Join Me in the Commons : Towards a Contextual Urban Ministry Education Model for Anchorage, Alaska

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.