Columbia Theological Seminary Bulletin, 31, number 3, September 1938

^Bulletin of

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

DECATUR, GEORGIA

Vol. XXXI

September, 193 8

No. 3

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Entered as second-class matter, May 9, 1928, at the post office at Decatur, Ga., under the Act of August 24, 1912.

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY AT DECATUR, GEORGIA

A THEOLOGICAL INTERNSHIP

COLUMBIA SEMINARY
ACCREDITMENT

A THEOLOGICAL INTERNSHIP

This bulletin is issued primarily as a discussion of an adventure
on the part of Columbia Theological Seminary in the training of
candidates for the Gospel Ministry. We send it forth in the belief
that it is highly significant as the pioneer endeavor of its kind in
our Assembly, and in the confidence that there are large numbers
in our Church who eagerly await every evidence of progress in
this phase of our educational responsibility.

HISTORICAL STATEMENT

The Christian Observer of April 24, 1935, carried an article
by Dr. Patrick H. Carmichael, then Professor of English Bible
and of Religious Education at Columbia Seminary, under the title
"Improving Theological Education." In this article Dr. Car-
michael became, so far as is known, the first proponent in our
Church of a plan for the clinical training of ministers as a re-
quired part of their theological education. The idea had indeed
been independently arrived at on his part, although similar
schemes had been proposed and in some instances inaugurated else-
where. His attention was later directed to a chapter in one of
Dr. Richard C. Cabot's books, published some twelve years ago,
in which he challenged leaders in the field of religion to include
in their program of educating men for the Gospel Ministry
definite guidance in a spiritual ministry to the sick, and to the
fact that as early as 1933 one or more Lutheran Seminaries made
a year of clinical work in a definite church situation one of the
requirements for graduation. At the present time there are three
or more seminaries in America which require this type of train-
ing, and at least ten centers in which guidance is provided for
students and preachers in the specialized art of ministering to the
sick in many types of institutions devoted to the alleviation of
mental and physical illnesses.

The public reaction to the general scheme proposed by Dr.
Carmichael was most gratifying and revealing. In response to an

overture from Atlanta Presbytery, the General Assembly of 1936
appointed an Ad-Interim Committee to study the curricula of our
theological seminaries and report to the next Assembly such
recommendations as in the judgment of the committee seemed
wise. In response to the first report of the committee the
seminaries were encouraged to study and experiment with a ten-
tatively proposed plan to add a fourth year, devoted to practical
work and study in a local church situation, to the customary
period of preparation.

The Theological Section of the Presbyterian Educational As-
sociation, meeting in Montreat in July 1936, definitely docketed
for consideration this year the proposal to increase the time re-
quired for graduation from the seminary with especial reference
to the relative merits of a fourth academic year or a fourth year
devoted to the more practical phases of the minister's task. At
this meeting in July 193 8 some three hours were devoted to a
consideration of the question with especial reference to the par-
ticular plan which Columbia Seminary is putting into operation
as an experiment this fall. Descriptions of this plan were heard
with much interest and the seminaries were urged to continue
experimentation along this line.

COLUMBIA'S EXPERIMENT

With the consent of its Board of Directors and by the author-
ity of the General Assembly, Columbia Theological Seminary
will begin in September of this year a definite program of prac-
tical training. This beginning is avowedly on an experimental
basis and hence purely voluntary on the part of those who par-
ticipate in it.

Arrangements have been made for two members of this year's
graduating class to be engaged in work closely related to the
scheme herein described, and in this way data will be obtained as
to the possible good effects which would follow a year of prac-
tical training after the third year at the Seminary. Thus Mr.
Leonard Elmore, a graduate of Presbyterian College, will serve
under the direction of Rev. Geo. W. Cheek, D.D., in a larger
parish centered about Kosciusko, Miss., and Mr. William Cox, a
graduate of Millsaps College, will work under the guidance of
Rev. Alton Glasure at Hazard, Ky. Without underestimating the
importance of that part of the study, however, it would seem that
especial significance attaches to the experiment made in the train-

ing of men who are in an earlier stage of their career and are,
therefore, more directly under the control and direction of the
Seminary. This bulletin will be principally devoted to a de-
scription of the plan engaged in by two men who are rising
Seniors and hence are engaged in the practical study between the
second and third academic years.

Much careful thought was given to the selection of the men
and churches employed in this experiment. No pressure whatever
was brought to bear upon either men or churches to have a part
with us in the undertaking. The men are engaging in it after a
deliberate consideration of the various factors involved and with
the consent of their respective Presbyteries. The churches are
accepting a nominal financial responsibility for the support of
the students and an obligation to provide these young men with a
wide experience in the work of their respective congregations.
Mr. James Boyce, a graduate of Erskine College, has been as-
signed to the Woodlawn Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, Ala.,
whose pastor is the Rev. W. S. Thorington. Mr. Conrad Stay-
ton, a graduate of Alabama Polytechnic Institute, has been as-
signed to the First Presbyterian Church, Gainesville, Fla., whose
pastor is the Rev. U. S. Gordon, D.D. These students will begin
their specialized type of training on September 1st and continue
for twelve months. Thus they will enter upon their work at a
time when the church is beginning its period of greatest activity
rather than during the comparatively slack summer months. By
the following summer they should be sufficiently familiar with
the work to take full oversight during the absence of the pastor
on vacation.

The outline of the experiment is, briefly stated, as follows:
The students will be under the direct supervision of the pastot
and session of their respective churches and of the Seminary
Faculty. As such they will become full-time workers in the
capacity of assistants to the pastors with the distinct understand-
ing that they will have an opportunity for the normal experience
available to an unordained man in the field of study, pastoral
visitation, preaching, etc. In consideration of the services ren-
dered the churches will provide the students with room and board
and with the nominal sum of $25.00 per month. In the aggre-
gate this will represent to the student the equivalent of a $700.00
scholarship for a year of intensely helpful and interesting experi-
ence in an important phase of educational development. To the
church involved it will mean an added full-time worker whose
services should greatly increase the efficiency of its program.

OUR EVALUATION

At the present time there are probably less than forty men in
the Presbyterian Church, U. S., who bear the responsibility for
the training of our future ministers. By virtue of the circum-
stances under which they labor it is most difficult for them to
keep a very vital contact with the intimate life of the Church and
hence they are often unable to supply the most effective guidance
in the administrative and routine duties of the minister's task.
The clinical year will enlist as many additional instructors as we
have students engaged in this phase of training. By careful selec-
tion of key pastor-supervisors each student will have a compan-
ionship and an individual guidance which will be invaluable to
him. Incidentally the student may carry something helpful to his
new instructor, and through an additional full-time worker the
regular minister may find an opportunity for more study and
greater emphasis upon the writing of sermons.

It is difficult to envisage the full meaning of this supplementary
effort in the field of theological education as it will be expressed
on the campus of the Seminary as a full class if and when the
proposed plan becomes a requirement for graduation returns to
the institution and here exchanges experiences and lays plans for
the future. The usual "sessions" held in the dormitories by men
whose lives have hitherto been spent largely in school will now
take on new meaning in a setting of varied backgrounds of ex-
perience in a large number of living church situations. The
faculty will also be afforded constantly new insight into the
changing problems of the pastorate and will be enabled to make
the work of the classroom more vital and practical than before.

One of the most difficult tasks before the faculties of our
seminaries and one of tremendous significance to the Church
has always been met in an attempt to place the graduates in
churches where the pastoral relation will mean most to the pastor
and the local church. The proposed plan for a clinical year will
not only fit the men more adequately for effective service but will
provide pertinent information helpful in the discharge of the
privilege of placement. Incidentally the experience of the church
in meeting a number of students in this way will eventuate in a
more intelligent action on the part of the church in future years
in the selection of new pastors.

A COOPERATIVE ENTERPRISE

The Church and Seminary enjoy a reciprocal relation which is
essential to the life of both. The Church depends upon the
Seminary for the training of its ministers, and in turn the
Seminary could not "carry on" without the financial support of
the Church and its use of the product which this support makes
possible. It would be difficult to find a plan which promises
greater effectiveness in the promotion of a comradeship in a
common task than this one. Through it there should emerge a
new sense of the importance of sharing fully with each other that
phase of our educational task which is the capstone of our entire
system.

COLUMBIA SEMINARY'S ACCREDITMENT

When the American Association of Theological Schools was
formed in 1936 certain standards of scholarship and efficiency
were proposed as desirable in the institutions which are to train
ministers, and a Commission of Accreditation was set up to ex-
amine the ability of those seminaries which applied for accredita-
tion to meet these standards. Recognizing the necessity for its
students to have full academic recognition, and also desiring to
assume its full share of responsibility in the field of theological
education, Columbia Seminary applied last winter for membership
in the Association and for accreditation by it. It is a pleasure to
announce that, at a meeting held in Victoria University of To-
ronto in June, this institution was voted into the membership of
the Association, and that, as a result of a previous careful study
of our work made by the Commission, it was placed on the first
list of fully accredited theological seminaries to be issued by the
Association.