ALUM TEACHES AND LEARNS

The Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews is a lover of learning.

That passion has drawn him back into the seminary classroom. This time, however, the classroom is his church, and he is both teacher and student.

Mathews, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in San Jose, Calif., is one of five Bay Area American Baptist pastors who have opened their congregations to ABSW for its new contextualized curriculum. Mathews serves as a mentor to a context group of six students. The group grapples with theology and biblical studies at the seminary, then seeks to integrate that material at Grace while they observe the congregation and engage Mathews about the practice of ministry.

A 1998 graduate of ABSW, Mathews is able to share his perspective from more than 14 years of ministry – and his first year and a half at Grace. But the benefits are mutual. "As a pastor I am benefiting from the feedback and the impressions of the students to help me think more creatively about what I’m doing," he says.

Much of what Mathews has shared so far is about understanding the peculiar situation of Grace – and the importance of exploring the context wherever one does ministry. It is much more than book knowledge, he says, quoting his preaching professor Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr., who advises ministers to “exegete the community.”

Mathews says students need to leave seminary with an understanding that there is not a “set-in-stone way of doing ministry.”

“You’re forever in a continuing education mode,’ he says. “Contexts are different in every community you go to.”

So ministers need to know how to access resources and build networks. They need to be “creative and ambitious,” he says. And they need to keep learning.

That’s a lesson Mathews models. He is currently a fellow with the Labor/Community Leadership Institute, a program of Working Partnerships, USA and San Jose State University. The seven-week course for community leaders explores economic and social policy in the Silicon Valley region.

For Mathews, this is all part of exegeting his community and continuing to refine his ministerial skills. “The greatest gift a seminary education can give to a student,” he says, "is how to be a lifelong learner."