{"id":2299,"date":"2009-08-18T14:19:32","date_gmt":"2009-08-18T22:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=2299"},"modified":"2009-08-18T14:19:32","modified_gmt":"2009-08-18T22:19:32","slug":"where-should-prospective-ministers-go-to-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2009\/08\/18\/where-should-prospective-ministers-go-to-college","title":{"rendered":"Where Should Prospective Ministers Go To College?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/12348847@N00\/2536358399\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3109\/2536358399_c16896768f_m.jpg?w=840\" alt=\"question mark\" title=\"question mark\" hspace=\"5\" border=\"0\" class=\"right\"><\/a>C. Michael Patton over at Parchment and Pen (one of my favorite blogs), recently offered some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reclaimingthemind.org\/blog\/2009\/08\/16-considerations-about-entering-the-ministry\/\">thoughts on entering ministry<\/a>. He made a statement that has always seemed like common sense to me, but that I know many people find objectionable:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If possible, go to a secular university for undergrad and an Evangelical seminary for your masters. You need exposure to&nbsp;both.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I\u2019ve long been mystified that as a matter of course we isolate prospective ministers from their culture for 4 years (more if they go to seminary afterwards). Surely there\u2019s a case to be made for taking our prospective young ministers and forcing them to solidify their own faith and also minister to their peers in a secular setting. Let them prove that they can be both faithful and fruitful before they invest time and money in education that is useless outside of ministry.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sure a Bible college is the ideal route for some people, but it seems to me that we should highlight secular schools as a viable option. It\u2019s certainly borne <a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2008\/03\/20\/notable-pentecostal-leaders-from-secular-universities\">good fruit for the Pentecostal movement<\/a> and the impact in the larger evangelical world is even more impressive (Tim Keller, anyone?).<\/p>\n<p>I suppose the most common objection is that secular colleges are harmful to faith, but that\u2019s just <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2007\/augustweb-only\/133-42.0.html\">not true<\/a>. And even if it was, I don\u2019t think it would matter that much. If someone who is planning to enter ministry can\u2019t handle Intro to Sociology or the campus beerfest, then I really don\u2019t want them preaching the gospel. They\u2019re a time bomb waiting to explode and take others with&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n<p>But someone who can thrive spiritually at a secular university and make a difference for Christ on campus\u2026 give that person a robust theological education and then turn them loose in the pulpit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>C. Michael Patton over at Parchment and Pen (one of my favorite blogs), recently offered some thoughts on entering ministry. He made a statement that has always seemed like common sense to me, but that I know many people find objectionable:&nbsp; If possible, go to a secular university for undergrad and an Evangelical seminary for \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2009\/08\/18\/where-should-prospective-ministers-go-to-college\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cWhere Should Prospective Ministers Go To College?\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants-opinions-and-general-contrariness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-B5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2299"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2313,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions\/2313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}