Does Seminary Really Make the Preacher BETTER?

[righteousdude2]

I do not mean in any way to demean those who have attended and graduated from a seminary!! However, I have to wonder if that secondary degree is all that necessary to make the man a better preacher.

I have three friends who graduated from Claremont School of Theology, and all three have said that they never had the need to open the Bible. That is scary, if, in fact, it is true, and I don't doubt their words. Of course, they did open their Bibles, but said they could have gone the entire two years without so much as reading from the Word.

So, except for more book knowledge at the end of seminary, does anyone really see benefits in a seminary educated pastor?

 

[Luke2427]

I do not mean in any way to demean those who have attended and graduated from a seminary!! However, I have to wonder if that secondary degree is all that necessary to make the man a better preacher.

I have three friends who graduated from Claremont School of Theology, and all three have said that they never had the need to open the Bible. That is scary, if, in fact, it is true, and I don't doubt their words. Of course, they did open their Bibles, but said they could have gone the entire two years without so much as reading from the Word.

So, except for more book knowledge at the end of seminary, does anyone really see benefits in a seminary educated pastor?

More book knowledge is the most important thing. You should not be so dismissive. The Bible is a book.

Ignorance in the pulpit is what is killing this country.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

More book knowledge is the most important thing. You should not be so dismissive. The Bible is a book.

Ignorance in the pulpit is what is killing this country.

Shakes head......ahhhh, your equating ignorance in the pulpit to the countries problems?!? You will have to explain that to me in greater detail.

 

[preacher4truth]

Let's put the seemingly jeering OP in a proper perspective:

Does STUDY make the preacher better? Whether in Seminary or a personal study, the answer is unequivocally yes.

2 Timothy 2:15

2 Timothy 4:13

Not just today, but perhaps for years (?) actual knowledge, study, education in theology &c has been scoffed and derided for a more 'mystical' religious experience. When those with such a view actually dish out their belief system, it is often shown to be a dissident theology, and, when confronted with Scriptural truth, the one presenting this truth is often taunted, 'experience' is exalted, and truth rejected.

 

[preachinjesus]

Seminary is invaluable if one puts their whole selves into the learning process.

Communication does not inherently get better with more knowledge, but more knowledge more than often sharpens communication.

I have no time for people who say seminary is not a valued step for pastors.

 

[Baptist Believer]

Let's put the seemingly jeering OP in a proper perspective:

Does STUDY make the preacher better? Whether in Seminary or a personal study, the answer is unequivocally yes.

2 Timothy 2:15

2 Timothy 4:13

This is well-stated.

A "preacher" should take every opportunity to learn and grow in knowledge, faith and practice in order to be a better ambassador for Christ. In fact, that should be true for all believers, not just preachers.

Moreover, it is often overlooked that the "unschooled" men who impressed the religious leaders in Acts 4:13 had actually spent at least THREE YEARS, both day and night, learning from the greatest Teacher Who ever walked the earth. They not only gained head knowledge, but they were given practical training, sent out on missionary journeys and learned the ways of the Kingdom, and were gently corrected when they erred.

They were "unschooled" only according to the traditions of the Sanhedrin.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Let's put the seemingly jeering OP in a proper perspective:

Does STUDY make the preacher better? Whether in Seminary or a personal study, the answer is unequivocally yes.

2 Timothy 2:15

2 Timothy 4:13

Not just today, but perhaps for years (?) actual knowledge, study, education in theology &c has been scoffed and derided for a more 'mystical' religious experience. When those with such a view actually dish out their belief system, it is often shown to be a dissident theology, and, when confronted with Scriptural truth, the one presenting this truth is often taunted, 'experience' is exalted, and truth rejected.

I dont disagree with you regarding more study & education in theology is important (for every Christian). In my own far distant memory, I recall getting dressed up & sitting in churches (where the Priests were all very educated) and listened to 2 hours of services conducted in Latin, with bell ringing & incense & candle burning, sprinkling of holy water yada yada. It was as you say a mystical ....if not confusing service to the laity.

Today, stressing the reading of the bible & learning from it is for me anyway, is extremely liberating. You see, back then that was NOT stressed. You were spoon fed theology because that was the job of "The Enlightened & Educated Priestly Class." If you had the ability & you wanted to make yourself a better Christian, you could buy the "My Imitation of Christ" book by Thomas a Kempis (who actually stressed the reading of the Holy Scriptures) but nobody ever pays attention to a old RC cleric. Besides, that was stressed for the Enlightened, not the poor coal miner & farmer, factory worker laboring (serf) class....they could hardly read.

I see something like this happening in modern churches today. Not the Latin thing & the incense thing, but the rush to the top of the education ladder in order to have the"Enlightened One" doll out correct theology as the leader. I wonder how many of these pew sitters have actually read the bible from cover to cover & how many churches have instituted programs to stress individual responsibility towards self education.

So if I dont have someone in the position of Pastor with a doctorate degree, I'm not that concerned. If he sincerely puts emphasis on bible study, correct doctrine & educating the laity, I am content with that.

 

[Revmitchell]

A pastor can serve God and the flock effectively without any amount of formal education. The primary source that makes this true is the word and prayer. That can be seen in Acts 6. The pastor should be at a minimum discipled into that role regardless of education.'

However, one should get as much education as possible.

 

[preacher4truth]

This is well-stated.

A "preacher" should take every opportunity to learn and grow in knowledge, faith and practice in order to be a better ambassador for Christ. In fact, that should be true for all believers, not just preachers.

Moreover, it is often overlooked that the "unschooled" men who impressed the religious leaders in Acts 4:13 had actually spent at least THREE YEARS, both day and night, learning from the greatest Teacher Who ever walked the earth. They not only gained head knowledge, but they were given practical training, sent out on missionary journeys and learned the ways of the Kingdom, and were gently corrected when they erred.

They were "unschooled" only according to the traditions of the Sanhedrin.

Excellent points! I love the part about this should be the practice for all true believers.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

This is well-stated.

A "preacher" should take every opportunity to learn and grow in knowledge, faith and practice in order to be a better ambassador for Christ. In fact, that should be true for all believers, not just preachers.

Moreover, it is often overlooked that the "unschooled" men who impressed the religious leaders in Acts 4:13 had actually spent at least THREE YEARS, both day and night, learning from the greatest Teacher Who ever walked the earth. They not only gained head knowledge, but they were given practical training, sent out on missionary journeys and learned the ways of the Kingdom, and were gently corrected when they erred.

They were "unschooled" only according to the traditions of the Sanhedrin.

Yes you touched on it, and it has been my own personal experience that the "pursuit of head knowledge" tends to overtake the other critical elements of being a pastor. When Luke emphasized that not stressing education had a deleterious effect on the country .... indeed the world, lets look at the price of "living in the head" or head knowledge being stressed. You tend to get churches that operate like the two I got in my own back yard......they dont ever go out to the community. Rather its, "you come to me, come to my domain mentality." There is no programs designed to reach out.... thus, the community (indeed the world) NEVER listens to them anymore. Seriously, why does the world need you....you live in your heads for so long, that the world will no longer pay attention to you.

 

[preacher4truth]

I dont disagree with you regarding more study & education in theology is important (for every Christian). In my own far distant memory, I recall getting dressed up & sitting in churches (where the Priests were all very educated) and listened to 2 hours of services conducted in Latin, with bell ringing & incense & candle burning, sprinkling of holy water yada yada. It was as you say a mystical ....if not confusing service to the laity.

Today, stressing the reading of the bible & learning from it is for me anyway, is extremely liberating. You see, back then that was NOT stressed. You were spoon fed theology because that was the job of "The Enlightened & Educated Priestly Class." If you had the ability & you wanted to make yourself a better Christian, you could buy the "My Imitation of Christ" book by Thomas a Kempis (who actually stressed the reading of the Holy Scriptures) but nobody ever pays attention to a old RC cleric. Besides, that was stressed for the Enlightened, not the poor coal miner & farmer, factory worker laboring (serf) class....they could hardly read.

I see something like this happening in modern churches today. Not the Latin thing & the incense thing, but the rush to the top of the education ladder in order to have the"Enlightened One" doll out correct theology as the leader. I wonder how many of these pew sitters have actually read the bible from cover to cover & how many churches have instituted programs to stress individual responsibility towards self education.

So if I dont have someone in the position of Pastor with a doctorate degree, I'm not that concerned. If he sincerely puts emphasis on bible study, correct doctrine & educating the laity, I am content with that.

I've seen very little of this 'Enlightened One' in the pulpit, if any. In fact I've seen the opposite with the uneducated, faulty, easy-believism, free-willy shallow theology being spewed and see more in the alleged laity who have a better grasp of truth, albeit few compared to the many in the pew who believe the bad theology being presented.

FWIW what I see in the above is a bell hop god who must succumb to the whims of the people, and a cross preached that doesn't change the lives of the people. Belief is preached to the exclusion of repentance, repentance is inferred as an option, decisionism supplants the Holy Spirits regeneration, a check list of points is presented, to which mental assent answers are sought, and the person is announced (if the correct answers are given) as going to heaven. Manipulation 101. Say a prayer, heaven is yours &c.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

A pastor can serve God and the flock effectively without any amount of formal education. The primary source that makes this true is the word and prayer. That can be seen in Acts 6. The pastor should be at a minimum discipled into that role regardless of education.'

However, one should get as much education as possible.

Here is what Id like to know Rev., Do you make house calls? And I'm being serious about that! Do you reach out?

 

[Revmitchell]

Here is what Id like to know Rev., Do you make house calls? And I'm being serious about that! Do you reach out?

Absolutely, That is a crucial aspect of knowing the people that God has given me oversight of. Or do you mean house calls as in evangelism?

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Absolutely, That is a crucial aspect of knowing the people that God has given me oversight of. Or do you mean house calls as in evangelism?

It could well be both, but I'm just interested in the degree to a pastors willingness to reach out & touch the flesh. Does a seminary teach that ..... do they stress sitting with people, empathy I guess is the word.

A woman jumps off the Bayonne Bridge hold her infant in her arms....I read this and asked myself, where was her pastor? A friend of our family hangs himself in his closet, again I ask myself....why wasn't he talking to a pastor?

My point is that when one removes themselves from the people, retreats into a place where you gotta make an appointment to sit with someone, are we advancing the cause for Christ?!?

I am now taking the stance that if you have no time for the disenfranchised, if you really aren't in tune with your flock, if you aren't concerned to reach out, then I will have no time for you either. And that conclusion comes from allot of mulling it over & frankly, I am not alone in it.

 

[salzer mtn]

I remember in one post, I believe it was on one of the drinking threads and one poster was making a point using scripture in Psa or Prov. and another poster said it was something 101 that you don't use hyperbol scripture in Psa or maybe it was Prov. to make a point. So I was setting here thinking did the instructor at a Seminary teach that certain scripture is not profitable for correction when the bible teaches all scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 2 Tim 3:16.

 

[Revmitchell]

It could well be both, but I'm just interested in the degree to a pastors willingness to reach out & touch the flesh. Does a seminary teach that ..... do they stress sitting with people, empathy I guess is the word.

This comes under discipleship rather than in school

A woman jumps off the Bayonne Bridge hold her infant in her arms....I read this and asked myself, where was her pastor? A friend of our family hangs himself in his closet, again I ask myself....why wasn't he talking to a pastor?

It is hard to say. Did she even have a pastor? If she did sometimes people will just not go to their church for the private things. It is hard to say.

My point is that when one removes themselves from the people, retreats into a place where you gotta make an appointment to sit with someone, are we advancing the cause for Christ?!?

I have an open door policy. Any church member can stop by and see me or call me whenever they need. I will do my level best to stop what I am doing and talk with them.

I am now taking the stance that if you have no time for the disenfranchised, if you really aren't in tune with your flock, if you aren't concerned to reach out, then I will have no time for you either. And that conclusion comes from allot of mulling it over & frankly, I am not alone in it.

Well that is certainly the way it should be. Pastors who will not visit their people or take time for them do not have a shepherds heart and are not qualified.

 

[ktn4eg]

There are so many variables to this topic that it's impossible to have an immutable opinion.

God calls different people to different "ministries" at different times and different places.

Seminaries may be great for some, but for others a seminary may prove to be a "cemetery."

Do what God has called you to do. :thumbsup:

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

There are so many variables to this topic that it's impossible to have an immutable opinion.

God calls different people to different "ministries" at different times and different places.

Seminaries may be great for some, but for others a seminary may prove to be a "cemetery."

Do what God has called you to do. :thumbsup:

Thats pretty good advice I'm thinkin

 

[nodak]

My personal experience is that a better educated pastor is a better pastor.

But that said, I've sat under excellent seminary trained ones and ones that seminary had ruined their faith.

Some seminaries are indeed wonderful. Some apparently teach nothing and are diploma mills. Some, even worse, indoctrinate people to a view of the Bible that destroys the truth.

So seminary per se is not necessarily any better than truck driving to prepare a preacher. But a good, even excellent, seminary is a boon.

Trick is to find the right one.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

God calls different people to different "ministries" at different times and different places.

The thread is about pastors, not about "different people."

Seminaries may be great for some, but for others a seminary may prove to be a "cemetery."

For me, it would be, though I am grateful for having been able to attend a Bible college for a couple years after I became a Christian. It was the best thing I could do for myself in letting God lead me into better knowledge and relationship with Him. For my calling -- helping men escape the prison of their minds and attitudes in general and their addictions in particular -- seminary would help, but training and education in behavioral psychology, specifically Cogntive Behavioral Therapy, is far better, given the latter was developed by Christian psychiatrist Dr. Aaron Beck, who set out to develop a treatment regimen that upheld biblical principles and honored the client's faith.

If I was going to be a pastor, I'd hie me to a seminary in a heartbeat, preferably one of the Southern Baptist institutions, but any strong Bible-teaching, literalist-viewpoint school would be acceptable.