Reply to Mark's comment on preachers needing class study as well as on-the-job-trainging

[David E. Holt]

Hello Mark! I started a reply to you, got distracted by something, and when I returned my unfinished reply was GONE! So I'll start over. I agree with you that ministers should have as much classroom education as possible. It's important that it be the RIGHT classroom! I've discovered that every denomination, every Bible College, and every seminary tends to have its own interpretation of Scripture, its own bias, and its own certainty that THEIR interpretation is the "right" one. So I think you would agree, it is important for the minister to make certain of the background and validity of those who would do the teaching.
I was fortunate enough to be given on-the-job-training by Dr. O.L. Walker, head of the religion department at Stetson University, DeLand, FL. Each week Dr. Walker would send a few of us "preacher boys" to preach in churches which had invited him - but since he couldn't accept them all, they had to put up with us! After graduation from Stetson I attended and graduated from Southern Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. While a student there I was favored to live on the church field of a church in Tampico, Indiana, traveling 120 miles per day to and from seminary. That on-the-job-training was a God-send! Those precious people taught me so much!
After being blessed with much success in ministry, God led me to start a new kind of Baptist church. Greatly favored by God during my final 21 years as their founding pastor, accomplishing many exciting dreams given us by God, including a 25,000 sq. ft. state of the art 1600 seat sanctuary, I was led to write a book sharing many of the practices and principles learned over a lifetime of ministry. The book is called ABCs Of Ministry: Choosing It, Learning It, Doing It, After It. No matter how much or how little education with which a minister may have been blessed, this book will stir up creative thoughts God is just waiting to help turn into creative ministry, help readers get started doing some dreaming with God, encourage those whose hopes and plans have somehow dried up to get started again, show how to get a congregation working WITH you instead of dragging their feet, how to write and deliver the kind of sermons that catch the interest and imagination of the audience, keeping it till the very end and motivating them to action.
It may sound self-serving, but God led me to write this book for the benefit of His children and especially, His ministers. Check out the flavor of the book by clicking on my page on Black Preaching Network and viewing the video,
or clicking on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzA-XHtyRS4
Consider the information within this book as on-the-job-training!
David E. Holt contact: [e-mail] or leave a message on BPN