High-tech equipment is, more often than not, high-cost as well, which can be an inhibiting factor for seminaries whose budgets are already stretched tight. Collaboration among recipients of Lilly grants to expand the use of information technology made the money go farther and accomplish more. With or without outside funding, other seminaries may find some useful lessons in these collaborative efforts that will help them maximize their own technology dollars.

The same internet that has revolutionized marketing and communications is now being explored as an educational tool in some unlikely arenas. A long-time church journalist, now a divinity student, looks at one seminary’s success in the use of internet courses to extend educational opportunities to a geographically diverse student population.

Can community, in its sense of theological preparation, be achieved only in a long-term residential setting? Or can a seminary create a virtual campus that lets students build real-world relationships? As Bethel Theological Seminary prepares to graduate the first class of its five-year In Ministry program, Melinda R. Heppe examines the school’s experience and how the program continues to evolve with changing technology. Is such a program only a matter of time at your institution, and what will it take to make virtual education a pedagogically sound reality?