For centuries, Christian institutions in the United States initiated and sustained paternalistic relationships with Latin American communities that perpetuated colonial harm. In church contexts, these relationships might take the form of missionary trips where a group from the United States visits a community in Latin America to do something for them. This often involves a construction or renovation, a large investment that could have paid local workers instead. In the academy, these paternalistic relationships hinge on the notion that ideas coming from a U.S. context are universal and applicable to Latin America, while the ideas emerging from Latin America are only relevant in their context. As Garrett Seminary begins a new partnership with the Methodist Church in Chile, our collaboration is shaped by deep awareness of these dynamics’ history and repercussions, and a commitment to their dismantling.

In the Spring of 2025, Garrett inaugurated this partnership with a visit from Rev. Miguel Ulloa, director of the Methodist Seminary of Chile, who taught at Garrett’s Escuela de Ministerio, training pastors and lay leaders across the United Methodist North Central Jurisdiction. A few weeks later, a delegation from Garrett traveled to Chile to learn about the Methodist Church and its seminary’s work throughout the country. Dr. Emma Escobar, Director of Centro Raices Latinas at Garrett, describes this partnership as a project built on reciprocity and a model for the relationships the Centro Raices seeks to cultivate across the region. Both Rev. Miguel’s visit to Garrett and Garrett’s delegation to Chile disrupted the dominant dynamic that would frame Garrett as teacher and the Chilean church as student, denying the possibility of reciprocal learning and mutual enrichment. “As Methodists, we have a common language of theology and tradition that unites us and gives us an opportunity to expand what the dialogue between North and South America can look like,” reflects Rev. Miguel Ulloa. “Despite the differences of our contexts, we have shared concerns, and this dialogue allows us to learn from one another’s responses to those issues.”

The Methodist Church in Chile was founded by North American missionaries almost 150 years ago. Following the Wesleyan teachings of personal piety and social holiness, the church developed vibrant education, social care, and healthcare ministries. During their time in Chile, the Garrett delegation witnessed these ministries at work through visits to schools and clinics across the country. Reflecting on what she learned while visiting English immersion schools in the north of Chile, Dr. Escobar highlighted the way these schools contextualize their curriculum including, for example, an effort to begin teaching indigenous languages as part of the Chilean government’s project to reclaim Chilean indigeneity.

This conversation about indigeneity and Indigenous rights is one of the concerns that the Methodist Church in Chile and Garrett share. In the last few years, Chile has made important progress in advancing Indigenous rights, yet Rev. Ulloa believes that the church in Chile still has significant work to do in this area. He hopes that partnership with Garrett’s Center for Ecological Regeneration can help Methodist leaders in Chile access resources that will help them raise consciousness in congregations about Indigenous Chileans’ lived realities and Christianity’s historical complicity in their oppression.

As this partnership continues to develop and grow, both Garrett and the seminary in Chile will have opportunities to welcome students and faculty from each institution. In the near future, Garrett students will be able to complete their field education in Chile, and Chilean faculty will continue to support the Spanish-language programming at Garrett. “The ministry and programming of the Methodist Church in Chile will be a great resource for U.S. students and ministry leaders. We have much to learn from our Chilean siblings’ impactful and creative work,” comments Dr. Escobar. Likewise, Rev. Miguel says that “Chile has theological and ministerial riches that have not received the attention they deserve from the academy and the global church.” By welcoming students from Chile into our masters and doctoral programs, Garrett will be a resource for Chilean theologians and practitioners to disseminate their scholarship. These educational exchanges will strengthen the work each seminary is already doing and will nurture collaboration between scholars and practitioners from both institutions.

Dr. Escobar notes that as a U.S.-based institution, Garrett enters this partnership aware of the colonial impulse that has often guided relationships between institutions in the U.S. and the Global South. She reminds us that, “Chile has developed ministries with very few resources, and unlike what typically happens in the U.S., their conversations don’t start with questions about money or profit, but with a commitment to the mission. As we learn from their work, we must remember our responsibility for how we live in a capitalist world, and how our actions here in the U.S. affect people’s lives globally.” Dr. Escobar adds, “Ultimately, when we learn from the work the Methodist Church in Chile has done, we are not glorifying their struggles, but we are learning what it looks like to live out the mission in a way that uplifts the people and their needs above all else.”

“Garrett has taken all the excuses away,” reflects Kent Lundy.

Kent and his wife Marti are Garrett Seminary “admissionaries,” people committed to representing Garrett to those who may be sensing a call to ministry, to theological education, or to a time of broader exploration and discernment. Admissionaries stay up to date on seminary news, meet with prospective students one on one or at educational events, and help connect prospective students with Garrett’s admissions team for further conversation.

Kent, a military chaplain himself, is excited to speak with those interested in military chaplaincy about the many resources available to them — including financial assistance through the United States Air Force chaplain candidate program — and, of course Garrett Seminary. Garrett, he says, has found the “sweet spot” balance between residential and online opportunities, one of the many reasons “there shouldn’t be any excuses for not seeking a seminary education anymore.”

Logistics of life at Garrett, particularly financial aid, are often a top concern of the prospective students. Fabiola Grandon-Mayer, Director of Connectional Ministries for the Northern Illinois Conference and a Garrett Trustee, encourages prospective students to “think big” about what might be possible in theological education whether they are interested in pastoral ministry or in something else altogether. To support those big ideas and aspirations, she also walks with them as they navigate logistics and financial barriers. For her, it’s an important way of giving back.

“I’m from Chile,” Grandon-Mayer said, “and I only had the opportunity to go to seminary because I was given a 100% scholarship from the institution where I did my MDiv. There are other people out there who have the passion, have the call, but don’t have the opportunities or don’t know the route. I feel called — first as a Hispanic woman then as Hispanic clergy — to help others the same way I was helped, the same way that I was shown the path to go.”

Admissionary Justin DaMetz, who regularly lunches with students at his alma mater, Oklahoma City University, also encounters considerable questions about the practical details of life at Garrett and in Chicago. As he describes the city, classes, professors, and the strong sense of community, he emphasizes that Garrett is a place for exploration, where questions are welcome. He also finds that many students are glad to hear that Garrett is open and affirming, and DaMetz is grateful to be able to offer this example of progressive Christianity.

“There is a fracturing culturally around who our image of a Christian is at a national level,” he said. “Cultivating the next generation, giving a different vision of what Christianity means, that’s really important work. If we don’t do that, if we aren’t cultivating people who want to go to seminary and kids who want to think about religion more seriously whether they go to seminary or not, then we’re ceding this religious ground to folks who are clearly bad actors and who want to use it in a way that harms people.”

The fractured culture DaMetz describes is also reflected in a fracturing church, making the prospect of theological education that much more challenging and that much more important. Admissionary Marti Lundy has served as the district superintendent of the Northern Lakes region for about five years, a period that has included both the pandemic and disaffiliation, when so many Methodist congregations left the denomination over issues of sexuality. During that time, she was encouraged by those who felt called to serve as United Methodist pastors and who were looking for “that grounded Wesleyan United Methodist theology” that Garrett offers.

“There were many times during that process when someone would come to me saying, ‘You know, I feel like God is calling me into ministry,’ and I would respond, ‘Really? Look at the mess that we’re in right now.’ And they would say, ‘Yes, God is still calling me and I want to be a United Methodist pastor. I want to move us forward as a denomination,’” she recalls. “That filled me with a lot of hope in some really dark days.”

For these admissionaries, prospective students are a source of reassurance even as they face very real challenges. It’s a good thing, then, that Garrett has not only removed so many barriers to theological education but is already living into what the church might become. As Grandon-Mayer describes it, Garrett works to “give access to everyone, regardless of race, gender, or ordination status. There are people who might never think to enter a seminary building, but now the seminary is going to them.”

For those interested in becoming admissionaries themselves, there is something they should know, Grandon Mayer says: “They can be certain that Garrett is a trustworthy institution with the legacy, the commitment, and the passion to change people’s lives. And they will be blessed in this work by more than what they expect to receive.”

If you’re interested in serving as a Garrett admissionary, please email Grant Showalter-Swanson.