhD Candidate at TEDS), both of whom seem like great guys positioned to make significant theological contributions to ecclesial theology.

3. The number of guys who showed up this year was very encouraging. Frankly, we’re maxed out in our current Fellowship. Adding more guys would begin to erode the collegial nature of the Fellowship, but we hate to limit participation, as there are so many great guys out there who have a vision for the sort of thing we’re doing. In light of this, the SAET board has decided to explore the possibility of starting a second Fellowship. This second Fellowship would meet in late Spring and run parallel with the first Fellowship (same topic, same Senior Consultant, etc., just a different group of guys). Ideal candidates to the SAET Fellowship are full-time pastors with a demonstrated publishing record and a terminal degree. More information on a Second Fellowship will be forth-coming.

4. The paper presentations went well, and it seemed that each of us resonated with different papers. I was assigned as a respondent to Joel Lawrence’s paper on Bonhoeffer, which worked well as I found Joel’s treatment of Bonhoeffer fascinating. Joel is one of our dual-vocational pastors (he teaches at Bethel Seminary, as well), and his discussion of Bonhoeffer as an ecclesial theologian who worked within the context of the academy was insightful.

5. It was great to finally meet Preston Sprinkle (another one of our dual vocational Fellows), who joined the Fellowship for the first time this year. Preston and I met online back in 2005  before the SAET was the SAET, and exchanged a number of e-mails about the need for such a project. I tried to talk Preston into locking arms with me, but he was headed to the academy and wouldn’t budge. Perhaps to get me off his back, he recommended I connect with Todd Wilson, whom he had met over in the UK, and who had subsequently taken a pastoral position at  College Church (a few miles from where I was living). Meanwhile, Jonathan Cummings (one of the early board members) had recently begun an internship at College Church and told me I needed to connect with his supervisor who was none other than (you guessed it) Todd Wilson. So Todd’s name came up twice in the span of a week. As I joked with Preston, Todd has been the equivalent of a theological venture capitalist for the SAET. So Preston was instrumental in connecting the SAET with Todd, who has been instrumental in connecting the SAET with, well, everyone else. So it’s been fun to go full circle and now have Preston as part of the Fellowship.

All in all, the Symposium was great. It was a bit of a let-down to settle back into the day to day routine of local church ministry, though mentally I was done in. Regardless, it’s time to get back to the hard work of being a pastor and writing theology.

Categories: SAET Fellowship | Symposium