Christian Formation & Discipleship Office Hours

Christian Formation & Discipleship Office Hours are an opportunity to engage online in collaborative planning and conversation with the Lifelong Learning team at Virginia Theological Seminary. Church leaders in all areas of ministry (clergy, children’s ministry, youth ministry, adult education, chaplaincy, etc.) are invited to explore curiosities, ask questions, learn about new Christian formation resources, or just brainstorm with others. Office hours happen every Monday and Thursday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., eastern. You will receive the zoom link in your confirmation email, alongside an Online Event Page inclusive of the link.

UPDATE: In order to respect the time of our facilitators, please sign up before the start time of each session to ensure a facilitator's presence. Those that sign up after 1 p.m. eastern on a given day may not be accomodated.

Note: This is not a Bible Study or webinar, please bring your questions, concerns, dreams, and ideas to share with our staff members.

We are experimenting with a slightly different schedule that allows more of our team members to lead office hours! Depending on your questions/concerns/conversational needs, you may want to try and catch a different team member. Here is our schedule that we are roughly following, followed by brief bios of our team members:

Mondays

• First and third: Sarah Bentley Allred
• Second: Wallace Benton
• Fourth: Kim Arakawa

Thursdays

• First and third: Jodi Belcher
• Second: Lorenzo Lebrija
• Fourth: Wallace Benton

Sarah Bentley Allred (she/her/hers) is a Senior Formation Associate & the Forma Convener for Lifelong Learning at Virginia Theological Seminary. Sarah has served in children, youth, and family ministries since 2012 and she completed the MDiv. program at VTS in 2019. She is a Licensed Godly Play Trainer and is passionate about children’s spirituality, intergenerational worship, and small church formation. Sarah loves local coffee shops, board games, the beach, eating dessert with her husband, Richard, and going to church with their one-year-old, Eleanor. Find out more at sarahbentleyallred.com.

Jodi Belcher (she/her/hers) is Lead Editor of Building Faith. She is a writer, educator, and lay Episcopalian. Before becoming editor, she earned her Th.D. in theology at Duke Divinity School, taught in higher education, and directed Christian formation for all ages at an Episcopal parish. Her interests include adult formation, theology, social justice, biblical interpretation, creativity, and body-affirming faith. She currently lives in Durham, North Carolina with her family of five plus two cats.

Wallace Benton has been serving as the Associate Director of Lifelong Learning since August 2023. He has almost a decade of parish ministry experience as a youth minister, and 4 years of experience working with college students at Kennesaw State University and as the Lay Chaplain at the University of the South (Sewanee). Wallace loves talking about youth & college ministry, vocational development, and is a solid thought partner for those interested in creating/re-imagining programs.

Internationally noted as an expert in the innovation field, Fr. Lorenzo is the chief innovation officer of Virginia Theological Seminary and the executive director of Trytank Research Institute, which focuses on advancing theological research to meet the evolving needs of the church in the modern world.

Before launching TryTank, Fr. Lorenzo was the Chief Development Officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. He also served as the Pastor on behalf of the Bishop at St. John's Episcopal Church in San Bernardino, CA, and as priest associate at St. Athanasius Episcopal Church at the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Los Angeles. He studied at the General Theological Seminary in New York City and earned his Master of Divinity degree. He also earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Virginia Theological Seminary.

Kim Arakawa holds a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University. She is the Project Manager for the Mutual Ministry and Preaching Congregations initiatives with the Department of Lifelong Learning at Virginia Theological Seminary, as well as the coordinator of the department's Initiative Team. Kim is geographically located in the Diocese of Hawai'i where she serves as Vice-President of Diocesan Council and is a deputy to General Convention 81. When not voraciously reading leadership books, she enjoys quality time with her husband, son, and dog, Jack.