
The map on the screen in front of me shows that we are flying at 585 miles per hour at 33,000 feet. It’s good to be heading home.
I was in Escondido for Westminster Seminary in California board meetings. It’s such a privilege to serve on the board of the school that gave me so much. I learned church history, systematic theology, Greek and Hebrew, and some basic training in how to counsel and preach. But the most important thing I gained at WSC was the sufficiency of the gospel for salvation of the lost and the sanctification of the found.
A seminary plays a unique and critical role in the mission of the church. In Romans 10 Paul gives several wonderful gospel promises:
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved.”
“Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.”
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
But then he asks a series of critical questions:
How will they (the lost) call on Him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to hear Him whom they’ve never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
I’d like to add one more question:
How can men be sent to preach Jesus unless they are trained??
The church can easily assume that faithful preachers will just show up when needed – but that’s not how it works. Preachers and pastors don’t fall from trees. They need to be carefully and correctly trained so that they can correctly “handle the word of truth”. They need to be trained in exegesis (how to interpret a text) and exposition (how to present it) and apologetics (how to defend the truth). That’s why seminaries are so critically important to the mission of the church. They are training the future shepherds of Christ’s church – and poorly trained pastors cause great harm.
When I was in seminary, the church-growth movement was in full swing. Pastors from all over the country were flocking to Robert Schuler’s Crystal Cathedral in Anaheim and Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek Church near Chicago. Those churches were seen as tremendous success stories. They were growing rapidly, had celebrity pastors and professionally trained staff, and everyone wanted to learn their secrets. The denomination I grew up in sent busloads of pastors to learn at the feet of Schuler and Hybels. It was all the rage.
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But WSC was teaching us how to discern—how to weigh everything in the balance of Scripture. They taught us to be skeptical of what man can accomplish and confident of what God can. They taught us to trust God’s strange methods of building His church through the foolishness of gospel preaching and dependent prayer. 30 years later Willow Creek is a shadow of its former self and the Crystal Cathedral no longer exists. The “rage” proved to be just a fad, a foolish, man-made attempt to do what Jesus had promised He would do – build His church through the power of the gospel.
And that’s why I’m so thankful for Westminster Seminary in California. It plays such an indispensable role in Christ’s gospel mission! Thank you for allowing me the time to encourage this critical work by serving on the board.
P.s. I had a wonderful time visiting Eddie and Hilary Mercado and Zac and Caroline Reeves while I was there. They are both graduating this coming Spring. Eddie is searching for a call. Zac will serve a year internship at Community OPC in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Keep these men and their families in your prayers as they finish their training at WSC.
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