Will I Ever Graduate? Or, Do I Really Need Hebrew?  

Posted by Jason & Rebecca

The Scriptorium

Well, I should be studying for a Systematic Theology midterm, but why do that when you can blog? I had lunch with a friend today and we were talking about some fellow students we know whose attitude toward seminary is one of seeing it as a roadblock, something to be endured and breezed through as quickly as possible so they can get to the "real" ministry. These are the students who complain about having to take language courses, who think theology is useless, who feel they don't really need music theory or a class on worship because they've been leading a praise band for 5 years, etc. If you're around people preparing for the ministry, you've probably run into this attitude. In fact, it's also reflected in the attitude of some of the older leaders in fundamental evangelical circles--I have friends who were told by their pastor, "Don't go to seminary--it will ruin you."

I'm no longer surprised by this attitude, but I am concerned about it. I am, of course, sympathetic to the criticism that you can't learn how to "do" ministry in a classroom. That's true, to a certain extent. Most of the really useful hands-on, practical skills you need you will probably learn in a trial by fire in your first position or two. As a teacher, I recognize this same problem in the field of education: you can't learn how to teach in a classroom. In fact, most of the worst teachers I have seen had degrees in education. The really good teachers learn to do what they do through experience and making a lot of mistakes. The problem with many education majors is they have learned some theoretical techniques and have interned in a class or two, but they have learned very little content. So we are presented with the dilemma of teachers who theoretically know "how" to teach but don't know anything about history, or math, or science, etc. (This explains why a few years back in one Florida county, 80% of the math teachers could not pass the high school exit exam math portion.)

This brings me back to my impatient fellow seminarians. Sure, you may be eager to skip the Hebrew and the theology and the church history in favor of getting out in the real world; but my question is, if you do skip those things, when you get into ministry, what will you teach? What gospel will you preach? If you have slept through your theology classes, how will you know how to respond to your congregation's questions about "Where was God on Sept. 11?" How will you address the Amish school shooting if you flunked the section on God's sovereignty? What will you tell your congregation about The Da Vinci Code if you scorned church history? How will you faithfully preach the whole counsel of God, "rightly dividing the word of truth," if you crammed your way through Greek and now don't even remember enough to use a quality commentary?

The questions are perhaps even more significant for those ministering outside the normal church setting. One acquaintance disdained our theology class because he is planning to go into "a gospel-focused recreational ministry" in a missional (non-church) setting. This man may be the first and only point of contact for lost people to hear the true words of life, and he doesn't feel it's important to be an expert on what those words are.

I feel certain that there is no shortage of professional ministers in our society. What I do think is in short supply is people who have diligently prepared themselves to be approved workers who can stand for the truth of God's word and carefully shepherd his people in these perilous times.

I close with a challenge to those who may feel this impatience toward their educational preparation for ministry. Do you believe God called you to ministry? If so, then unquestionably he demands your best in this area. Do you believe God has called you to seminary? If not, then why are you there? But if he has, do you not believe that he has called you to excel where he has placed you? Remember that the way you prepare for service is a spiritual sacrifice to God just as your ministry will be.

May God bless those He has called.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 10, 2006 at 2:14 PM . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

5 comments

Anonymous  

Intriguing and thought provoking. Hopefully more Seminary students will dig a bit deeper into their own spiritual walk with Christ. Would you say it boils down to "where" their walk and commitment is with Christ?

1:09 PM
Timothy  

From the perspective of one outside the Baptist fold, this may be a symptom of sola scriptura.

No where in the Bible are seminaries to be found. Acts frequently mentions men being appointed to head churches, but seminaries and preparation courses are markedly absent. The Baptist faith has for many centuries been carried through America by ministers with little, if any,formal seminary training.

Seminaries were developed by the Catholic Church prior to the Reformation and are thus seen as a tradition of man, a tradition of an 'apostate' church, and non-scriptural.

While you and I would likely agree that the apostles had little need for Greek, Hebrew and Latin classes, we would also agree that they did spend much time being taught theology and ministry at the feet of Christ. We could probably argue that seminary is taught implicitly in the Bible.

Nonetheless, the attitude is directly traceable to sola scriptura and a lifetime of accepting only that found explicitly in the Bible.

God bless...

2:04 AM
Tauratinswe  

Yes, you do need Hebrew if you want the Bible to come alive rather than limit yourself to the whims of translators.

I'm not so sure systematic theology is helpful. It's interesting to me that God choose to give us a book of stories rather than a systematic textbook. Perhaps we should be studying more literature and creative writing so we can get the most out of the book He thought best for us.

11:58 AM
Jason & Rebecca  

Timothy--

You raise an interesting possibility, but given the culture within many Baptists in the South, I doubt it has anything to do with sola scriptura. First, this is much more of an anti-intellectual strain. Second, if you look in the churches that exhibit this attitude, they are full of practices that are not found in the Bible (altar calls and sinner's prayer, anyone?). I have always felt, though, that if churches were really doing their jobs there would be no need for seminary for the average future minister. Your pastor would be competent enough to mentor you and teach you Greek, Hebrew, the theology you need, and the practical side of ministry. Sadly, most evangelical churches and pastors have abdicated this responsibility. This one of the reasons why Baptist seminaries were founded; the other was the need for a solid academic preparation for those who wanted to prepare for an academic career in theology without drowning in the liberalism predominant in the other seminaries and institutions of the time.

7:30 AM
Jason & Rebecca  

tauratinzwe--

As a literature teacher, I love the idea of learning to read the Bible as literature. How many interpretive errors would have been avoided over the years if we had an understanding for (and appreciation for) the forms in which God inspired His text as well as the words.

I do see a need for systematic theology, though. Has anyone ever asked you a question along the lines of, "What does the Bible say about X?" It's a little awkward to say, "Well, we need to read the account of God's redemptive plan, so start with Genesis and let me know when you hit Matthew." Rather, you probably go straight to several scripture references that all address the issue at hand and show how they relate or explain each other. That is systematic theology at its most basic.

7:36 AM

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