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Hello, my name is Sean Watkins, and I serve as Associate Dean of Lifelong Learning here at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. And I want to welcome you to another edition of Cultivating Ideas, where we take the best and the brightest ideas of our faculty and staff, and we share them with the local Austin community, the state of Texas, the United States, and of course, hopefully prayerfully around the world. Typically, we have our faculty come and share on their research, but I always take a moment at the beginning of the academic here to cast a bit of vision for the Center for Lifelong Learning, both where we are and where we are headed.

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And that brings us precisely to our title and our theme for today, the future of lifelong learning. When I was growing up, the American dream was painted in a very clear picture. You go to college, you hit, what, Sean? Nope, let's stop and start over.

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God doubt it. I'm still recording. All right, edit that part out, and then let's just start from here. Okay.

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The copy is kicking in. All right, here we go. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Cultivating Ideas. My name is Sean Watkins, and I serve as Associate Dean of Lifelong Learning here at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

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Cultivating Ideas is a monthly webinar series where we take the best and brightest ideas of our faculty and staff, and we share them with the online community from here in Austin, Texas. However, at the beginning of the year, I'd like to take a moment just to cast some vision for lifelong learning, where we are as a society and where we're headed as a center here at Austin Seminary. And that brings us to our topic and theme for today, the future of lifelong learning. When I was growing up,

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The American dream was painted in very clear lines. You go to school, you get into college, you graduate with a degree, and that degree helps you to get a good job. And from there, you build a life. Education was supposed to prepare you for the world to come.

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But as most of us are now very much aware, our education systems are not preparing us for the world that currently exists. It's not so much those education systems have failed, but many of them have become antiquated because of the invention of technology or the advancements of technology rather, as well as the worldwide web. More often than not, In the past, we could take faculty who are curious about a particular topic or theme, and they could spend days, weeks, months, even years researching that topic and then share that data with the world.

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Well, by the time education systems are done collating that data and then being prepared to present it, it's already antiquated. And we've got the data to be able to prove that. Let me share some of it with you. According to Holt.com and bestcolleges.com, only 24% of recent college graduates felt they had all of the necessary skills for their jobs.

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And incredibly, 85% wish that their undergraduate education had better prepared them for the workplace, and over half said that it didn't prepare them at all. Now, some of that could be our expectations for what undergraduate degrees should be and what undergraduate education should prepare us for. There can be a debate or discussion around that, but I think the data is evident that recent college graduates believe firmly that their education at the undergraduate level did not prepare them to lead or work in the world as it currently exists.

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And let me also say that this is not just a secular problem. Pastoral Care Incorporated reports that 53% of pastors feel that seminary did not adequately prepare them for ministry. That's more than half of the pastors across the nominations in the United States believe firmly that their theological education did not prepare them to pastor.

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What were some of the gaps that they named? They talked about gaps in administration, technology, leadership, counseling, and even facilities management. Meanwhile, only 20% of Americans say they attend church on a weekly basis. though 82% still say that they believe in or are open to the existence of a higher power.

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So again, you can see there's gaps in the undergraduate education process. There's gaps in the graduate school or theological education process. And we also have a population of Americans that are no longer going to church on a weekly basis. even though they believe in a higher power.

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And that lets us know a few things. It lets us know that faith is still an important part to the majority of Americans, but it also tells us that they don't feel like church really speaks to them as much as it did in previous generations. And again, we've got that gap that's beginning to emerge. And that's what we want to be able to highlight.

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that there fundamentally is a gap between education and the real world, how we are preparing people both secularly and theologically. There's a gap between what we've received and the world in which we live in. And even now, I could ask you to pause and take a moment and think about how your education, whether you've got a high school diploma or an undergraduate degree, perhaps a master's or a doctorate, stop and think about how that education formed you and then the crises, the problems, the issues that emerged when you stepped either into the workforce or your preferred profession, right? Did your education prepare you for the world in which you currently navigate and live?

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Or did you get boots on the ground and say, okay, this is a completely different world and I've got to my thinking and learning head back on, I thought I was done. I got the degree. But now, as we say in the hood, I need a degree from the streets, right?

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I need to know my context, what's going on in this particular place. How does this institution or this job place function? Because education may prepare me somewhat, but not completely. That's what the data is showing.

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I want to pose a different question to you, though. What if the degree you earned whether college or seminary or professional training, wasn't meant to be the destination of your learning journey. I'll say it again.

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What if the degree that you earned, whether college or seminary or professional training, wasn't meant to be the destination of your learning journey? What if it was only the beginning? That's the road that we're on. In short, lifelong learning is not optional anymore.

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It's the role that we all must travel. We must commit to being lifelong learners because the world is constantly changing. And the information that we learned yesterday may or may not prepare us for today. And because it's changing so rapidly, the information that we learned yesterday

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it may not prepare us for tomorrow. We've got gaps between yesterday, today, and tomorrow, which means we must be in a perpetual process of learning to make sure that what we've learned has prepared us for how we lead, how we serve, and how we're speaking to the times in which we currently live. There's a changing landscape that's happening in our heritage. We are living in a moment of profound transition, but this isn't the first time that God's people has faced such challenges.

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Here are three realities shaping our world. First, technological disruption is accelerating beyond anything any of us have ever experienced. COVID-19 forced the world to move into online learning, jobs, schools, the medical field, everyone had to jump online. And so while we saw online learning increasingly happening around the world when the pandemic hit six years ago, it forced everyone as opposed to having a gradual integration of that technological change.

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It forced us to be online. And so that technological disruption is present, it's accelerating, and it is felt. But second, we're seeing demographic shifts that span generations. Longer lifespans mean careers of 60 plus years.

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in some instances. Churches now have 5 generations worshiping together, each with different learning experiences, technological comfort levels, and cultural contexts. A baby boomer pastor and a Gen. Z seminarian don't just have different perspectives, they have been shaped by entirely different worlds.

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That means that we have people in our congregations right now that either served during World War II or were born during World War II. And they also are, we've got children who are in school right now that are dealing with artificial intelligence. That's 2 completely different worlds, two completely different environments from what they've grown up in, two completely different languages really in a lot of ways. And yet they are interacting together.

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This is a beautiful thing, but it also creates a very complex context for us to be able to figure out how to navigate. But then third, there's an explosion of new online learning models or new learning models altogether. We've got micro-credentials, online cohorts, podcast universities. People are learning in ways that would have been impossible even 10 years ago, but many of our institutions are still structured like it's 1950.

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Now, it's tempting to think that these changes are entirely new, but they are not. Throughout history, God's people have had to accept and re-equip themselves for new challenges. In the early church, they devoted new ways of leading, not just for initial conversion, but for ongoing formation as communities faced persecution, cultural change, and theological challenges. During the Reformation, Protestant churches emphasized literacy because they knew people needed new skills to engage scripture directly.

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American seminaries in the 1800s created extension programs and circuit writing education because the frontier demanded flexible, accessible training. And then there's this remarkable verse from 1 Chronicles 12 and 32, one of my favorites, which describes the tribe of Issachar. It simply says that they were men who understood the times, who had knowledge of what Israel should do. Correction, they were people who understood the times and had knowledge of what Israel should do.

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There were only 200 among them, 200 chiefs leading their community, but they possessed something invaluable. They had the ability to discern the moment that they were in and how to respond to it faithfully. And that's where Austin Seminary finds itself today.

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We may be small in number compared to some of the massive universities, like the ones even across the street, or our mega institutions, but like the tribe of Issachar, we are called to have an understanding of our times and to know what the church ought to do. And part of what the church ought to do is to embrace lifelong learning as an essential to faithful ministry. Now, why does this matter so much today?

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That's a fantastic question. I'm glad you asked. Why is it so urgent? Let me share with you three reasons.

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Number one, practically, our culture is shifting faster than ever. Pastors can no longer depend on a one-time seminary theological training because the world they entered to serve in has fundamentally changed. The average pastor will serve congregations dealing with social media crises, mental health epidemics, political polarization, climate anxiety, social justice, and now AI disruption.

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Not to mention a whole other host of issues. Issues that weren't even on the radar perhaps during their initial theological formation. If you're a pastor watching this, imagine what, or remember rather, what seminary prepared you for and then the issues that you've encountered since you've stepped into the pastorate. I can probably take a shot in the dark and say the things that seminary taught you may or may not, and honestly, probably did not prepare you for a lot of the social and cultural changes that are happening in our society right now.

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I know it didn't prepare me. My MD was from 2014 to 2019, and the changing landscape that happened in those five years as I worked full-time, it was a seminary student, it literally disrupted the world around us, and I could see that the theological education that I was receiving was preparing me for a world that no longer existed. And probably you feel that same way too.

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Theological education was great, but when we graduated, we realized very quickly we knew how to pastor in the 50s and 60s and 70s and 80s. But what did we do in the 2010s and now the 2020s? And so second, theologically, God's mission requires ongoing discernment. The Spirit didn't stop speaking at Pentecost or when we graduated from seminary.

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And that, friends, is good news. Jesus promised that the Spirit would guide us into all truth, and that guidance is progressive, contextual, and ongoing. The church in Austin faces different challenges than the church in, say, Sao Paulo. And the church in 2026 faces different challenges than it did in 2006.

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Faithfulness to God's mission means staying spiritually and intellectually nimble enough to hear how God's Spirit is moving today in this place and among these people. And then finally, personally, our leaders are burning out in unprecedented rates. The pandemic revealed just how unprepared many of us were for crisis leadership, virtual ministry, and the emotional toll of shepherding through trauma. But burnout isn't just about workload.

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I'll say that again. Burnout is not just about workload. It's often about feeling inadequate for the challenges that we face. Lifelong learning isn't just about adding skills, it's about sustaining leaders for the long haul, where as Eugene Peterson called it, a long obedience in the same direction.

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It's about creating communities of practice where pastors don't have to figure everything out alone. This is not just about professional development. It's about faithfulness of the mission of God in a rapidly changing world. The fact is,

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Friends, we are in the future and we are building the future right now. So what does this look like? What does this future look like? What's already emerging?

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Let me paint a picture of what lifelong learning could look like for church leaders, for lay leaders, and for our greater Austin community as a whole. One, I want you to imagine hybrid learning ecosystems that meet people where they are. A pastor in rural Texas joins a monthly virtual cohort with pastors from Kenya, South Korea and Brazil, exploring contextual theology and sharing best practices for ministry in challenging contexts.

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She earns micro-credentials in conflict resolution and community organizing, applying what she's learned immediately to her congregation. And let me put this on pause for one second and say, I know this cohort is possible because it's what we're doing in my PhD program at a different seminary. I have friends in my cohort from Ghana, from London, from South Korea, from Brazil and also from Ukraine.

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And so as a consequence, she's from Ukraine, she is not there at this particular time. And so as a consequence, we have this broad diversity of thoughts and ideas, and it helps us to have a global understanding and real time of issues that we're thinking about theologically that either fit our own cultural context or our own geographical context or our own generational context. But in having those conversations, we immediately can sharpen our skills so that we can pastor in the real world.

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And if that hybrid ecosystem is present for me in my doctoral program, I know that we can do the same thing for pastors and for lead leaders around our society. So hybrid ecosystems is a massive, massive possibility. But second, stackable, affordable learning. Instead of requiring a full degree program, leaders can build competencies over time.

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That's not saying that we're getting rid of the MDiv. The MDiv is the bread and butter of theological formation. But we do want to open that up and say, hey, if you've already got an MB, if you already have a master's degree or a doctoral degree, but you want to continue to learn, we've got stackable, affordable learning for you. If you feel like the Masters of Divinity program or a graduate degree is not the route for you, but you still are curious about theological formation, again, we've got stackable, affordable learning that we want to be able to offer.

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A bi-vocational pastor can take a six-week course online. on preaching through trauma and then later adds a certificate in pastoral counseling, eventually stacking these into a broader credential in crisis ministry, all continuing to serve their congregation and maintain their jobs. Envision cross-institutional collaboration. Currently, Austin Seminary partners with UT Austin, Seminary of the Southwest, and Shriner University, offering joint programs where students learn from diverse global perspectives.

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Local churches become learning labs where theory meets practice in real time. And that's a tagline here at Austin Seminary, where faith intersects purpose. Nonprofits and seminaries share expertise, creating new pathways between ministry and social justice work. Consider, especially what's happening right now in our world with the proliferation of AI, consider AI and digital tools that personalize learning journeys.

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A pastor struggling with preaching receives customized feedback and resources. A church planter assesses a curated library of materials specific to their demographic and context. but the technology serves the relationship. It does not replace mentoring, the community, or human formation that remains essential.

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We teach and put pastors how to use AI so that it serves as a digital assistant, not an AI tool or a computer tool that colonizes thinking and tries to reshape how our congregation thinks. We don't want to outsource thinking and problem solving to AI, but like everything else that eventually is invented, we want to give you the tools to know how to use this particular tool to best serve you in your personal and professional life, and then also in your ministry as well. And then also we want to talk about justice-oriented formation.

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The fact of the matter is we live in a very diverse, very complex world, and justice is a part of the gospel. There's A theological formation, there's a practical formation, there are relational formations, and there is justice-oriented formation that takes place in scripture. And so we want to equip leaders for the pressing issues of our day. Climate theology that helps congregations become creation care communities.

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Racial literacy training that moves beyond workshops that deepen spiritual and systemic transformation. Economic discipleship that addresses wealth inequality and financial anxiety. Immigration ministries that combine pastoral care with advocacy skills. This isn't just theory.

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It's already happening in communities around our nation and around the world. Duke Divinity has micro-credentials. Weslingan Seminary has ministry and a digital context certificate. And the list goes on.

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We've got folks that are already pioneering in this new way and in this new field. These questions are not whether about if the future is coming. The questions really are whether we will lead now or we will catch up later. The future is already here.

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And if we are not embracing it, we are already behind the times. And so in the time that I've got left, let me just share very briefly Austin Seminary's role and leadership role in the midst of this and my hope for lifelong learning. We are already stepping boldly into the future as a center, as a department, and at Austin Seminary. Our Center for Lifelong Learning has launched our certificate programs, expanded our leadership in the Latinx community initiatives, and we've created a webinar series that are reaching leaders that would never pursue a full degree, but they are hungry for theological education.

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I'll say that again. Our Center for Lifelong Learning is maintaining and expanding our certificate programs. We are expanding Latinx leadership initiatives. And again, we are always constantly trying to figure out how to create new webinars for lay leaders that are bi-vocational,

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don't have the time for theological education, but they want to grow right where they are to serve both pastors, community leaders, international students, and more so they can engage with us in new ways. But I believe our potential can go deeper. Over the next couple of years, we want to become the Southwest hub for lifelong learning and ministry. Imagine Austin Seminary partnering with churches across Texas, Oklahoma,

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New Mexico, to create learning cohorts that both meet online and in their regional gatherings. Picture us developing specialized tracks for emerging leaders, mid-career transitions, and veteran pastors approaching retirement, but not ready to stop learning. We want to pioneer new models of accessible, affordable education. What if we created learning communities where people access ongoing courses, mentoring, and peer networks?

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What if we offered ministry sabbatical intensives where experienced pastors spent a month here at Austin Seminary, not to earn credits, but to rest, to re-energize? and to discern the next chapter of their calling. They can stay on campus in our guest housing, interact with some of our faculty and staff and students, get the refreshment that they need from pausing and not having to lead and just being spiritually fed from their theological institutions. But then also we can cultivate conversations with them that can help them figure out the next chapter and season of life.

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We could lead in global partnerships. Our connections with seminaries and churches in Latin America position us to create truly international learning opportunities. Pastors in Austin, learning from church planters in Honduras, seminary students in Mexico engaging in environmental theology developed by indigenous communities in New Mexico, the possibilities are endless. And here's what I think could be our distinctive contribution. Contextual theological education for a changing South. The American South is increasingly becoming more diverse, more urban, and more globally connected. Churches are wrestling with how to maintain their theological convictions while engaging neighbors from different faiths and cultures. Austin Seminary could be the place where leaders learn to navigate this complexity with wisdom and with grace. The tribe of Iskar ahead to understand the times.

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At Austin Seminary, we have the opportunity to provide that same discernment for today's church, not just through traditional degree programs, but through lifelong learning that shapes leaders for a lifetime of faithfulness. And so, my friends and siblings, sisters and brothers, let me conclude by saying this. Here's the takeaway. Lifelong learning is not just a side program. It is the future of theological education. The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4 that Christ gives us gifts to the church to equip the saints for every work of ministry. That equipping never ends. It deepens, it expands, and it adapts as God's mission unfolds in new contexts. So let's imagine this together. What if seminary, rather, wasn't the end of preparation, but the beginning of a lifelong partnership? What if Austin Seminary became known not only for the degrees that we grant, but for walking alongside leaders from their first sense of calling through their final years of service? What if we built a future where theological education wasn't about earning a credential once, but ongoing formation for a world that will keep changing? My friends, the future is within reach. In the next 18 months, we will expand our certificate programs to include a certificate in business administration, spiritual formation, interfaith dialogue. We're hoping to launch in conjunction with the Reverend Dr. Sarah Allen and the Office of Ministry of Formation and Advanced Studies. We know that we're going to have new pastoral cohorts, and we're hoping to deepen our global partnerships. We can create learning opportunities and experiences that are accessible

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to working parents, to affordable for bi-vocational pastors, and relevance to the actual challenges that we face. Like the tribe of Issachar, again, we may be small in number, but we have the opportunity to discern what the church needs in this moment. And what the church needs is leaders who never stop learning, never stop growing, never stop asking how God is calling us to be faithful witnesses today. This is the invitation before us That is the future of lifelong learning. That's our calling as the people of God in this moment of profound challenge. I hope that you will join us in this chapter and season of life and of ministry. We've got some amazing things in store. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to serve as an associate dean here at Austin Seminary, and we can't wait to see what God does next at the center of lifelong learning. Have a wonderful day and a wonderful semester, and we will see you here at Cultivating Ideas. Take care and God bless.