.: a much needed calling out :.

It’s time to start thinking of how we might begin to bring ourselves back to an appropriate balance.



As a member of Regent College, a seminary (though the leadership regards it as an “un-seminary”) on the UBC campus of Vancouver, British Columbia, I find myself in a bracket of the religious faith that has come under attack from many pulpits, stages, services, through various pastors, leaders, people who have a point to prove (be it right or wrong). And I will be open with my own issues, simply by saying that I too have led in the decrying and criticizing of religious schools of training for the sake of uplifting the "untrained". In a time when we have shifted the weight within the Christian community (i.e., the Church) in which the “professionally trained” (I say that with the intended cynicism) come under criticism – even disapproval - and the people who fill the pews every Sunday are lifted up as the new highlighted leaders, I have come to a point where I feel we need to regain a true sense of balance within our view of what type of leadership is proper for our times.



Let me say it in simpler terms; seminaries and Bible colleges are not the enemy of the organized Christian faith! In some of the “loudest” sermons (maybe not the ones who spoke the clearest, but certainly the most vocal) throughout our community of faith, we have for some time glorified the art of staying out of religious schools of any type. I have on more than one occasion been suddenly placed in the group that is highlighted as the “modern day Pharisees” simply because of the place that I am a part of. I will say it again… it’s time for us to initiate the search for an accurate balance of all segments of Christian leadership and supporters! I find it hard to believe that in our recent deepening as a community, during a time in which we are finally beginning to break through and actually live as the “priesthood of all believers” (1 Peter 2:9) that we truly are (i.e., that the pastor and lay person equally participate in work of the ministry), that we have chose to flip our view of subjection and parade the common man at the “contemporarily accepted” condemnation of those involved in religious training. Oh, we have said it plenty of times, especially those of us who experienced anything inappropriate in the context of a Christian college. But we need to address this as of yesterday – beginning from the day that we moved from one wrong view to another – and honor all levels of training.



From discipleship groups to home churches to seminaries throughout the world, we need to see that all groups of preparation and education (certified or not) can have certain elements that truly are disservices to our faith community, as we continue to search for what it means to find authenticity as believers and churches. But we cannot… we must no longer… belittle and discredit seminaries, Bible colleges, and other similar schools, simply because certain factions of such take points of doctrine and/or practice to extreme legalistic, unbiblical degrees. All parties involved play an important role in the work of the Kingdom. And for those who have been made to feel regarded as the inferior subjects of those with “religious” degrees, let me speak for those who agree with my angle of thinking that I truly am sorry for such religious bigotry. Never have any of us had any God-given grounds to hold ourselves above you for any reason, especially for religious training (tools that we have been given to edify the Body). But we cannot continue to spread such prejudiced type of rhetoric by accusing those in training of systematizing our faith any more than we can accuse laymen of caring too little about the faith (misconstrued from our biasedly seeing it as their “simple knowledge” and personal choice to not “learn the language”).



We need men and women from all parts, with all degrees and levels of schooling, for God has called us each to different fields, having prepared us in different ways. We cannot make religious schooling the enemy in our search for genuine faith in Christ and desire to live in out in real ways. We are under the age of grace – let us extend it to our students and graduates of like faith!