Shane argues that Moore college's college-centric approach to theological education discourages maximum involvement in the local church.
I agree that this is the case. In all my years as a christian, I was never less involved in a local congregation than I was during our years at Moore. I went to church each Sunday (twice a Sunday before I had kids) and in the year I was studying, I also went to a student minister's meeting. I played the piano, did kids talks and helped a little with sunday school stuff. I was never in a church bible study group because college wives were encouraged to join a college small group. I talked to many people - especially visitors - but didn't make too many close friendships.
But while I may have been less involved in church than I had been before and have been since, I don't think it was a bad thing. Here's why:
- I did throw myself into college relationships. I would never swap that decision.
- By being involved the college women's program, I saw college wives (and faculty wives) model great bsg leading and pastoring.
- I think that there will always be a pragmatic bent to everything that is taught in churches. At college the emphasis is on finding out what the bible actually says and really working that out before we consider how we might use it in our congregations. I would hate it if my pastor (my husband, as it happens!) had learnt his exegetical skills from church alone rather than from biblical scholars. I can see lots of very dodgy exegesis being passed off as profound bible work by high profile preachers. A good theological college will teach you how to treat the bible with respect.
- Students and families training for ministry are planning to give the rest of their lives in service to the church. It is not too much to ask that they have a few years off high-intensity pastoral involvement while they train. If it takes them a couple of years to get back up to speed pastorally afterwards, so be it.
- And anyway, my less than normal church involvement during our college years was probably as much as most people's church involvement generally is!
Thanks for this post, Simone. I find it really interesting because my husband is at college at the moment, and I have recently had to make the decision of whether to devote the majority of my time to church or college community. A lot of the advice has been exactly what you said. I like how you really thought through your decision and the hindsight that you can provide.
ReplyDeleteJust to add another perspective, after thinking and praying about it, Sam and I decided that I would do the opposite. I joined a church biblestudy, don't go to most of the college women stuff and apart from a few close friends of my husband, have chosen to work on relationships at our new church instead of ones with women at college.
Although there were so many great pragmatic reasons for prioritising college relationships, I just felt that to do so didn't sit well with my concept of church and fellowship and sharing your lives with people, not just attending on sunday. I also felt that God had put Sam and I at our church for a good reason (we prayed so hard about this decision) that to keep my involvement "light" would have not been honoring that answer to prayer.
So far? So good.
In terms of exegetical preaching, I'm in a different position from Sam as a wife who most likely won't enter teach ministry, so that's not so much of a concern. Hwoever, we deliberately prayed for a minister to sit under who would teach Sam to be a better bible teacher, and God has graciously answered this prayer.
In terms of relationships with college, interestingly I don't feel it has hampered my ability to get to know Sam's friends and share in "his" world, as most of the "socialising" we do outside of programmed stuff anyway. I think sometimes there is a myth that doing heaps of programs will lead to deeper/better relationships. The best friendships we have built have been inviting people over and hanging out with people outside of college time. Admittedly, I am only interested in getting to know Sam's friends as a wife, rather than befriending the entire year as a student. So my opinion is skewed there. But I have heard some college people comment that despite all the programs around, they still feel it hard to get to know people.
3. BS - I love going to biblestudy with my husband. It did concern me that college were encouraging me to attend a group that was totally separate to him, as I felt that it was encouraging a gender divide, rather than fellowship based around families. As for separate BS, I figure that this will happen anyway when he's a preacher, why not use this time to grow together, to feed and fellowship together, to learn about how we interacting with the bible in a group context?
Regrets? Not yet, but its still early days. Who knows? This may have been a big mistake, but it is still interesting to think about!
PS. sorry for the long comment. I tend to do that. and hope I didn't come across as criticising your post - I like hearing different perspectives and opinions on things, so really appreciated it :)
ReplyDeleteHi Soph. I've no issues with the different choice that you made. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteA little points where I'll disagree with you...
It's great that your pastor is good and Sam will learn heaps about preaching from him, but I think that long term it's not your pastor who will make Sam a great bible teacher. It's what he gets from his greek and hebrews classes and his OT, NT and doctrine lectures which will matter most in the long term. If he has a real desire to preach well he can learn those skills in a couple of months from the right person. If he doesn't thoroughly know how to work the bible, the communication stuff won't be much use.
I guess that I (unlike Shane) like the fact that MTC is separate to the church. I like that at a theological college you can debate stuff (somewhat) removed from the pastoral situation. For example, MD's recent series on the Song of Song raised the question for me as to whether the couple in the Song are actually married. I think that the most obvious answer from the text is that for most of the book they are not married. This, of course, raises all sorts of questions. Good questions about the purpose of the book and what it is aiming to teach us. Questions which will eventually lead us to a much greater understanding of the Song and cause our preaching on it to be more considered and ultimately more profound.
But the place to do this thinking is theological college. In church ministry the pressure is on to produce a sermon that will be edifying to your congregation. There is most often no time to think really big and out of the box thoughts.
Of course, I don't think that you're suggesting we do away with theological colleges and train everyone in church. But that is the direction in which others are taking the argument. I think such a move would quickly prove disastrous.
It's cool that you have relational room in your life for lots of new people! Enjoy!
I totally agree with you there, Simone. MTC has been such a blessing to Sam, in that regard. Especially second year where this kind of learning has really ramped up.
ReplyDeleteI had a think about your post some more last ngiht, and I realised that a lot of my decision has to do with life situation - i.e. being a worker and living closer to church than college. I suspect if I had a baby, or if I decided to study for a year, I would think differently about our decision.
but all good things to think about!
Hi Simone
ReplyDeletelate comment and convoluted - but I couldn't resist.
I am for theological colleges for the record - but theological colleges that place a very firm connection into the local church because it is the locus of life and community.
my bug bear is theological community that starts to exist in of and for itself, or exists for students rather than its constituent churches.
I have massively benefitted from the aspects of collegiality , in depth study, languages etc
but it is not ultimately those things that will see me through - it is (yes Jesus) and the community of grace and truth . It is that which matters most in the long term - not greek as important as it might be - I am not any different to any other Christian at that point/
we cannot isolate the gospel servant and his or her ministry from the gospel community they are to serve. if we do my fear is that we may propogate churches that are aggregations of unrelated people, led by professionalised ministrers who dispense their wares and move on -
church in whatever expression it takes - is where I not only give my thinking but receive my thinking, serve and am served, teach and I am taught etc
that the beauty of church based theolgiocal education - we all learn together - and our pastors are one of us - not outside experts. I think that's what I was driving at.