Can We Make Seminary More Effective?

A few months ago, I finished preaching a long series through the gospels and I loosely used A.B. Bruce’s The Training of the Twelve for the structure of the series of messages. As I preached it, I was reminded of the stark differences in how we prepare men for ministry and how Jesus did it. I really wonder if we should rethink the way we do seminary altogether. Kevin Bauder has been posting a series on the importance of seminary and qualities of a good seminary education. It is a worthy read. This is my two cents from the perspective of a church planter and pastor of 31 years.

I am concerned that seminary focuses too little on discipleship and replaces it with scholarship. I am not against scholarship, but scholarship is a feeble substitute for biblical discipleship. A model of preparation for ministry based upon Jesus’ practice should seem a reasonable goal for educators with a high view of scripture.

I remember seminary–vaguely. Oh, I learned a lot. But the work level was so steep, and sleep was so rare that life outside the classroom and study time is only a faint blur. Maintaining a personal walk with God was very difficult. Learning to develop relationships with people and engaging in biblical evangelism and disciple-making were rare experiences. Some of the men graduating from seminary today have never led a soul to Christ and never personally discipled another believer. Yet we are sending them into churches to teach others how to do it. Other men are going into ministry academically prepared but their personal lives and marriages are in disarray. Many times they do not even recognize the spiritual mess in which they live. This is not an uncommon situation. I have three suggestion regarding how seminary can improve, loosely based upon Jesus’ model of discipleship.

Seminary needs to be more PERSONAL.

Discipleship oriented teachers, pastors, and counselors need to be involved in the personal life and walk of seminary students. This should not be in just a casual way, but in an intentional and demanding way. If the student is married, the wife should be involved as well. Academics must be accompanied by personal accountability. Someone must identify character flaws like pride, anger, and laziness. We simply must no longer thrust academically prepared men into the ministry whose marriages are privately in disorder, are enslaved to sinful habits, or approach ministry with academic arrogance. There are spiritual qualifications for ministry that go far beyond theology tests and homiletically correct sermons.

Seminary students need to be able to demonstrate an ability to develop Great Commission-oriented relationships with lost people and be able to disciple new believers biblically. If a man cannot, or will not do this, he is not qualified for pastoral ministry. This is the functional mission of the local church.

Seminary needs to DECENTRALIZE.

The best way for this type of personal discipleship to happen is in local churches. But that is part of our problem today. We have few local churches with pastors equipped to do this type of discipling ministry. No wonder our churches are shrinking!

But with the possibilities of distance education now expanding, seminary education and local church discipleship can work hand-in-hand. Not every church can do this, but some can. “Lab churches” could be developed to lead the way. We need to develop a quality “curriculum” of discipleship for prospective pastors that is rigorous and focuses on a real personal walk with Christ.

Seminary needs to be CONTINUAL.

Every other profession does this, but in the ministry, we do not. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, mechanics even electricians etc. have required professional development work every year to keep licenses current. Every pastor should continually learn and develop as well. This should happen in more than just private study. It is important to keep current with contemporary theological issues, trends, practical ideas, and ministry philosophy. We all need to be challenged and sharpen ministry skills. There is so much needed to do this pastoral job effectively, every pastor must constantly be learning. I found that I really needed to develop in the areas of personal counseling and church management. Most pastors would really benefit from an advanced homiletics class five or six years after they start a regular preaching ministry.

These programs do not have to be degree focused and therefore do not have to meet all the academic requirements of regular degree programs. Similar programs in other professions are structured like this. Seminaries should continue to develop such programs (maybe even offer an ongoing certification of some sort) and churches and church leaders should demand their pastors participate.

Discipleship for pastors should be on-going as well. We all need to be accountable in our personal spiritual lives, as husbands, fathers, and in our ministry functions. We need to find a way to hold one another accountable for our ministry qualifications. Those of us who have been long in ministry have come across pastor’s wives and children who have related horror stories of life in some ministry homes. While we cannot prevent all of these situations, we need to do our best to try. A pastor who does not make himself accountable will end up in trouble eventually. This particular area might be something that we explore for the FBFI in the future.

It is time to re-think seminary and if not base it completely on a discipleship model, then at least include a rigorous discipleship element.