- It’s Not a Cadillac! Part One: A Bit of History – “In short, by the 1950s Baptist fundamentalism was producing pastors who were strong opponents of modernist theology, but who tended to be poor thinkers with a fairly weak ability to study the text of Scripture for themselves and a relatively sketchy knowledge of the system of faith...By the mid-1950s, certain fundamentalist leaders began to see the need to offer seminary-level instruction for the coming generations of fundamentalist leadership.” [ii]
- It’s Not a Cadillac! Part Two: What Are We Doing? – “What vision of pastoral ministry dominates Baptist fundamentalism? The answer is problematic, mainly because there isn’t one (though the social justice model is completely absent). Instead, Baptist fundamentalists have promoted several competing visions of ministry, each of which is deeply held by some constituency.” [bold emphasis mine]
- It’s Not a Cadillac! Part Three: What Do We Need? – “Therefore, a pastor has to know the Word of God for himself...It requires him to know the biblical languages well enough that he can read (or at least translate) his texts from the original languages. That level of competence requires years of instruction and practice, first at the level of grammar, then at the level of syntax, then at the level of exegesis.”
- It’s Not a Cadillac! Part Four: Where Should We Learn? – “If a man wishes to become a pastor, the place where he must seek training is first and most importantly his local church...the traditional M.Div. is a barely adequate standard to provide minimal competence for New Testament ministry...think of it as Basic Training—just enough to keep you alive and to keep you from wrecking the ministry while you continue to practice your skills.”
- It’s Not a Cadillac! Part Five: A Personal Testimony – “As I formed acquaintances with the other conservative pastors, I discovered that they didn’t think explaining scripture should be a significant pulpit activity. Most of them couldn’t do it anyway. One was a self-help guru. One was a feel-good motivational speaker. One was a screamer. But so far as I can remember, none helped their people to understand the Word of God.”
A few comments may be in order. I’ll not say much
about the MDiv degree being shortened. I don’t believe copying the secular
model of education is the biblical ideal. But for those who are strong
supporters of the seminary model for Christian education, the shortening of the
program from 90 hours to 72 hours seems in effect to deny what they advocate.
Bauder claims, “a man with seminary behind him
will be more effective in ministry than the same man without it.” This is a
bare assumption, and an unprovable one at that! In some instances I have witnessed
the reverse – a man, the same man, with an “effective ministry” became less
effective after a stint in the seminary. (Of course, whether or not it was the
seminary’s “fault” is also unprovable.)
Despite disagreement concerning the solution, I
agree with Bauder on the existence of some of the problems he cites, such as:
- “poorly-taught churches led by pastoral impresarios whose ministries more closely resembled circuses and theaters than New Testament congregations”
- Baptist fundamentalists without a clear “vision of pastoral ministry”
- Pastors “who didn’t think explaining scripture should be a significant pulpit activity”
- Capitulation to “full-on pragmatism”
I have observed ministries that “more closely
resembled circuses and theaters than New Testament congregations.” Most definitely,
many of these poor thinkers with a weak ability to study the text of Scripture
for themselves and have a relatively sketchy knowledge of the true system of
faith. They have led congregations to “pack a pew” and such like – hinged on such
far-fetched promises of swallowing goldfish for the amusement of the congregation,
or preaching from church roofs in their underwear. (May God deliver us!) And such religious quackery is not the sole
realm of non-seminarians![iii] In
my lifetime, I have known lots of pastors. Among the best I’ve known were
those who had either only a basic working knowledge of Greek, or no training in
the biblical languages at all. Nevertheless, they knew the Bible backwards and
forwards. They knew how to teach others also, equipping and edifying them to do
the work of God. In addition, they lived
the Bible they knew! I have nothing against a pastor being fluent in the
original languages, but many pastors have reached high levels of pastoral competence
in exception to Bauder’s rule. (In addition, others with in-depth education in
Greek and Hebrew have flunked as pastors.)
In part 4 Bauder writes, “If a man wishes to
become a pastor, the place where he must seek training is first and most
importantly his local church.” Yet later he opines that “the traditional M.Div.
is a barely adequate standard to provide minimal competence for New Testament
ministry...think of it as Basic Training—just enough to keep you alive and to
keep you from wrecking the ministry while you continue to practice your skills.”
If the church is the first place to seek training, and the M.Div. is barely
adequate, Bauder must really think
the previous local church training is totally inadequate to suit any purpose!
Kevin Bauder is a scholar and a seminarian. We could
not expect him to support anything less. Support for the system on which one is
sold is not the same as biblical support. Whether Henry
Ford or Ransom
E. Olds invented the assembly line, we know that God is not cranking
out “identical” pastors in a seminary line.
There are moral and spiritual qualifications for
pastors (bishops,
elders) found in 1
Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus
1:5-9 The superlative “requirement” seems to be “that a man be found
faithful.” Compare Titus
1:7, 1
Peter 4:10, and 1
Corinthians 4:2. When we add to these, we are walking on shifty unbiblical
sand.
[i] M.Div. is the abbreviation
for the Masters of Divinity or Magister
Divinitatis (in Latin) degree. It is a theological or religious degree that
is supposed to be designed for students seeking a career in the church, most
specifically a professional degree for pastors. The M.Div. degree in the U.S. requires
between 72 and 106 credit hours of study. Academic accrediting agencies require
a minimum of 72 hours for this degree, and some institutions require more. (The
DoD, for example, also requires the minimum of 72 hours for a military
chaplain.)
[ii] Bauder’s
history (in part 1) is accurate as far as it goes. It limits the strain of just
who are “Fundamentalists.” My background follows a different trajectory from
what he discusses, including Baptists who left the convention both earlier and
later than J.
Frank Norris (the best-known IFB name in our region) did. Our roots
are in denominational trouble in the Baptist General Convention of Texas in the
late 1800s. By 1900, a large minority had withdrawn and created the Baptist Missionary Association of
Texas. Some people would not think of the BMAT as IFB, and in some
ways rightly so, but they were and are clearly ensconced in the fundamentals of
the faith. There was co-mingling of the BMAT with other fundamentalist
come-outers, such as J. Frank Norris and the “Bogard
Baptists” in Arkansas. (The combination of Texas and Arkansas
churches in the ABA would meet at Norris’s FBC Fort Worth in 1935, even though
he was not a member of their body.) Many, if not most, also took stands that
were separatist and sometimes even “militant.” Unlike the fundamentalists to
whom Bauder refers, these Baptists prepared for an educational institution –
albeit a college rather than a seminary – even before they organized separately
from the BGCT. In 1899, a charter established the Jacksonville
Baptist College as a four-year senior college (it is now a junior college)
and it opened in the fall of 1899. The BMAT was not formed until 1900 (the
college was given to the association several years later). I realize this was a
college and not a seminary, but it indicates we may have had a little different
relationship toward education. (These Baptists wanted all their children to
have access to a good education, not just preachers.) For the most part (as far
as I know) these churches possessed a high view of education and did not fall
into the same theatrics that some other fundamentalists did.
[iii] Further, among certain
cliques of IFBs it seems that every Tom, Dick, and Houdini claims to be a “Doctor.”
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