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Ohio Association - Conservative Congregational Christian Churches

Christian Education: Our Obligation

by Phillip A. Ross
Seminary training, which has become quite expensive and is out of reach for an increasing number of people, has suffered from the spiritual acids of modernity (Liberalism and Humanism) for two hundred years, and shows no signs of abatement. Congregationalists, of all people, should understand this. We've given a lot of seminaries away!

It seems very strange to me that churches work so hard to raise and train faithful Christians in local churches — the primary locus of Christian education, only to send those who are best suited to Christian service away to serve elsewhere. As soon as someone in our churches shows sufficient faith and dedication to engage in serious Christian ministry, we bless them and send them away to be trained by people we don't know to serve in situations from which our specific local church most often does not benefit. The result of this modern practice has been the systematic weakening of local churches, which now find themselves unable to engage in serious Christian education.

It also puts unwarranted and unbiblical power in the hands of seminaries, which often have no genuine biblical relationship to local churches or denominations. Seminaries usually have an historical relationship with some particular denomination, but lack a significant relationship.

The reality of seminary education today is that seminaries intentionally broaden their theological perspectives in order to attract students from a variety of backgrounds. The seminary student market is so small that for seminaries to meet their own cash flow obligations, they believe that they must attract students from across the denominational field — and into the contemporary church horizon.

They justify this practice with the notion that they can reach more students and therefore more people with their broad-based denominational distinctives. But the reality is that in order to appeal to students from across the board, they must teach an increasingly "generic" theology, and then add denominational distinctives with classes in various denominational polities. The error of this practice is the assumption that denominational distinctives or particular denominational theologies do not affect the course of "generic" theology — even more, that there exists a "generic" theology that can be taught without appeal to any particular denominational distinctives.

I believe that history will show this to be a false treatment of theology. Why? Because if there is a right biblical perspective (a genuine, unified orthodox Christian theology), then whatever denominational distinctives that are not in line with such orthodoxy are necessarily false. Thus, the effort to teach a "generic" Christian theology ends up with a watered down theology that is short of the mark. This is only to say that the attempt to teach generic, multi-perspectival theology muddles clear thinking by assuming that there is a neutral theological position. There isn't.

Of all Christians, Congregationalists, whose heritage is the original American "city on a hill," and who believe that the primary institution of the gospel is the local church, should know better. I am not arguing against theological education or missions, only pointing out the fact that our methods of doing these things has harmed our local churches.

This generic seminary education is relatively new in the history of Protestant Christianity. Again, I'm not arguing for the end of theological education for clergy. Rather, I'm suggesting that we might do it differently. In as much as local churches give the responsibility for theological education to seminaries, they fail in their efforts to strengthen the local church focus of historic Congregationalism.

Every American seminary has grown more Liberal with each passing decade since the founding of this country. Looking to seminaries to provide pastoral renewal or church renewal is contrary to the historical distinctives of Congregationalism. Renewal always flows from the bottom up. Congregationalism, like the democratic republic created by the U.S. Constitution, requires an educated and committed membership if it is to thrive — or even survive.

Any recent seminary graduate will attest to the fact that that seminary training is not adequate preparation for pastoral work. Much of the problem is that the pastor is a new comer to the local church. None of the time and relationships that are a necessary perquisite of trust are in place. The average length of today's pastorate is about 2-3 years, which is not enough time for trust to develop. Consequently, pastors spend the bulk of their time trying to develop trust with a congregation, but rarely stay long enough to gain it. Pastor and people never get beyond a 2-3 year friendship, never attain deep trust.

Part of the problem is that the seminary graduate has been taught a generic theology, whereas a local congregation is a repository of a specific theology. Pastor and people are seldom "on the same page." The Executive Committee is considering a recommended course of study for potential CCCC Ohio Fellowship pastors. It is not a difficult or expensive recommendation. I am now suggesting that the churches themselves give it their blessing. But in order to do that, they (you/we) must know and understand what will be recommended ourselves. Pastor and people must know the content of the recommendations. Therefore, I propose the following:

In the interest of the renewal of the Ohio CCCC churches all able-bodied local church members and current pastors of the Ohio CCCC (as well as those who want to engage an alternative to seminary education) take up the serious study of the Christian faith and of our historic Congregational distinctives by personally engaging the recommendations when they are made.

Again, all pastors, elders, deacons, Sunday School teachers, choir directors, musicians and other church leaders — seminary trained or not — should engage in the recommended study program as a means of protecting and strengthening our common faith (and Congregational distinctives) from further erosion by modernity (Liberalism and or Humanism).

Christian study is not just for pastors, but must be engaged by church leaders and members in order to strengthen and extend the ministry of the pastor and the local church. Pastors and people must be "on the same page," so to speak. The success of the pastor depends greatly upon the faithfulness and commitment to (read that as study and understanding of) the theology of the church. Not only do the people need to be on the same page as the pastor, but the people need to be on the same page as each other. Nothing will get people rowing in the same direction better or faster than the reading of these historic documents. Church renewal is always a matter of returning to the old paths (Jeremiah 6:16, 18:15).

Friends, the hard truth is that the responsibility for the weakness of Congregational churches belongs squarely to the churches themselves. Congregational polity provides no one else to blame. The good news of the gospel is that the key to renewal is the confession of sin and error, and repentance thereof. These are the basic elements of Christianity. We cannot be instruments of Jesus Christ if we refuse to accept the reality of our own sin and failures as individuals and as churches.

Cooperation with the Spirit of renewal means giving ourselves completely to the Holy Spirit in prayer and to the ongoing practice of repentance. Repentance is a daily work of trusting God, which means retooling our minds through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Prayer and repentance are the Spirit's engines of renewal.

Of course, we can continue to neglect prayer and study in the hope that someone (the right pastor, the Conference, some super TV preacher, or maybe even God Himself) will snatch us from the jaws of our impending defeat. Or we can trust God to complete what He began in the historic Congregational churches in America — the Christianization of the world. (For more on the early history of Congregationalism see Political Polytheism — The Myth of Pluralism, by Gary North).

Jesus Christ has given this awesome responsibility to those who are weak enough to be used by His Holy Spirit. Are you weak enough yet? Are our churches weak enough yet? Or do we need more exposure to the spiritual acids of modernity? I hope not! In our weakness, let us turn to ordinary faithfulness in the Lord.

Ordinary faithfulness begins with the Word of God, and the orthodox explanation of it to the whole world. Those who fail to understand the orthodox teachings of the Christian church can't possibly live it or preach it. They can only serve as bad examples for God's faithful saints.

Historically, the Ohio Fellowship is the only remaining regional fellowship in the CCCC that continues to grant ministerial licensure/standing apart from the national CCCC. However, I believe that historic Congregationalists understand that the granting of such regional credentials is consistent with Congregational polity (orthodox Christian practice), So, I further recommend that the Ohio Fellowship take their/our responsibility in this matter more seriously — not merely to help stem potential problems in our churches (which have been increasing dramatically over the last two decades), but to spearhead and encourage the renewal of our churches. As Congregational churches we cannot expect a top-down renewal program, but must work under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to bring renewal from the bottom-up, church by church. There are no shortcuts. There are no magic pills, only the Spirit-led work of progressive sanctification.

You may not think that you are able to contribute much to this historic mission in our times. But God can use you! Can we trust Him to complete what He began in our churches? Yes, we can because God has guaranteed it (Philippians 1:6)

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