Seminary That’s Working

My impression of seminary is not formed from direct experience but
from the vicarious experience of a good handful of some of very
closest friends who have taken classes and gotten degrees. It is not
necessarily a very good impression. My sense is that too many
participants derive from their seminary experience one or more of
three not-so-great outcomes – not so great not necessarily meaning not
good, but meaning not complete in and of themselves. First, they are
force-fed a particular doctrinal angle that represents what products
of "that" school adhere to. Second, they are taught how to be
professional ministers (much like an executive education program for
pastors). And/or third, they get caught up in the world of full-time
religious students and full-time religious workers and lose contact
with the world outside that world.

And so it is refreshing to hear of a friend of mine who is having a
seminary experience that makes sense. I am fortunate to have been
able to keep in touch with a good friend of mine from high school. He
is currently in his last year of seminary, and he has enjoyed it
immensely. We talk on the phone every month or so, and he excitedly
tells me about the neat things he gets to learn and the neat people he
gets to learn them from.

Best of all, in his mind, is how his seminary education is shaping and
enflaming his life direction, in contrast to the three not-so-great
outcomes I listed above. First, he and his classmates are challenged
to study the Scriptures with fresh eyes, casting aside preconceived
theological and cultural assumptions so that the freshness of the
Bible can come through. Second, while his studies have better
prepared him for administration, they have also reinforced the
relational impact pastors and other professional ministers can have on
people, families, and communities. And third, what my friend has
studied and how he has studied it has not led him to huddle more
closely with other believers but has ignited and girded his passion to
reach out to non-believers – imagine that, studying Jesus under the
power of the Holy Spirit leading a man to have the Father's heart for
those who are spiritually lost.

I don't know enough about my friend's seminary to know if this is an
academic experience that is common at the school, or if it can all be
attributed to the fact that my friend has just approached his studies
in a proper way. I don't know enough about seminary in general to
pass judgment, and I'm not passing judgment. Every year, it produces
thousands of leaders changed from their experience of studying
Scripture, learning under outstanding professors, supported by other
students heading in the same directions – this is a good thing. I
just hope that as few of those leaders as possible is having a narrow
and insular experience that leads to rote acceptance of doctrine, an
overly bureaucratic approach to institutional management, and a
burrowing into the comfortable circles of the seminary-educated, and
as many of those leaders as possible is having a vast and
transformative experience like my friend is.