This means Vita Scholars save both time and money compared to a typical seven-year preparation for ministry. But it’s not just about saving money. Students in the Vita program participate in cohort-based learning that guides them in their development so they can graduate as ministry leaders who are prepared to serve and lead today’s churches.

Goals

The Vita Scholars Program will help students become pastors who:

• Have imaginations inspired by the gift of Jesus Christ to the whole cosmos
• See the beauty of God’s work and of God’s people at work in different geographic contexts
• Embrace ministries that serve people and churches in rural settings or in inner-city locations
• Value and understand the work that takes place in these different contexts
• Have a biblical vision of vocation and work
• Develop the skills to engage the contemporary economic, political and cultural realities in light of the gospel

Program Components

Cohort-Based Learning

Co-curricular programming is overseen by a program director and structured around themes of faith, worship, calling, work and the life of the world.

• Learn how the Holy Spirit conforms human beings to Christ through multiple kinds of worship practices
• Gain a sense of how to express the unity of Scripture in Christ and how the history of the church fits into that story
• Read historic and contemporary sources on work and economics to develop biblical and theological frameworks for both human work and societal flourishing
• Participate for part of one academic year at events (lectures, film screenings and colloquia) sponsored by Markets & Morality, a Hope College initiative
• Hear “work stories” from Christians across a range of positions, including reflections on ways their churches and pastors supported them in their work and ways they failed to understand and support them in their working lives

Summer Work Experiences

Completing one summer work experience in a non-religious/ministry setting will give students the opportunity to encounter workplaces different than those they may have known through their families of origin and to enter into a better appreciation of the working lives of people in their future congregations. For some students, this may mean working in a professional setting. For other students, it may mean a job in a factory or on a farm.

Students will coordinate with the Boerigter Center for Calling and Career at Hope College to arrange paid summer work experiences during their second or third year of the program.

Church-Based Internships

For their required church internships, students will work with the internship coordinator at Western Theological Seminary to find church placements for two part-time year-long internships or one part-time year-long internship and full-time summer internship. At least one internship will take place in a church in a rural or inner-city context. Ideally the ministry in which students are placed will be in a geographic setting they have not before experienced. Internships will take place during the fourth and fifth years of the program.

Course of Study

Program participants will acquire a B.A. in religion at Hope College, taking introductory and upper-level courses in biblical studies, church history and theology. Participants will receive their M.Div. from Western Theological Seminary, taking courses in biblical studies, church history, theology and ministry.