Science for Ministry RFP Finalist Detail

Asbury Theological Seminary
Changing Pastoral Practice to Integrate Science into Ministry

Asbury Theological Seminary has created Changing Pastoral Practice to Integrate Science into Ministry for partnering with the Templeton Foundation to provide effective ways of engaging ministers that will lead to a deepening understanding of science and desire to incorporate this wisdom into the practice of ministry. The heart of this program is situated within an ancient but renewed conversation between the knowledge of faith and knowledge of human creatures and the world. Drawing from scientists, theologians, philosophers, and experienced exemplars in ministry, it offers programs and resources designed to: stimulate interest, desire, and imagination; cultivate capacities for judging, discerning, and perceiving; impart tools and skills for making the “integrative moves” that welcome the discoveries of science into worship, preaching, teaching, pastoral leadership and care. An important aim is that engaging with ministers will bear fruit in the lives of the people they serve, strengthening their faith in, understanding of, and desire to be part of God’s work in the universe.

Changing Pastoral Practice to Integrate Science into Ministry has four major goals:

1. To transform the practice of ministers of various callings (primarily pastors, but also campus and youth ministers) so they will welcome insights from science into the diverse aspects of ministry.
2. To assist congregations, members of campus ministries, and other audiences in developing a better understanding and appreciation of, as well as more active involvement in, the relationship of faith and science.
3. To influence the culture indirectly, fostering a healthier approach to social and moral issues that arise from misunderstandings and mischaracterizations of science in churches (as well as misunderstandings of faith among influential voices within the sciences and the people whom they influence).
4. To establish the Asbury Theological Seminary Center for Science in Ministry, consolidating our efforts and providing a basis for sustained continuing education and resource development related to science/faith/ministry topics, issues, and explorations.

Our project utilizes the existing resources of Asbury Seminary, an institution of approximately 1,700 students with three campuses, and seeks to reach and attract a large, international network of constituents and friends. The program is by nature interdisciplinary and is organized around three large, integrative themes: 1) Cosmology; 2) Anthropology; 3) Ecclesiology. These themes provide coherence and pedagogical focus for four program elements:

1. An Annual Minister’s Conference; traditionally drawing upwards of 1,000 participants.
2. Distance Learning; one of Asbury’s fully resourced campuses.
3. Web Based Resources; administered by the seminary’s information/technology staff
4. Alumni Publications and the Asbury Communication Network; reaching an audience of more than 25,000.

Changing Pastoral Practice to Integrate Science into Ministry is grounded in the classical faith of the Church, an ecumenical ethos of “generous orthodoxy” from which all traditions in the larger Christian community can benefit. The Templeton Science for Ministry Initiative is congruent with what Asbury Seminary, situated within the Anglican/Wesleyan tradition, calls “practical divinity” - a form of knowledge and capacity for integrating faith, reason, and practice that leads to wisdom.