Who Should Train Pastors??? Seminary in the Role of The Body
Feb 08
My good blogging buddy Larry Cochran posted a video of Piper (one of my favorite theologians/teachers and who was instrumental in my understanding) answering a question about seminary and the local church. I am neither pastor nor theologian, so what follows will be my opinion of the entire matter. I want to discuss a few things and get you to see some other perspectives.
Academics Is Important
First thing first. We have a problem today that did not exist 2000 years ago. We now have language barriers, we are void of the context of some of the scriptural writings, we don’t have the apostles to help clarify, we are outside of the culture and thus just opening our bible and letting the “Holy Spirit” interpret and give us clarity is a harmful at best if not even destructive.
I know many, many today whose lack of biblical understanding has caused some of the deepest of misrepresentations (at least what I believe to be misrepresentations). How to interpret the scripture is as foundational to our Christianity as an engine is to a car and because of a2000 year gap, various barriers and cultural chasms we have the hard work of bridging the gap and this my friend takes some understanding. From understanding what type of literature we are reading to biblical and systematic theologies, from Old and New Testatment introductions and analysis I will tell you that these things are very, very important. But….
Seminary Should Be The Result of Not the Cause Of
The problem is that today, seminary is the catalyst or the foundation and not gifting and modeling. I know of quite a few people, whose education was their all access pass into pastoral ministry instead of their lives, understanding, love, service, leadership and hospitality (Gifting???) being their access into such ministry. Thus seminary has encouraged something that I just can’t agree with. A man can run OFF (off being the operative word) to seminary get his paper qualification and then come back (be parachuted in as it is coined) and start a church based on the foundation that he has been to school (circular reasoning?). I think this to be to the detriment of the Body.
As I said in the first section academics/teaching is very important, we can’t get around that. In both epistles to Timothy and the one to Titus, “didaskō” (with discourse being the context) dominates. Not to mention Paul does not seem to hold back/dumb down what He is trying to communicate to the churches, to the fact that He has to write a few follow ups for understanding purposes. However if I was a betting man, I would bet the ratio of cognitive/philosophical to action/practical would be in the area of 70/30. Seminary seems to take this and make information 90% plus of the educational process, these men are then released into the local churches and then they take this model and produce the same type of disciples who keeps the cycle going. That is why churches who talk a great deal about “discipleship” seems to want this to happen in the context of the classroom. I am not against such education; however, this is only a small part of discipleship.
The Local Church and Seminary I
I personally believe that “pastoral” type of degrees should not be handled at the seminary level. I am not saying that they can’t be trained there but they shouldn’t “qualify” a man for such a task. I do believe seminary is important. It is important for various reasons. Things like Church History, Textual Criticism, people who specialize in specific disciplines, men who will go off to write, men who will help us translate newly found manuscripts, men who will help us in apologetics, help us understand the bible in light of social sciences and even natural sciences; however, pastoring is such a hands on, practical, caring, loving, serving, giving, sacrificing and modeling type of work in the body that it is IMPOSSIBLE to learn this in a vacuum called a classroom. And many of the well respected, have no hands on the people they are supposedly caring for the most. How backwards is that?
The Local Church and the Seminary II
Finally then what role should the play if any in the education of the pastor? I think Dave Black has hit a hole in one in his exhortation “Returning Biblical Education To the Local Church” . Here is one quote that really stood out:
We in the church of Jesus Christ are always in danger of magnifying titles and degrees and forgetting that a formal theological education guarantees neither sound doctrine nor mature character. The essential mark of Christian leadership is love not ability, humility not arrogance, wisdom not knowledge. We must cease viewing knowledge as an end in itself, but must pursue the mind of Christ, remembering that “truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21). I wonder if anything is more urgent today, for the building up of the Body of Christ, than that its leaders should be, and should be seen to be, men who have “been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
This is coming from one the brightest men I know. One who is a Seminarian, Professor, Theologian and one who makes His living by such means (though who says that this is not His business, He is in the Gospel business 
).
But the relationship is simple. A man gifted and “called” (I use that in the modern sense) if He has no one to help Him gain such an education should enroll into seminary. I think the robust education will help him be a more effective pastor; however, one such man should NEVER leave His congregation to pursue such an education. And if he must then I think a time of testing should be his prerequisite for reentry and shepherdship but often times he comes back more “qualified” then when he left and that seems to be backwards to me. As Dave says in this quote:
The seminary exists to serve the local church, not vice versa. So when opportunity occurs to return biblical education to your local church, I say grasp it with both of your hands!
I concur. With the Internet, books upon books and even some seminaries offering free classes like the Covenant Seminary. There is no need to ever leave those you have been gifted to serve, to do so would be to put the cart before the horse. And just in case you don’t think it can be done. There are many men doing that right now with their own gas money .
Thoughts?
Several professors (including a dean) at SEBTS have told me (in a classroom setting – so they told others too) that if churches trained people, then there would be no reason for seminaries to exist.
Unfortunately, I the system perpetuates itself. Seminaries need students in order to stay afloat. When the students graduate, they need jobs… but they’re not trained to DO anything except be a vocational pastor… even if they are not mature enough to be a pastor/elder.
-Alan
Lionel,
You are so right!
My own observations, as an older student, many years ago, was that even if seminary training is to remain, prospective elders (pastors) , on leaving seminary ought to find secular work and become members of a local body, which over a period of time (maybe several years) discern whether the person is what their ambitions would claim.
Can you imagine a medical student leaving his years of training, then being given the task a heart/lung transplant.
The work of an elder is far more important than to have novices leading congregations . I have seen to much of the resulting damage.
I guess I see it as a catch 22. One needs life, experience, gifting, etc, to do well in expressing the spiritual gift of pastoring -yet, without some solid biblical teaching and or theological training – these pastors just can’t cut the mustard – all sorts of problems begin to arise relationally and theologically as so there there is a big mess.
Also waht about the smaller rural churches that may not have the resources for such situations of training and or the things you talk about? What do they do – go on struggling?
Brian, they have to have the internet and that is all that is needed. Fuller, Trinity RTS and Covenant all offer online degrees with a few weeks on campus. However, with the internet and talking with others, I can buy all the resources that you have in seminary and learn with myself and others (which I have been doing over the last few years). I do find myself struggling with Greek and that is my own fault. I start and stop and start and stop. But as it relates to my seminary brothers. I have read what they have read or am reading what they are reading or I will be if they put it on a blog and I find it interesting
I can’t imagine that Aussie John, but it is as normal as a person with a pair of shoes
and it is to the detriment of the body I believe.
churches should train. there’s no reason why they couldn’t. it would help if they had someone theologically trained to guide the process along, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Like Lionel said, there are plenty of sources online, and if they don’t have the internet, there’s this thing called a library. the role the seminary currently creates a cyclical process of men graduating with vocational ministry as their only option. until we have more men supporting themselves, and acting on this model of ministry (meaning non-vocational/churches equipping themselves) that we’re proposing here, this ideal can’t be realized.