Training Pastors

(The following thoughts are unique to the situation here - elsewhere it's very different)

I'm worried. Very worried.

At the college where I work, one of the courses is the BA Theology degree - the precursor to pastoring in this denomination in South Africa. The only training centre for pastors in this church in Southern Africa!

It's a well-recognized degree, registered with the appropriate bodies and accredited overseas. We're churning out graduates every year - and yet many seem to not be making it out there once they're church-employed.

Some arrive fresh out of school and wanting to do something for God. Some come to study after years of other careers, feeling a call to pastor. Some are here having said, "God, if you get me out of this particular situation I'll go study Theology and work for you." (The latter are the ones that scare me the most!) Many have their passion killed while studying and come out the other end carbon-copies of a certain nearing-retirment pastor who teaches the "preaching" part, but hasn't served in a church for many, many years. As have most of the ageing lecturers.

Mention "emerging church" to this group of students and/or lecturers and you get blank stares. Mention "post-modernism" and there's not much response. Tell them there's another way to preach, or minister, or serve - run into a solid brick wall of non-comprehension.

It's not their fault. The church headquarters got a committee together to decide what they wanted their pastors to know when they'd done studying here, and the programme was planned from there. But there is no room for options, for different views other than the "official" one, and these guys are not exposed to the real-life culture they will shortly be asked to pastor. There's an emphasis on ancient languages and theoretical things with a bit of practical (preach now and then at a local church, do evangelism old-style or door-to-door in the holiday) thrown in for good measure.

What worries me is that these guys are going to run into problems literally the first day out. They're relating to church member's needs that died 50 years ago, and haven't been brought up to speed on some of the issues of today. They're going to become stressed, burn out, and many will quite probably leave the ministry for something else after a few years.

I'm worried for the church, for them. I wish I could shout a wake-up call out, point them in the direction of blogs, websites and books that could ease their passage into the future and help them truly make a difference in the communities they will serve. But I'm an unknown, out of the "professional" field of pastoring, don't know what I'm talking about. I can't be taken seriously, after all I've stepped out of the flock and refuse to be herded into a huddle.

So I worry.