When I was at Solomon’s Porch on Sunday night, Doug Pagitt said something to the effect that when he was going to seminary he was being trained for an industry that was dying and would likely cease to exist (and that those of us in seminary should think about that). He compared it to being trained as a typewriter repairman in the late 80s. It’s a scary thought for those of us pouring thousands of dollars into a seminary degree.
But I think I totally agree.
Our current ecclesiology is simply unsustainable. In the ELCA the average church is under one hundred people and shrinking. Most churches have their own seminary-trained pastor, who set aside 8 years of his or her life (undergraduate and seminary) and pay tens of thousands of dollars in order to be equipped as a leader. When churches are shrinking and the cost of training pastors is increasing, eventually you reach a tipping point where churches simply cannot afford the old model of pastoral training. Once we do we will see a radical shift in what it means to lead a church.
At this point in our history, we have outsourced the training of pastors to a German research university model. Why are our churches not able to train people up as leaders and pastors? Surely a local body of only ten small-sized churches has the intellectual and financial capability to train their people locally in Christian leadership.
As someone who is enrolled in a seminary program that requires us to be working in a local church (most of us are full-time lay staff) as we complete our curriculum, I am seeing the immense value in connecting theological education to local church leadership. Much of the initial research that is being done on our program is pointing to the advantage of such a model of training and education.
Honestly, the shift to distance education is a fairly small one, because it is still tied to the institution and the “mother church.” But the direction it is moving, albeit slowly, is back towards contextual education within local congregations. A bigger step would be to remove the educational process from the seminary institution and move it towards the churches. Such a move requires would require us to rethink vocation, ordination, ecclesiology, and church polity, all discussions that need to be had if we are going to survive and flourish in this cultural climate.
As much as I love the big ideas that happen in our educational institutions, when I ask the question, Does this model best serve the church? I keep answering with a resounding No. We may still need institutions for people who want a Ph.D., but congregational leadership training could be located elsewhere. The church must learn (and quickly) how it will reclaim the training of its people from the distant institution and relocate it within the local congregation. Some attempts have already been made, with little success. What will be needed for this to work is people with the proper educational credentials leaving the established system to pursue an alternative method.
I’ve said before that we need a radical new ecclesiology. A critical piece of that will be a radical new way to train leaders in the church.
Any ideas how to get there?
After we both finish getting out educating using the current model, it will be fun (and no doubt very difficult) looking for ways to train differently. This new church of ours is going to rock. Or as you would put it: Baller!
@Noah – I know. Ironic, isn’t it?
When I was in seminary I had a few really sharp professors who “got it.” They understood the institution was dying and tried to prepare us to lead in a different way. But still, they were a bit uncomfortable with it. One of them said, “Be very careful…if you start teaching or leading in this way it’s almost certain to get you fired.” So what do I do…lead that way, teach that way…if it gets me fired I’ll be fired to the glory of God (Yaconelli reference intended).
In his book on church leadership titled “The Sky Is Falling!?!” Alan Roxburgh starts chapter one by mentioning the scene in the movie “Seabiscuit” in which a bicycle repairman has no customers. Then a man pulls up driving a Stanely automobile with steam billowing from under its hood. “Can you fix it?” says the driver. The bicycle repairman says, “sure,” and thus transitions from a dying repair business into a successful one.
You might want to check that book out if you’ve not read it.
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.
Interesting, You need to publish some things, You have always been a great writer. Hope all is well.
Corey Blissit
@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.
have you read Eddie Gibbs’ book: ChurchNext?
Eddie argues your same thesis.
@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.
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.
That should have read ‘pasture’ not ‘pastor’ … was that a freudian slip? 🙂
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.
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.