Who are you, and where are you working from these days?
I’m Jodi L. Porter, Ed.D., and I’m serving at Acadia Divinity College (in Wolfville, Nova Scotia) as Director of Education for Ministry Innovation and Adjunct Faculty. I help lead our Futuring Lab, a recent initiative that we started with Phase 2 Pathways funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. I also collaborate with our friends at NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, Tyndale Seminary (in Ontario), and Ambrose Seminary (in Alberta) on a Phase 3 Pathways grant, the Canadian Learning Community for Decolonization and Innovation in Theological Education (or CLC).
What’s the lifelong learning initiative you lead?
Our Futuring Lab supports new micro-credentials for pastors, focusing on generative AI, conflict in ministry, and several other topics pastors have identified as most crucial for their current work. The Lab includes a research arm, our Hub, and an experiment space, our Sandbox. Many of our work resources ADC faculty in their approaches to teaching and learning and current students in experimental courses. We also are beginning to structure more opportunities for anyone interested in studying theology (e.g., nano-courses that can build to a B.Th. degree).
Who is served by your initiative?
We serve faculty, students, alumni, laity, and more through various resources designed to help us imagine together the futures of the church and theological education. Our initiatives support Canadian Baptists, the ADC community, and other denominations and theological schools as we share our work in national and international contexts such as the ATS Pathways Gathering and Biennial.
What’s an “Aha!” moment you’ve had while doing this work?
Lifelong learning looks like many things … It includes traditional continuing education programs and new approaches to theological study for our rapidly diversifying constituencies and changing ministry contexts. Though degree programs are core pieces of theological journeys, lifelong learning can fill all the gaps before, between, and beyond such programs – in many creative ways.
Simultaneously, a lifelong learning unit can function as a research and innovation space for faculty and students. It can support faculty in imagining more effective ways to prepare future leaders and nurture students with creative aims for their own educational journeys. Successful pilot projects can grow into institution-wide curricular and pedagogical shifts.
If people wanted to mine your expertise on something related to lifelong learning...
Ask me about leading-edge scholarship in teaching and learning that can shape your lifelong learning efforts. My favorite topics currently include cyclical (iterative) approaches to individual and institutional development, heutagogy, intercultural and decolonized ministry, and generative AI in ministry. I also care deeply about vocational discernment, DEIB in theological education, adaptive leadership, and collaborative empowerment.
What do you think will be different in the future of lifelong learning?
Lifelong learning will feel less like “the side job” and more like “the main thing” of our theological schools.
How can people get in touch with you?
Reach out to me at jodi.porter@acadiau.ca.
What would you be doing if you weren’t leading a lifelong learning program?
Seeking other essential roles where I can shape important conversations about the future of Christian leadership and theological education. Or playing professional volleyball (though I fear that ship sailed a while ago …)! 😊
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