Trinity’s new Associate Dean of Special Programs and Assistant Professor of Theology, Dr. Alex Fogleman, moved with his wife Molly and their four sons to Pennsylvania from Waco, Texas, last summer.

His office shelves are now laden with his books and there are various other items of interest dotted around the room.  The Rev. Alex Banfield Hicks, Vice President of Advancement, chatted with Dr. Fogleman to learn a bit more about him and his vision for Trinity’s redesigned Doctor of Ministry program.

How did you start out in ministry, and how did that form your attitude towards the church and church leadership?

“My first role in ministry was as a teaching intern while a college student at North Carolina State University. It was a large suburban mega church—filled with slick programs and big productions. When I wasn’t there or at school, I leisurely perused the used bookstores on Hillsborough Street, and there discovered a different way of thinking about church. I vividly remember coming across the writings of Eugene Peterson, and I couldn’t shake the unnerving difference between my hurried and anxious ministry and the patient attention to the Word embodied in Peterson’s writing. My suspicions were confirmed when I told my pastor I was thinking about seminary, and he told me that was a terrible idea: If I really wanted to be a pastor, I should get a degree in organizational leadership.”

So did you?

“I’m glad to say I declined that suggestion. I began seminary the next year at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada, and there I was introduced to three things that changed the course of my life: the Anglican tradition, the church fathers, and the recognition of our urgent need for catechesis today—a topic especially championed by a recently retired professor at Regent, Dr. J. I. Packer. All these influences helped me see the deep rifts I experienced in the world, the church, and my own self—a rift between theology and prayer, the life of the mind and the heart of faith.”

Tell me more about this “rift between the life of the mind and the heart of faith.” How does that rift damage the Christian and the church?

“I realized that as Christians, if we don’t hold these together, we would end up letting politicians or influencers tell us what’s really true about the world, or we would substitute learning about God for entrusting ourselves to him. The early church showed me that things could be otherwise.”

So where did this discovery of Anglicanism, the church fathers, and the need for catechesis take you next?

“After Regent, I went to Baylor University, where I studied the fascinating origins of catechesis in the early church. I wrote my first book on that topic, and a second on what we can draw from that history today. Whether in academics or the church, I’ve tried to learn, for myself and with others, how we can recover the unity of heart and mind that I glimpsed in the early church and in the best versions of Anglicanism more recently.”

How do you hope to help others who also want to recover this unity of heart and mind?

“This is what I hope for all the students who join our Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program at Trinity. This will be a time to grow deeper in faith, to drink deeply from rich spiritual wells that will nurture ministry for our challenging times, and to hear again the call of discipleship that begins with a patient attention to the Word.”

I understand that you’re introducing a new cohort model to the Doctorate of Ministry program. Tell me more how that works.

“Cohorts of ten to fifteen students will take a uniquely crafted set of coursework for three years together–usually two weeks residentially during the summer.

Two or three faculty mentors will serve as the main professors for all of the coursework and will supervise student thesis projects.

Instead of using topics twice, how about: Cohorts will have a range of topics including, Catechesis and Discipleship, Liturgy and Worship, Retrieving Classical Theology, Preaching and Exegesis, Anglican History and Theology, Pastoral Ministry in the Twenty-First century, and more.

We plan to roll out one to two new cohorts each year.

The first cohort on Catechesis and Discipleship will be led by me, Joel Scandrett, and Leslie Thyberg. We’ve already begun receiving applications from pastors and lay people eager to delve deeper into the pressing topic of how we can better form faithful disciples of Jesus in our churches and families today.”

If someone is interested in this cohort or any of our future programs, or knows someone who might be, can they reach out to you?

“Absolutely. I’d love to find time to talk. You can email me directly or be in touch with our Director of Admissions, Janessa Fisk.”

Are you interested in learning how your estate plan might be used to strengthen the ministry of the church for future generations? If so, we invite you to click the image below and register for this webinar hosted by the Barnabas Foundation. Email christina.thornburg@tas.edu with any questions.

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