I confess to two things. First, I benefited greatly from my time in seminary. I look at all that I learned, all that has shaped me, and praise God. Such is all the more true given the men I was blessed to study under, men like Dr. Ronald Nash, Dr. Roger Nicole, Dr. Richard Pratt, and of course my father.
My second confession is this- I can’t help but wonder how I, or anyone else for that matter, can successfully graduate from seminary and not know the Bible well enough to know that it says absolutely nothing whatsoever about seminaries. Of course automobiles and the trinity are also not mentioned in the Bible. The former, however, is just a means of transportation. And the latter, as they rightly say, is taught clearly in the Bible. Seminary fits in neither of those two categories.
These two confessions should adequately answer the question. I believe that seminaries can be beneficial, and I believe that are utterly, absolutely and undeniably not necessary at all. Worse still, they can be harmful. Here are three reasons why:
1. Seminaries can elevate academics above more important matters. Those qualities that Paul gives us in I Timothy and Titus on the qualifications of an elder include this one, an elder should be apt to teach. The other qualifications, however, are matters of character, which means in turn they are matters that are not at all easy to measure. A GPA is relatively objective, easily comparable and almost completely impotent in determining if a man is elder material. Yet we have whole, large, Bible believing denominations that require a seminary degree for a man to become a teaching elder. That, instead of making us proud, should embarrass us.
2. Seminaries can elevate academics above more important matters. Yes, I know I already said that. But the above problem trickles down from the pulpit into the pews. That is, not only do we measure the quality of our pastor by his academic success but we then measure the quality of our members by the same standard. Spiritual maturity comes to be measured by our libraries rather than our hearts. When we overvalue academic pursuits we tend to create well educated fools.
3. Seminaries can elevate business above more important matters. As the seeker sensitive model of church planting has spread like kudzu across the land, some seminaries have moved from teaching the latest discoveries in biblical studies to teaching the latest methodologies in drawing a crowd.
The first mistakes tend to turn churches into little seminaries, places where the pastor downloads the information he has into the brains of his congregants. The second mistake tends to turn churches into little retail shops, places where the sheep and the goats come to get their ears tickled and the pastor fleeces them both.
Seminaries don’t, of course, have to make either of these mistakes. What they cannot do, however, is prepare men for ministry inside the church, where it ought to be done. I remain grateful for my experience in seminary. But I remain skeptical that it did much of anything to prepare me to lead in the local church. The question should not be, “What can we do to make our seminaries better?” but ought to be, “What does the Bible tell us about how man should be prepared to lead in the church?” You can’t get the right answer asking the wrong question.