August 11, 2010
On the Job Training
Generally speaking in the church we cut prospective teachers and leaders a lot of slack as they are developing their skills. However, when we come across an individual who wows us with their talk and knowledge we immediately want to know where they received their education. It’s almost as though regardless of their ability and courage to impart the Word, we want to know who certified them qualified. Peter and John had a similar experience when they were before the Sanhedrin who, “…realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13 NIV) I think we need to be reminded that a Bible college education doesn't trump being filled with the Holy Spirit.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----A Bible college education, in its right place, is a tool of the Holy Spirit. But that tool is only useful to Him within the context of the gifts He has given to the one having received the training. If he is skilled at teaching, then from it the Spirit will avail teaching in the church. If he is killed in preaching, then preaching, if counseling, then counseling. The education will be brought forth from the individual’s abilities for the benefit of the body. So the education certifies only potential, not qualification. And the certificate of graduation upon a wall does not even certify that potential; it certifies only that the completion of an educational process has been graded high enough to receive an acknowledgment of it. As in all the other areas of life in the Lord, qualification comes only from the actual fruit born of it, and fruit does not grow without the Spirit.
-----What disturbs me is that there are Bible colleges. Please recognize the hyperbole in that statement. What I mean is that a serious educational effort in the church is lacking to the degree that if one treasures God’s commandments, making his ear attentive to wisdom and inclining his heart to understanding, seeking it like silver and hidden treasures, then to find the knowledge of God to which his hunger drives him, he must either go to a Bible college, or be quite adept at self-education. There is very little educational effort made at the church on the corner by knowledgeable and skilled teachers who can lead disciples through the mazes of information until they have a knowledge consistent in breadth and focused in depth as what is available at the Bible college. This tends to animate the clergy/laity boundaries, and it tends to keep eyes searching for the framed diplomas.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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