Every once is a while (like last month, in fact) I get a call from a church leaders wanting guidance and ideas about creating a mini-seminary in their congregations. While that idea is driven by a desire to make Christian education more meaningful and effective in their congregations I am always suspect of that approach. I believe that any congregation will be well-served by taking Christian education more seriously, and, by go about its practice in more intentional ways. But I also believe that a seminary is one thing and a church another—and when it comes to educating in faith, the two should not be confused.

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I recently read a post at Learnings at Leadership Network, by Warren Bird, Ph.D., Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 19 books on various aspects of church health and innovation. This was posted on May 16, 2008 in Church Visits.

Warren wrote, “Unfortunately, too many churches exist where the senior pastor is a tremendous leader but an even bigger bottleneck. In such churches nothing of importance can happen unless the senior pastor is at the hub of it. Neither long-term volunteers, nor senior staff, feel empowered to take initiative on anything major. They feel underutilized – and they are.

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These are anxious times for theological schools and seminaries, more so than normal, anyway. The plight of several seminaries (closings, downsizing, layoffs) has recently made the rounds in the religious press and newsmagazines. And talk about viability and relevance is lively among faculties, including questions about how long the shelf life of the classic M.Div. will be. Comments like these made by alumnus in response to a survey only serves to increase the angst of some professors:

“Taking Hebrew helped shape some of my thoughts and understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures, but other than that, I haven’t found it to be very useful in my week-in, week-out work with youth.” “I have never been asked a question about my Greek knowledge level. Luckily for me, there are Greek-English interlinears.”

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Last week someone left a plastic bag on my porch. It contained two hefty telephone directories. This yearly event used to annoy me. I have no use for phone books. If I want to find a person, company, or address I use the internet. Phone books are obsolete. Why do they go through the expense of printing and distributing them?

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Stacy T. Rinehart’s small volume Upside Down: The Paradox of Servant Leadership (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1998. 170 pages) focuses on the leadership model that Jesus gave the church. The author details briefly the transformation of his own leadership philosophy from that of a “hard-nosed, aggressive” style leader to one with Jesus as its model. He describes how dangerous the CEO models are for the church, where “failing to submit is to rebel against God. . !” (p. 36).

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R. Paul Stevens, professor of applied theology at Regents College, Vancouver, BC has provided what should be required reading for seminarians, clergy, and the informed congregational leader. In The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1999. 289 pages. $24.00. ISBN 0-8028-4800-1) Stevens calls all believers back to a biblical understanding of the nature of calling and ministry. He calls for no less than the dismantling of “clergy” and “lay” theological and ecclesial distinctions of the people of God and offers a vision of the often trite and unrealized blurb printed on church bulletins: “Every member a minister.”

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The Child in Christian Thought, ed. by Marcia J. Bunge (Religion, Marriage, and Family series. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001. 513 pp. $24.00. ISBN 0-8028-4693-9) is a collection of essays on the concept and theological thinking about the child throughout Christian history. The book is part of the larger “The Child in Christian Thought” project by editor Marcia Bunge that strived to inform current thinking on children, the church, and families by tracing the concept of the child and childhood through the history of Christian thought.

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Two recent conversations related to the function of “priesthood” reminded me of the perennial nature of the “ordained vs. laity” polarity that exists in the thinking, if not in the actual practice, of believers. One conversation involved an impatient dismissive rant from an Episcopal priest friend about the concept of “priesthood of all believers” as understood by some free church congregations. The other conversation was a woeful tale from a fellow Baptist about a crisis related to complaints about “non-ordained staff” serving communion.

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I observe that more congregations are offering “healing services” as part of their ministries. We offered such at my former congregation and every now and then people ask me about it. On those opportunities I stress that it wasn’t a “healing service,” but rather, a “Service of Prayer for Healing and Wholeness.” The emphasis was on the prayers of the Church, not on any notion about our ability to miraculously “heal” people of broken bones or spirits.

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Americans love good fiction, says pollster George Barna, which seems to be a peculiar opening sentence for a report on his recent survey of what Americans believe about some familiar Bible stories – - including the virgin birth.  It’s not clear what Barna regards as fiction, but the subjects of his survey believe the story of the virgin birth to be literally true .  In fact, of the six stories included in his survey, this one was accepted as an accurate depiction of an historical event by three out of four adults.

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