Crisis
in Pastoral Leadership
Dr. Robert L. Dean, Jr
Today,
on every side, we witness the erosion of the influence of biblical Christianity
on our culture. We observe a decline in the priority placed on teaching the
Bible in our churches. Seminaries turn out pastoral CEOs
who function like business managers rather than like shepherds who nourish
their flocks with biblical truth that transforms thinking and changes lives. As
a result, conservative churches that do seek Bible-teaching pastors are often
unable to find anyone with the training and the desire to teach the Word of
God verse by verse, systematically, and categorically.
Many
Christians are starving spiritually and do not even realize it. They think they
are learning the Word of God because they attend Bible classes and Sunday
services where the Word of God is supposedly being taught. But there has been a
gradual decline over several decades, and most Christians today are so anesthetized
with music, entertainment, and motivational sermons that they no longer know
what it is to really hear in-depth teaching of the Word of God. As the church
growth movement becomes more popular and churches become "purpose
driven" and "seeker friendly," the Sunday morning message
becomes shorter and shallower. Few people today even have a frame of reference
for what a teaching ministry should be. We have "dumbed
down" the pulpit and we have "dumbed
down" the pew with the result that we are in a crisis.
Doctrinal
Bible churches fall within the tradition of the Bible church movement which
originated in the context of the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy in the
late nineteenth century. Then, as now, the established church was in a crisis
because it was sending its young men to elite seminaries in the
One of the
conservative responses to this liberal trend in the church was the rise and
spread of the Bible conference movement. This included the Niagara Bible
Conferences in
From
the Bible conference movement, a network developed that led to the founding of
the Bible institutes and the conservative seminaries of the early twentieth
century. Schools like Biola (the Bible Institute of
Los Angeles), Moody Bible Institute, Dallas Theological Seminary, and many
others had their roots in the Bible conference movement of that day. These
schools were established by men who understood the need for well-trained men
to pastor biblically literate congregations.
One
of the men who came out of this movement was Lewis Sperry Chafer. He began in
the ministry as a musical evangelist and later realized that he had a gift of
teaching. C. I. Scofield, who became his mentor, once
remarked to him, "Lewis, some day you may make a passably good teacher, if
only you had something to say." It was in the context of the Bible
conference movement that Chafer learned the Scriptures and acquired a solid
biblical theology. He recognized his own weakness: because he did not have
training in the original languages and in theology, he was dependent upon the
work of others. He realized that pastors needed this kind of training to
adequately teach Christians the Word of God so that they could grow spiritually
and truly have an impact on this world for Jesus Christ. This awareness led Dr.
Chafer to establish Dallas Theological Seminary and to build a curriculum that
demanded four years of Hebrew, four years of Greek, and four years of
systematic theology.
When
we compare that to seminaries today, we find that some denominational
seminaries require only one semester of systematic theology, two semesters of
Greek, and perhaps one semester of Hebrew. Two- and three-year graduate programs
are much more common than four-year programs. They emphasize courses in church
management and organization, adult ministries, Sunday school programs, and
church growth. These are the basic elements in the curricula of many seminaries
today. Typically we find that seminaries experience the devaluation of their
priorities seventy to eighty years after their founding. We must not opt for
lower standards or minimum qualifications for the ministry. To do so is a poor
reflection on how we view God and His Word. We need a new generation of
seminaries to come along and replace those that are beginning to fall by the
wayside.
That
has been the objective of Chafer Theological Seminary ever since its inception.
It is the hope of the Governing Board and all those associated with the
Seminary that it will stand in the gap and provide the training necessary to
produce highly qualified pastor-teachers who can accurately handle the Word of
God.
The
question has been asked, "Why should we as individual believers and
congregations around the country be concerned about the establishment, financial
support, and continued existence of a biblically based seminary?" The
short answer is, the future. Who will teach our
grandchildren? Who will replace the current generation of pastors when their
time in ministry is finished? We need to prepare men now who will continue to
teach the Word of God to the next generation.
We
all know of doctrinal pastor-teachers who have gone home to be with the Lord
and of others who have retired and are no longer able to fill pulpits. These
men had received seminary or Bible college training. They were trained academically
in the use of the original languages and in theology; they were trained in how
to do exegesis and how to study the Bible. They were men dedicated to a
teaching ministry, not just a ministry of encouragement and exhortation, which
is the common practice in many churches today. What has happened to the vacant
pulpits of these men? In most cases they were filled, but often by men who had
less education and less training than the men who preceded them. In some cases,
they were filled by men who had no formal biblical education or theological
training whatsoever.
In
still other cases, vacant pulpits remain vacant, and these churches have had to
settle for something less than ideal. Rather than having their own live,
face-to-face pastor-teacher, they must rely on audio or video recordings of
Bible classes. These doctrinal churches have searched diligently and
interviewed many pastoral candidates. They have received numerous applications
from seminary students at some of the better-known conservative evangelical
seminaries with reputations for producing Bible teachers in the past. Doctrinal
questionnaires were sent out to potential candidates, and the responses these
churches received indicated that some of these seminary graduates, men with
three or four years of training from some of the foremost schools of our
country, could not adequately answer those questionnaires.
An
organization that tracks what goes on in religion in
All Barna research
studies define evangelicals as individuals who meet the born-again criteria.
These are people who say their faith is very important in their life today.
They believe they have a personal responsibility to share their religious
beliefs about Christ with non-Christians. They acknowledge the existence of
Satan; they contend that eternal salvation is possible only through God's
grace, not through good deeds. Evangelicals believe that Jesus Christ lived a
sinless life on earth. Evangelicals describe God as the all-knowing,
all-powerful perfect Deity who created the universe and still rules it today.
In this approach, being classified as evangelical has no relationship to any
particular church affiliation or attendance, nor does it rely upon people
describing themselves as evangelical.
The
Barna Research Group has a set standard of doctrinal
beliefs, and if you subscribe to those, you are classified as an evangelical.
They go on to say, "This classification model indicates that only nine
percent of adults in
As
a result, fewer and fewer pastors are skilled in exegesis today. We want to
emphasize the phrase "skilled in exegesis" because many seminaries
offer Greek and Hebrew, but few produce skilled exegetes. Biblical exegesis is
the process of deriving the meaning of a text of Scripture by determining the
meaning of the words in the text and the significance of their grammatical and
syntactical relationships within the literary context of the book and in light
of the historical and cultural background of the book. Exegesis is not only a
science but a skill and an art. You cannot learn to do exegesis by listening to
someone else exegete the Scriptures.
H.
H. Rowley, although a liberal Old Testament theologian, made this telling
observation: "One who made it his life's work to interpret French
literature but who could only read it in an English translation would not be
taken seriously. Yet it is remarkable how many ministers of religion, week by
week, expound a literature that they are unable to read, save in translation."
This
brings us back to the question of why we should be concerned about the state of
seminaries in our nation and support a relatively new, start-up seminary. We
said before that the short answer is the future. We need to prepare men who are
qualified to fill the pulpits of our nation. But there is a long answer, and
that leads to the details of why a seminary education is so important.
A
seminary education upholds a high standard for the pulpit that is consistent
with our high view of Scripture. We believe that every word in the original languages
of Scripture is the revealed, inspired, breathed-out Word of God (2 Timothy
3:16-17) and that inspiration extends down to the very letters of Scripture. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:18, "One jot or one tittle will by
no means pass from the Law till all is fulfilled."
Inspiration
impacts the very forms of the words in all their different grammatical
constructions in the original languages. All of this is crucial to understanding
what God has revealed to us in His Word. The Bible is not just a collection of
moral challenges - it is the very thought of the God who created the heavens
and the earth! It is God's communication and instruction to each and every one
of us. Our view of Scripture as the inspired Word of God should result in high
standards for the man in the pulpit who interprets the Word of God and teaches
it to us.
A
seminary education should give men the tools they need to be able to correctly
handle, or "rightly divide," the Word of God as Paul says in 2
Timothy 2:15. Seminary training and the idea of training men for future
ministry is not something that has just developed in the church in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The form it takes today may be somewhat
different, but it has a rich history. Its foundation, at least in the church
age, can be traced to Paul's challenge to Timothy.
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus.
The things which you have heard from me, among many witnesses, commit these to
faithful men who will be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:1-2).
Timothy
was not Paul's literal son but rather his son in the ministry. Paul led Timothy
to the Lord on his first missionary journey and took Timothy with him on his
second missionary journey. Timothy received on-the-job training from the
Apostle Paul, one of the greatest rabbinical minds ever known.
It
is part of the pastor's responsibility to identify and mentor young men for the
ministry. We must challenge them to consider the ministry, either as a pastor
in the pulpit or as a missionary in the field, while they are still in their
teenage or college years. The optimum time to attend seminary is after undergraduate
work is completed, when a man is in his twenties. It is not that older men
cannot recognize that they have the gift of pastor-teacher, but valuable time
has been lost, and it is more difficult for a man with a family to move away to
seminary, where he can receive the kind of training he needs to be an effective
pastor-teacher.
There
was a precedent for this kind of training in the Old Testament as well, where
Samuel developed a school of the prophets to prepare young men for prophetic
ministry. We also see how the Levitical priests were trained in the Law. These
men memorized the Scriptures and knew them backward and forward. Ezra is one
example. He was a priest, a scribe, a teacher of scribes, and an expert in the
Law. After the remnant of
In the New
Testament, we see how Jesus gathered together twelve men as His disciples. He
lived with them, ate and drank with them, and taught them day in and day out
through the three and a half years of His ministry. He poured His heart and
soul into training these men because He was preparing them to be the foundation
for the church.
As we saw, Paul followed the same pattern. In
addition to Timothy, Paul taught Silas, Luke, Epaphras,
Titus, and many others. He took young men with him whenever he traveled and taught them along the way. He then sent them
out to evangelize, to teach and proclaim the Word, and to solve problems in the
early churches. When Paul was in
The Apostle John trained young men for the
ministry as well. We know about this from two of his students, Papias and Polycarp, who went on
into the second century to become leading church fathers. That generation is
called the Apostolic Fathers because they were trained by the apostles
themselves, and they laid the foundation for the future church. We begin to see
then how a seminary education, or some kind of formal education, fits into the
flow of history.
During the Middle
Ages, the original languages of Scripture were lost and forgotten. Prior to
that time, Jerome had translated the Old and New Testaments into Latin, the
common language of his day, because he knew that people needed to read the
Bible in their own language. As the
There were lights that appeared here and
there, men like Wycliffe in
In 1453, the
Muslims came up through
A
humanist scholar by the name of Desiderius Erasmus of
Rotterdam began to collect some of these manuscripts of the Greek New Testament
and started putting together a critical text edition that later became the
foundation for the Textus Receptus, the
basis for the King James translation of the New Testament. There was a rediscovery
of the Hebrew language, as well. The early reformers sought out the rabbis in
their towns and asked them to teach the Hebrew language. With this renaissance
of the biblical Greek and Hebrew in the late 1400s and early 1500s, men
examined and investigated the original text of the Bible, rediscovered the
truths of justification by faith alone, and realized the errors of the
"works salvation" of Roman Catholic theology. The light of truth
began to shine on western civilization.
This
light gave birth to the Reformation. Men like Martin Luther, John Calvin,
Ulrich Zwingli, and Heinrich Bullinger were the great
beacons. They dedicated their lives to the study of theology and Greek and
Hebrew so that they could accurately handle the Word of God. There was the
restoration of an understanding of the grace of God and of free grace
salvation. The battle cry of the Reformation was Sola Scriptura, by
Scripture alone; Solus Christus, Christ alone;
Sola Fide, by faith alone; Sola Gratia, by grace alone;
and Soli Deo Gloria, glory to God alone.
Training
schools and institutes were established, including one of the most significant,
the college founded by John Calvin in
Historically,
the seminaries of this country were in that tradition.
What
then should we expect of a seminary education today, and why should a man with
the gift of pastor-teacher attend seminary? A traditional seminary curriculum
should include four years of Greek and four years of Hebrew. Not only should a
seminary teach the original languages of Scripture, but it should make students
proficient in those languages. It takes years to develop facility and comfort
in the original languages, so that when a man leaves seminary and enters the
maelstrom of life in a local church, he is adequately prepared.
Sometimes
the pastor of a smaller church must wear many hats. He might be the first one
there to open the door and the last one to sweep up after everyone else has
left. Since his congregation is small, he might need to take a part-time job.
He does not have the time to learn Greek and Hebrew or to relearn what he did
not fully comprehend when he was in seminary. Seminary should be the time when
he is living and breathing the original languages, as it were, so that by the time
he graduates, those exegetical skills are with him to stay.
In
addition to teaching the exegetical skills, a seminary must teach the theological
skills and the framework into which everything fits. Students should understand
the different theological views as well. By comparing and contrasting the
different views of theology, students come to understand why they believe what
they believe. They understand truth and develop clarity of focus when they see
it contrasted to error. Students should study the history of Christianity. They
need to see how men developed erroneous ideas and went off-course, and how it
might have been centuries before the outworking of wrong assumptions was realized.
They need to understand the wrong paths that people have gone down in the past,
so that they can stay on track with sound doctrine.
Students
learn not only the trends of the past but also the trends of the present in a
good seminary education. The application of the great truths of Scripture and
doctrines taught in sermons of a previous generation will not necessarily
communicate to the current generation. It is not that the truth has changed,
but the target has shifted a little because the culture has changed. For
example, a man who is considered one of the greatest preachers and expositors
of Scripture in the English language, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, had a tremendous
ministry in
Even
great sermons by men like Lewis Sperry Chafer and Donald Grey Barnhouse from the last century lose some of their
brilliance after forty or fifty years. Pastors in the pulpit must be able to
study the Word for themselves in order to shape and
craft the truths of the Bible for their own generation. They can learn from
those who have gone before, but they must be able to get into the text for
themselves. They need to learn the original languages and develop exegetical
skills, theological skills, and communication skills. Pastors must be able to
take these timeless truths and put them within a contemporary framework that
addresses the thinking, the culture, and the context of the hearers in their
congregations. They need the training that comes from having attended a
seminary of high caliber, a school which fully
prepared them to address the issues of their day.
Chafer
Theological Seminary is this kind of school. At Chafer, there is a requirement
of four years of Greek and four years of Hebrew. The curriculum has been
designed to integrate exegesis with biblical theology as the student progresses
through the school. The curriculum is like a pyramid with the text of Scripture
as the foundation, biblical theology at the next level, and systematic theology
at the top. Systematic theology is where doctrinal categories for life are
developed, and it is within the framework of those categories that pastors are
able to communicate the timeless truths of Scripture in ways that people can
apply to every situation in their lives.
The
thrust of Chafer Seminary is a consistent theology based first of all on free
grace: salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. It is our job to teach and
proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that this free salvation is available
to all. The curriculum is based upon a view of history known as premillennial dispensationalism and a pretribulation
Rapture. It is based on a high view of Scripture, that every word of Scripture
is inspired by God; therefore, everyone who teaches the Word of God should be
taught how to handle it carefully and accurately in the original languages.
That is the high standard and the ideal that we should strive for in the
preparation of a pastor. These men should then go forth, not just prepared
academically but also prepared in their own spiritual lives. For when a man
goes to seminary, God is going to begin to work in his life to teach him the
application of what he is learning in the classroom - to trust God to provide for
his finances, his logistics, and his education, and to take him through those
aspects of training that he does not receive in the classroom, but which are
equally important in the preparation for a pulpit ministry.
The
goal of Chafer Seminary is to prepare pastors for the pulpits of the future.
There is a challenge and there is a cost. Jesus told His disciples to count the
cost of commitment in Luke 14:28. Training men to fill our pulpits and teach
our children and grandchildren is not inexpensive, and we must give it our full
consideration. For example, the Seminary must have a place to meet. Chafer
Seminary currently rents space in an office building and will eventually need
to purchase land and build a permanent facility. Ideally, we should pay the faculty
of the seminary a living wage, so they can concentrate on their teaching. Jesus
said in Luke 10:7 that "the laborer is worthy of
his wages," and that principle applies to Seminary faculty as well as to
pastors.
A
seminary should have excellence in tools and technology. This is in keeping
with the principle that all things should be done to the glory of God.
Seminaries need computers, software, LCD projectors, and other technological
tools, as well as classroom furnishings and books for their library. A seminary
should have a good research library of 100,000 to 200,000 volumes. It must have
an administrative staff with the professional skills necessary to handle the
various aspects of running an organization, along with the many administrative
details that are needed, such as office equipment and office supplies. All of
these together cost a substantial amount of money.
This
is the challenge before us. Chafer Seminary needs the support of believers who
are committed to the future. We recognize above all things that God has
unlimited resources, and He can supply the needs of Chafer Seminary. That is
part of God's sovereignty, but His sovereignty does not operate apart from
human responsibility. God supplies the needs through the volition of people who
are motivated out of gratitude and out of a vision for the future to support
the seminary.
There
is a wonderful story about Lewis Sperry Chafer in the early years of Dallas
Seminary. It was during the depression, and the salaries of the faculty had
gone unpaid for lack of funds. The Seminary was in danger of closing its doors,
so Lewis Sperry Chafer, Harry Ironside, and others gathered in Chafer's office
to pray that God would supply the needs of the Seminary. Ironside prayed,
"Father, we know that the cattle on a thousand hills are yours. Please
sell some of them and send the money." Meanwhile, a rancher from
We
live in an age of crisis. We need believers who are not overwhelmed by the
challenges, but who are willing to see through the challenges to the
opportunity and the privilege of supporting and standing with Chafer Seminary.
God in His grace has supplied in many ways and many times in the past. We know
that if it is God's will for Chafer Seminary to continue to provide this kind
of training to fill the pulpits of the future, then God will supply the need.
God will supply the need through committed believers and committed churches
with a vision for the future.
The Author
Dr. Robert L. Dean, Jr. is the pastor of
Donations
All donations to Chafer Theological Seminary
are tax deductible. If the Lord leads you to give financial support to Chafer
Theological Seminary, you may send contributions to:
Chafer
Theological Seminary
(714) 288-9555 or (800) 684-7223
www.chafer.edu
You may also donate online at
chafer.edu/support/donate.html