Balanced Training for Ministry

by | Jul 7, 2005 | Ecclesiology, Pastoral Ministry

Steve Camp, a contemporary Christian musician (who I have great respect for and enjoy his music) has posted a thought provoking article on his blog today entitled, “It’s the Church . . . Stupid.” His contention is that the seminaries have hijacked training for pastoral ministry and the local church is left with the theological error and poor pastors that result from such terrorism. The subject of ministry training is much on my heart. For the first eight and a half years of my serving as a pastor, I had no formal theological training. By God’s good providence, I was able to attend The Master’s Seminary (TMS) in Los Angeles. Steve speaks highly of TMS in his article and he even served on staff at Grace Community Church (connected with TMS) during my time there. I have been able to live on both sides of the spectrum and see the need for both practical ministry training in the local church and formal theological education. Currently I am pursuing further training at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary while serving full time as a pastor of a local church. Steve’s article scratches where I itch. His critique of the majority of formal education is needed. While he seems to lump almost all seminaries into the liberal category (except TMS) for their disconnect from the local church in ministry training, he still hits on a critical issue. Where is the local church in the process of training men for pastoral ministry? In my opinion, Steve offers some good points of critique. What is needed is a practical and effective cooperative effort between...

Philip Ryken

by | Jul 2, 2005 | Pastoral Ministry

Challies.com posts a great review of the ministry of Philip Ryken. Ryken is the Senior Pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA. I recently noticed not only his recent publications, but also a few auido clips on sermonaudio.com. Many of these clips are short applications of theology to every area of life, much like Challies notes on his blog. Listen for yourself to see if you believe that Dr. Ryken is one of the world’s foremost preachers of our...

Do Pastors Really Pray?

by | Jun 6, 2005 | Pastoral Ministry

The referenced article details a recent study on the prayer life of pastors. The findings reveal a deep satisfaction among many pastors (if not most) regarding their personal prayer life. The level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction tends to be linked to the amount of time a pastor spends in prayer. The report notes: “The amount of time spent in prayer: Pastors who are very satisfied spend an average of 56 minutes a day in prayer; those who are somewhat satisfied average 43 minutes; those who are somewhat dissatisfied average 29 minutes; and those who are very dissatisfied average 21 minutes.” Satisfaction or the lack thereof is also linked to what pastors do during prayer: “How they divide their prayer time: Ministers who are very satisfied spend considerably less time than average making requests and considerably more time in quiet time or listening to God;” “The study clearly showed that what drives a satisfying prayer life for a minister is spending less time asking God for things and more time listening to what God has to say . . . ” Hmm, what exactly does this last item mean: “listening to what God has to say?” Could this be another illustration of our lack of trust in the sufficiency of the Scripture? Perhaps so, if this “listening” time is disconnected from the only infallible source we have from which to hear God speak. It is another sign of a postmodern (and unpublished) mindset when we suggest that what God says to us personally could be divorced from (and even contradictory to) what God has already revealed in the Bible. Some...