Then, as mentioned, the church's primary task is to preach and enforce the word of God, that is, the Bible. It is "the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15). Under this general description, there are many tasks that it must perform. The Sunday sermon is obvious, but it should also provide individual counseling, theology classes, and ministry training.

These are just different ways of applying the sufficient word of God in different contexts, on different levels, and toward different people. But the sufficiency and usefulness of Scripture do not only imply that these things should be done by the church, but also how they ought to be done. For example, because the Bible is sufficient to fully equip the man of God for every good work, secular theories and methods are unnecessary and even undesirable in church counseling. If the filet mignon is just right, spreading horse manure on it would not make it taste any better.

Moreover, since the Bible itself claims that it makes the man of God complete, and fully equipped for every good work, then the church should be able to train its own ministers without sending them to seminary. Whether the seminary serves a legitimate purpose is a separate question, but it should not be necessary. If the seminary is necessary to fully equip the man of God, it can only mean that the church is not effectively teaching the whole word of God.

In this case, the solution is to fix the church, and not to build a seminary. And it would not do to say that it takes a seminary-trained person to fix the church, since this argument would work for one generation at best – if the seminary-trained minister fixes the problem, this deficiency in the church should no longer exist in the next generation.

Now, if the seminary is only an extension of the church, then I would have no problem with it. However, it would then be unnecessary to even call it a seminary – it would just be part of what the church is doing to train its own ministers. Also, it must then actually operate like part of the church. It should not charge any tuition,⁴⁰ and it should be overseen by church elders, not deans and directors. It should be taught by actual ministers, not just professors. Instead of granting degrees, it should issue personalized letters of recommendation attesting to both the orthodoxy and the character of the disciples it promotes to eldership or sends forth to other places. In addition, church discipline should be enforced, and those who affirm heresies or persist in known vices must not be allowed to "graduate." It should be a discipleship program (with the most rigorous academic training), not an academic program. The truth is that most seminaries are not like this, but their entire system is patterned after secular institutions, and most of their graduates are unfit for ministry.⁴¹

 

Notes

⁴⁰ However, the church might require a faithful pattern of giving from its students as part of their character training and to help them become good examples to others.

⁴¹ See Vincent Cheung, "Church and Seminary," in Doctrine and Obedience.

(to be continued)

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