Before seminary I was doing ministry in a non-denominational, organic, young and hip group with zero budget and no ties to a building. I was living the dream that a lot of anti-seminary, anti-denominational, anti-institutional seminarians and pastors think they want. And there were some great things about it - but it wasn't nearly the dream that people like to think. I was so thankful when God called me to attend CTS! I came in with the attitude of wanting to get to know God better and understand His community of children - the Church. I was seeking for a greater filling with Christ, and I found that. The time I spent in seminary were some of the best years of my life, digging deeper into my relationships with God and with His Church everyday. I got to sit at the feet of people, past and present, who have been recognized as deeply knowledgeable, passionate, and wise about God. Yes, there is an academic structure and rigor to it all, but every relationship comes to a point where it takes an organized and intentional effort to grow. When I hear someone talk down about the importance of a seminary education I end up wondering how serious they really are developing their relationship with Jesus.
Thank you for writing this Mary. I was at a government sponsored conference in Detroit that day and there were people there who had loved ones in the Pentagon - probably some in NYC too. I often wonder how many of them found their loved ones alive and how many didn't. You can tell the people there that they are in my prayers, even in my tears, today.
Great article by Jim Schaap and a great article in the Christian Courier. One thing I was sad to read, however, is how misunderstood the education of a pastor is. "Fractured Flocks" mentions the high education of other church members as contributing to a lack of respect (my word) for pastors. That sadly makes some sense in a church culture where biblical interpretation is taken to be a practice of thinking through the text through a pre-existing lens of theological education, knowledge of other Scripture passages, and browsing a commentary or two. Generally, when it comes to putting this study into a sermon, the pre-existing theology and knowledge of other Scriptures tends to carry the bulk of the sermon while the commentary adds a few interesting details. As a result, most sermons I hear sound like like very general truths about God and how He works, usually the same things I learned in Sunday School as a child, and the few commentary details are there to give at least some appearance that the sermon actually comes directly out of the text at hand. It is very true that nearly any educated person could pull off such a sermon with a bit of practice and some time.
Sadly, this approach not only passes muster with most Christians, it is often what they demand - although not in so many words. The number one thing quoted for problems between pastors and congregations, if I'm not mistaken, is pastoral care. The pastorate has become more about making visits than about wrestling with each and every text until it shows itself "useful for preaching, teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness" (1 Tim. 3:16). (Dr. Greidanus made a good point in his preaching class at Calvin Sem. a number of years back, that 1 Tim. 3:16, by logical inference, must mean that no two Scripture passages can be completely redundant with each other since that would mean we could do without one of them (i.e. it wouldn't truly be useful).) As a result of seeing the pastor as more of a paid visitation specialist than as a studier and doer of the Word, congregations have placed the pastor in a position where, in order to be accepted and liked, he or she must focus on roles that elders and deacons could mostly do. And, the thing which only the pastor has been trained to do - beginning with the original text, carefully exegete each text into a well-crafted sermon no matter how long that takes - is basically left undone in favor of the quicker and easier method of interpretation described at the beginning of my response - an interpretive method that anyone with a quality education and time could pull off.
I don't at all mean to distance the pastor from living out the Word, which must absolutely include visitations. Some visitations require more than what a deacon or elder can bring to it, for one. But even more importantly a pastor needs to be involved in applying the Good News to the everyday trials of life before he or she can truly understand how radical, important, and sometimes difficult to believe the Good News can be. Nevertheless, even this needs to stem from the text and the Spirit's leading to apply that text, rather than congregational pressure to increase visits.
So, while it's true that having better educated congregations has affected the professional respect a pastor receives, in my thinking that is an indicator that we have lost sight of what a "Minister of the Word" truly is and what only he or she has been trained to be.
At West Olive we have a very small but faithful crowd in the evening. I've been preaching through the Heidelberg at night (2 more weeks to go!), but quite honestly I think I'm not the only one bored with it. Thank goodness it ends with the 10 Commandments and Lord's Prayer because I don't think I could've made it otherwise. We've had a few breaks in between that have been much better. I did a series of 5 sermons on the Canons of Dort last spring - basically the sermons were just proof texting the major points under each head, in a systematic fashion - and it was great! In the summers we join up with a local RCA for the evenings and do a series together and that has been a blast for us pastors and, I think, for the congregation as well.
In reflecting on why the Catechism has seemed so boring, I think it's because everyone attending our evening has heard it so much before. It's not meat, at least not anymore. In the next month or two we're hoping to make the evenings a bit more "meaty" since the people there are definately at that stage in their spiritual development. Next spring we're going to try and use the catechism topics as a guide for the morning scripture sermons so that those who most need to hear the basics of our doctrine can get that, but in a format more palatable than a "Catechism sermon" in the strictest sense.
If anyone has ideas about teaching/preaching the Belgic I'd love to hear them for future reference! I think my e-mail is in the yearbook under West Olive CRC.
Posted in: Why Go to Seminary? Hoop, Hurdle, or Vital Necessity?
Before seminary I was doing ministry in a non-denominational, organic, young and hip group with zero budget and no ties to a building. I was living the dream that a lot of anti-seminary, anti-denominational, anti-institutional seminarians and pastors think they want. And there were some great things about it - but it wasn't nearly the dream that people like to think. I was so thankful when God called me to attend CTS! I came in with the attitude of wanting to get to know God better and understand His community of children - the Church. I was seeking for a greater filling with Christ, and I found that. The time I spent in seminary were some of the best years of my life, digging deeper into my relationships with God and with His Church everyday. I got to sit at the feet of people, past and present, who have been recognized as deeply knowledgeable, passionate, and wise about God. Yes, there is an academic structure and rigor to it all, but every relationship comes to a point where it takes an organized and intentional effort to grow. When I hear someone talk down about the importance of a seminary education I end up wondering how serious they really are developing their relationship with Jesus.
Posted in: Thoughts on 9/11 From a Midwest Transplant
Thank you for writing this Mary. I was at a government sponsored conference in Detroit that day and there were people there who had loved ones in the Pentagon - probably some in NYC too. I often wonder how many of them found their loved ones alive and how many didn't. You can tell the people there that they are in my prayers, even in my tears, today.
Posted in: Preachers and Churches
Great article by Jim Schaap and a great article in the Christian Courier. One thing I was sad to read, however, is how misunderstood the education of a pastor is. "Fractured Flocks" mentions the high education of other church members as contributing to a lack of respect (my word) for pastors. That sadly makes some sense in a church culture where biblical interpretation is taken to be a practice of thinking through the text through a pre-existing lens of theological education, knowledge of other Scripture passages, and browsing a commentary or two. Generally, when it comes to putting this study into a sermon, the pre-existing theology and knowledge of other Scriptures tends to carry the bulk of the sermon while the commentary adds a few interesting details. As a result, most sermons I hear sound like like very general truths about God and how He works, usually the same things I learned in Sunday School as a child, and the few commentary details are there to give at least some appearance that the sermon actually comes directly out of the text at hand. It is very true that nearly any educated person could pull off such a sermon with a bit of practice and some time.
Sadly, this approach not only passes muster with most Christians, it is often what they demand - although not in so many words. The number one thing quoted for problems between pastors and congregations, if I'm not mistaken, is pastoral care. The pastorate has become more about making visits than about wrestling with each and every text until it shows itself "useful for preaching, teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness" (1 Tim. 3:16). (Dr. Greidanus made a good point in his preaching class at Calvin Sem. a number of years back, that 1 Tim. 3:16, by logical inference, must mean that no two Scripture passages can be completely redundant with each other since that would mean we could do without one of them (i.e. it wouldn't truly be useful).) As a result of seeing the pastor as more of a paid visitation specialist than as a studier and doer of the Word, congregations have placed the pastor in a position where, in order to be accepted and liked, he or she must focus on roles that elders and deacons could mostly do. And, the thing which only the pastor has been trained to do - beginning with the original text, carefully exegete each text into a well-crafted sermon no matter how long that takes - is basically left undone in favor of the quicker and easier method of interpretation described at the beginning of my response - an interpretive method that anyone with a quality education and time could pull off.
I don't at all mean to distance the pastor from living out the Word, which must absolutely include visitations. Some visitations require more than what a deacon or elder can bring to it, for one. But even more importantly a pastor needs to be involved in applying the Good News to the everyday trials of life before he or she can truly understand how radical, important, and sometimes difficult to believe the Good News can be. Nevertheless, even this needs to stem from the text and the Spirit's leading to apply that text, rather than congregational pressure to increase visits.
So, while it's true that having better educated congregations has affected the professional respect a pastor receives, in my thinking that is an indicator that we have lost sight of what a "Minister of the Word" truly is and what only he or she has been trained to be.
Posted in: Preachers and Churches
Chad - I agree completely. My apologies to anyone reading my thoughts - I did put too much onto the congregation.
Posted in: Let's Keep Thinking about the "Second Service"
At West Olive we have a very small but faithful crowd in the evening. I've been preaching through the Heidelberg at night (2 more weeks to go!), but quite honestly I think I'm not the only one bored with it. Thank goodness it ends with the 10 Commandments and Lord's Prayer because I don't think I could've made it otherwise. We've had a few breaks in between that have been much better. I did a series of 5 sermons on the Canons of Dort last spring - basically the sermons were just proof texting the major points under each head, in a systematic fashion - and it was great! In the summers we join up with a local RCA for the evenings and do a series together and that has been a blast for us pastors and, I think, for the congregation as well.
In reflecting on why the Catechism has seemed so boring, I think it's because everyone attending our evening has heard it so much before. It's not meat, at least not anymore. In the next month or two we're hoping to make the evenings a bit more "meaty" since the people there are definately at that stage in their spiritual development. Next spring we're going to try and use the catechism topics as a guide for the morning scripture sermons so that those who most need to hear the basics of our doctrine can get that, but in a format more palatable than a "Catechism sermon" in the strictest sense.
If anyone has ideas about teaching/preaching the Belgic I'd love to hear them for future reference! I think my e-mail is in the yearbook under West Olive CRC.