If I was in charge of the seminary system

Which of course I am not and my picture is probably prominently displayed in the security offices of most seminaries. I am just having a little fun spurred on by a post at Eric Carpenter’s blog and because I am sure someone will read this and get offended. What can I say, I am feeling a bit puckish. Having said that, here is what I would do if I were given the keys to every seminary in America:

• Shut many of them down:

o My opinion? There are too many seminaries as it is. According to a quick search, there are over 140 Protestant seminaries in America alone. Does the cost of maintaining that many seminaries make sense when the core function of them is to pump out vocational ministers? I can’t even begin to hazard a guess as to the cost of running a mid-sized seminary but I am sure it is in the millions. Most of that is offset with donations and tuition but that is money that could be better used on a whole variety of efforts. We need a certain number of seminaries but maybe that number is 50?

• Change their focus away from vocational training

o The focus of evangelical seminaries today is vocational training, giving men the requisite education to become a paid minister, full-time evangelist or a certified church planter. Men graduating from seminary are intensively trained to prepare and deliver sermons, lead local churches and deal with people in the context of a local church. I would say they are poorly trained to do what they are called to do, i.e. equip the saints for the work of ministry (Eph 4: 11-16) This model of vocational training for ministers is culturally acceptable and noble but it is foreign to Scripture. Considering how much we emphasize the Bible and simultaneously invest so much of church life into a system that doesn’t even appear as a hint in the Bible we claim to revere, it seems contradictory. If seminaries remain primarily a vocational training school for professional ministers, we ought to scrap the whole system.

• Focus on equipping the local church

o To truly serve the local church, seminaries need to engage the local church. Merely training men to send out to serve is not good enough. How many faithful Southern Baptists will never set foot in a single building of one of their seminaries and never so much as meet one of the faculty? The only connection they will have with their seminaries is the pastor in the pulpit. It is not hard to see the impact of a disconnect between the local church and the seminary system, you only need look back at the state of SBC seminaries before the “Conservative Resurgence”. If seminaries are committed to serving the local church, they need to meet the local church. I suggested over at Eric’s post that instead of sending a few men for three years to seminary, why not have week long intensive seminars all year, at a reasonable cost, to train regular men with jobs to lead in the church? Have the academics get out of their dusty offices and out from behind their books to come and teach in local churches around the country. I know some men do this but we need more of it.

• Maintain the academic core

o There is a real need and place for higher level academics in the church. It is not the highest priority or even near the top but it is there. We need academics who are experts in the original languages to continue to refine our translations. We need intellectuals to combat heresy and error that creeps into the church. I appreciate the work of theologians and academics like D.A. Carson, Andreas Kostenberger and David Alan Black and I am not saying they should become ditch diggers. I am saying that the academic community should always focus on serving the local church instead of serving their fellow academics. Theology needs to be deep but it also needs to be practical. Printing books that only PhD’s can read and comprehend might get you academic acclaim but it is not terribly helpful to the church (Turretin? Owens? Yeah, I am talking about you).

Those are just some thoughts I thunk. What do you think? What would you change about the seminary system or do you think it is fine the way it is? It is nigh impossible to overstate the incredible impact that seminaries have on local churches, on how ministers are trained, about the assumptions they bring with them to the local church, how Christians understand all sorts of doctrines. I think that the system is in dire need of an overhaul. The problem is that those who would need to lead that overhaul are the ones who benefit the most from the status quo.