THE RICH MEN RUNNING THE REFORMED SEMINARIES VS. THE POOR MINISTERS:

 THE RICH MEN RUNNING THE REFORMED SEMINARIES VS. THE POOR MINISTERS:

In many situations, men looking to enter pastoral ministry, especially in Reformed and Presbyterian circles (and some Baptists as well with their seminaries), are expected to not only have a solid undergraduate degree, but go to seminary and earn an M.Div. (100 credits or so) as well. Overall, I agree with the required rigor. We want our ministers trained. We ARE professionals, in at least some real sense. Those unskilled in handling the Word of God ought not to be ordained, and intensive and comprehensive training along the lines of seminary by godly, qualified men is necessary.

The problem is less the training and more the costs and dynamics at this present time. I have known pastors, even with various financial aids, having to still pay off their seminary work into their 40's. I remember a few years back hearing about how many ordained ministers there are in the PCA, and how the number of actual churches was something like half.

Being paid well, especially as a President of a thoroughly biblical and sound seminary, isn't an issue. If the seminaries and men listed below, especially the one at the top, were solidly faithful and biblical, and the men they were training were entering into a pastoral ministry/job market that was reasonable, what would be the problem?

Tuition at RTS is about $600/credit hour, not sure if that varies between which RTS you are at. At WTS in Pennsylvania, it is more than double this at $1230 per hour!

If there are 100 credits in an M.Div., that's anywhere between $60,000 and over $120,000 for an M.Div. This is on top of whatever a student had to pay to get through undergraduate work. It is true, most seminaries offer decent scholarships, tuition discounts, etc., but between undergraduate and seminary, it is likely you are being saddled with $50,000-80,000 you've had to pay out of pocket or go into debt to cover, just to then compete for a job market that will often pay poorly, relative to the costs to qualify to serve in that job.

And often if you want to compete for a larger church/top end ministerial position, you'll need a Doctoral Degree, or at least further certification, etc.

Yes, ministry is a job, and the ideal is not bi-vocational/tentmaking ministry, even though for many it is a necessity given the dynamics. But have we considered that the command to "not muzzle the ox" and "the worker is worthy of his wages" (I Tim. 5:17-18) has to take into account the debt or costs of qualifying to labor in the field of pastoral ministry?

Now, what are the qualifications to serve as a Pastor/Elder according to Scripture? It includes being the husband of one wife, and ruling your household well. This presupposes, at the very least in normal circumstances, that the one serving as Minister is not a bachelor, but a married man, and ideally with children to provide for, and has some demonstration of competency in his own home.

I Tim. 3:4-5, "One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence" (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?)".

It seems today we almost wink at this as a qualification. Not only are there jokes about PK's (Pastor's Kids), but today we launch young Johnny into the ministry at 22 (or younger) because he led a good college group and just graduated. No, he isn't married, trained, or qualified, but let's make him a youth pastor, or an associate pastor, or if we've really got a prodigy on our hands, our senior pastor!

Even if you marry at 21 or 22, it will take a few years to have some demonstration of ruling your house well, and to bear children. This, combined with the training required for pastoral ministry, means typically one shouldn't be ordained under 25 years of age or so. This is a good thing, not a bad thing. But given these realities, we need to help young men preparing for ministry, with a new family, with young children, all while learning Greek and Hebrew, likely uprooted from their local family and community to attend Seminary for several years.

And realistically, with the costs of seminary, unless you have the fully funded support of your local church (and praise God if you do), you're going to be working a fair bit while in Seminary, and taking classes likely only part time. It took me 7 years to complete seminary, and this was after graduating from Bible College (and I did this with church financial support and not going to the bigshot seminaries but more affordable ones, like GPTS and later RITS). Even with all your seminary costs covered, are you going to have your wife, bearing your babies, work while you simply study and train? Ideally, you are going to be working some, if not close to full time, regardless.

I do think all of this lends itself to distance based/online seminary learning. At the same time, my two years on campus in Bible College and year on campus in seminary, plus intensive courses that lasted a week or so that I traveled to, were invaluable. Some sort of hybrid model is likely ideal, and possible in our day and age.

You would think that tuition would be discounted for distance students, but my experience and searching online says this is not the case. In fact, they may charge you a bit more for a technology fee.

Add to this that some of these Reformed seminaries seek accreditation, or have to jump through various hoops, all hoops that cost money, and this cost gets passed down to the student. Further, these mainline Reformed seminaries are also, in many cases, compromised today. Due to costs and compromise, I'd never recommend them.

There are free seminaries options online like the Log College and Seminary. But there's also affordable options. I finished my M.Div. with Reformation International Theological Seminary, and I do some work for them now as well. I am very grateful for how the Lord provided in this way. Tuition is only $95/credit hour, and the recorded lectures used have been used for many years. You don't have to worry about woke teaching, because all our lectures predates woke-world, and many of our lectures are audio recordings from other seminaries, used with their permission. Your material is graded by our Dean of Studies, you get to interact with him on your assignments, all lectures are transcribed, etc. It's a solid, streamlined, affordable option. You can learn more here: https://reformationseminary.org/

I say all that to say this. The state of the church and our seminaries is quite poor right now, including and in some ways especially our Reformed seminaries. There are a few exceptions, but they are few, and I fear they might not be exceptions 10 years from now. We need to guard against degree credentialism, as if simply having an M.Div. or doctoral degree makes you wise and sound and qualified and godly as a minister. We also need to guard against lowering the academic standards and bar for ministers. It has been drastically lowered over the last 100 years or so. A child 100+ years ago given something of a classical, Christian education would probably have the equivalent of a solid Bible College or even seminary degree today, especially knowing Latin and Greek.

Godly men who are in a financial bind due to college and seminary costs, then finding out that their denomination is compromised and/or going woke are having to make hard decisions. Lots of times, their local churches aren't what they expected, their Elders are untrustworthy and often unqualified, etc. It is a hard time. I am pleading with ministers to be faithful if this is your situation. Trust the Lord, come out from among them, and be ye separate. Be faithful, and if you have to leave your church or denomination, do so. Do not compromise for the sake of money or ease.

But let's admit that the present system is failing. The mainline Reformed seminaries are increasingly expensive dinosaurs that are inadequate and compromised. I didn't even mention probably the greatest offender, Covenant Theological Seminary along with Covenant College. It is time for new works, to God's glory. New, small Christian co-ops and schools for youth, Bible colleges and seminaries, and new church plants that are done ignoring the real, sinful issues.