I recently read an interesting article that traced the focus of seminary education through the years. In the 1960s the focus in many seminaries was on social justice. It created pastors who thought social justice was the Gospel and excluded everything else. In the 1970s and 80s the emphasis was on pastoral counseling, and pastors filled their calendars with counseling appointments. As we entered the 1990s and into the 2000s the focus in many seminaries has shifted to leadership development. Graduates now begin their pastoral ministries with CEO mindsets. I agree with the article that none of these things are necessarily wrong. The church and its pastors should be concerned with social justice issues. Pastors will be confronted with people having a multitude of psychological and relational issues. The church often has not had the leadership it needs to minister well. No, there's nothing wrong with any of these except we have been called to be pastors. Servant leaders. Shepherds.
Should we be concerned with social and political issues? Absolutely. Scripture speaks often about caring for those who cannot care for themselves, and this is the church's job, not the government's. Should pastors be able to counsel hurting people? Yes, and they should also know when to refer someone to a trained, competent, Christian counselor who has the training needed to help someone with issues that require more knowledge and skills than most pastors have. Do pastors need to know how to lead churches? I believe the lack of strong pastoral leadership is one of the greatest needs in the church today, but this leadership is not the CEO model of leadership. We are not called to be dictators. Our calling is that of a servant leader.
The call to pastoral ministry is one of the greatest callings anyone can have on his or her life. It is a call to love people and to be involved in their lives. There were times I would walk through an empty sanctuary and pray for the people who sat in each pew. During my 20 year ministry in that church I got to know our membership very well. We were not a perfect people. In fact, we all had our warts and problems, but I had such a deep love for the people who gathered there each week. I would sometimes tell them from the pulpit, "Sometimes you drive me up the wall, but I want you to know that I truly love each and every one of you with a love that is much deeper than any of you realize."
Let us not become so involved in the mechanics of ministry that we forget our first calling is to shepherd our people. The hireling flees at the first sign of trouble; the shepherd stays to protect the flock. If one wanders off the shepherd searches until it is found and returned to the fold. The shepherd feeds the sheep and tenderly cares for each one. If a sheep is injured the shepherd tends to it until it is well again.
I think some seminaries need to remember what their students are called to be and take a new look at what they are teaching. Whether or not they ever do that, it is important for us to remember the nature of our calling and seek to live it out each day wherever we are. We should take Jesus' words to Peter as if He was speaking to each of us: if you love Me, feed My sheep.
2 comments:
Thought provoking stuff. I think I agree with you. I would say that throughout all of this there was also a model that opted to train pastors to be "theologians-in-residence" during this same period.
Excellent point. I overlooked the "theologian-in-residence" which still seems to be the primary focus of the MDiv. Again, pastors need to be theologically sound, but we are called to be pastors. I believe there is a difference between being a theologian and a pastor. I've always liked Leith Anderson's comment that seminaries train persons preparing to be pastors how to be theologians, and when they graduate they are not prepared to be either.
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