Training Pastors revisited

Looking at things from a different angle brought me to this question:

Do we NEED to train pastors? Or should we let the natural enthusiasm and heart for God be enough? Add a mentor and disciple them in areas they need it? Support them emotionally/physically but allow them to work in other areas to make ends meet and find people where they are?

I recently had an email request from a recently-converted man who is on fire for God and wants to be a missionary. He wanted to know what he had to do. Locally within this denomination, that may require a Theology degree, but he is short on cash, recognizes that the earth's future is limited, and wants to spread God's word while there's still time.

I gave him the Theology information, but then asked permission to step aside from being a college employee/promoter, and asked him if he could consider being God to those around him, where he is now - without a degree, and without going to a foreign land. Tried to give him a different perspective on missionary work and evangelism. A bit of hope perhaps.

I didn't hear back from him.... I hope I didn't do the wrong thing. It's just that I've seen too many enthusiastic men for God crushed by a four-year study programme and student debts, squeezed into a mould they don't fit in order to produce more cardboard cut-outs on graduation.