Abstract:
The largest city in the state of Alaska, Anchorage, does not house a urban
ministry training program or seminary for theological education. Furthermore, the
city needs transformation, as it does not reflect the perfect urban found in the vision
of the eternal city described in Revelation 21 and 22. This thesis explores how an
urban ministry education, contextually relevant to Anchorage and focused on
transforming both the participants and the city, can be created that develops in the
participants a new way of seeing, ministering and acting in the city. In pursuit of
answering this question, I employ Richard Osmer’s practical theology questions and
Julian Müller’s narrative approach to practical theology research. I interviewed 38
pastors and ministry leaders in Anchorage in order to gain their understandings of
ministry and the shape of the practice of ministry enacted in the city as well as their
perceptions of the city. I used the data from those interviews and the available
literature to assess the historical and cultural realities, local theologies, ministry
climate, perceptions of the city, and ministry praxis of pastors and ministry leaders in
Anchorage. I also interviewed urban ministry practitioners from around the U.S. and
the world to understand how urban ministry education is being practiced in other
cities.
From that research, I created a proposal for an education program and
explored the type of environment needed to develop the relationships such a program
would need. I propose that a commons approach to education be developed, in which
the community maintains the shared resource of training and seeks to embody the
transformation of the city.
