Why the Pastors College?

Historically, the primary context for pastoral training has always been the local church. John Frame, professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, writes:
 
In the early days of American Protestantism, the training of ministerial candidates was carried on by pastors of churches. A young man feeling a call of God to the ministry would associate himself with a church pastor, receive training from him, participate in the work of the parish, perhaps even live in the pastor's home. 1
In some cases, there were so many men training for ministry in the same church that they would form a small school. Some of these “log colleges” eventually became full-fledged academic institutions. Princeton is one example.
 
When institutions like these were formed, they were intended to supplement—not replace—the training of men for pastoral ministry. The argument was simple: a seminary can specialize in the development and dissemination of theological expertise, adding depth to the training a candidate for ministry receives in his church.
 
However, in the past century, seminaries have evolved to become the sole means of pastoral training. Again, Frame writes:
 
While the seminary refuses to “do the work of the church,” the church assumes that the seminary is doing a complete job of ministerial training. As a result, the young men receive no training at all in many crucial areas. Often, even in ‘practical’ courses like Christian education and missions, students are trained as scholars rather than as ministers.2
What was once supplementary has somehow become primary. And so, young men today are often deemed fit for pastoral ministry after having received a master’s degree from an accredited seminary. Admittedly, this may say something about a man’s theological training, but it does not tell us anything about his character, his gifts, or for that matter, his ability to meet any biblical qualifications for ministry. While we don’t necessarily disparage a seminary education, we find this tragic.
 
Unfortunately, the divorce of pastoral training from the local church has also resulted in a decline in sound theology. We could easily see the tendency of seminaries to decline into theological liberalism simply by doing a case study of those early divinity schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Brown. But few know this tendency better than Dr. Al Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. When he took the reins of Southern, it was dominated by theological liberalism. He says this:
 
A theological seminary, if it is to remain faithful, must be directly accountable to its churches. Lacking this accountability, the institution will inevitably drift toward heterodox teachings. A robust confessionalism is necessary, but the constant oversight of churches is of equal importance.3
We are convinced that keeping seminaries accountable to local churches is good, but still fails to go far enough. While anchoring a seminary with the “constant oversight of churches” may prevent or delay a drift into theological liberalism, that is only a shortsighted concern. This is because theological expertise is the point of a seminary education, not pastoral faithfulness. But as was stated before, theological expertise is only one component of a candidate’s preparation for pastoral ministry.
 
Because these traditional seminaries focus heavily on the academic aspect of training men for the pastorate, they are simply unable to address weightier matters of a man’s character and fitness for the work of ministry. In fact, being freed from that work to focus on academics is precisely the point of seminaries.
 
But when the Bible speaks about qualifications for pastoral ministry, the dominating concern is that a pastor be a man of sound character. Take 1 Timothy 3 as an example:
 
[He] must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity…and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church...
If this is the biblical standard, then more important than understanding the historical roots of pastoral training in America is understanding how pastors and elders were trained in Scripture. How, for instance, did Jesus train His disciples?
 
When Jesus trained the twelve, He did not send them off to school. Instead, He lived with them, instructed them, and challenged them privately and publicly. He modeled faithful ministry by training them in the context of His own ministry to the poor, needy, and oppressed. There was nothing polished and professional about the way Jesus trained His fishermen/tax collector disciples. But when He sent them into the world, He knew he had trained men who were ready for the work of establishing His church.
 
This isn’t the only example we see of pastoral training in Scripture. For example, when the Apostle Paul trained Timothy for the pastorate we know that he took him under his wing, personally instructing him, and involving him in the trenches of faithful pastoral ministry. There Timothy learned not only from Paul’s expansive biblical knowledge, but by watching Paul suffer shame and hardship, laboring faithfully for the souls God had placed under his care. Like the twelve disciples, there was nothing neat and clean about Timothy’s training. But when the Apostle Paul placed him as pastor of the church of Ephesus, he knew he was giving them a faithful man. This is the biblical model.
 
Because we’re committed to training men for the pastorate who will join the apostles and prophets of God’s church in the work of faithful ministry, suffering shame and reproach as they labor, we’ve established ClearNote Pastors College. Centered in the context of ministry in a particular church, we’re committed to raising up men of faith, integrity, character, and skill—men who have demonstrated their calling and who we are convinced will shepherd God’s people faithfully.
 
It is a daunting task to train men to be godly pastors and preachers of God’s Word. But God commands us to do this work. May He bless our efforts beyond all that we could ever ask or imagine!