Process – Part 2a

Sorry for the delay on the posts, I was recovering from an IVIG and in hand-to-hand combat with Quicken and Citibank trying to get some tax data ready for my CPA.  Sometimes, like one of my mentors said, it takes a lot of time to live.

Last post we looked at some topics that a new believer or one who has recently taken responsibility for their walk with God might need to understand.  There is much more that can be said about this.  However, we will focus on just a few.  

One of the biggest obstacles to engaging believers in this way is the way pastors are trained in seminary.  Full disclosure, I have a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS).  I graduated with honors, was the outstanding pastoral ministries student, and recipient of a merit scholarship in my 4th year.  I attended the seminary after serving almost 10 years in a parachurch campus ministry.  So, I both understand what seminary education is, and viewed it differently than most of those in my classes.  In some classes I was furiously taking notes while others were sleeping, because I would have killed to have had that information when I was involved in leading a summer training program for college students.

For the most part Seminary education is pulpit focused.  There are exceptions, but for the most part the focus is on preparing one to speak and or teach.  To validate this, under the logo for DTS are the words “κήρυξον τὸν λόγον” from 2 Timothy 4:2 (here at Bible Gateway), there and in your Bible that is probably translated “preach the Word”, I would translate it differently, but that is for another time.  The point is, the focus is the pulpit or the lectern.  Graduates leave with the notion either implicit or explicit that their preaching or teaching is the only thing that will cause people to grow in the Lord.  All of the students in my first preaching class, but me, expressed that conviction verbally before the class.

So, it is a paradigm shift for a pastor to focus on having those in their care personally engaging in their personal walks and to work to do that.  There is a sense that the people cannot do what the pastor can do as well as the pastor can.  Therefore, the pastor may be reticent to let them try.  Pastors have told me this.  

Do not construe what is written here as I am against pastors or think that what they do is of little use.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The pastor is the primary vision caster for the body.  What he emphasizes sets the tone and direction for that local body.  

How he handles the Word of God is both important and can encourage personal engagement if he shares how he got what he says out of the Word of God.  Lifting the hood, referred to in a previous post.

I feel like I am rambling a bit, so I am going to shut this down and pick up the next part of the process in the next post.