Missions and ministry take many forms. There is no single or simple model for fulfilling the Great Commission. But in every time and place it requires teaching people how to obey Jesus’ commands (Matthew 28:19–20). Healthy missions work requires training future leaders as soon as possible. My wife and I believe in this philosophy enough that we have lived it as our core ministry philosophy—first in the Philippines for eight years; then in Alberta, Canada for the last four. Here are three lessons about theological education that we learned in both places.
Training Future Leaders ≠ Optional
The New Testament gives a direct command to entrust healthy doctrine to faithful men who will be able to teach others (2 Timothy 2:2). Titus’ mandate to appoint elders in every town (Titus 1:5) requires more than dispensing ordination certificates. Such people must be trained first! Notice how mentoring future leaders occupied the central space in Jesus’ and Paul’s ministries.
It is easy and natural to push the training of leaders off until the busy ministry season levels off—when will that happen?! But training leaders is not a suggestion; it’s a command, and as such, must be obeyed.
Fewer Training Pathways = More Empty Pulpits
Similar conversations have happened enough times that they no longer surprise me. They often occur with a man in his late 20s or above—someone already in the workforce, carrying a mortgage, often responsible for a family. “I’ve thought for a while that God might be pushing me towards to the ministry, but I thought I had to sell everything and move across the country to get training.”
The pastoral shortfall—the deficit of new, young pastors to replace the retiring boomers is well-known. God is sovereign, and He also uses means. Some men—probably a lot of men—aren’t making it to the ministry because they lack options for training that don’t include ruinous debt or immediate uprooting. We can fatalistically bemoan the lack of men stepping up for the ministry and write off a generation for failing to be interested. Or we can get started providing pathways for training and calling men up to complete them.
More Small Schools > A Few Big-Box Seminaries
There’s another conversation I experience too often—this time with pastors. “I sent my most promising candidates away to be trained [in our case, from Canada to the States], and they never returned. Now I’m scrambling to find a replacement.”
I’m the beneficiary of a large, established seminary. Large seminaries will always offer a distinct benefit. But what if schools could partner more closely with churches to offer training wrapped around the practical needs of the church? What if pastors trained candidates as apprentices while the seminary assisted them with training in original languages, systematic theology, exposition, church history, and technical skills? What if ministerial training didn’t require ripping men out of their home setting, their jobs, and their churches? Might we discover that the pastoral shortfall was at least in part related to a shortfall of training pathways?
Twice now, on two different continents, we have watched God call students to ministry in, through, and during their education. What could better raise someone’s interest in proclaiming God’s words than to study them in-depth? How can men exult in theology without learning about it first?
There are many ways to fulfill the Great Commission and plant churches. But one method is too easily neglected—planting churches by training their future pastors!