Welcome to Palmer Seminary’s Theological Field Education program.

It is our desire that your experiences in TFE enhance your overall seminary experience and help you to become a more effective servant leader in the church and in the world. Theological Field Education is the place in the curriculum where academic theory is tested and tried. It is the place where you can be challenged to not only teach and preach your theology, but live it. It is the place where you can develop your gifts, discern your calling, and have the opportunity to be the Body of Christ in the world. Theological Field Education is what you make it: We challenge you to enter into this process with an open mind and a teachable spirit. The more you “put into” TFE, the more you will gain. It is a life changing experience for those who dare to embrace it.

"The Whole Gospel for the Whole World through Whole Persons," Palmer Theological Seminary's motto, calls us to understand the broad purpose of theological field education: providing supervised experience in ministry to prepare the whole person to respond to the Gospel imperative to meet the varied challenges of our changing world.

Palmer Seminary has been in the forefront of the development of Theological Field Education as a discipline. Palmer’s understanding is that TFE has an integral part in Seminary training. Using an action/reflection style of learning, students are enabled to test their vocational calling, utilize persons and events as sources of theological learning, and integrate theory with practice. Theological Field Education provides a grounding of students' seminary training in ministry experience, enabling the development of professional competency and confidence in ministerial identity and authority.