Dr. Scott Hagley may be the newest face on the PTS faculty, but he’s hardly new to the field of missional ministry or theological education. With a Ph.D. in congregational mission and leadership from Luther Seminary (St. Paul, Minn.), Scott brings a breadth of experience to his position as assistant professor of missiology—experience that ranges from college and seminary teaching to innovative church research to missional curriculum development to youth ministry to pastoring.

Born in Wisconsin and raised by parents who became part of a local Catholic renewal movement, Scott eventually moved with his family to Iowa, where they became associated with both Evangelical Free and Wesleyan churches. He began college at Bethel University (Minnesota) with an interest in engineering, but he enjoyed his Bible classes so much that he quickly declared a major in youth ministry and communication. “I wanted to do practical ministry with my Christian faith,” Scott notes, and while still a student at Bethel he started a Young Life Club for area high schoolers.

After graduating, Scott returned to Iowa as a youth pastor at the First Evangelical Free Church in Ames. “I had come to view ministry as having to do not only with ‘managing the flock’ but also as having something to do with the world,” he says. So there he also started a Fellowship of Christian Athletes group and a philosophy club. After seven years of ministry in Ames, he felt called to return to school and enrolled at Regent College (Vancouver) for an M.Div.

“In Vancouver, my wife, Maribeth, and I started attending the multi-site Southside Community Church and were drawn to its linking of mission and community,” notes Scott. “Though after four years we moved to Saint Paul for my Ph.D. program, we went back to Vancouver and to Southside when I’d completed my doctorate,” he says. The church hired him to bridge the youth and young adult programs in ways that developed both groups into participants in the service and mission of the church, rather than simply feeding them as “spiritual consumers.”

“My experience in the church had contributed significantly to the formation of my dissertation topic,” Scott comments, “namely, the ways in which congregational public engagement shapes its theological reflection, and vice versa.” In a nutshell, Scott looks for what and how “life in the neighborhood” teaches us about God. “The neighborhood is our partner in learning about God, not our target,” he notes. At the same time, Scott sees the necessity of deeply rooting practical ministry and mission in a theological understanding that is biblically faithful—in other words, in theological education.

Doctor of Ministry students in the new Missional Leadership cohort were the first PTS students to benefit from Dr. Hagley’s unique combination of pastoral wisdom, scholarly acumen, and insightful classroom style when Scott flew from Vancouver to Pittsburgh to teach two D.Min. courses prior to the start of his official July 1 appointment. They experienced firsthand Dr. Hagley’s ability to help Christian leaders discern their missional gifts while at the same time understand and interpret their contexts from local and global perspectives.

Dr. Scott Hagley may be the newest face on the PTS faculty, but he’s hardly new to the field of missional ministry or theological education. With a Ph.D. in congregational mission and leadership from Luther Seminary (St. Paul, Minn.), Scott brings a breadth of experience to his position as assistant professor of missiology—experience that ranges from college and seminary teaching to innovative church research to missional curriculum development to youth ministry to pastoring.

Born in Wisconsin and raised by parents who became part of a local Catholic renewal movement, Scott eventually moved with his family to Iowa, where they became associated with both Evangelical Free and Wesleyan churches. He began college at Bethel University (Minnesota) with an interest in engineering, but he enjoyed his Bible classes so much that he quickly declared a major in youth ministry and communication. “I wanted to do practical ministry with my Christian faith,” Scott notes, and while still a student at Bethel he started a Young Life Club for area high schoolers.

After graduating, Scott returned to Iowa as a youth pastor at the First Evangelical Free Church in Ames. “I had come to view ministry as having to do not only with ‘managing the flock’ but also as having something to do with the world,” he says. So there he also started a Fellowship of Christian Athletes group and a philosophy club. After seven years of ministry in Ames, he felt called to return to school and enrolled at Regent College (Vancouver) for an M.Div.

“In Vancouver, my wife, Maribeth, and I started attending the multi-site Southside Community Church and were drawn to its linking of mission and community,” notes Scott. “Though after four years we moved to Saint Paul for my Ph.D. program, we went back to Vancouver and to Southside when I’d completed my doctorate,” he says. The church hired him to bridge the youth and young adult programs in ways that developed both groups into participants in the service and mission of the church, rather than simply feeding them as “spiritual consumers.”

“My experience in the church had contributed significantly to the formation of my dissertation topic,” Scott comments, “namely, the ways in which congregational public engagement shapes its theological reflection, and vice versa.” In a nutshell, Scott looks for what and how “life in the neighborhood” teaches us about God. “The neighborhood is our partner in learning about God, not our target,” he notes. At the same time, Scott sees the necessity of deeply rooting practical ministry and mission in a theological understanding that is biblically faithful—in other words, in theological education.

Doctor of Ministry students in the new Missional Leadership cohort were the first PTS students to benefit from Dr. Hagley’s unique combination of pastoral wisdom, scholarly acumen, and insightful classroom style when Scott flew from Vancouver to Pittsburgh to teach two D.Min. courses prior to the start of his official July 1 appointment. They experienced firsthand Dr. Hagley’s ability to help Christian leaders discern their missional gifts while at the same time understand and interpret their contexts from local and global perspectives.