Center for Lifelong Learning

Lifelong learning for clergy is a necessity for continued ministry growth and development. The Center for Lifelong Learning (CLL) at Columbia Theological Seminary offers exciting online and in-person opportunities, on and off campus, for participants to engage in classes, seminars, workshops, and other learning experiences. CLL courses and programs help with daily ministry challenges and related professional settings.

Why is lifelong learning for clergy important?

Regardless, failing to take time to periodically and routinely assess the state of affairs is a liability for any organization, including congregations.

Evaluative practices provide a corrective to the disadvantage of self-referencing: believing we’re doing a great job just because we say we are.

A church’s ministries are shaped by several factors: its history, denominational relations, size, location, predominant social class, identity, life stage, and leadership, for example.

Evaluation and assessment is a matter of integrity: Are we living up to our vision? Are we fulfilling our mission? Are we doing our best toward what we are called to do and be?

Lifelong learning helps keep organizations accountable for their goals and mission. It provokes stakeholders to continually evaluate their practices, ensuring they’re up to par.

Granted, no one continuing education program nor any center for lifelong learning can provide everything to satisfy the needs of clergy across the trajectory of their vocational life.

However, they do offer:

• The opportunity to claim one’s calling, identity, and commitment to ministry.
• The chance to cultivate support from peer communities.
• Space to develop a rigorous theory of practice for ministry.
• Room to develop adaptive leadership.
• Principles for effective transformational learning.

Lifelong learning is how we feed people’s curiosity, need for connection, and desire to improve their skill sets.

The preparation degree programs provide for a practical art, like ministry, can only cover some of what a minister needs to know, which is imperative because life is changing more rapidly.

There’s a constant need to pivot and rely on each other for wisdom in navigating what we’re called to do. Lifelong learning helps us do that.

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