Born into a Buddhist family in Klang, Malaysia, Wei Sien Wan entered the Catholic Church during his freshman year of college.

Since finishing his undergraduate studies at the University of Nebraska in 2000, Wan, now 26, has spent the last five years in active ministry. His first engagement was with Focus, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students; more recently, he’s been teaching at the Archdiocesan Biblical School.

What’s next for the enthusiastic New Evangelizer? He’s not sure — but he knows the new Augustine Institute, based in Denver, will play a part in his future.

“I’m really excited for more intellectual formation and better tools for teaching,” Wan says. “I think the Augustine Institute will prepare me for whatever God wants me to do in the future.”

While not affiliated with or directly connected to the Denver Archdiocese, the new school has found a hopeful supporter in Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput.

The archbishop says he hopes the Augustine Institute will be “very, very successful because it’s very important for Catholics to have a thorough and profound understanding of their faith. … Programs like [the Augustine Institute] make that possible.” 

Transformers

Set to open this coming fall, the Augustine Institute will offer master’s degrees to lay Catholics in one of two specialties: Sacred Scripture or Catechesis and Evangelization.

The school will equip its students to work in all areas of Church ministry and apostolate. It will also prepare them to consider pursuing doctoral studies in theology, philosophy or literature.

The mission, as laid out by the institute, will be to “form lay men and women in a Catholic worldview which unites faith and life, preparing them to engage and transform the modern world.”

Tim Gray, founder of the Augustine Institute, says he’s “thrilled that this dream is becoming a reality.”

He says he wants the school to be a unique marriage of “practical skills and great theology,” adding that the initial feedback that he’s heard from potential students has been encouraging.

Gray, a doctoral candidate at The Catholic University of America and head of the Denver Biblical School, anticipates that Augustine Institute will end up recruiting more students than it can effectively serve the first year.

Jonathan Reyes, the institute’s new president and a professor, says he expects about 15 full-time students and 30 part-time students from around the country to attend the inaugural semester this fall.

Christian Character

The structure of the Augustine Institute brings together three major components — intellectual formation, character formation and practical training. The school says that this structure will “form Catholic leaders who embody in their lives what they know in their intellects.”

One of these aspects, which sets the Augustine Institute apart from other theological schools, is its unique emphasis on Christian character formation.

That’s where Reyes comes in.

Character formation is one of Reyes’ passions. As vice president of campus ministry for Focus and former academic dean of Christendom College in Front Royal, Va., Reyes knows whereof he speaks when he says that purposeful formation of Christian character is what’s missing from many Catholic theology programs.

He says that he doesn’t want the school to “simply focus on head knowledge or skills,” but rather “make [students] good at what they do.”

“If you don’t have character,” he says, “you can’t lead.”

Through the character-formation program, students will be given the opportunity to live in men’s and women’s households, sharing communal life with one another, including meals, prayer and mentorship by a priest.

Although the household program will be optional, Reyes thinks that those who take advantage of it will gain a unique insight into the Christian life.

“The whole program is really for lay ministers,” he says. “We want to see them preaching the Gospel in whatever venue God calls them to.”

Reyes envisions the Augustine Institute as a tool for what the Focus ministry likes to call “spiritual multiplication.”

Using 2 Timothy 2:2 as a model, they want not only to train students how to teach the faith, but to teach others how to teach it.

Reyes notes that Focus has already demonstrated that this Scriptural model can succeed at the national level.

The Augustine Institute will boast a renowned faculty, including theologians Joe Burns, Sean Innerst, Curtis Martin, Gray and Reyes.

“I think we have a top-notch faculty,” says Gray. “I’m honored to be working with them.”

Archbishop Chaput says: “I know many of the faculty members and know that each and every one of them is professionally prepared, enthusiastic and at the same time, very good teachers. They are truly exceptional.”

Reyes notes that the Augustine Institute has gained pre-accreditation status and should receive full accreditation in two years — just in time for the first graduating class to don their caps and gowns.

While Reyes expresses his admittedly high hopes for the Institute, he’s convinced that its formation is a response to the working of the Holy Spirit.

“I think the vision’s right,” he says. “All the pieces are coming together … and I think we have the right people to pull it off.”

Archbishop Chaput adds that, if the Institute is successful, “it will be a wonderful blessing for the Church in the Archdiocese of Denver.”

“This extraordinary program,” says the archbishop, “could be used by students from all over the country and all over the world.”

Scott Powell writes

 from Denver.