Theological school boards are responsible for all aspects of the school they serve, including the spiritual formation of their students. But how can boards know for sure whether spiritual formation is being adequately addressed?

In 2014, Gordon T. Smith, president of Ambrose University in Calgary, Alberta, wrote a checklist for In Trust readers to assess this. The list, which is based on indicators of institutional health, includes determining whether the school’s vision of spiritual maturity is in line with the school’s mission and whether the school offers students professional counseling to aid personal formation and development.

For more insight on how to assess and improve the spiritual formation of your students, read “Spiritual formation and the theological school.”

Smith wrote this article back in 2014 and mentions briefly the challenges of addressing spiritual formation for part-time and online students. Now that the number of nonresidential, nontraditional students is growing ever larger, we would like to hear your thoughts on how spiritual formation is being addressed for these students.