The Road to Innovation: Supervised Ministry and Practicum
An unsung Christian laywoman from the Black Baptist tradition I admire is Nannie Helen Burroughs. Remaining single and childless and facing racism and sexism, she emerged as a fierce, loving educator, advocate, and testimony of faith in action. Her speech, “How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping,” delivered at the 1900 National Baptist Convention exemplifies her indelible impact. To learn more about this remarkable woman—born in Orange, Virginia to formerly enslaved parents—I commend Nannie Helen Burroughs: A Documentary Portrait of an Early Civil Rights Pioneer, 1900–1959 by Kelisha Graves and Danielle Phillips-Cunningham’s Nannie Helen Burroughs: A Tower of Strength in the Labor World.
In 1909, against considerable odds, Burroughs founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, DC. Though the building was eventually repurposed after her death and designated a National Historic Landmark in the 1990s, it still stands in the city’s Deanwood neighborhood—not far from the church I pastored years ago. She labored tirelessly so that Black women could access practical skills, academic excellence, and holistic spiritual formation. We owe her, and countless women like her, our respect and gratitude. Burrough’s legacy underscores the necessity of preparation, which lies at the heart of Christian discipleship and ministry.
The Apostle Paul told the Philippians, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you” (Phil 4:9). Trouble appears easily, however, when we fail to refine our thoughts and actions. This is precisely why Winebrenner’s Supervised Ministry courses matter, and why we urge students to be patient as they discern the specific spheres God is calling them to inhabit. Whether we’re talking Starbucks, law, athletics, or construction, all vocational domains have structured pathways to onboard individuals in understanding the operational rhythms of their work. Ministry is no different.
Seminary exists to equip you with a vetted, trustworthy arsenal of tools and spiritual disciplines for the work God has entrusted to you. It’s not about becoming good at seminary. No matter if you serve in a soup kitchen, local church, hospital, parachurch organization, or marketplace ministry setting, we need humble, theologically grounded leaders who offer wise pastoral care and possess the kind of emotional and spiritual maturity that Peter Scazzero champions in Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: It’s Impossible to Be Spiritually Mature While Remaining Emotionally Immature.
In military terms, you might say seminary provides a combination of reconnaissance and on-the-job training. It is, in a sense, a safe environment where you can explore, ask questions, make mistakes, and receive constructive feedback. Understanding the fundamental tasks at work in ministry is vital, but so is seeing God’s providence up-close and personal in real time as you begin witnessing how preferences, power, prejudice, and politics—your own and others’—shape how you go about bridging the Word of God and the inhabited world that we know best.
One of the aspects I most appreciate about teaching at Winebrenner is its commitment to faculty who are both academically credentialed and actively engaged in ministry. These qualities need not be at odds. As times change and God’s people adapt to remain effective witnesses—like the sons of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what to do (1 Chr 12:32)—seminaries must resist championing ivory tower abstraction. By actively shepherding a congregation, I am in the unpredictable thick of putting concepts I teach into practice and offering students concrete examples of what worked, what didn’t, and investigating why. Between classroom instruction, internships, and other learning models, students are invited to invest themselves in both conventional and creative pathways for developing and applying their ministerial gifts—all for the glory of God.
Theorizing does not produce resilient followers of Jesus, nor does it prepare ministers to administer Christ’s truth to the lost, the least, and the last—those who, like a penny with a hole in it, often feel worthless. Courses like Theology I, Hebrew Grammar, and Church History are not ends in themselves; ultimately, they support real-life ministry. That’s where theology hits the pavement. Writing effective didactic reports in clinical chaplaincy, officiating baptisms, weddings, and funerals, or guiding church boards with wisdom—all of this comes through practice. The ministry of presence can be appreciated differently after one has learned, perhaps the hard way, that speaking too soon, trying to fix a problem, or offering cheap, anxious answers when dealing with those in crisis does more harm than good. Far better to wrestle with these dynamics in Supervised Ministry than in isolation.
Graduate theological institutions must catch up with reality, and I am glad Winebrenner is committed to doing its small part in God’s kingdom in this way. The days are long gone when most people in a given community—even if not saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost—were still churched. They could speak with a Christian accent and vernacular. They brought their kids and cousins to Vacation Bible School each summer, eagerly anticipated the prized macaroni and cheese served at a repast after a funeral, and called the pastor when a need arose. Today, however, many are openly hostile to faith, especially Christianity in its smorgasbord of denominational expressions. Ministers no longer enjoy the automatic trust once granted to them. General and biblical literacy are rapidly declining. We must, therefore, rigorously train seminarians not for an idealized past but the world as it is. They must learn to exegete both Scripture and contemporary culture. Empowered by the Spirit, this dual attentiveness will help them bear faithful witness to the supreme and gracious reign of Christ Jesus, “who is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col 1:17).
In his broader body of work, and specifically in a September 2012 Living Bulwark article titled “Discipleship: For Super-Christians Only,” the late philosopher Dallas Willard critiqued the state of Western discipleship. He wrote, “Contemporary American churches in particular do not require following Christ in his example, spirit, and teachings as a condition of membership…So far as the visible Christian institutions of our day are concerned, discipleship clearly is optional.”
Likewise, to our detriment, we have begun to devalue practice as a vital component of ministry formation. Yet what the world needs is not more so-called ministry experts, but more qualified servant-leaders—those willing to discipline themselves to thoughtfully and faithfully care for broken souls, which happens by focused preparation.