Are educated priests an oxymoronic idea?
"The church is the only secular institution in which the half-educated speak to the half-converted."
W. R. Inge
If our congregations are half-converted it seems fair to blame the half-educated priests who have led them to the half-way point of conversion and then left them there bereft of the wit or words to cross the remaining distance to full realization of what it means to be converted.
The link above leads to a Forbes' article on the dire state of Seminary education in America. The writer pulls few punches and while his penetrating analysis makes me sad I can't disagree with his diagnosis or his prognosis. Educating our future leaders is an essential and pressing need. But what do we mean when we say "educate?"
Below is the dictionary definition of the word....
ed·u·cat·ed (
j
-k
t
d)
j-ktd)
adj.
1. Having an education, especially one above the average.
2.
a. Showing evidence of schooling, training, or experience.
b. Having or exhibiting cultivation; cultured: an educated manner.
3. Based on a certain amount of experience or factual knowledge: an educated guess.
If our leaders are to be fully "educated" we must first determine what is essential to the task and what are merely ecclesiastical trappings.
Dead languages and dry doctrinal comprehension are poor comfort when the modern minister is faced with the daily grind of running the business of church. But before my low-church brethren smile condescendingly at their high-church brothers, we too have our own version of "dead language learning" for I began my life as a low-church Evangelist by being taught that all I needed was a comprehensive understanding of The King James Bible and an ability to preach an engaging three point sermon in under 40 minutes! That nostalgic time still brings a smile to my face as I ruefully shake my head at the pure
Effectively equipped ministers (managers) are desperately needed to care for the heart of the church, but empathetic pastors, and educated priests are also needed to care for the soul and mind of the church.
But how can any program or school successfully Recruit, Train, and Deploy "business savvy" minsters who can transform into caring pastors and eloquent priests at the drop of a hat? Is it a realistic expectation to believe that we in the modern church can formulate a standardized curriculum that creates a "phone booth moment" for the mild mannered Clark Kent to spin into an extravagant Superman persona?
Crowd Sourced Solutions is a post-modern phenomenon that we from Modernity glance at with trepidation or skepticism. I was asked recently if it was possible for a person to go out into the business world and gain all the skills they would need to be an effective leader within the church. This gifted young man was considering the possibility of leaving the Seminary and the "professional" world of Christianity in favor of entering the "secular" world to gain the practical skills he knows he'll need as a future spiritual leader.
Perhaps he should remain in training as a modern day monk while his sister gains the skills of a modern day merchant and then both of them, together with others, could build a safe place for others to approach God?
I'm beginning to wonder if it is possible, or even reasonable, to think we could create a professional priesthood for the future that can bear the sole responsibility for leading and building the supernatural business of God's kingdom.
What does an educated spiritual leader for the second decade of the 21st century look like? Perhaps it is more than one person? Perhaps it is a community of people each possessing a portion of the "education" needed to lead and build the church?
Are people like me becoming obsolete? Maybe!
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