The church is God’s “seminary.”
“upon this rock I will build my church … teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway …”
“Our hearers...think it enough for them, if at best they can hear with some profit to themselves. But this was not the state of things in primitive times. Every church was then a seminary, in which provision and preparation was made, not only for the continuation of the gospel in itself [Gospel preaching], but for the calling, gathering, and teaching of the churches also… And this course, namely, that teachers of the church should be educated thereunto in the church, continued inviolate until the public school at Alexandria, which became a precedent unto other places for a mixed learning of philosophy and religion, which after a while corrupted both, and at length the whole church itself.”
(John Owen 1616-1683, An Exposition of the Epistle of Hebrews, Vol. III, London: Thomas Tegg, 1840, pp. 114-115)
“We are well aware that we shall be complained of when we say these things…Mere scholars, those who know more of books than of men, and more of theological halls than the pulpit, ought not be invested with the trust of educating a whole generation of young men for the Christian ministry. The fact may no longer be dissembled, that the tendency, if not the design of our theological seminaries themselves, is to fill the most important chairs with purely literary men; men who neither have, nor expect to have, any relation to the pastoral office; men ordained, not to the work of the ministry, but to their professorship. It is easy to see that such arrangements once entered upon, are apt to be progressive and to perpetuate themselves. Age and experience sleep in the tomb; and those only become the teachers of ministers, who have themselves never been teachers of the people, and never served the Church of God in the ministry of his Son.”
(Gardiner Spring 1785-1873, The Power of the Pulpit: Or, Thoughts Addressed to Christian Ministers, New York, NY: Baker and Scribner, 1848, pp. 382-383)
“Whether seminaries and theological schools are the proper places to educate the ministry, I know not. It is a matter of experiment in our day, and time alone can decide it. Their tendency is to raise intellectual above spiritual qualifications, and such it has thus far proven. Of old, they have I think proved to be, after a generation or two, schools of heresy.”
(Francis Wayland 1796-1865, a letter by Wayland, long-time president of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island to James Petigru Boyce, first president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, January 26, 1857)
“The local church is itself a school. If believers are also disciples, then they are students, and the local church is a place for the study of the Gospel. If these local churches under their constituted teachers are schools for the training of God’s people, why cannot these schools also train future ministers? Why must these schools be set aside and higher schools be established by men in their superior wisdom for the training of ministers? It is true that the local church has but one text book – the Bible – but what need do we have for schools where Barth and Bultmann are also studied? Do we need these higher schools for the clergy where men finish their education and have completion of their education certified? Can men ever finish their study of the Bible and receive their diploma of having mastered the Gospel? In this school called the local church we never finish our education and receive our degree. We are always learning and studying here, ever fascinated by the knowledge of God and His way of salvation.”
(Elmo Wayne Johnson 1914-2001, “Extra-Biblical Ecclesiastical Systems,” Baptist Reformation Review, Summer - 1978, Vol. 7:2, pp.15-16)
“In the early days of American Protestantism, the training of ministerial candidates was carried on by pastors of churches. A young man feeling a call of God to the ministry would associate himself with a church pastor, receive training from him, participate in the work of the parish, perhaps even live in the pastor’s home. I’m not sure why, but eventually this system was felt to be inadequate… Seminaries not only frequently ‘refuse to do the work of the church,’ they also tend to undo it.”
(John M. Frame, “A Proposal for a New Seminary,” The Journal of Pastoral Practice: Volume 2, Number 1, Winter 1978, pp. 10-11)
“The best structure for equipping every Christian is already in place. It predates the seminary and the weekend seminar and will outlast both. In the New Testament no other nurturing and equipping is offered than the local church. In the New Testament church, as in the ministry of Jesus, people learned in the furnace of life, in a relational living, working and ministering context.”
(R. Paul Stevens, Liberating the Laity: Equipping All the Saints for Ministry, Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1985, p.46).
“Modern training is primarily intellectual; New Testament training is primarily spiritual and practical. Modern training emphasizes the classroom; New Testament training emphasizes life and experience.”
(Clay Sterrett, Myths of the Ministry, Staunton, VA: CFC Literature, 1990, p. 18)
“Most church leaders would agree that developing new leaders is a critical responsibility of the local church, yet very few churches actually have an intentional leadership development process…During the Renaissance, also known as the Age of Enlightenment, great emphasis was placed on learning through the rise of universities. Any person who felt called to serve God was directed to attend a university…From the universities grew extended knowledge centers of specialization and thus was born the seminaries. Anyone who believed God was calling them to full time Christian service was directed to attend seminary for proper preparation. Churches, desiring to have the best educated ministers possible, have been outsourcing the responsibility for training church leadership ever since.”
(Brian Keith Moss, “Leadership Development in the Local Church: A Seven Step Process for Developing Leaders at Every Level,” Doctor’s Thesis, Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, Lynchburg, Virginia, 2014, pp. v, 116)
In 21st-century Western Christianity, folks who feel a calling for Christian ministry think (through years of teaching and tradition) that going to seminary is naturally the first step to take. Biblically, theological education is an aspect of discipleship. It is not (at least should not be) a pathway to a professional degree. Churches to the Front!
2 comments:
Hear! Hear! Yours is an essential point often missed among independent Baptists.
Oh, that we would understand that each of Christ's assemblies is His established teaching institution and then dedicate ourselves to working within and through the assembly to which He has added us so as to see His objectives accomplished. Interestingly, He says, "Be not many masters [teachers]", but each elder must be "apt to teach". I take it, then, that it does not take many teachers in any church (assembly) to accomplish His goal, but that each elder / pastor / overseer (bishop) must indeed be apt to teach and must both preach and teach the Word.
I sometimes think we have orators as elders, but not too many who are apt to teach. Can someone be apt to teach if he is not apt to learn? If he despises learning from godly men and despises writings that document the doctrinal and practical journeys of godly men, I doubt he is apt to teach.
I'm sure there is variety among the assemblies that belong to Christ, but I think the orators have gravitated to the pulpits and the teachers to the seminaries.
Another problem is that some say they are following the Bible's model by training in house (colleges run by churches), but they are actively recruiting students to their church-based colleges from other churches, thus depriving the elders / pastors / overseers of those churches from having the influence they should have in training the next generation.
Practically speaking, my exposure to independent Baptist churches leaves me thinking that many of the ones I've been around would not do a good job training the next generation. Sometimes you have to go outside of your immediate circle to gain knowledge. And sometimes that can be done in the Holy Spirit filled life with little more than good books and good mentors.
Those are today's cogitations from a would-be cogitator.
God bless you, Brother Vaughn! And may He continue to work such that His churches (assemblies) escape the many perils to their godly functions.
E. T. Chapman
Brother Chapman, thanks for sharing your good thoughts on this subject. That is perceptive about churches trying to follow a biblical model, but then continuing to follow the secular model of recruiting members of other churches.
Also, I think you are right -- it is unfortunate that many churches are not prepared (or maybe even willing) to do a good job training the next generation. You have to have the knowledge of the word in order to pass it on to the next generation.
Amen.
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