Online Seminary: is virtual formation possible? ::

A post on the Online Learning Update alerted me to "Rockbridge University" which seems to be an initiative of Saddleback Community Church, since purpose-driven is flavour of the month round here, I looked further:

Rockbridge University is a new concept in ministry training. Rockbridge is a fully online program designed around the five purposes of the church: fellowship, spiritual growth, ministry, mission, and worship. The program allows students to acquire ministry skills while remaining in their ministry. This is not a correspondence school. Rockbridge courses are designed by notable authors and educators and taught by qualified practitioners. Students participate in a learning community that encourages its members to develop personal leadership and ministry skills.

At RU, students are part of a virtual classroom. You will read current books, dialogue with professors and guest practitioners, interact with students, work on learning projects in a group setting, and apply your learning through practical assignments. This learning process may include media instruction, threaded discussion, chat, PowerPoint®, streaming audio and video, CD-ROM, and/or DVD.

We believe in the power of relationships and community. In your first course, you will be expected to enlist a mentor/spiritual friend who will walk with you on this journey. This mentor will help you apply what you are learning to your ministry context.
(From the President's Message)

Like our own package of Internship with a Distance degree in Applied Theology this raises questions about the nature of formation for ministry:

• How far can one really achieve formation without incarnate contact?


• Can "virtual" contact be real incarnate contact? (Which senses can be dispensed with? After all we would not shut out a blind candidate for ministry formation...)


• Distance learning can be great for the "head stuff", how do we insure that the extras we add to a distance or online package really provide the feeling, doing and being formation that is also vital?

¶ 12:13 PM [to Del.icio.us]

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