Why is it important to have educational teachings as a young minister?

I am often asked this question by many young ministers seeking to become licensed by their pastors; Why do I need an education to be a licensed minister? Why is this a requirement they ask?

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     What you are missing is that seminary does not qualify you for ministry.  If I am correct I believe that you are currently in seminary or just recently finished.  Why then were you pastoring and in ministry prior to attending seminary if this is your philosophy? 

     There are plenty of people anointed and ordained by God who will never attend seminary and it is not for you or anyone else to put your mouth on them.  This ministry was not started by you and it will not be finished by you.

     I have never put down anyone that went to seminary school.  I just don't lift them up above other people.  You can study all you want, it is God that gives understanding and wisdom.  When you think you have all knowledge, God will show you how little that you really know about life.  Read Job 38. 

     God is more concerned about how you treat other people than you trying to promote yourself because you attended seminary.  If the school that you are attending has failed to teach you this foundational truth than you need to enroll again. 

   

      

      

 

Brother

I can only speak for me. I do not think that I have all knowledge. What I have is a foundational education that enables me to read and understand the Bible in a way that someone without that education can’t. I understand the Bible in light of the History of Israel, the Nations around Israel, Church History leading up the modern ear and theological paradigms that allow for understanding.

I use the languages of the Bible, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek to better know fully the Word of God.

Now to your point about being qualified for ministry. That is up to the standards of local the church, denomination or whatever. You are right that I am in seminary, "Studing for a Master's degree and once completed a Ph.D. Yes I have a Bible College degree; the reason for this is I was a pastor with no kind of education and recognized that I did not have a biblical, theological and homiletical framework for ministry and needed more in the way of formal training. I find it funny and sad at the same time that it is only in the church that we say one does not need education. The Holy Spirit is all you need. That is true yet the Holy Spirit can only pull out what is already in. A doctor need a medical degree, a lawyer a law degree and so on!

I believe that many people that are on this site or others God did not call, I know that you and a host of other will jump on me for that but the fact remain that the prove of this is the false teaching that is on this site. I want to make it clear seminary does not prevent false teaching but it helps.  You state that “There are plenty of people anointed and ordained by God who will never attend seminary and it is not for you or anyone else to put your mouth on them.”

Yet the bible teaches that if the very people you lift up are teaching false doctrine, than I must put my Bible’s teaching on them. (Jude). So you see I am not saying that every person that teaches the Bible must go to seminary I will say that if you are a pastor (Senior, Youth, Young Adult etc.) and you do not have a theological foundation for the ministry that God called you too than you are of poor use to Him. I understand that money is a factor for some, it is for my family yet we see the need that this education brings and the way it has blessed our ministry.

    You stated in your reply, " I find it funny and sad at the same time that it is only in the church that we say one does not need education"  I don't know who has ever said that ministers don't need an education?  Do you think that because you finish seminary you are completely educated for ministry?  Scriptural study never ends.  

     You also state, "The Holy Spirit is all you need."  You have to understand that the Holy Spirit teaches us what man can't.  I have been to the University of Louisiana for four years and I am about to return to college.  I am able to teach my children the same things that I learned in college.  Understand that there is text book and there is real life.  Seminary does not give you real life.  This teaching comes through the Holy Spirit and through revelation of his word.

     Seminary is good to get biblical background.  There are people who are in heaven today who received a divine impartation from the word of God by ministers who have never been to seminary school.  If you do not think so, then you were preaching in vain prior to seminary.  

     I still encourage people to first attend a secular college and develop skills that are required to be successful in man's social economic system.  There are to many broke seminary graduates.  It's not about the money.  Do you have a source of income?  Do you have children?  You need money.  Ministry should not be your primary source of income.  More blessed to give than to receive.  Don't look for a payday because you are in seminary. 

     1 Corinthians 9:18, "What is my reward then? [Verily] that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel."

     Watson, you are a senior citizen with no skill to pay the bills.  Nowhere is it taught in the bible that a minister should engage into a contract with the church.  You have done this and this is how you pay your bills.  You probably live off government benefits as well.

     You should not be looking for a handout from your poor church.  When was the last time you loaned some money?  You don't have any.

 

@ Dr. Watson: You are right, I guess I was hoping that he was a man of logic and reason and that we could come to an understanding about the Importance of the Preacher/Pastor be educated for ministry.

@ Pitbull, I also fine myself dishearten that “you encourage people to first attend a secular college and develop skills that are required to be successful in man's social economic system.” Yet will not encourage them to seek biblical training. You ask about my income yes I have a source GOD. I work and do ministry as well as attend seminary. Yes we have kids in fact we just had our first and she will be raised to understand the importance of Biblical Education for ministry. I did not become a preacher for money nor do I do ministry for Money.

I pastor our church because people need the Word of God; I serve as a Young Adult pastor at my home church because people need the Word of God. I Work on the job that I do because people need the Word of God. If God is so kind that he places me back in full time ministry it is because people need the Word of God.

     Sounds good but once again you have to take care of home, wife and children before you can take care of the house of God.  Do you have money saved for you childrens education, retirement plan, when was the last time you took your family on a 4 day Carnival Cruise?  When was the last time you gave somebody $500 dollars without asking for a return?

     The preacher has been instructed to preach the word of God and to teach the people.  You want everybody to go to seminary school to become a preacher when most people have not been called to pulpit ministry.  The sad part is that you are not instructing people to obtain the best education that will allow them to take the wealth of this world and use it for God's glory.  God has given people talents and gifts outside of pulpit ministry.  Many are called but few are chosen.  Stop trying to put everybody behind the pulpit.   

     You and pathetic Watson treat ministry as a profession that holds the same weight as a secular job.  You want to draw benefits and money from the church when you should be giving to your church.  Stop trying to make people into preachers and tell them to learn a skill and trade to better support their families.  Stop trying to send people who are not called to pulpit ministry to seminary.  They are to learn from their pastors and study on their own.  The house of God is not a secular vocation and stop treating it as such.

 

Brother, your line of questions make no sense. I do not have to give mony away to prove any thing. In fact that is the wrong thing to do for any person. It is foolish to even ask. To answer your question about me instructing people about college/education I am a Teacher at a public College Pre and we send 100% of our kinds to a four year college. So there! As for my family time thanks for the concern but my wife and little girl are fine.

I do ont want every body behind a pulpit, in fact I think that many of these so called preachers need to step down and sit down. You talk as though you know me and you do not. I bet if you and I met face to face and had a long talk about my belifes in regaurds to ministry and preaching you would use you name and not hide behind pit-bull!

Congratulations and blessings on the birth of your baby girl.  If she is musically inclined spend money on music lessons and dance lessons.  Don't force her to seminary just because you went.
Thank you! I never said that she was going to seminary, what I said was that she would understand the importacne of a biblical education, that is not the same as she is going to seminary. Now if God calls her there than fine. You seem to want to force her in to dance, what is wrong with her being in to her studies?

     Acts 20:35, "I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive."  When was the last time you gave?

     You were called to go to seminary and congratulations.  Don't subject other people to follow you in your steps if God has another path for them.  I will give you a little insight (revelation)  This is not taught in seminary, you might reject it, this is Spirit.

     Acts 27:43, "But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from [their] purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast [themselves] first [into the sea], and get to land:"

Acts 27:44, "And the rest, some on boards, and some on [broken pieces] of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land."

     Stop trying to force your purpose in life upon other people.  It is your enemies purpose to destroy the plans that God has for you.  But God has ordered your every step and will use people who have not attended seminary so that he can get the glory.  Some people are able to make it ahead of the others with little or no effort, some will make it through the hard (boards) and difficult times of life and some will make by clinging to just the smallest bit of hope and faith in what other people might feel is insignificant.  Some people will make it by studying the Word of God on their own.

     I believe that you are a sincere pastor and that your seminary has been ordered by the Lord.   Remember that God can raise someone up ahead of you and with more spiritual aptitude without seminary school so that he can get the glory, not man, not you and not your doctorate of divinity degree.

I don't care if someone is ahead of me, that sound like something that come from the pit of hell. There in one mission that the church has to live out our faith and share His gospel with the world. It is the same mission that Israel had in the OT. I believe that if you are called to preach the Word of God that you need to be prepared to do so. Yes that means seminary. Each verse you quoted is taken out of context and when you do that you do not have the the text in view you only have your point and that a very bad one in deed. Thank you for saying that I am sincere, you did not have to do that, yet what you call spiritual aptitude I think can be heart burn without trainging. I as a pastor will no longer allow a man/only a man to preach before the people that God placed in my charge to dawn the pulpit with training from a Bible College or Seminary it is that important that our people understand the Word of God rightly lives depend on it.

    If you do not care then you would respect those who learn and study under their pastor or through self-study.

    You and poor Watson never are able to bring any spiritual revelation to a text.  I remember poor watson, when I gave a commentary on Moses slaying the Egyptian stated, that was creative and inventive.  You are silly if you think someone who unpacks revelation sits around and tries to come up with biblical creativity.  You reject a word of revelation from the Holy Spirit and don't know what to call it but yet your biblical historic teachings do not minister to people and what they are going through in their life today.  Call it a parable or typology or something man.

You also forget that you were preaching without a seminary education.  This is a hypocritical premise that you have devised.  Nowhere is seminary mentioned in the bible.  A matter a fact the doctors of the law were an adversary to the work of the ministry.  Modern day Sadducee/Pharisee.

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