Save Our Seminaries!

In my last post I went a little deeper on the idea and importance of having a Biblically based Sunday school/small group as opposed to having book studies.

http://stevenuessle.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-new-vision-for-millennials-and-church_14.html

A very important, and unstated in the previous post, aspect of having a Biblically based class is that the leader absolutely must have a minimal level of Bible training and knowledge.  In fact, having a leader/teacher who does not have a minimal level of knowledge could potentially do much damage and allow for interpretation that is quite different than what one would want. I would find it difficult to teach Christ or the mission of the church without knowing what they are. And I say this from personal experience, in my first couple of years after coming to faith I lead a Bible study and looking back it truly was the blind leading the blind.

The biggest issue (to me) would be a leader presenting material with a specific agenda in mind that would be contrary to what the scripture says. This can be done by downplaying scripture and focusing on a specific conclusion, or by cherry-picking scripture out of context (proof-texting scripture). These concerns of course can be realized no matter what the level of education of the teacher/leader. The second issue, as mentioned above, would be ignorance of scripture. The leader could have a good heart and pure motives but would still struggle to understand much of scripture, and this could be especially dangerous when encountering hard teachings or difficult questions that may be raised. (The flip side, is someone who is too educated providing answers that are high-minded but do very little to communicate anything worthwhile. The greatest lesson I took away from Seminary was a realistic idea of the damage I could do to believers if I wasn’t careful).

In addition to education there are several qualities that would be desirable in a leader/teacher – such as being a good shepherd, allowing for all people to contribute and ask questions in a safe place, allowing free inquiry, showing limitless grace, validating people who ask questions, and many more. This could in fact be its own post and is a good reminder that being a leader/teacher is really difficult and is something worthwhile for the church to consider and to invest in.

This is what brings me to the topic of the post, the idea of the Seminary. I have seen that in many ways the Seminary is in trouble. I know the problems of my own Seminary (Bethel), but the struggles they are facing are not unique across the country. I do not have all the numbers, but I have heard and read that a significant number of Seminaries are in serious trouble in the next decade and may go away.

Part of this is the changing financial realities of our society. I had a good friend tell me that the age of the professional Christian may be going away. Each passing year sees fewer people (as a percentage, if not absolutely) working as pastors, professors, parachurch organizations, and other places of employment. This will lead to a decrease in demand for students willing to enroll in Seminary. And there are many people who went to Seminary with hope of paid ministry that have struggled to find it (ahem). Add to this the reality that costs are not going down and there is a lot of strain throughout the system.

Also, and this is admittedly anecdotal, but I sense that the church models that are seeing the largest amount of growth do not necessarily have the same demand for Seminary educated leaders, or they are opening their own Seminaries, or they are just emphasizing more lay leaders in support positions. There simply is not the demand from churches for the Seminary educated student.

Another critique I have heard is that specific Seminaries are failing because of what they teach or how they teach or political views they may have. While this may be true on a small scale, I see these issues as being dwarfed by the bigger macro issues that are facing Seminaries across the country.

So what is being lost? Well, for starters, we are in danger of losing a large amount of educated members of our church. This will have a trickle down effect in our congregations and will impact on the ability of the church to interact with larger society.

Another loss is the ecumenical aspect of the Seminary. Leaders from a variety of church traditions with a variety of perspectives are able to mingle, learn together, challenge each other, and take that accumulated knowledge back to their own churches. There is immense value in this, as it demands people interact with those that are different and to have a more robust understanding of the church. That can certainly flow down into the congregation.

So what can be done? Perhaps it is time for a new understanding of Seminary and what it can mean for the church community. The mission of the Seminary was to train young people as the future leaders of the church, but this was probably thought of in the sense of professional Christians. As stated, this role is probably in permanent decline in our society. But teachers and leaders in the church are still needed, no matter what their full time profession may be.

Models within the Seminary are shifting, but as best I can tell they are still focused on the model of churning out professional Christians. Perhaps it is time for a more expansive view of Seminary, to provide short term or extreme part time programs. To target specific training for small group leaders/teachers. To provide training for missions, for board leaders, for youth leaders, for other people within the church. I do not know exactly what this would look like, but it can help define a new view of the Seminary.

We need to save the Seminary. But we also need to acknowledge the reality of the new world that the Seminary serves. The mission of the past couple of centuries is becoming less of a reality, but the need for educated leaders and teachers is as needed, and perhaps as critical, as it has ever been.