Comments on: On Seminary Education

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:22:36 +0000

Josh, I agree that most churches are no prepared, but I contend that is because we have let the seminaries do our training rather than our churches. If our churches had the mindset of being a training ground, then they would develop the skills and programs necessary to train pastors.

As far as your ecumenical argument–in my situation, as someone at a Lutheran church going to a Lutheran seminary, my local congregation has a much more ecumenical feel than my seminary. And churches should be places where we can think for ourselves and question presuppositions.

I think we agree. You are telling us where we are at, and I am trying to describe where we need to be.

Thanks for your thoughts.

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:36:16 +0000

I would agree that things need to change in seminary, but I wouldn’t suggest that we do away with them completely. To be honest, I’m not sure that most local churches are prepared to train their pastors. I’ve been apart of several churches in my life and really wouldn’t feel too good about allowing them to train me. Ministry, theology, biblical studies, in my opinion are important and the student would unfortunately lose a quality education (for the most part) in the above topics if education was by the local church. Students would also not get to experience an ecumenical environment where they could think for themselves and question their presuppositions. However, Matt, I think you are on to something.

By: Seminaries are obsolete « John Meunier’s Blog

Seminaries are obsolete « John Meunier’s Blog — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:20:18 +0000

[...] 27, 2009 by John Meunier Matt Cleaver seems to think so anyway. Quoting Doug Pagitt: going to seminary he was being trained for an industry that was dying [...]

By: Tony York

Tony York — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:43:22 +0000

That should have read ‘pasture’ not ‘pastor’ … was that a freudian slip?

By: Tony York

Tony York — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:42:30 +0000

I think its called Discipleship and we can read about it in the Matthew 28. Then, or course, there is the part where the leadership is called by the Holy Spirit through the spiritual gifts that are imparted at the time of salvation. And lastly, I think we need to stop putting our older members out to pastor because they aren’t hip and with it and learn from their many years of experience and wisdom.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:10:41 +0000

@Jeremy – No I haven’t read it. I added it to my Amazon Wishlist, which probably means it will get lost in my huge “I wanna read” list.

By: jeremy zach

jeremy zach — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 04:33:03 +0000

have you read Eddie Gibbs’ book: ChurchNext?

Eddie argues your same thesis.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:26:26 +0000

@Dan – I’ve got professors in that vein as well. It’s just so hard to change a huge, complex system. It takes a real entrepreneurial spirit.

@Danny – Another book to read?! I’m sure it’s good.

@Jake – I’ve been to the GoingtoSeminary site, some good stuff there. I started watching that John Frame interview once and got interrupted. I’ll try and check it out again.

@Corey – Remember the crazy stories we wrote in elementary school? Thanks, by the way.

By: Corey Blissit

Corey Blissit — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:12:30 +0000

Interesting, You need to publish some things, You have always been a great writer. Hope all is well.
Corey Blissit

By: Jake Belder

Jake Belder — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:34:45 +0000

I haven't investigated it myself, but I understand that Bethlehem Baptist, Piper's church, does something to this effect. Very grassroots, hands on type deal. I know the Acts 29 Network doesn't do anything really in-depth, but their Church Bootcamps are kind of like what you're thinking. Much more down-to-earth, so to speak. I don't know if you've ever seen it, but I write regularly for the site GoingtoSeminary.com and we interviewed John Frame a few months ago about seminary education. He's a prof here at RTS Orlando. He makes some remarks to this effect, that we need to change how we do seminary education. It's quite interesting. If you want to check out the video, click here.