There are big changes afoot for one of the UK’s independent theological colleges
On 12 January, WEST (Wales Evangelical School of Theology) announced that it is to transform into Union.
Union is a new and larger international ministry, headquartered in Oxford and led by the Revd Dr Michael Reeves. en caught up with Michael and asked him to explain what it’s all about.
en: What vision has motivated the change from WEST to Union?
MR: We want to see the worldwide church grow – to see individual churches blessed, revitalised and going on to plant more churches. And if we’re to see such healthy, flourishing churches, we need to raise godly, wise and well-equipped leaders. They need rigorous, biblical and accessible education, training and resources.
But there’s always been a danger for traditional colleges like WEST: the sheer cost of a theological education (and the need for students to uproot and move to a campus) means that colleges can be a bottleneck on the growth of the church. Churches cannot afford a traditional education for all the many leaders we so desperately need. So we’re reaching out across Europe to establish regional Learning Communities where young leaders can get educated and equipped in a financially and geographically accessible way. It means that, with Learning Communities from Hull to Helsinki and Liverpool to Athens, it makes no sense any more to be called Wales Evangelical School of Theology.
en: So is this just a rebrand of WEST?
MR: Absolutely not! Union is much bigger than a school of theology, having four departments: Research, School, Resources and Mission. Now traditionally these would have constituted four separate ministries: a theological research centre, a seminary, a publishing house and a mission organisation, all doing their own thing. But doing things that way always has the tendency to allow the theologians to enjoy their ivory tower, while mission becomes theologically flaky and flimsy. We’ve sought to unite them in one organisation and under one vision, so that the finest evangelical theology can intentionally fuel robust and winsome church-centred mission.
Union Research will stimulate mission with the highest quality theology; Union School of Theology will grow leaders; the ongoing work of Union Resources will be to feed those leaders and their churches: and all for the sake of working with churches for the growth of the church (Union Mission).
John Calvin said: ‘A good missionary is a good theologian. A good theologian is a good missionary.’ He understood that mission cannot be divorced from a deepening knowledge of God and the gospel. If it is, it will become superficial and ineffective. Mission grows best when it is fed by strong and faithful theology, and that is what Union is all about.
en: What’s going to happen to the facilities of WEST at Bridgend?
MR: They’re being developed and improved, because our campus is a wonderful facility. Reaching out internationally doesn’t mean leaving that behind. We will be growing leaders for the church both on our campus and in Learning Communities. Many students want the rich and intense relational experience that studying on campus provides. And we want all our students – as well as pastors on sabbatical – to have the chance to benefit from that, using it as a place for retreat for shorter-term intensive study breaks.
en: Is Union going to be mainly online teaching rather than residential teaching?
MR: No. Relationships are hugely important for good learning, as well as the spiritual and ministerial formation I’m passionate about. Having online resources is wonderful, but if churches are to be vibrant they need leaders who have not simply downloaded a few theology lectures. We want to invest real time in our students (and for them to have time with each other), to make sure that they are maturing, that they are getting the right hands-on experience. And that’s because we want to ensure that we’re raising well-equipped and well-rounded leaders who truly love God and share his passions: humble leaders of head and heart who delight in God, grow in Christ, serve the church and bless the world.
So Union isn’t about correspondence courses or distance learning. On our campus and in our Learning Communities we have created real communities of students and teachers, mutually encouraging, studying together, and sparking off each other. We use some digital and virtual learning, to be sure – our learning management system, for example, allows students anywhere to access a vast digital library where they are – but it’s all within the context of community.
en: Tell us about the Oxford HQ and Research Centre.
MR:
We have now acquired and moved into a property in the very heart of Oxford and we are currently turning it into a centre that will both fuel our mission and bless the UK church more broadly as a centre of excellence for evangelical theology. In many ways this will complement the excellent biblical-textual work of Tyndale House in Cambridge, but with more broadly theological research.
With full access to Oxford University’s Bodleian Library (just a stone’s throw away from us), the Union research centre will enable church leaders to interact with resident and visiting scholars and students in a vibrant and creative community. It will also attract leading evangelical thinkers from across the world, so stemming the UK’s brain drain and enabling us to raise up a new generation of intellectual leaders, as well as producing the highest quality research, theological education, and resources.
en: Has anything like this been attempted before?
MR: Actually yes, this is just what John Calvin set up in Geneva in the 1550s. Calvin is famous for being a theologian and preacher, but he made sure that his theology was directly fuelling church planting and mission. He established an academy and school so that church leaders could be raised up; he also saw that a whole infrastructure was created for their strategic deployment. Men were trained in Geneva and then infiltrated especially into France. And in Calvin’s time printing became the dominant industry of the city as he sought to flood Europe with evangelical resources. Equipped, well-resourced leaders, all strategically deployed: it helped the evangelical church explode in numbers in France.
That’s our vision: to see just such a theo-logically robust and joined-up mission strategy again, to see the evangelisation of Europe through the raising up and resourcing of church leaders who can go out and plant strong and healthy churches.
Michael Reeves is President of Union and Professor of Theology at Union School of Theology.
