Skip to main content

"They Sure Didn't Teach Me THAT in Seminary"


How often have you heard these words (or said them yourself): “They sure didn’t teach me THAT in seminary!” Now, sometimes this is simply not true. Committed professors drew upon their experiences in churches and their academic backgrounds to share skills and insights with ministers in formation. They tried to help us understand how to preach to meet people’s needs, minister to them in times of crisis, and how to apply biblical texts to contemporary situations. We simply did not get it. We had not reached that “teachable moment.”

On the other hand, the statement is sometimes true. There are several reasons for this:

First, even with a two or three year degree program, there is just so much a curriculum can bear. No matter how important a particular discipline or skill is, there are a limited number of hours in a day as well as in a degree program. In every theological institution, hard choices must be made about what to include and some things will be left out.

Second, we as students or the seminary leaders cannot always know what skills and abilities will be needed in the future. For example, how many of us were trained to deal with the personal and institutional needs that result from a national financial crisis? We expected incomes to increase, endowments to grow, and loans to be readily available. Who knew that computers would revolutionize how we write, communicate, and even conduct worship? Many of us started out using mimeograph machines and were grateful when Xerox copiers were added to the office. Who could foretell the changes in public morality and sexual mores that challenge our traditional concepts of morality? I took several counseling courses in seminary but I was not prepared to counsel the homosexual student who came into my office less than a year after I graduated.

Third, if we had listened carefully to our instructors, we might have heard some of them say, “We can’t teach you everything you need to know to do ministry. You will have to learn throughout your life.” They may not have used the term “lifelong learner,” but they understood the concept.

I was fortunate that when I graduated from seminary, I was able to pursue the ministry to which I felt called and for which I had prepared, but I found out pretty quickly that I needed to learn new skills—small group process, leadership dynamics, researching new faith movements, some additional counseling skills, and a new theology of doing ministry that centered on personal rather than organizational development.

The best thing that a seminary education (or any education for that matter) can do is to teach us how to learn. We either become lifelong learners or we fail to live up to our calling. “They didn’t teach me that in seminary” is not a valid excuse.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Well put, Ircel. As I have been working on a column for the Oates Journal on Just-in-Time learning, I have been reminded just how much more important learning to learn is over content. My locus for ministry did not yet exist when I did my initial seminary degree. And in the midst of working on my next project I am in the midst of having to unlearn how I did our last online conference so that it does not hinder my creativity in developing the next. While some of my biblical, theological, and pastoral care studies from seminary provide an occasionally useful foundation; I have even replaced a lot of that over the years as I seek to stay current with what I need to know for what I am doing and who I am connecting with today and tomorrow.

I was on a retreat with my clergy peer group recently and this topic came up in conversation. We all echoed this perspective as we reflected on leaving the seminary and moving into ministry. There were three things that we agreed that we wished that we had learned in seminary: (1) how to learn so that we would be prepared to learn what we actually needed to know for doing ministry as our contexts changed (and day one in the first pastorate was a new context). (2) How to take care of ourselves and our families while serving as ministers. (3) How to work as collaborators rather than competitors. So we redesigned seminary educations to better accomplish this.

Cheers,
Chris Hammon
Wayne E. Oates Institute

Check these out

Confessions of a Recovering Southern Baptist

I am grateful for my heritage as a Southern Baptist.  I was exposed to the Bible and worship from a very young age.  I grew up in a church in south Alabama that supported the Cooperative Program of missions giving.  This meant that our church had the benefit of being part of a supportive group of local churches and the educational opportunities that afforded. Our state convention provided varied and effective ministries with groups like orphans, ethnic groups, and college students.  We supported missionaries at home and abroad.  We had good Bible study and training literature (which we paid for, of course).  I went to an accredited seminary and paid a remarkably low tuition.  Wherever you went on a Sunday morning (in the Southeast and Southwest, at least), you could find a church that sang the familiar hymns and studied the same Bible lesson. In hindsight, I realize that this Southern Baptist utopia was imperfect.  There were significant theological differences, often geograp

The Bible Tells Me So

As I read the story of the Good Samaritan during my devotional today, I was reminded of the times that I have heard the story in the Christian education setting of the local church--as a youngster in primary and intermediate classes (old terminology), as a young adult in college classes, and then as an adult, often teaching the passage myself.     The characters and story line are very familiar due to these experiences of Christian education. These are challenging times for Christian education in the church.  Like so much of what is happening in the church today, the old forms do not seem to support present needs.  What once worked no longer seems to be effective.  Christian education or the formation of believers is in a state of flux. In an article on ethicsdaily.com , retired professor Colin Harris addresses this issue. He points out that the period of the 60’s and 70’s  “saw the beginnings of a loss of vitality within the educational dimension of church ministry, as the

Metaphors of the Kingdom of God

In a recent blog , consultant Seth Godin addresses the power of metaphor.   He points out, “The best way to learn a complex idea is to find it living inside something else you already understand.”   In other words, “this” is like “that.” “When you see a story, an example, a wonderment,” says Godin, “take a moment to look for the metaphor inside.”   Jesus turned this around.   In the use of parables, he told a story or provided a metaphor and challenged his hearers to see the truth within. For example, in his teaching on the Kingdom (or Reign) of God in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus compares the Kingdom to such things as a mustard seed, yeast, a hidden treasure, a net, a king, and a landowner.   His hearers are encouraged to use their imaginations to understand something that they had never experienced.   He also attempted to shift their perspective so that they might see signs of the Kingdom breaking into their present reality.  These are metaphors for the Kingdom. Where do w

The Tragedy of Willow Creek Community Church

File photo of Steve Carter, Heather Larson, and Bill Hybels As Christian brothers and sisters, we need to pray for Willow Creek Community Church.   On the eve of the Global Leadership Summit, a worldwide conference sponsored by the church in cooperation with the Willow Creek Association, church leadership imploded as a result of further allegations against former pastor Bill Hybels. Last year, Hybels introduced the team who would assume church leadership upon his retirement--lead pastor Heather Larson and teaching pastor Steve Carter.  Although the founding pastor planned to stay on to assist in a time of transition, reports of sexual impropriety involving Hybels surfaced early this year.  He accelerated his departure from the church and left the board of the Willow Creek Association. When other charges emerged last week, teaching pastor Carter resigned. On Wednesday evening, Larson and the entire elder board--lay leaders who provide accountability on behalf of the congreg

A Future for the Global Leadership Summit?

Craig Groeschel, the founder and senior pastor of Life.Church. The Global Leadership Summit which began as a project of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and its founding pastor, Bill Hybels, over 25 years ago was held this week without Hybels. For several years, the GLS has been now produced by the Willow Creek Association, a spin-off organization and a loose network of churches but Hybels has been its driving force. Attended by thousands at the church facility in South Barrington and broadcast to thousands more at satellite locations, the annual meeting brings together not only evangelical leaders but outstanding speakers from business, charitable organizations, politics, and business.  For the first time, Hybels did not appear due to allegations of sexual impropriety brought against him over the past year by former employees, staff members, and business associates.  He has already left the church and resigned from the board of the association.