Seminary Training, Useful Preachers, and Faithful Pastors

The history of American Presbyterianism has many examples of an emphasis on training pastors for ministry. From the early American colonists to the expansion Westward to the post-civil war period, Presbyterians in America have stressed seminary education for pastors. The history of religion in America is full of false teaching, unorthodox teaching, and heretical teaching, …

To Seminary Students and Pastors (Newton)

John Newton's letters are pieces of literature that I often go back to in my life and ministry. Although there are other historical and Christian letters that have been a blessing to me, for some reason Newton's letters always strike a chord in my heart and mind. This afternoon as I was reading a certain …

Seminary and Pastoral Character Formation (Miller)

 I'm convinced that face-to-face seminary training is a highly valuable part of the path to gospel ministry.  And of course rigorous studies are a very important part of seminary training.  Future pastors need to know the languages, systematic theology, church history, homiletics, and so forth.  But there is more to seminary than just increasing head …

Wisdom, Ignorance, Knowledge, Seminary

Around six months ago I wrote a short review of this book: Excellence: The Character of God and the Puruit of Scholarly Virtue by Andreas Kostenberger.  To summarize that review, I really liked the book and recommend it.  As I was paging through it again recently, I found this section that I had marked up.  …

Scholarship, Excellence, Holiness

 Here are two great paragraphs from Kostenberger's book, Excellence. "The pursuit of holiness on the part of the Christian scholar, I contend, of necessity ought to result in a pursuit of excellence.  As Christians who have been set apart for God's use and called to the vocation of scholarship, we do not engage in our research …