Who are you, and where are you working these days?
My name is Frank Guertin and I serve as the executive director of the LIFT program. It is connected to the Hazelip School of Theology at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN.
What’s the lifelong learning initiative you lead?
The LIFT program is a new initiative (2026) and part of the ATS Pathways for Tomorrow project supported by the Lilly Endowment. It seeks to offer the goods of theological education to congregations that are led by the school’s alumni/ae through an educational collaboration.
Who is served by your initiative?
The project is focused on lay leadership development within those churches. The outcomes of customized offerings are collaboratively developed between faculty of the school and senior leaders of each congregation.
What’s an “AHA!” moment you had while doing this work?
The work is in its early stages, but the key AHA! is that congregations welcome an educational partnership when senior leaders are vital stakeholders in the content creation process. The smaller THAT TOO! is how traditional degree programs can be dramatically disconnected from the dynamic challenges congregational leaders want to tackle.
If people wanted to mine your expertise on something related to lifelong learning, what should they ask you about?
Ask me about the value of re-orienting theological expertise towards greater service of the expressed needs of churches historically served by theological schools.
What do you think will be different in the future of lifelong learning?
Lifelong learning programs can provide powerful insights about the value of contextualized education. These are often distinct from the data normally digested by the broader industry of higher education. As disruption continues in higher education, lifelong learning programs will have increasing opportunities to develop robust adaptive learning ecosystems that could effectively navigate the changing landscape of learner needs.
How can people get in touch with you?
If you weren’t leading a lifelong learning program, what would you be doing?
Great question (my career odometer has plenty of miles on it at this point). I’m pretty engaged with clinical pastoral education and could see that getting more of my time. I would also love to spend more time managing the forest at the family farm in WV.