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News from the intersection of Faith, Adventure, & the Arts
FEBRUARY 2017 ISSUE 10
M A ST E R O F D I V I N I T Y
Charting A
New Course
YTI is equipping ministers to serve a world
where Christianity is an afterthought
Y
TI begins its Master of Divinity (M.Div.) program in the fall
of 2017. It is unique, it is progressive, and it is sound—theologically,
biblically, and culturally. It looks ahead
to the needs of the Christian faith in the
21st century.
It is an educational experience at a whole
different level of engagement. Students
learn in seminars with professors who
work and minister side by side with you.
YTI’s professors are accomplished and
have published in their fields, but understand that how we engage in the educa-
tion process must change in this brave,
new world.
A 12TH CENTURY MODEL
FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
PAGE 3
WHEN GOD GETS
THE BACKHOE OUT
PAGE 5
YTI SPOTLIGHT:
RACHEL TOOMBS
PAGE 6
We find ourselves in the middle of a
cultural paradigm shift, driven by con-
See MASTER OF DIVINITY, Page 4
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FEBRUARY 2017 ■ YELLOWSTONE THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
FROM THE PRESIDENT
A Brave New World Calls for
a Brave, New Approach
W
e can’t quite put our finger on it, but we know
that in 2017 we are entering a “brave, new world.”
Miranda, Prospero’s daughter in Shakespeare’s play “The
Tempest,” utters the phrase, “Oh, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there
here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave
new world, that has such people in’t!” Interestingly, Aldous Huxley borrowed the
phrase as the title of his dystopian novel in
1931. The difference between the two uses
is that Huxley uses the phrase ironically.
What was a wondrous experience in the
beginning for “John the Savage,” becomes
disgusting and repulsive by the end of the
novel.
Today, we live in Huxley’s brave, new world. The celebrated political scientist Noam Chomsky has characterized
the United States as “an empire in decline.” The same
was said of the Roman empire after A.D. 300. Invasion,
economic problems, the rise of other nations, over-extension, military spending, political instability, and religious
chaos all contributed to the decline of Rome. The United
States is showing some of the same indicators. Our most
recent general election revealed the dark side of America’s problems. It revealed a divided country: a country of
special interests, a country that has lost sight of its mandate to protect the land, a country that does not respect
life and is possessed by an insular hubris. Does this mean
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America can’t be “great again”? Well, it depends on how
you understand the term “great”. I will not venture an
answer here. Many place their hopes on a Republican renaissance. Others on a Democratic revival.
As I have said in the past, as a citizen, you
must vote your values. YTI seeks to love
and serve in this cultural reality.
Here, in the heart of the northern Rockies, YTI pursues its calling in this divided
culture. We pursue a brave, new approach
for this brave, new world. We seek to find
ways in which we can help unite a divided
culture. We seek to imbue our local culture with a sense of wholeness in community. We help
the poor, homeless, and helpless find love in justice, education, and reconciliation. Most importantly, we train
our students to do the same. As Christian leaders, our
students are going into the communities they serve and
sharing the love, mercy, justice, peace, and good news of
Christ. The lessons they learn at YTI change lives. Thank
you for your support in prayer, finances and by spreading
the word about us. You are changing lives too!
Grace & Peace,
Dr. Jay Smith, President
Inscribed is the bi-monthly newsletter of
Yellowstone Theological Institute
Matthew C. Green Editor & Designer
Jay T. Smith YTI President
CONTACT YTI
P.O. Box 1347, Bozeman, MT 59771
406-404-1600
yellowstonetheology.org
YELLOWSTONE THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE ■ FEBRUARY 2017
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A 12th Century Model
How the Abbey of St. Victor provides a template
for ministry training in the 21st century
T
o find a model for ministry
training in the 21st century, YTI
looked to the 12th century Abbey
of St. Victor, which was located outside
Paris.
The abbey’s founder, William of
Champeaux, and his successor, Hugh of
St. Victor, believed that education could
not simply be the transmission of knowledge. Rather, it must be an integration of
subjects with immediate application in
the world.
William of Champeaux, one of the most
accomplished scholars of his day, left the
University of Paris behind and went to
the outskirts of the city to the Abbey of
St. Victor. Although he originally was not
trying to found a school, some of his students followed him to the abbey. The early
students learned with their professors in
lectures and in service to the community.
The school became renowned for producing priests and friars that were theologically astute, as well as leaders that were
compassionate, critical, and creative. They
learned, worshiped, and lived life together.
Students at St. Victor’s not only studied
the field of Aristotelian logic so popular in
Paris, but they also studied the subjects of
theology, scripture, science, and the arts.
They worked the abbey fields, tended the
livestock, worshiped together, and ministered to the surrounding community.
This is YTI’s model. Although one never can recover the past, we can glean
from it insights for our times. The Master of Divinity (M.Div.) is the cornerstone “Master” degree that has roots in
the days of William of Champeaux. Like
Champeaux and the Abbey of St. Victor,
YTI is moving beyond the walls of comfortable cultural Christianity and preparing adventurers to lead the church in this
brave, new world.
ABOVE: The Abbey of St. Victor was renowned for training theologically astute, compassionate leaders, who learned, worked, and
worshipped together and were actively involved in outreach to their community. [PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGE]
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FEBRUARY 2017 ■ YELLOWSTONE THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
MASTER OF DIVINITY, from Page 1
stantly evolving technology and the human attempt to come
to terms with their humanity shaped by this technology. The
paradigm shift has created a distorted reality, accompanied
by disillusionment, dysfunction, and destruction. This is the
brave, new world that faces the church today. In most of the
United States, Christianity has become an afterthought, and
the church across the board is in decline.
Why Yellowstone and—why now?
Within this cultural context, aren’t enrollments at many seminaries and divinity schools in decline? Isn’t the shift away from
residential education toward online education better for the
21st century? Why Yellowstone—with its distinctly residential
education—and why now?
We believe institutions that focus on spiritual and religious education need to change. YTI has noted two important areas of
change: teaching-learning methodology, and a “recasting” of
the theo-ethical perspective.
An integrated approach
First, the advent of the internet and associated technology allowing students to study for their degrees any time and from
any location is a captivating idea. It is captivating because education then becomes convenient for the student. The problem
with this perspective is that it either trivializes or ignores the
community element of education. Who wants to see a physician who never touched a human body, never administered an
injection, and never listened to a heartbeat? Then why would
we want to trust a minister that never had a counseling practicum, and was never required to practice teaching and preaching, and never had a practical leadership laboratory?
Additionally, the current process of seminary education utilizes a model that came to be the standard in only the last several hundred years. The thought was that if you were able to
compartmentalize knowledge, then students would be able to
learn more thoroughly and more quickly. However, this approach can lead to artificial divisions between closely related
areas of study, and tends to separate knowledge gained in the
classroom from life in the real world. According to research
done by YTI, many pastors in the Pacific Northwest believed
that their theological education was incomplete.
Based on the model of the 12th century Abbey of St. Victor
(see page 3), YTI’s approach is to integrate subjects with immediate application in the world. Students meet from morning
to early afternoon in three of four different seminars: Texts
& Languages, Faith & Life, Practicum, and World Religions
& Culture. Professors do not limit the learning experience to
the seminar rooms, but utilize other resources and locations
to emphasize the teaching topic. Following the seminars, students engage in ministry in the community, both on and off
the YTI property. Rather than traditional grades, students are
evaluated on a scale of expectations, and they complete oral
comprehensives and write a thesis their final year.
Theology informs an ethic of love
Second, we recast our theo-ethical perspective in order to
be effective in our culture today. The very idea of “recasting”
theology give some people pause. They think that “recasting”
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YELLOWSTONE THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE ■ FEBRUARY 2017
means to change something so that it is “unorthodox” or even
heretical. This is not the case. The question we ask is, “How
must we communicate the content of the Christian faith in
such a way that people in this contemporary context can understand and embrace the good news?”
The real “recasting” that takes place is the prioritization of the
ethical aspect of the Christian faith. The concept of agape, or
unconditional and selfless compassion for all, is the very center of the Christian faith. This love is both the fundamental
nature of God and God’s action towards the world: it is both a
theological and ethical concept.
At YTI, the theological and the ethical inform each other. Theology without ethic is dysfunctional; ethic without theology is
When God gets
the backhoe out
DR. SCOTT HAMILTON
P R O F E S S O R O F PA S TO R A L C A R E & C O U N S E L I N G
My spiritual director recently asked me if I might be harboring any unforgiveness. I nervously chuckled.
She did not.
If I’m honest, I must confess I don’t like confronting some
of my personal struggles because the work requires that I
ask God to jump in the
backhoe and start digging.
incomplete. If our Christian theology does not inform a robust agape ethic, then it is simply speculation.
A life-changing adventure
The Master of Divinity is a comprehensive three-year degree
that is designed to transform the student for the sake of the
church. It requires scholarship, spiritual discipline, and dedication. It is a life changing experience.
YTI doesn’t simply ‘train’ students for ministry; it shapes men
and women for the adventure of a lifetime. Our educational
methodology is designed to shape men and women to become
scholars, leaders, and adventurers for the mission of Christ.
YTI is training adventurers to go bravely forward, planting,
organizing and leading the people of God to make a difference
in our world through the body of Christ.
Nothing is more challenging to me than standing
still while watching God
work that backhoe. I know
that God can and will unclog the system; garbage will leave
the system as it should, eventually. The struggle is actively
and patiently waiting for God to do God’s work.
Such times are the ones where I experience God’s greatest
compassion, and that compassion empowers my ability to
be present pastorally with others when they struggle. Sometimes, the spiritual work is quite hard; yet, I also know that he
who began a good work in me is faithful to complete it.
Dr. E. Scott Hamilton (Ph.D., Walden
University) is Professor of Pastoral Care and
Counseling at Yellowstone Theological Institute.
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FEBRUARY 2017 ■ YELLOWSTONE THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
YTI SPOTLIGHT: RACHEL TOOMBS
Rachel Toombs will be joining the
YTI faculty this year as Professor of
Theology and Old Testament. She will
be accompanied by her husband, Lance
Green, who will also be a lecturer at
YTI. Rachel is currently completing
her Ph.D. at Baylor University on the
writing of Flannery O’Connor and
Hebrew narrative. She and Lance have
two pit rescues, Rosie and Eowyn—yes,
named after characters from Middleearth.
Tell us a little about your
background.
I grew up just outside Minneapolis,
Minnesota, and I did my undergrad
at Bethel University in St. Paul. I majored in youth ministry there, so when
I finished I worked for three years
with at-risk youth outside Minneapolis in a nonprofit parachurch organization. While I was there, I realized
that I like working with teenagers, but
I got most excited when I was teaching them or even helping to train the
other staff members. I went to Regent
College in Vancouver where I completed a M.A. in Old Testament. But
while I was there, I realized that while
I love Old Testament, I also think like
a theologian—I ask questions like a
theologian, and I felt sometimes more
at home having theological conversations. So when I realized I wanted to
keep going with school and applied
to programs, I was encouraged by
one of my mentors to apply to at least
one theology program. I did that, and
I got into Baylor in theology. I told
them that though I was super excited,
I wanted to continue my work in biblical studies as well. They were flexible
and willing, so I’m doing research in
Old Testament even while working on
a theology dissertation.
How did you become interested in
studying Flannery O’Connor?
I came to Baylor intending to write on
theological interpretation of the Bible.
And then I read Flannery O’Connor. I
had read her before, but I read her in a
class and I realized there is something
about the way she tells stories that I
really appreciate and I didn’t
know how to articulate. What
I love about O’Connor is
that she tells stories about
ordinary,
sometimes
freakish people and encounters with grace—
supernatural grace,
divine grace—in these
ways that aren’t sentimentalized, and aren’t comfortable, and
aren’t at all what we
would think encounters with God would be
like. They are painful,
they’re often raw, and
they’re narrated in a matter-of-fact way.
And what I
realized is
that O’Connor invites her readers into
discovering meaning without doing
the work for them. It rings more true,
it’s more authentic, it’s more honest
about what it means for a human to
encounter God.
You and your husband, Lance, will
both be joining the YTI faculty.
What’s it like to look forward to
being involved at YTI together?
We met and fell in love in a graduate
school atrium, so it suits our narrative
that we’re doing this together. We com-
See TOOMBS, Page 7
YELLOWSTONE THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE ■ FEBRUARY 2017
TOOMBS, from Page 6
plement each other and we push each other. I know I have an
advocate in him, but I also know that as we think about inviting students into these ongoing theological conversations, I
have a good counterpoint in him. So, I’m excited to see what
comes out of it. I’m excited to have a shared thought world
together. You’re reading the same things or you’re reading
parallel things, so your conversations are so much more than
“What’s for dinner?”
Tell us about some of your hobbies and interests.
I’m boring with hobbies. Lance goes mountain biking and
does all these epic things. I like to read fiction, especially bad
fantasy fiction, and I like to bake. That’s the one hobby that
I’ve been doing for long enough that I actually feel like I can
bake pretty good bread, and I have standard recipes that I’ve
tweaked over many years. I remember when I was first learning to bake the process of taking flour, water, salt, and yeast
and making things out of it was the most magical concept. It
still gets me. I love it. But I’m boring. I like to start crafty projects and never finish them. I try gardening, but I don’t have
a green thumb. But I try, because I love the idea of planting
something and nurturing it and growing it—and then you eat
it. To me, growing up in the city without a backyard of my
own, that’s the most amazing concept.
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We need your
help on this
adventure!
For YTI’s vision of equipping ministers to serve in
the dynamic world of the 21st century to become
a reality, we need your support! Your financial
assistance helps YTI in many ways, including:
■ Building the Yellowstone Center for Faith, Adventure, and the Arts, designed as a resource
for the community and home base for YTI
■ Enabling the institute to keep student tuition
and fees as low as possible
■ Assisting the institute in covering its teaching
and administration expenses
What excites you about moving to the Northern
Rockies?
Bozeman is almost halfway between where Lance and I are
from. We’re from Oregon and Minnesota, and so there’s this
feeling of us coming home in a way. I lived in Vancouver
for four years doing my Master’s, and I’d never been around
mountains before. I grew up with lakes, so it was beautiful, but there’s a wilderness invitation when you look at the
mountains and when you enter into them, and I’m excited
to have that at my doorstep again. I’m a Tolkien nerd, and
I’m excited for the invitation to wander and explore. For my
husband, this is where his heart is, where he comes most alive,
and I’m excited to bring him somewhere that I know he can
thrive. I’m also excited for the local feel of Bozeman where
you have all these things that kind of foster local living. We’re
excited about winter, for sure. I grew up in Minnesota, I can
handle a Montana winter.
THANK YOU for considering supporting the
work of Yellowstone Theological Institute. YTI is
an IRS designated 501c3 corporation, so every
contribution to YTI is tax deductible.
FAI T H.
ADVENTURE.
ARTS.
YELLOWSTONETHEOLOGY.ORG/GIVING
406-404-1600
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FEBRUARY 2017 ■ YELLOWSTONE THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
SPRING
SESSION
CLASSES
Bellingham
MARCH 20-24, 2017
MORNINGS
Church: A Theology for the Mission of God
BOTH AFTERNOONS & EVENINGS
Old Testament: Prophets & Poetry
Bozeman
APRIL 24-28, 2017
MORNINGS
Apologetics: Living Christ in a Pluralist World
EVENINGS
Old Testament: Prophets & Poetry
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