Following my article last Saturday about whether we need healthy theological colleges, I’ve been developing some further thoughts. I thought first of all, that it might be helpful to say something about my own theological training and pathway into Gospel ministry.
It’s fair to say that I didn’t completely follow the current primary pipeline exactly, all though I did end up at one of the main residential seminaries, Oak Hill. What I mean is that I left University before the Ministry Training Scheme approach really kicked off and in fact I suspect that even if such schemes had been up and running, I suspect that I would not have found myself on one.
Instead, a lot of my initial exposure to ministry opportunities came partly through having joined an old school Brethren assembly where I was given opportunity to share in the Breaking of Bread service and then to speak occasionally at the evening Gospel Service. I also found myself on the circuit of preaching at various local churches around Bradford. One of those churches had dwindled to about half a dozen members, a little Pentecostal Church near Leeds. They asked me to give them some additional help and we started a Sunday afternoon outreach from scratch. It was my first exposure to revitalisation.
After completing my Masters, I went to work in Rochester and joined Rochester Baptist Church. I was there for ten years. There were no formal apprenticeship/Ministry training schemes. Instead, the pastor was committed to teaching and training young men in the church. There was a well stocked Christian bookshop on the ground floor and so part of that training included encouragement to read and become familiar with Reformed Theology. There were opportunities to train in evangelism and as an active church member I got to know others meaning that we walked with each other through the challenges of life. I saw the raw end of life, sudden bereavements, the devastation of martial break ups, a friend who lost his faith etc. There was the joy of seeing people become Christians, get baptised and join the church, there was the sadness of seeing people have to go through church discipline. All of this meant that I was seeing first hand what was involved in the pastoral side of church life. And of course, I myself was experiencing pastoral care and discipleship.
Alongside that, I would also include my experience in working life. Some of the things I learnt as a Manufacturing Engineer and then as an Operations Manager included leading organisations through change, alertness to how systems and processes matter and of course, lots of experience again of the pastoral care that people need.
Incidentally, including me, I think there were 6 people from the church, excluding a few others who came through as Assistant pastors as part of their training who have gone on to spend time in full time pastoral ministry. This was from a church that for most of my time there had less than 100 members.
My point is that if we are thinking about spiritual formation as well as theological education, if we are thinking about how to train and equip people for practical ministry, then we should not underestimate how much of that can and should happen simply through being an ordinary member of a local church and being an active participant in wider society.
Faithroots 