Featured Where do some preachers get their "papers"?

Had a professor tell us of his first pastorate. He preached Jesus is God. Prominent member came to him after the sermon and told him that he (the member) had been there 40 years and had never heard that Jesus is God.

It was a very turbulent 3 years. When he left, they voted to change the church constitution to never again hire a seminary educated preacher.

peace to you

 

How sad

 

As I understood it, it was that they had never been taught the deity of Christ.

I agree with Reynolds you don’t need a seminary degree to be a good preacher, but you do need to be educated with a thorough knowledge of scripture.

It seems I remember a passage (proverb?) that says something along the lines of “always learning but never understanding” which seems to be his point.

I had another friend tell me his deacons complained in a meeting, “Bible, Bible, Bible!!! All you do is talk about the Bible!”

Back to the OP, you can pay $15-20 online and get a license to preach.

peace to you

 

I’ve never understood why some hate theological education

there is good and bad in all ie educated BW noneducated

that’s all from me

 

What do you think, Reverend Silverhair or would Most Reverend Silverhair would be better.

 

I believe the use of the title “reverend” to refer to men is inappropriate. Reverence belongs to God alone.

“Most Reverend” would be slightly more inappropriate than “reverend”, but slightly less inappropriate than “Most High Holy Reverend”

peace to you

 

Is there anywhere in scripture where “Reverend” is used to refer to a man/woman instead of God?

peace to you

 

How do we teach a person to be a shepherd? What are the essential tools a shepherd needs and what mentoring should happen under established shepherds.

I think, from a past thread, that @Reynolds and I are in agreement that the vast majority of seminary grads are coming out without a compassionate love for sheep. They are trained to write a sermon and give lectures. They are trained, not as shepherds, but as administrators of a non-profit organization.

If I could make a comparison, the pastorate has gone the way of doctoring. In the past, my father-in-law (a retired general practitioner doctor who delivered over 3000 children) made house calls and once needed to drive his snowmobile to a house in a blizzard. Now, doctors are corralled under a for-profit corporation where patients are marshalled in and out of the system and clinics are regionalized. Some doctors are brought in online so they don't even live in a community. It's become pure corporate.

The pastorate and churches often function as an administrative non-profit organization with the pastors functioning as administrators who provide classes for members, blog posts to reach unchurched readers, meetings to plan and organize volunteers for the Wednesday training sessions, and responding to anyone who makes an appointment to come in and see them.

Very few pastors are actually functional shepherds. Instead, they are functional administrators.
Our seminaries are graduating administrators to fit within a corporate business model of "church." We, the church, bought in to a numbers game that more people in the pew is the objective rather than more mature, healthy, sheep being the objective. Building community has given sway to building more programs and larger buildings. Seminary students are coming out with admin skills and little to no capacity to shepherd. We get folks who have spent more time on their final thesis for graduation than they have spent caring for sheep.

 

Actually, not an uncommon occurrence in the evangelical realm where Jn 3:16 is the banner, and God sent HIS SON to die, and the emphasis of the preaching is on making sheep in lieu of feeding sheep such insignificant nuances like 'Jesus is God'. I grew up in a hyper-evangelical, hyper-Dispensational Southern Baptist church and this is precisely what occurred with me. I felt like I had been lied to.

 

I was in a Mega church with about 40 pastors, 3500 regular attenders. If we split that up, every family could get a visit every other year, approximately. But they do nothing of the sort. They rely on small groups.