Rachel Miller Jacobs, DMin
Associate Professor of Congregational Formation; Church and Ministry Department Chair; Director of Worship; Program Director, MA in Christian Formation
About Rachel
Rachel Miller Jacobs, DMin, is a practical theologian/educator with particular interest in how groups (families, small groups, classrooms and congregations) help form mature Christians. Trained as a high school English teacher, Rachel has taught at both the high school and college levels, though she spent the majority of her early adulthood as an at-home parent to three lively sons and as an active lay congregational leader. Once her children were in school, she served as a pastor of Christian formation, as worship resources coordinator for magazine and as a spiritual director. At bg真人, Rachel teaches in the areas of Christian formation, family spirituality, worship and pedagogy.
How does the Bible shape your vocation as a professor?
I鈥檓 blessed to have colleagues in the Bible department who teach Greek and Hebrew as well as rigorous analytical study of the biblical text and its context. This is crucial for right interpretation. Just as crucial is claiming the Bible as authoritative in our individual and collective lives鈥攔eading the Bible as if our lives depended on it. Thus I practice, study and teach communal Bible reading practices that are affective, open to readers of various skill and developmental levels, and attentive to the Holy Spirit鈥攊n other words, that highlight the ways 鈥渙rdinary readers鈥� of all ages can read the Bible in life-giving ways.
What can students expect in your classroom?
I understand teaching and learning as a communal effort in which all learners (including the teacher) gather around, and allow themselves to be shaped by, the subject. A class is a container for learning: it helps us to go deep intellectually and spiritually and to refine our practice in conversation with other practitioners. I use a variety of teaching/learning activities and encourage students to experiment and take risks鈥攌ey dispositions of lifelong learners and leaders who are flexible enough to serve in a variety of contexts. I鈥檓 also attentive to the ways the delivery system of a class (face to face, online, hybrid) calls for specific structures, processes and pacing.
How does studying in your discipline prepare students to participate in positive personal, spiritual and social transformation?
The courses that I teach, both in their subject matter and in the ways we inhabit that subject matter, call us to grow in self- and contextual awareness, respect for and engagement with the Christian tradition, and Spirit-led improvisation that claims God鈥檚 good news as operative right here and right now. At the heart of the good news is transformation: first our own transformation, and then our capacity to see and join God鈥檚 transforming work in the world. There鈥檚 plenty to be done鈥攜et God is good, so we are bold to begin where and how we can and to keep listening for where the Spirit wants to take us.
My goal for students
My goal as a professor is to foster classrooms as communities where all grow in Christian practical wisdom. Practical wisdom is the ability to see a situation clearly and to act rightly as a result; it is a kind of knowing that actively fosters a dialogue between analysis and responsive engagement.
I want students to develop this Christian practical wisdom, which is rooted in and emerges from Jesus鈥� great commandment to love God with our whole selves and love our neighbors (and enemies) as ourselves. It is never an end in itself but is always at the service of God鈥檚 will being done and God鈥檚 reign coming to be, here on earth as it is in Heaven.
Publications
- 鈥淯ses of Critical Response Process in the training and education of Mennonite clergy,鈥� in Liz Lerman and John Borstel, coauthors/editors, Critique is Creative: Liz Lerman鈥檚 Critical Response Process in Theory and Action, forthcoming from Wesleyan Press in 2019.
- 鈥淐ongregational Welcome of Immigrants,鈥� in Daniel Schipani, Martin Walton, and Dominiek Lootens, Where are we? Pastoral Environments and Care for Migrants: Intercultural and Interreligious Perspectives (D眉sseldorf, Germany: Society for Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counseling, 2018).
- 鈥淪abbath鈥� (Spring 2017), and 鈥淏roadening Our Worship Practices鈥� and 鈥淭he Cross-Cultural Invitation of Pentecost鈥� (Spring 2012) in Leader Magazine.
- 鈥淩eading the Bible with Youth鈥� (Fall 2010), 鈥淲hen My Father Died鈥� (Spring 2004), 鈥淗annah: Her Story鈥� (Spring 2003), and 鈥淭ransforming the Difficult Sinner鈥� (Fall 2002), in Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology.
Memberships and associations
Invite bg真人
Invite bg真人 is a unique opportunity to invite the faculty and staff of bg真人 to come directly to you to address a certain topic.Possible topics include:
- Bible Reading in Congregational Life
- Congregational Formation
- Ordinary Harm and its Remediation
- Spiritual Formation Across the Age Span
- Spiritual Practices
Possible formats:
- Consultation about congregational formation or Sunday school programs
- Congregational retreats
- Worship planning and leading workshops