What's the Point in Post Graduate Training?

I did a Postgraduate Degree…

…to become a lecturer

Andy Du Feu, Moorlands College

There’s an old adage, if you want to get something done, give it to a busy person. What has that got to do with post-grad education? Simply put, if I was waiting for a quiet time in my life to do further studies, I think I would be aiming for retirement. The best time for doing an MA is actually in the thick of ministry. Really. Yet I can think of so many reasons against it – time pressure, financial constraints, and stretched emotional resources for starters. In ministry you get used to spinning plates; as I write I have eight windows (not Windows 8!) open on my Macbook as I multitask my way into eternity. There may never be the ‘right time’, if by that you mean when you have very little demands on you.

I was two years out of Bible College and into pastoral ministry and youth oversight when I began my MA. It really helped to have the firebreak of a couple of years from studying to give my deadline-weary head a rest, but no more than that. Reflecting on the experience now, I can see so many benefits. Studying for the MA meant using my own practice as the foil for deep reflection. I got so much out of the degree because I was using it to process real, live events. It wasn’t a case of ‘knowledge inflating the ego’ (1 Corinthians 8:1, my paraphrase) because the course was profoundly applied in nature. Plus, the first degree simply isn’t worth what it once was. In a tough market, having a post-grad award can give you the edge. Finally, it is all too easy to slip out of the big picture into the detail of everyday life, being ruled by the tyranny of the urgent. Doing the MA helped break that and reconnect me into a wider network.

Without the MA and the JNC, I would not be doing what I am doing, as lecturer in youth and community work at Moorlands College, however strong my sense of calling might be. But the academic rigour and certificates aside, taking my continuous learning further through structured work, with deadlines to turn the screw, has added a richness to my perspectives and depth to my ministry, which can only be a good thing for the Kingdom of God.

…to make a career change

James Brown, CYM

Having volunteered with quite a few youth camps over a number of summers I realised God had given me a real passion for youth work. So much so that I felt called to leave my current career in magazine publishing and try to get into youth work full-time. Magazine publishing was an area I had worked in since graduating from my marketing degree, but was never something I was massively passionate about. I’m a football loving, Jesus loving man and wasn’t getting much out of setting up a news cube promotion for a Now magazine fashion special in WH Smith!

I was aware that I would definitely need training but couldn’t afford to go back into full-time education, so I started investigating alternative ways of doing it. I went onto some online forums and got some advice about part-time courses that were available. I found a three year part-time MA in Youth and Community Work and Practical Theology with CYM.

Six months in I realised I’d bitten off a bit more than I could chew. I was working fulltime in my job, doing my placement all day on a Sunday, an alternative placement on a Thursday night and having to book annual leave to do my module essays and work on my JNC portfolio! I had originally asked my boss about going down to four days a week in my job which he was positive about. Unfortunately our director blocked this at the last minute and I was left with some decisions to make.

I enjoyed the course and my placements but was worried I was going to burn out pretty quickly. I wanted to continue but had begun to doubt my calling and thought perhaps the barrier of my work hours was some sort of sign it had never been God’s will for me in the first place. In the following weeks however there were just so many signs that God wanted me to continue and positive words of knowledge from people completely unaware of my dilemma. So I decided, what the hey, I’ll just carry on!

Three years on and thank God these courses allow some breaks and extensions for people with unusual circumstances like mine. I’m glad I stuck with the course and have found the modules incredibly helpful in my youth work practice, my favourites being theological reflection and human development. I have finally finished all of my module essays and I hand in my JNC portfolio in August.

I have accepted a part-time job where my placement was, as assistant youth pastor and I plan to do my dissertation alongside this. Part-time post-graduate training has been a great way of getting equipped to leave my career in magazines sales and go into a vocation that I am massively passionate about. The combination of theory and on-the-job placement experience over the first two years in Christian and secular backgrounds, along with gaining a JNC will leave me in a great position to be qualified for I’ll be doing in September and beyond.

…because God told me to

Peta Garbett - ICC

‘So, why are you studying for a Masters anyway?’ ‘Aren’t you busy enough working full-time?’ ‘Is it just because you’re a bit of a geek?’ If I had a penny for how many times I’ve been asked these kinds of questions in the last year, I would be an extravagantly rich lady. And truthfully, my principally true yet ambiguously shrouded answer of ‘I feel God asked me to do it and I’m just trying to be obedient’, has got me a few strange looks over this same time period.

My story is a little bit backwards. I studied for my Informal and Community Education degree whilst working full-time at an Elim church, and then began a Theology Masters when working for Barnardo’s. Telling people that God is any kind of motivation for postgraduate study gets you a few strange looks when you work for a secular charity. And definitely when you want to study through a Bible College. But for me, the journey to begin further study was the response to my honest answers to three questions.

Did I really want to go back to a life of fitting in deadlines, essay writing, and extensive reading around a full time job? Yes. Mad as it may seem, I had to admit that I really loved learning. I’m a youth worker at heart, promoted into a management role, who also dabbles in a bit of lecturing. And the longer I work in this field, the more I realise that I don’t have all the answers, nor am I immune from the pressures of the external or internal world that vie for my time and my head-space and influence my motivations and my work. Further study gives me the space to think, to write, to be challenged, and to keep growing. If I was really going to do this, what in the world would I want to study? I not-so-secretly always wanted to study theology, but was also enthused to explore the issues of youth work and community education that were confronting me on a daily basis. An MTh (Community Learning and Development) felt like it was literally made for me to combine these two passions.

Would it even be useful? Yes. Ok, I’m going to cheat a bit with this one, as I didn’t actually know the answer to it a year ago. But I had my hopes, and now I’m a year in, I can honestly say that what I have been writing, reflecting upon and thinking through has been directly useful to and influential upon my practice. It’s helped me to remain fresh in my outlook and focused on my values.

It’s given me the space to look at current issues without ignoring the centrality of my faith. And I really believe that as a Christian practitioner, it’s important to allow God to motivate us, and equip us in this field, and to be at the forefront of developing and creating ways of engaging young people and communities that are truly holistic. Long-term my heart is in cross-cultural work and missions, so these issues of community engagement only become more pressing as I look to the future.

So, working full-time, studying part-time, balancing the multiple pressures of deadlines, funding bids, and having a life, with the challenges of thinking through issues of faith, in a secular workplace, with young people and staff thrown into the mix… Is it busy? Of course. Is it tough sometimes? Most definitely. Is it worth it? Yes. I think it really is.

…to inform my youth work practice

Miriam Schaupp, LST

For the past three years I have been working as a youth leader in a church in Berlin, while doing my bachelor´s degree in theology. Having grown up in the church, I saw the many different challenges and problems the Church was facing. Last September, someone presented a statistic to us, that churches are generally good with kids programmes and even teengroups are running well, but the older youth and young adult groups are nearly extinct. The step from coming with their parents, to coming on their own seems to be too big. That really shocked and frustrated me as I couldn’t see a solution for it.

This frustration became my motivation for my postgraduate studies, I wanted to dedicate my MA research to this problem, but couldn’t find a suitable course in Germany. As I already had lived in London for a while and wanted to move back, I decided to look for Masters Programmes in the UK and found that the London School of Theology offered an MA in Theology and Social Transformation During my next stay in London, I visited LST to get to know the school and the programme, and while I was standing in the chapel service, I knew it was the right course for me. I didn’t even want to go back to my university in Berlin, where I had another semester to go.

Last September, I started the course at LST and not only found many answers to my questions but also found the topic I wanted to research. I am now studying the holiness code in Leviticus and its relevance for the Post-modern Church. I thought I should turn to God with my frustration and to the beginning where he initiated community. What impressed me most was that all throughout the holiness code God says, ‘do this, for you are holy, because I am holy’. A healthy community with one another in the Church and the surrounding area is a natural outcome of our relationship with God.

I am only at the beginning of my ministry, but thanks to my studies here at LST, I understand a bit more of what it means to build the kingdom of God in the postmodern generation.

…to study more theology

Anna Jacklin, Cliff College

If you’re anything like me, you love doing stuff. You’re excited by being at the epicentre of the whirlwind of action. You’re at your most alive when there are a hundred things to do - and youth ministry involves a whole lot of doing. So why have I chosen to take time out of doing in order to study?

For the past nine months I have been studying a part-time Masters in Theology and Mission with an emphasis on youth ministry at Cliff College. The decision to undergo theological study may not have seemed the most logical; I’m busy enough as it is, I’ve not previously studied theology, and I live 200 miles away from Cliff. Yet it has been a decision that has proved invaluable to both my ministry and my personal faith.

Further theological study is a great way of providing yourself with opportunities for continuing professional development. I am currently a relatively inexperienced and hopefully just-about-adequate youth minister, yet as I continue in youth ministry I want to be intentional about growing in wisdom, knowledge and experience. A natural part of doing my job with all my heart, working for God and not for human masters (Colossians 3:23) is seeking out opportunities which will grow me in my ministry. In short, as part of my worship I want to bring my best before God, I want to see more glimpses of God’s kingdom here on earth, and so I want to push myself to be the best youth minister I can be.

The masters I am studying with Cliff College is a finely tuned balance between academic study and practical application. Not a lecture goes by without the opportunity to consider the implications of a theory to my ministry, and our discussions are peppered with personal anecdotes on which we can theologically reflect. As I study, aspects of my personal faith have been challenged and refined. Theological study is a natural vehicle in my development as a youth minister: since the aim of my job is to signpost young people towards God, theology - the study of God - is a great place to start. Variety is the spice of life, and my experience of further study has been refreshingly broad. The young people whom we disciple are holistic beings, and therefore in order to apply study to practical youth ministry it is important to consider a wide range of disciplines. Throughout our studies we are encouraged to critically engage with a range of ideas from sociology, education, and psychology in order to best understand the implications of theology to our ministries. It has amazed me how important this holistic approach is; take one look at the physiological development of teenagers, and you’ll find very good reasons as to why we shouldn’t run youth work early in the morning. While studying the brain development of young people, I was challenged to rethink the way we approach worship within our youth ministry.

Furthermore, the conversations that occur over a glass of wine after a full day of lectures are bursting with creativity, innovation, questions, challenges, inspiration and encouragement. It’s fascinating to meet people who are approaching similar jobs in surprisingly diverse ways, to see how other people manage the same challenges you are facing, and to hear about what God is doing outside of your youth ministry.

...to study in a secular university

David Bailey, Kings College (lecturer at Oasis College)

Studying for me has become a way of life! I am in my final year of a Doctorate in Theology and Ministry at Kings College London (DthMin). I chose this particular doctorate because of the theological history associated with Kings.

Moreover, the exposure to and interaction of a range of disciplines and key thinkers within the field of theology and the social sciences has been illuminating. It has been exciting to be part of a research community that has a particular focus on the relationship between theology, ministry and contemporary society. It is this breadth and experience of thinkers and students from beyond my tradition that appealed to me over more conventional Bible Colleges. During my time as a youth minister this interaction fed into my practice, it revealed the importance and interrelation of the Bible, tradition and experience in my work among young people It fuelled me theologically and gave me a greater depth of understanding God’s word and insights into how doctrine and tradition can serve youth ministry practice to help it become more authentic and faithful to the Gospel.

Through the DthMin, my empirical study, in the discipline of practical theology, has a focus on the ‘lived’ experience of youth ministers and mission and the theology enacted within this. This has raised for me, the importance of how we ‘live’ and ‘act’ and what this says theologically about the God we seek to follow and serve. It raises questions about the need to be responsible in our dealing with the Biblical text and the importance of understanding the theological frameworks and the Christian tradition in relation to enacted practice that we have inherited and of which we are a part.

Theology can be an exciting resource for youth ministry; it helps us to understand the Christian story, it can lead us into a deeper understanding of God, his word and ways of being Church, it can helps us stand on the shoulders of others to view new practices in the richness of the tradition. Finally, for me, not only has studying theology become part of a way of life, it serves and critiques a way of life that seeks to be faithful to the gospel.

Agree with this ? Disagree ? We want your feedback! Email youthwork@premier.org.uk and let us know what you think.