Why don’t pastors prepare new leaders? I batted this question around with two ministry colleagues. From those conversations, we developed a list of nine reasons pastors don’t prepare leaders. The reasons vary, but all result in...
Our church is currently in the process of revising its policies with regard to how it works with young men and women who approach the elders with their desire to serve in some capacity of vocational Christian ministry. I was asked to...
Part 5: What if the Church is the Problem? I would like to conclude this series in defense of church-based pastoral formation, responding to a very important critique: “What if the church is the problem?” Let’s imagine a...
#4 A Practical Argument In this installment, I argue that church-based pastoral formation offers a host of practical benefits. We’ll examine the church as an effective context for formation. Next, the issue of financial sustainability...
#3 An Ecclesiological Argument By ecclesiological, I mean that which touches on the structure and make-up of the church. Certain models of pastoral formation honor and uphold a biblical ecclesiology, and others threaten it to varying...
#2 A Historical Argument In a previous post, I argued that the Bible supports a church-based model for pastoral formation. In this article, the attention turns to church history. While the Bible is unchanging, the church wrestles with...
Over the course of five brief articles I want to present arguments in defense of the local church taking full responsibility for pastoral formation. I will argue that a church-based approach has biblical and historical support, in...
The word seminary comes from the Latin seminarium and its original meaning is seed plot or seed bed. The use of the term to refer to clerical formation apparently began in the Catholic counter-reformation of the 16th century. During a...
What if the healthiest churches in the developing world were responsible for the pastoral formation of the next generation of pastors? While the global numbers regarding the scarcity of theological education among church leaders are...
Can pastoral formation and theological education be considered missions? After all, missions is about the fulfillment of the Great Commission: And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to...
I want to recommend an article by a colleague, Dr Joost Nixon. Joost serves with Training Leaders International and has co-labored with us both as a professor and as an academic/school planting adviser. Here is an excerpt:...
In recent years, there has been a dramatic shift toward the developing world within global Christianity[1]. In the early 20th Century, 80% of Christians lived in either North America or Europe. Today, there are now more Christians in...
And support excellence in pastoral formation in the developing world.
