Our friends at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary have created a place-based missional learning experience any serious church planter can benefit from: The Graduate Certificate in Church Planting and Revitalization.
The Graduate Certificate in Church Planting and Revitalization forms pioneer leaders attentive to God and God’s world. Participants will learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and their communities, they will practice leading teams in discerning God’s activity, and they will engage regular rhythms of spiritual practice to renew their own souls and enable deeper discernment in their own life and calling. Accompanied by a cohort learning community and mentored by experienced missional leaders, students in the Graduate Certificate in Church Planting and Revitalization learn from both academics and practitioners. Our hybrid online and intensive classes allow leaders to set apart time to grow in missional and intellectual formation while staying rooted in their context. (PTS)
Check out their recent video about the program.
Praise for the Program
“God is raising up new kinds of pioneering leaders in North America, but seminaries and theological schools have been slow to adapt. Thankfully, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary is getting ahead of the curve in reimagining how to form pioneers for church planting and revitalization. This Certificate’s emphasis on contextual, action-reflection theological learning promises a fresh and effective means of equipping churches and leaders for mission.”
~Alan Hirsch, Leading Author and Activist, Founder of 100 Movements, Forge Mission Training Network, and Future Travelers
“I’m excited about this new certificate being offered by Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, because it is theologically-grounded, practice-oriented with a missional spirituality. It will help you to re-imagine what it means to be the church in the local by learning to discern God’s transformative work in your life and the life of your neighborhood.”
~JR Woodward, National Director, V3 Church Planting Movement, Author of Creating a Missional Culture and The Church as Movement
“Surprising new expressions of church are springing up all around our country and throughout the world. There is a vast and deep shift in church culture going on today in response to the changes in contemporary society. Author Alan Roxburgh warns that, ‘. . . the leadership models currently shaping the church are inadequate to forming a missional church.’ To put it another way, church leaders will need a new skill set to lead a church that is outward-focused and community-engaged, that is leaving behind buildings and program. The Graduate Certificate in Church Planting and Revitalization is not just a rearrangement of deck chairs on a sinking titanic but a fresh way to engage with a transforming Holy Spirit that longs to bring renewal to all lives and congregations, new and old. This is an opportunity that is sorely needed by the whole church and will set Pittsburgh Theological Seminary apart as an institution that has the courage to respond to new opportunities for the Church of Jesus Christ.”
~Vera White, National Coordinator for 1001 New Worshiping Communities, PCUSA
Why the Program
“Ministry is (thankfully) becoming less confined to the walls of the Church and more Christian leaders are serving in other neighborhood spaces where God has sent them, often next to people who wouldn’t ordinarily go anywhere near a church.” ~Scott Hagley
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s Scott Hagley (Associate Professor of Missiology) and Christopher Brown (Church Planting Initiative Coordinator) lay out the what and why behind The Graduate Certificate in Church Planting and Revitalization in How Should We Really Prepare Church Planters? Their insights about the church and training its leaders are powerful.
Enrollment
The Graduate Certificate in Church Planting and Revitalization is open to any serious church planter or missionally minded community leader. The Admissions process follows normal admissions procedures, with an applicant’s personal statement taking the form of a brief essay describing the applicant’s current ministry context and articulating the applicant’s sense of call to participate in church revitalization or the formation of new Christian communities.
Apply Here
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