Resource Hub
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How Would We Know? Assessing Personal and Spiritual Formation in Clergy and Church Leadership
Description: Using a case study drawn from research across theological schools, this workshop explores how to assess pastoral formation. Participants will strengthen the questions guiding their evaluation efforts, consider what evidence of formation they hope to see, and gain resources for advancing assessment conversations in their own contexts.
Keywords: assessment; character formation; clergy formation; educational assessment; formation assessment; Graduating Student Questionnaire; intercultural competence; personal formation; seminarian formation; spiritual formation; spiritual maturity; student development; theological education
Assessing Student Formation: A New Set of Core Assessment Tools
The definitive introduction to the Seminary Formation Assessment (SFA)—a 50-item suite of assessments measuring spiritual dwelling, seeking, struggle, and emotion regulation in seminarians.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; assessment instrument; Colloquy article; emotion regulation; psychometrics; Relational Spirituality Model (RSM); Seminary Formation Assessment (SFA); seminary students; sense of community; spiritual dwelling; spiritual formation; spiritual seeking; theological education; training resources; virtues
Spiritual Formation among Students at Christian Seminaries: Mature Alterity, Symptoms, and Well-Being
Person-centered analysis using the Relational Spirituality Model (RSM) identifies four seminary student subgroups, with "regulated seekers" showing mature alterity, flourishing, and stable balanced spirituality over time.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; flourishing; mature alterity; mixture modeling; relational spirituality; spiritual formation
Research on Human Formation Published as Part of Organizational and Educational Models Initiative
Stephen R. Graham, ATS Strategic Director of Context and Continuity and Director of Accreditation, announces a new digital resource on human formation.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; academic rigor; ATS member schools; ATS Standards of Accreditation (2020); ATS Student Data and Resources Consultation (2025); Colloquy article; curricular and co-curricular formation; definitions of formation; dimensions of formation; faculty and staff development; global awareness and engagement; human formation / well-being / wholeness; intercultural competency; lifelong learning; Organizational and Educational Models initiative; pedagogical and institutional practices; Protestant schools; psychological assessment; slide deck; student learning and formation; study report; theological education
Latent Profiles of Seminary Students' Perceptions of Sense of Community amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
Mixture modeling of 867 seminary students during COVID-19 identifies three sense-of-community subgroups (strongly connected, moderately connected, disaffected) with distinct well-being and spirituality profiles.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; flourishing; mixture modeling; relational spirituality; sense of community; well-being
Student Perspectives on Spiritual Formation at a Jewish Pluralistic Seminary: A Qualitative Study
Reflexive thematic analysis of 36 students at a Jewish pluralistic seminary identifies on-campus, off-campus, and non-seminary contexts of spiritual formation and uniquely Jewish formation requests.
KEYWORDS: Judaism; qualitative research; seminary; spiritual formation; virtue
The Spirituality of Deconstruction in United States Theological Schools
Qualitative study of 30 theological students examines "deconstruction" as a shift in spiritual practice, finding patterns of embodiment, syncretism, and ambivalent institutional response.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; American religion; qualitative research; spirituality
Crafted 4 Care: Practicing Virtues for Christian Formation, Group Participant Workbook
Workbook guiding Christian small groups through structured virtue practices—gratitude, empathy, compassion, trust, mindfulness, forgiveness—to cultivate biblical love via weekly exercises, biblical reflections, and group dialogue.
KEYWORDS: open access / free access; ATS Student Data and Resources Consultation (2025); Christian formation; compassion training; emotional intelligence; empathy exercises; gratitude practice; slide deck; small group curriculum; spiritual disciplines; virtue ethics; workbook resource
The Impact of Financial Health on the Spiritual, Mental, and Relational Health of Christian Graduate Students
DESCRIPTION: Financial stress can affect seminary students across multiple dimensions of well-being, including spiritual, mental, and relational health. Using data from 189 students at five theological seminaries, this study examines whether spiritual health helps explain how financial stress relates to broader health outcomes. Structural equation modeling found that spiritual health accounted for part of the negative relationship between financial stress and both mental and relational health. The authors suggest that supporting students’ spiritual health may be an important component of interventions aimed at improving the holistic well-being of seminarians facing financial strain.
KEYWORDS: financial health; financial stress; holistic health; mental health; relational health; seminary students; spiritual health; student debt; student well-being; theological education