During this apocalyptic moment, what are you designing, and for whom are you designing it? Is your school designing programs to prepare leaders who can make a difference in the world? Or are you designing programs that sustain and maintain the ministries of previous generations?

If you ask the next generation of leaders what they want to give their lives to, they’ll tell you they want to shape a more hopeful future beyond the church’s walls as Christian ministers, as educators, as activists, and as entrepreneurs.

But none of these things happen by happenstance. They can only happen by design.

So ask yourself again: What is our school designing — and for whom? Programs for the church we have now or leaders for the church that’s emerging, whether we’re ready for it or not? 

Our answers will determine how committed we are to think theologically and then design post-pandemic expressions of church and Christian service, where our graduates can serve the needs of their communities and make a difference in the rest of the world too.

ILLUSTRATION BY CAROLINA CERQUEIRA