Featured Does Seminary Really Make the Preacher BETTER?

Please forgive me for entertaining the thought that pastors don't qualify as being people. :smilewinkgrin:

Will try my best to keep that in mind.

 

That's GREAT!!!!

:tongue3: :laugh: :thumbsup:

 

would say that the best part of Seminary is to be able to interact with the godly teachers/professors scholars on Campus, and learning how to think in a biblical mindset, especially in use of the original languages and tools...

BUT

MOST important thing would be to be actually having a realcalling of God, a Shephards herat to ministry among and to the local flock!

Without that special gifting from the Lord, just head knowledge, and not practical application, as per james!

 

As the American pulpit goes, so goes the nation. It is as preachers have become poorer and poorer theologians that the nation has had less and less reverence for God.

 

Right. Furthermore, they KNEW Greek Hebrew and, better than anyone else in history- the historical climate and background of the NT books.

We have to go to seminary just to become HALF as knowledgeable about Scripture as they were.

They were not unlearned in the sense that they did not know the Bible languages and customs. They were unlearned, and only some of them at that, in the sense that they did not run in the erudite circles of the day.

 

Non sequitur. You do NOT tend to get that.

I know of many churches that are led by the most theologically educated people imaginable that are EXTREMELY generous.

First Pres in Jackson, MS, for example, is led by the president of Reformed Theological Seminary and it pours THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of dollars into the poor and hurting every year.

I don't think NJ even comes close to representing the larger evangelical world.

But, just a few miles from you is Tim Keller's very large Presby church that is also EXTREMELY generous.

Tim Keller is a VERY educated man.

 

So what....and you consider 65 miles just a few miles? Personally I don't need Tim Keller. I want Pastor Ray Little in my community who used to go out in the night to drag a drunk dad out of a bar to talk to him about caring for his two young kids who just lost their mom to cancer. He then arranged to have almost every mom in that townto look after the family. Pastor Little was always working tirelessly to help the community and he was always there for you....and he set a standard for all the other pastors to follow. Now he didn't have an advanced degree but he showed the community great love and he was loved and respected in turn. Sadly there are no men and pastors like him anymore. Again Keller who....?!?

 

Not if the regular Joe in the field reads and studies his Bible and teaches it to his family. Heaven forbid they should even go out and evangelize ....spread the gospel. :smilewinkgrin:

 

Please see that you do. :thumbsup:

 

Yeah, everyone who doesn't really want to change alludes to the impossible scenario as their desire, and won't take less, because they know the scenario they've drawn up can't be had. It's a cop out and obvious excuse. As soon as said person HAD their alleged desire granted, there'd be another excuse come down the pike.

And let's not belittle Keller, each man has their own gift and own empowerment given by God Himself, to speak, minister, and to serve, 1 Peter 4:11; 1 Cor. 3:6.

 

Yea, but we need Greek books and Hebrew books to help us understand the LANGUAGE of the Bible.

We need historical books to help us understand the CONTEXT in which the Bible was given.

And God has said IN THE BIBLE that he has gifted the church with teachers who help us to understand the BIBLE. Those teachers often write books that we ought to have the humility to use.

The unlearned men of the Bible were ten times more knowledgeable about languages and historical backgrounds than half of seminary graduates today.

We have to go to seminary just to be able to come CLOSE to the "unlearned" men of the Bible.

That means that if a preacher does not get an education he is leap years behind the most unlearned of God's men in the Bible.

An education is necessary and ought to be prasied and not dismissed.

The stupidity of people in the pew in this country is directly related to the stupidity we've had in the pulpits in this country for the last 7 or 8 decades.

 

You got your head in the sand, bro.

You got this blue collar thing going on in your head and you think blue collar preachers are superior in compassion to higly educated preachers.

It does not matter to you that you do not know AT ALL what you are talking about.

Tim Keller, not far from you, has probably helped a lot more drunkards than the blue collar type preachers you think are saints.

God uses all types- educated and uneducated.

But only a fool thinks uneducated is superior to educated.

You have to go to seminary to learn the language that UNLEARNED men spoke fluently from childhood in the Bible.

We talk about unlearned men in the Bible but we ought to consider that these unlearned men SPOKE GREEK AND HEBREW FLUENTLY. They did not have to take 40 hours of studies on Bible backgrounds. Bible backgrounds were their BACK YARDS!

Yea, preachers ought to pursue an education if they can. If they can and they don't, they are part of the problem in this ignorant country- not the solution.

 

LOL, Pastor Paul, I was going take up for you until I got back this picture from your church of you giving a sermon.



I cannot stop laughing. Pastor Paul, I am sorry, I could not resist. Is the other guy EWF?



Seriously, to Pastor Paul and EWF, since I have not been called as a pastor, it is hard to determine how much seminary has on each individual who becomes a pastor in relation to depth of knowledge and wisdom of Scripture. It probably effects different people in different ways. I do know from both of you over the years, I have learned much. Both of your ministries are unique and inspiring.

 

Keller who....?!? When I see him touching the flesh in the streets of my community...till then he is a nobody.

 

Well now Paul, just what DOES the Lord require of you?

To act justly...
to love mercy...
to walk humbly
with your God.

Micah 6:8

 

Depends on the seminary and the teachers.

But seminary does not prepare anyone for ministry. Only the Spirit can do that.