Inspired by the Garden Church movement in England, TryTank launched its El Jardin initiative in 2025 to nurture a network of lay-led missional communities that encourage simple, replicable “church” in the home. We planted with modest hopes. The plan called for four Jardines in Puerto Rico by summer of 2026. Instead, there are eleven. These are small communities gathering midweek in homes and other spaces across the island to share a meal, open the […]
Lifelong Learning public programs represent a mix of in-person and online offerings that make the wisdom and expertise of Christian formation and theological leaders available to a diverse audience of learners. It’s become common for these programs to be led by a member of the Virginia Theological Seminary faculty. Professors Shawn Strout, Kyle Lambelet, Katherine Grieb presented a program during 2025-2026. This […]
Lifelong Learning’s Launching into Ministry (LiM) program supports Virginia Theological Seminary students in the first years of spiritual leadership following graduation. It’s a time defined by facing new challenges and new joys as graduates move (quickly!) from the abstract theory of the classroom to lived practice in a parish or other ministry context. The support LiM facilitates comes primarily through relationships: one-on-one […]
During the 2027 Annual Forma Conference (January 25–29, 2027), formation leaders from across the Church will gather to explore one of the most overlooked yet essential gifts entrusted to our vocation—the capacity to imagine. Not imagination as fantasy or mere creativity, but imagination as a holy practice: the Spirit-shaped ability to perceive God’s activity in the world, to […]
I am taking a deep breath. Tonight at 12:01am I will be officially retired from my position as James Maxwell Professor of Lifelong Christian Formation and Vice President of Lifelong Learning. Since 2009 this seminary has been my classroom and my home. I came with gifts to teach, research, and manage. I encountered colleagues who modeled patience and rigor in […]
Lifelong Learning’s Preaching Congregations Initiative (PCi), is a congregationally-based program of renewal and formation for preachers and listeners. Funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc., the overarching purpose of this program is to make preaching a truly communal endeavor, one for which preachers and listeners take responsibility and develop local, sustainable practices to identify and support preachers. Recently, our PCi team announced a Young Adult Preaching Program, […]
We more fully embody the body of Christ when all bodies, of all ages, are not only present in worship, but actively engaged and equitably valued. This belief inspires the work I am doing with Roots & Wings: Roots & Wings: Intergenerational Formation Collaborative, a Lifelong Learning grant initiative funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc. In the spring of 2025, our Roots […]
Virginia Theological Seminary seminarian and Lifelong Learning student worker Jasina Wise is spending much of her summer creating a digital catalogue of a very special library: the collection of Godly Play founder the late Rev. Dr. Jerome Berryman. The Berryman Collection contains 663 volumes drawn from a lifetime of work in the theology of childhood, Christian formation, children’s spirituality, and pastoral practice. It will […]
During the next two weeks, Virginia Theological Seminary’s Department of Lifelong Learning will share stories from our department. You will hear about how we live out our mission to connect, nurture, and celebrate communities of faithful practice through grant initiatives, public programs, research and innovation, and collaborations with VTS faculty. Come along and discover how Lifelong Learning walks alongside […]
When someone answers a call to ordained ministry, they rarely walk that path alone. Beside every priest, deacon, or seminarian is a network of family, friends, and loved ones whose lives are quietly (and sometimes not-so-quietly) shaped by that call. For spouses and partners, ministry often unfolds not from the pulpit, but around the dinner […]