Join Us in Making Old Ways New

How does a theologian learn how to pursue theology for its own sake and for the good of the Church? What does it take for a man to be fit for pastoral ministry? The Church today has largely been displaced from the theological formation of her leaders who are now often expected to be formed in the classroom alone. But for the Church, from her early days through the confessionalization of the Reformation traditions, such outsourcing would be in tension with her commitments regarding how sanctification and theological formation are connected. At Greystone, we aim to recover the old with the best tools of the new. This looks like a theologically coherent and self-conscious program of embedded church-context mentorship that takes into account the whole person. This is the new old way of theological formation.

“Why should you turn from God when you turn to your books, or feel that you must from your books in order to turn to God? If learning and devotion are as antagonistic as that, then the intellectual life is in itself accursed and there can be no question of a religious life for a student, even of theology.”
- B.B. Warfield

Faithful Reformed churches of various confessional denominational identities may now apply to become Greystone Learning Communities and provide a Greystone “ecclesial ecosystem” for our programs. This means that students wanting rigorous academic training in a context of theological and personal cultivation no longer need to leave the church in which one’s congregational and pastoral roots have been planted. In addition, one can now move to a faithful Reformed church for such study, and thus avoid some of the unmanageable costs ordinarily involved in relocation to another, more expensive city. The Greystone Way sits alongside the traditional residential model of seminary to provide another option for students not able to pursue residential study and relocation—one which, in its own way, returns the core of theological formation to the context of the Church and not just the classroom. It is learning and devotion, study and prayer, within and for the Church. To ensure that students of Greystone receive whole-person formation, theological learning that is devotion, and hands-on service to the Church, every student is required to connect to a Greystone Learning Community where they will be mentored, trained, and guided in their work for the Lord Jesus Christ and his Church. This is how Greystone is humbly yet boldly working to make old ways new.