About the Program

One of the most pressing problems of the church is training pastors who understand and are prepared to minister to congregations whose members come from contexts very different from their own. This contributes to a disconnect between pastors and their congregants, as well as to churches in rural and inner-city contexts being underserved by seminary graduates.

Through this program we will help form pastors who are prepared to embrace their own vocations in ministry as ones that include a calling to people very unlike themselves. 

Western Theological Seminary and Hope College have a long history of helping students view work, in its many varieties, as callings and gifts from God. We also have a commitment to inviting students to understand market activity as a God-given mutual exchange of gifts and services that can support and enable human flourishing.

In this program, we want to train pastors who understand and embrace the different work and economic realities that often mark different geographic locations. To do this well requires that we enter into the embodied gift of God’s presence in Christ through worship and give students a biblical vision of work and economics. We will also nurture the skills to engage the contemporary economic, political and cultural realities that shape the different rural and urban contexts in which they are being prepared to serve.