DELIVERING THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION
FOR CHURCH PLANTERS IN
Susan Booth
Susan and
Steve Booth were appointed in 1992 by the Southern Baptist International
Mission Board to
Published in “Featured Article” of www.GlobalMissiology.org October 2011
Introduction
There are some who doubt that formal theological education has anything worthwhile to offer aspiring leaders for today’s churches. As early as 1984, John Frame proposed that “we dump the academic model once and for all.”[1] Although Roger S. Greenway grudgingly acknowledges seminary may have some value, he asserts that it is such a poor fit for an urban context that it should be cast off like Saul’s borrowed armor:
. . . [I] propose that urban churches set the academy aside, with everything it entails—degrees, accreditation, Ph.D.’s credit hours, and traditional curriculum—and focus unrelentingly on the needs of the churches, the skills required for ministry, and the biblical standards for leaders of God’s people. [T]he marriage of the academy to ministerial preparation has produced too many unhappy children, who have been foisted on churches everywhere as though there were no other way to train leaders.[2]
In place of seminary, Greenway suggests that urban churches “develop alternative programs of leadership training, contextualized to their needs.”[3] Unfortunately, he does not explain the nuts and bolts of how struggling inner-city churches or fledgling church plants can accomplish this.
On
the other hand, there are those who are more hopeful concerning the future of
theological education. Not surprisingly, included in their ranks is Daniel
Aleshire, the executive director of the Association of Theological Schools in
the
One
such area where change is already upon us is the relatively new field of
preparing church planters.[5] There is
considerable debate over whether theological schools can actually provide
appropriate training for church planters. This
paper will survey church-planting literature to identify what church planters need
in order to be effective. Then it will describe the particular needs of the
Canadian context. Next it will explore current opportunities for theological
training for church planters focusing on other Southern Baptist seminaries and
Canadian schools. Finally, this paper will evaluate the ability of the Canadian
Southern Baptist Seminary to deliver effective theological education for church
planters in the Canadian context.
Definitions
According to J. D. Payne, “biblical church planting is evangelism that results in churches.”[6] Following the leadership of the Holy Spirit, church planters seek to share the gospel in a way that is both faithful to the Bible and suited to the cultural context, to lead new believers to become followers of Jesus Christ, and to draw them together into a community that embodies the essence of the church as it is seen in the New Testament.[7]
This paper will use the following definition of church:
A local church is an organized body of baptized believers, led by a spiritually qualified shepherd, affirming their relationship to the Lord and to each other by regular observance of the Lord’s Supper, committed to the authority of the Word of God, gathering regularly for worship and the study of the Word, and turned outward to the world in witness.[8]
Although a church could be described in many other ways, the above definition outlines the irreducible elements of a biblical church.
What Church Planters Need in Order to Be Effective
A survey of church planting literature reveals that there are many things that church planters need in order to be effective. Charles Brock, one of the early gurus of church planting, bemoans the plethora of new ideas, fads, and paradigm shifts purported to be the latest panacea for church planters. He remonstrates that “[c]hurch planting does not need to be redefined,” and “[t]he New Testament is still fully adequate to give us direction.”[9] Brock distills church planting down to four absolute essentials: the Spirit, the Seed, the Sower, and the Soil. He cautions that adding any excess baggage may prove “detrimental to healthy church planting.” Brock also suggests that the one ingredient that is most likely missing today is “spirit-filled church planters with a burning message from God.”[10] While Brock’s observations are undoubtedly astute, there are certainly several other skills necessary for church planting. Payne offers the following list of “eight essential practices of a church planting team member”: He or she 1) walks with the Lord; 2) maintains an outstanding character; 3) serves the local church; 4) remains faithful to the call; 5) shares the gospel regularly; 6) raises up leaders; 7) encourages with speech and actions; and 8) responds appropriately to conflict.[11] It seems that everyone has his or her own list of what is absolutely indispensible. Most of these essentials for church planting can be divided into three categories: knowledge (knowing), skills (doing), and character (being).[12] Interestingly, the ATS standard for theological curriculum contains each of these:
In a theological school, the overarching goal is the development of theological understanding, that is, an aptitude for theological reflection and wisdom pertaining to responsible life in faith. Comprehended in this overarching goal are others such as deepening spiritual awareness, growing in moral sensibility and character, gaining an intellectual grasp of the tradition of a faith community, and acquiring the abilities requisite to the exercise of ministry in that community.[13]
Seminaries aspiring to train effective church planters must give careful attention to all three.
Knowledge
“The role of theology has been suppressed in the last decades because of our love for the pragmatic and technique-oriented leadership of managerial missiology,” charges Canadian missiologist, Gary Nelson.[14] In the headlong rush to outline the latest hands-on how-to’s, many books on church planting brush past this need for theological understanding and biblical grounding.[15] Church planters follow them to their peril. A huge proponent of practicality, Ed Stetzer still wisely recognizes, “We’d be wrong to send out planters with organizational strategies and marketing tools but not the fundamental truths of God’s Word and the principles of Scripture from which to work.”[16] Likewise, although Craig Ott and Gene Wilson advocate “decentralized theological education . . . punctuated by practical experience,” they agree that biblical and theological equipping of leaders is crucial: “A failure to attend to theological grounding of . . . leaders ultimately would make even the most dynamic movement susceptible to instability and false teaching.”[17] Timothy Keller observes that most church leaders tend to fall into one of two camps: traditionalists and practitioners. Focused on being relevant and effective, practitioners “are not theologically grounded and reflective enough to tell the difference between the principle and the application.”[18] Clearly, church planters need a thorough understanding of the biblical and missiological bases and theological framework for church planting.
Payne provides an excellent exposition of all three of these in Discovering Church Planting. This biblical, missiological, and theological grounding results in a balanced perspective that is immediately apparent in the opening sentence of this book: “It is not about planting churches.”[19] After all, as Payne points out, there is no biblical command per se to go plant churches. Jesus did, however, commission his followers to go make disciples of all nations. Payne observes that “church planting is a biblical, effective, and efficient method of carrying out the Great Commission.”[20] In fact, the “New Testament mission was designed to bring people into relationship with Christ and with other believers in responsible churches.”[21] Jesus said that he, himself, would build his church; he loved the church and gave himself up for her. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit birthed the church, and he indwells the church today. The church is the body of Christ who is its head, and the church brings glory to God through all eternity. A canonical survey squarely places the church at the center of God’s mission throughout history.[22]
In
addition to a strong biblical and missiological foundation, the missionary
practice of planting churches must also have a solid theological framework.
According to Payne, this framework should at least include an understanding of
the Missio Dei, the Incarnation, and
the
Perhaps surprisingly, some of the strongest affirmations of the benefits of biblical and theological grounding for church planters come from those who have experience in the trenches of ethnic, urban church planting. For example, Ray Bakke notes that he resonates with the following comment by David Hansen: “I discovered that spending a day reading thirty pages of Karl Barth’s Dogmatics helped me more in my pastoral work than reading a hundred pages of how-to literature.”[25] Bakke also relates the following story which highlights the importance of a traditional theological education. A student asked John Fry (a “with it” urban pastor), “What does it take to be a really ‘with it’ pastor?”
[Fry] replied, “Unless you can read Hebrew without the vowel points and translate any passage in the Greek New Testament inside fifteen minutes, you have no business in the ministry.” He paused for a moment while the students went into shock, then continued, “Because if you can’t tell me where the church has been, you have no business telling me where it ought to go.”[26]
Bakke sees the primary challenge of urban ministry as theological. His book, A Theology as Big as the City, is a theological reflection on the uses of the word “city” found 1250 times in Scripture. Bakke’s profound insights into how the biblical text informs his urban setting are a valuable resource for any church planter in a similar urban context. They also serve as a potent testimony to the importance of the authority of the Scripture and its power to speak into life and ministry.
Church planters must know the Bible and how to interpret it properly; they must be grounded in biblical doctrine and adept at theological thinking. They need to understand the character and mission of God, the uniqueness of the person and work of Christ, the role and gifting of the Spirit. All of this will help them develop a biblical ecclesiology so that they might be able to plant biblical churches. The best church planting literature clearly reveals that theological education has much to offer church planters in the area of cognitive knowledge and wisdom gained from theological reflection.
Character
In Christian ministry, closely related to knowing and doing is being. For example, Paul recognized that even if he could “fathom all mysteries and all knowledge” and perform all sorts of ministries and yet be without love, he was nothing. Along the same lines, Keller concludes that “[t]he single most important thing a leader needs in order to lead is holy, loving, Christ-like character.”[27] He even suggests that godliness can even compensate for areas where the Christian minister has deficiencies. Unfortunately, he also observes that “[i]t is relatively easy to give knowledge, more difficult to affect behavior, and most difficult to transform character.”[28] Ott also maintains that leadership stems from character, not technical competence. He observes that leaders tend to fail, not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of a weakness in character or because of relational issues.[29] Surely it is noteworthy that Paul’s lists of qualifications for an elder consist solely of character qualities with the exception of one skill—the ability to teach.[30]
So just what are the essential core values, attitudes, and character traits that a church planter should possess? Much of the literature identifies the primary characteristic is an absolute dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit.[31] Interestingly, Roland Muller analyzed successful evangelists with widely divergent personalities and isolated the following commonalities: 1) a life so saturated with the Word of God that even non-believers recognized that this was a person of God; and 2) an absolute submission to God, often gained at the expense of suffering and brokenness.[32] This dependence on the Holy Spirit is demonstrated in the church planter’s dedication to a lifestyle of prayer. Unfortunately, as Stetzer candidly observes, “[t]he personality type that plants churches is not consistent with the same personality type that is great at walking with God.”[33] It is all the more critical, therefore, that training for church planters include this foundational component of character development.
Many
writers have attempted to enumerate various other character qualities that are
essential. Because character is such a crucial component,
some have formulated an assessment process that helps “discern the readiness
and giftedness” of potential church planters.[34] For
example, the assessment used by the
If it is difficult to measure godly character, it is even more difficult to instill it. Most church planting books simply point out the need for a deep spiritual walk, but neglect to discuss specifics.[39] Others lament that seminary-based training fails to develop spiritual character. According to Roger Greenway,
The trouble with the traditional way of training for the ministry is that it is so heavily weighted toward academic accomplishments that the “weightier things,” such as diligence in prayer; evidence of a loving and gracious spirit; obedience to the moral standards of Christian living; spiritual power in teaching, preaching, and evangelism; and the ability to exercise authority without pride, receive scant attention. Yet these are the most important things to be measured in persons preparing for Christian leadership.
Instead of an academic model
focused on knowledge, Greenway proposes a new model that places primary
attention on Christian character. In actuality,
however, spiritual formation is one of the four foci of the “signature
pedagogy” of theological education.[40]
Seminaries must be careful to make the most of available opportunities for
spiritual formation. But even the executive director of ATS admits that
Christian character may best be formed in actual Christian ministry.
Seminaries, therefore, must partner with churches to ensure that students are
involved in ministry which parallels their studies. According to Ott, the
supervisor model has been replaced or at least supplemented with the mentor
model where “[c]hurch-planting mentors listen to mentees, pray for them, model
faithful life and ministry, set the pace, hold them accountable, and give them
constructive feedback.”[41] Ott
sees mentoring as the key to developing character. The development of a
Christ-like character is of such critical importance for church planters that
they need both seminary and church to attend to its formation.
Skills
In addition to solid biblical and theological grounding and the development of a godly character, a church planter must also learn a variety of skills. A quick perusal of church planting literature amasses an overwhelming inventory of competencies necessary for church planting. Payne, however, reduces the primary tasks of church planting to two: evangelism and leadership development.[42]
Evangelism
Because Payne defines biblical church planting as evangelism that results in new churches, he sees it as absolutely crucial to the church planting task. Ironically he observes that “[w]ith many church-planting teams, evangelism is the weakest link.”[43] Unless church planters discipline themselves to do the work of an evangelist—building networks, spending time with unbelievers, and sharing the gospel—invariably they will tend to start churches with believers from other churches. Adopting Gary Rohrmayer’s term for this tendency, “evangelism entropy,” Payne warns that church planting built around transfer growth will fail to make disciples of the four billion people on planet Earth who do not yet know Christ.
Although there are many different methods of evangelism, “[a] scriptural doctrine of evangelism should be the controlling element in any practice of evangelism.”[44] Muller charts a spectrum of evangelism styles, from least to most offensive: “Lifestyle—Friendship—Teacher-based—Proclamation—Confrontation.” He warns that the popular philosophy of friendship evangelism all too often falls short on either the side of true friendship or actual evangelism. Instead, he suggests that missionaries should most often use the teacher-based style because he believes it is the biblical pattern and that teaching is at the core of evangelism.[45] Keller, on the other hand, advocates the strategy of cultivating a networking mindset for the whole church. Networking recognizes the reality that in today’s privatized, secularized society, “people will not listen to the gospel from strangers.” It is crucial therefore to share the good news intentionally along the existing networks—familial, geographical, vocational, and relational—of every new believer.[46]
Cultural Exegesis
Whatever evangelism approach church planters choose, they should communicate the gospel in a way that fits the context. Cultural exegesis is an indispensible skill for church planters. Keller explains how to develop four community profiles including interior life (hopes, dreams, fears, and problems), world-view, social context, and religious institutions. His manual also provides a sample ethnographic interview. Keller strongly underscores that living incarnationally within the culture is the key to effective ministry.[47]
Contextualization
Knowing a community thoroughly is also a requirement for contextualization—a term that missionaries used to describe the process of sharing the gospel in cross-cultural contexts.[48] Darrin Patrick addresses this concept in an excellent chapter entitled: “The How of Mission: Contextualization.” Although some voice suspicions that contextualization is spiritual compromise—becoming like the world to win the world—actually any articulation of the gospel is in a concrete historical context. After all, language itself is a social context. The issue then, is how to contextualize the gospel critically, achieving that delicate balance of faithfully communicating the unchanging truths of the gospel in a way that is comprehensible to the hearers.[49] Patrick also includes biblical examples of how Jesus and Paul used contextualization to accomplish their mission.[50] Like Patrick, Keller thinks contextualization is so important that he identifies it as one of the handful of principles that run throughout his manual for church planters. He cautions the reader not to underestimate its complexity or its importance.[51]
Cross-cultural Skills
Church planters need to see
themselves as missiologists and adopt helpful tools and practices for sharing
the gospel in their own cross-cultural contexts. Muller dedicates most of his
book to the discussion of how contextualization provides an extremely useful
tool for cross-cultural evangelism.[52] Muller
identifies the three basic ancestral worldviews based on fear, guilt, and
shame. He demonstrates the effectiveness of both comprehending someone’s
worldview and communicating the gospel in a way that resonates with that
particular worldview. While this skill is indispensible for missionaries in a
cross-cultural setting, it is just as important for evangelicals in
An Urban Skill-Set
Around the world, cities are
growing at exponential rates. For the first time in history, the urban
population reached 1 billion in 1961. It took only 25 years to hit the second
billion; 17 years to hit the third. It is projected that there will be 4
billion city dwellers in 2018. In
Church planters must be able to navigate the financial challenges of the city. An escalating inundation of human needs threatens to swamp the social institutions which have traditionally met them. In the face of this overwhelming hardship, some may be tempted to place social justice and compassion as the primary focus of the church. But as Hibbert observes,
The church is at the heart of God’s purposes, and
is the primary agent and sign of the
Evangelism that
results in the planting of new churches is the primary way God has chosen to
extend the reign of his kingdom. While church planters must not lose sight of
the primacy of evangelism and making disciples, they must keep the transforming
power of the gospel in view. In the preface to his church planter training
manual, Keller explains the principle that “paradoxically, churches grow best
not when they aim at church growth as much as when they serve the peace/shalom of the whole city.”[56] Keller
names mercy ministries as one of the “two key ministries pivotal to the
formation of a healthy church,” the other one being leadership development.[57] Urban
church planters need to know how to share a holistic gospel that truly
transforms the city.
An
urban context calls for other skills as well.
Obviously, the development of indigenous urban leaders should not be overlooked as a logical alternative to relocated church planters. However, potential indigenous leaders often present their own set of challenges, usually needing spiritual formation, theological training, and instruction in the application of Scripture to their own context.[60] Conn and Ortiz argue that it is incumbent on the church, rather than the seminary, to develop indigenous leadership using a variety of integrated training traditions including mentoring and modeling, as well as informal and distance education. The authors also note that an urban curriculum should incorporate social sciences, theology and biblical studies, and the cultural context of the urban reality.[61] They suggest a curriculum for developing urban leaders that includes spiritual formation, mission formation, and social formation.[62]
Leadership Development
According to Payne, next to evangelism, leadership development is the second primary task of a church planter. The process of discipleship should be a natural part of leadership development. Evangelism is only the beginning of fulfilling the Great Commission. Jesus tasks his followers with making disciples—baptizing them and teaching them to obey all his commands. Church planters need to ensure that those who profess faith in Christ grow to maturity as fruit-bearing Christ-followers.[63] Church planters must learn how to teach new believers to become obedient followers of Christ by modeling a Spirit-filled life before them. Church planters must also provide basic biblical knowledge with application, instruction in spiritual disciplines, hands-on involvement in ministry, and accountability.[64]
Ott observes that it is a natural progression for a disciple to learn to serve by meeting immediate needs of the church and community. Disciples are followers of Christ who set the example as the ultimate servant leader as Philippians 2 so eloquently expresses. Ott states his personal conviction about developing leaders: “Train a servant, and you will get a leader.”[65] Through training in experiential acts of service to the church, a servant will naturally display certain spiritual gifts. The wise church planter will then be able to identify and develop these faithful servants into leaders.
It is extremely important that a church planter raise and equip leaders from the harvest for the continuing work in the harvest. These new leaders will in turn guide others to “discover and attain their potential in service. The multiplication of churches is built on multiplying disciples, workers, and leaders.”[66] Payne declares that this process must be reproducible in order for multiplication to take place. He also notes that the failure to develop leaders is “the bottleneck of church multiplication.”[67] Church planters would do well to learn the skill of multiplying leaders inherent in Paul’s injunction to Timothy to entrust the things he has taught him to reliable men who will in turn be qualified to teach others (2 Tim 2:2).
Other Skills
A survey of church planting literature reveals myriads of other tasks and skills that would also be helpful for church planters. For example, they should demonstrate a dizzying array of behavioral assessment characteristics and biblical qualifications. They should be familiar with various models and methods; they should develop a philosophy of ministry, a church planting action plan, and a disciple-making plan. Church planters should be proficient in evangelism, discipling, encouraging, mentoring, comforting, admonishing, caring, and counseling.[68] They should be able to interpret and teach the Bible, lead small groups, and handle conflict appropriately. Some may need to balance tent-making and ministry; all must manage their own household and finances well. They should know how to use marketing and social sciences. If they cannot do all these things they need to be able to assemble and manage a team who can or they need to know God, know God’s Word, and walk with God in such a way that it compensates for their deficiencies.
Church planting is obviously not for the faint of heart. Perhaps it is endless lists like these that prompted Michael McKinley to write Church Planting Is for Wimps: How God Uses Messed-up People to Plant Ordinary Churches That Do Extraordinary Things.[69]
The Canadian Context
A Multi-Cultural Society
Most
recent immigrants gravitate toward
An Urban Society
In light of
There
are many sociological issues that an urban church planter in
Although
there are obvious commonalities shared by cities north and south of the Canada-US
border, there are noteworthy differences, as well. Glenn Smith enumerates
“Seven Startling Differences between Canadian and
Smith proposes several new initiatives for urban ministry in Canada, including the following: 1) Churches can become centers for urban ministry research and ideas; 2) As the “conscience of the city,” churches need to find a voice in the public forum; 3) Churches need to “offer local social services without being owned by the municipality”; and 4) They need to balance spiritual mission with practical ministry to the poor.[79]
An Increasingly Secularized Society
Canadian pollster Reginald Bibby
observes that whereas weekly church attendance in
Consequently, the church has lost its voice in Canadian society. Glenn Smith observes that “[t]he moral consensus of . . . society increasingly bypasses the traditional values of the church in national debates over social policy and morality.”[81] Canadians have adopted a pluralistic ideology as evidenced in the data from Bibby’s 1995 Project Canada Survey. The majority of respondents agreed with the following statements: “Everything’s relative” (73%); “What’s right or wrong is a matter of personal opinion” (52%).[82]
In
spite of sundering formal ties to religious institutions, Canadians have
continued to evince some spiritual interest. The 2010 ISSP survey reports that
a majority of respondents believe in God, but only the polar opposites seem to
have nailed down their beliefs: 30% do not doubt that God exists; 7% are sure
he does not. Closer examination of the responses in the middle, however,
reveals enormous uncertainty: “While I have doubts, I feel there is a God”
(20%); “I find myself believing in God some of the time, but not at others”
(10%); “I don’t believe in a personal God, but I do believe in a higher power”
(20%); “I don’t know whether there is a god and I don’t believe there is a way
to find out” (11%).[83] Church
planters need to learn to engage Canadians in gospel conversations that tap
into this lingering spiritual interest.
The Canadian National Baptist Convention
Constituted in 1985, the Canadian
National Baptist Convention (CNBC) is a network of 271 churches across
Interviews with
Until recently, Dwight Huffman served several years as the CNBC National Team Leader for Church Planting. Speaking from his years of experience with Canadian church planters, Huffman outlined several critical needs in ministry practice. Church planters need organizational skills (budgeting and calendaring), relational skills (listening and shared decision making), conflict management, and accountability. He sees major problems where church planter spouses do not share the same sense of calling or commitment, and noted that church planters sometimes struggle with the same ethical issues as their surrounding culture. Huffman also observed that there is a need for urban training in order to prepare church planters to target ethnic groups and lower socio-economic groups.[86] Even with all these pressing practical needs, Huffman cautioned, “Don’t jettison theology. We have to integrate practical skills and mentoring into theological education if we’re going to prepare a person for a lifetime in ministry. I’m amazed at how much I do is what I believe.” Huffman also suggested that church planters need to study Church History in general and Baptist History in particular, in order to understand the bigger Missions picture and the difference between cooperative and societal missions.
Dan
Morgan is the CNBC Senior Strategist for Church Starting and the CSBS Nehemiah
Professor of Church Planting, arriving one year ago from
Focus Group with
The CSBS recently conducted a
thorough review/revision of the M.Div. degree program. Part of this process
involved surveying different constituencies of its parent denomination, CNBC,
to discuss how the degree might better meet the needs of theological education in
Theological Education Designed for Church Planters
Although Southeastern Baptist
Theological Seminary (SEBTS) first began offering a M.Div. with Church Planting
degree in 1995, the four-year program was designed for international missions.
Two years of on-campus study was followed by “two years of international field
based service in cooperation with the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board
(FMB).”[89] In
1999, SEBTS began offering a similar 2 plus 2 degree—a M.Div. with North
American Church Planting—in conjunction with the North American Mission Board
(NAMB). At that time there was only one course in church planting (Biblical
& Strategic Foundations), and 40 field-based hours comprised of a practicum
and 36 hours of unspecified modulars.[90] In
2001-02, a new course (North American Church Planting Field Experience) was
designed to expose first-year students to church planting on the field. The
degree saw significant revisions in 2004–05, when the field-based training
dropped to18 hours.[91] The
current SEBTS online catalogue reveals major changes to the M.Div. with North
American Church Planting. The degree is no longer a 2 plus 2 program. “Students
may have the option of finishing most of their academic requirements on campus”
(except for six hours of field-based practicums) or they can head to the field
after two years of campus curriculum in two years and complete the remaining
work on the field.[92]
According to Mike Dodson, SEBTS Professor of Church Planting, after graduation
students may be assigned to church planting teams and deployed by NAMB to one
of several North American cities. Although the Nehemiah Church Planting Project
has been around for twelve years, Dodson observed that “the field supervised
mentorship doesn’t happen the way it needs to.”[93] Dan
Morgan, Dodson’s counterpart at CSBS, also remarked that it was difficult for
Nehemiah students to juggle coursework and the demands of church planting at
the same time. Perhaps this explains why the future of the Nehemiah Project is
currently up in the air.[94]
Other
Southern Baptist seminaries offer similar M.Div. degrees with concentrations in
Church Planting in cooperation with NAMB. The church planting tracks all offer
an introduction to church planting, a models course, ten-week practicums, and a
variety of electives. SEBTS requires “Contextualized Church Planting” and a NA
Missions trip, while Southern requires “Intercultural Communication” and
“Church Multiplication Strategies.”
In
Theological Education for Church Planters at CSBS
The Curriculum
As the seminary of a denomination
that is dedicated to a vision of planting churches, CSBS is committed to
providing effective theological education for church planters. While the
Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary does not offer a M.Div. with a concentration
in church planting, it does have a NAMB-sponsored Nehemiah professor of church
planting. All students enrolled in the M.Div. program are required to take the
introductory “Church Planting”; all Nehemiah students are required to take
“Models of Church Planting,” as well. In response to the various focus groups,
surveys, and discussion generated by the M.Div. review, the CSBS faculty voted
to revise the M.Div. degree by making changes to seven courses, adding an
additional seven courses, and creating the possibility for student internships
in churches and church plants. The purpose of these changes is to equip every
student for ministry in the context of today’s
The
recent review of the M.Div. degree program also revealed the need to provide a
two-year Masters degree that focuses on the needs of church planters. CSBS
responded by designing a M.A. in
Assessment of the Missions and Church Planting Track
The foregoing survey of church planting literature, interviews with church planting strategists, and focus group all underscore the needs church planters have for knowledge, skills, and character. CSBS demonstrates both strengths and weaknesses in addressing each of these areas.
Knowledge
Not surprisingly, like most
traditional seminaries, CSBS is strong in the knowledge components of the
Biblical and Theological Studies. This curriculum includes comprehensive
surveys of both the Old Testament and the New Testament and a “Biblical
Interpretation” course that is indispensible for understanding and applying
hermeneutical principles. Two semesters of Christian Theology serve to meet the
need for a solid theological framework and sound ecclesiology. Additionally,
the course in Christian ethics included in this section addresses some of the
concerns that Huffman identified. However, there is one course missing that
both Huffman and the focus group mentioned: Church/Baptist History. The faculty
may need to consider requiring it or highly recommending students include it in
their free electives. A strength of CSBS is
that it avoids the common “academic apartheid”[97] in
which theology is segregated from missiology. Almost all the teaching faculty
have extensive international missionary experience; they are all practitioners;
several are currently serving in church plants. This missional ethos invariably
produces trans-curricular integration.
Skills
The research also revealed a number of practical skills needed by church planters. If one of their primary tasks is developing leaders, church planters will find the Leadership Studies section of the curriculum to be very helpful. The “set religious education programs” that the focus group expressed an aversion to are gone. In their place are courses that teach skills which church planters desperately need: “Effective Bible Teaching” and “Leading Disciples to Maturity.” The titles themselves reflect themes that surfaced in the literature’s discussion of developing leaders. The courses listed in the Missional Studies section demonstrate the commitment CSBS has to giving students the skills they need to engage their Canadian context.[98] The faculty also heard the resounding cry for more field-based praxis alongside experienced mentors. Therefore, in addition to the two semesters of Capstone Ministry (two 2-hour practicums), students in the new degree have the option of up to eight additional hours of internship experience.
Again, faculty experience as practitioners is hugely beneficial in teaching skills to students. CSBS faculty and students often minister alongside one another in local churches and church plants. However, CSBS also has to rely on partnerships with pastors and church planters to mentor students adequately in field practicums and internships. Just making room in the curriculum for more praxis does not mean that meaningful mentoring and coaching will automatically take place. The school will need to be proactive in promoting the internships and ensuring that these opportunities are all they should be.
A potential weakness in this area is that several of the skills mentioned in the research are not included in the required curriculum. Some of these—for example, relational and organizational skills—may naturally be addressed in field-based practicums or internships. Required missional electives can cover other areas such as urban and cross-cultural ministries, contextualization, and social sciences. This is where outside expertise may enrich the learning environment at CSBS. The seminary is just beginning to implement mid-program reviews and e-portfolios in the fall of 2011. Included in this assessment are certain competencies, such as a gospel presentation and a cultural exegesis. The faculty will review those to make sure students in this degree are able to demonstrate essential church planting skills.
Character
This curriculum also addresses the highlighted need for character development in the courses “Spiritual Formation” and “Dealing with Conflict.” One course which is missing from this core curriculum area is “Prayer.” The school offers teaching on prayer in electives, but may need to enlist church planting students for it directly. As the literature noted, however, character formation cannot take place in a classroom alone. Therefore, the seminary provides extra-curricular activities designed to meet this need: the Spiritual and Ministerial Formation covenant, faculty-facilitated journey groups (small groups that meet weekly for accountability and prayer), weekly chapels, monthly prayer chapels, and the annual Spiritual Renewal Week. The area of character development will continue to present challenges for CSBS as it does for most other traditional seminaries. However, this school is uniquely positioned to address this particular area. One of strengths of CSBS is a low student-faculty ratio. Students often drop in to talk with professors or spend time in their homes. Unlike in many large seminaries, the faculty of CSBS is able to mentor students, to walk with them in ministry, and to ask the hard questions. Faculty members are being challenged to be more intentional about speaking into the lives of students. Another critical area is the call and character of the church planter’s spouse. Although CSBS does have a program for women in ministry, many who need it most do not participate. The department of Student Services will need to evaluate the content of this program and find ways of increasing participation.
Delivery of Theological Education for Church Planters in
Perhaps the greatest challenge CSBS
faces in providing theological education for church planters in
Conclusion
Overall, CSBS is providing
effective training for church planters. In order to equip church planters to
meet the changing needs of all of
The
challenges of providing theological education for church planters through the
Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary are enormous, but so are the opportunities.
The Lord of the Harvest has given us our marching orders: Go, make disciples of
all the nations. Conveniently, the nations have arrived on
APPENDIX
|
MA in Missions and Church Planting Track |
|
|
Biblical Studies (14 hrs) |
|
|
Old Testament 1 and 2 |
(3/3) |
|
New Testament 1 and 2 |
(3/3) |
|
Biblical Interpretation |
(2) |
|
Theological Studies (7 hrs) |
|
|
Christian Theology 1 & 2 |
(2/2) |
|
Christian Ethics |
(3) |
|
Leadership Studies (6 hrs) |
|
|
Spiritual Leadership |
(2) |
|
Effective Bible Teaching |
(2) |
|
Leading Disciples toward Maturity |
(2) |
|
Missional Studies (12 hrs) |
|
|
Missiology |
(2) |
|
Evangelism |
(2) |
|
Christianity & Other World Faiths |
(2) |
|
Christian Apologetics in a Post-Christian Era |
(2) |
|
Church Planting |
(2) |
|
Models of Church Planting |
(2) |
|
Character and Praxis
(8 hrs) |
|
|
Spiritual Formation |
(2) |
|
Dealing with Conflict |
(2) |
|
Capstone Ministry |
(2/2) |
|
Missional Electives (4
hours) |
|
|
Free Electives* (9
hours) |
|
Total
hours: 60
*Free electives may include up to 8 credit hours of optional internship experience beyond the 4 hours of required Capstone Ministry 1 & 2, depending on availability of internship opportunities
BIBLIOGRAPHY
*Aleshire, Daniel O. Earthen
Vessels: Hopeful Reflections on the Work and Future of Theological Schools.
*Bakke, Ray. A
Theology as Big as the City.
Bibby, Reginald W. “
———. Project
———. There’s Got to Be More: Connecting Churches
and Canadians. Winfield, B.C.: Wood
*Brock, Charles. “What Are the
Absolute Essentials in Church Planting?” in Church
Planting Institute Online (15
November 2009): n.p. [cited 20 August 2011]. Online: http://www. cpqa.org/index.php?option=com_
content&view =article&id=151:what-are-the-absolute- essentials-in-church-planting&catid=34:qaa-for-church-planters&Item
id=65.
*
*———. The Urban Face of
2002.
*Foster, Charles R., Lisa E. Dahill,
*Frame, John M. “Proposals for a New North American Model.” Pages
369–86 in Missions and Theological Education in World Perspective.
Edited by Harvie M. Conn and Samuel Rowen.
*Greenway, Roger S. “Getting David out of Saul’s Armor.”
Pages 225–239 in The Urban Face of
Hammett, John S. Biblical
Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology.
*Hesselgrave,
David J. “Essential Elements of Church planting and Growing in the 21st
Century.” Evangelical Missionary Quarterly 36/1 (January 2000): 24–32. Cited:
20 August 2011. Online:
http://www.emisdirect.com/emq/issue-127/472.
*Hibbert, Richard Yates. “The Place of Church Planting in
*Hiebert, Paul G. and Tite Tienou. “Missions and the Doing
of Theology.” Pages 85–96 in The Urban Face of
*Hiller, Harry. Urban
Johnson, Richard. “Heaven tops hell in Canadian belief
poll,” National Post, September 3,
2010, No pages. Cited 3 February 2010.
Online: http://life.nationalpost.com/2010/09/03/heaven
-tops-hell-in-canadian-belief-poll/.
*Julien, Tom. “The Essence of the Church,” Evangelical Missions Quarterly (April
1998): No pages. Cited 29 Aug. 2011.
Online: http://www.emisdirect.com/emq/issue-248/1442.
*Keller, Timothy J. and J. Allen Thompson. Church Planter Manual.
Metzger, Will. Tell
the Truth: The Whole Gospel, to the Whole Person, by Whole People. 2d ed.
*Moerman, M. Ed. Discipling
Our Nation: Equipping the
*Muller, Roland . The Messenger, the Message and
the Community : Three Critical Issues for the
Cross-cultural Church Planter. 2d ed.
Osler, Sask.: CanBooks, 2010.
*Nelson,
*Ott, Craig and Gene Wilson. Global Church Planting. Biblical Principles and Best Practices for Multiplication.
*Patrick, Darrin. Church
Planter: The Man, the Message, the
*Payne, J. D. The
Barnabas Factors: Eight Essential Practices of a Church Planting Team Member.
*———. Discovering
Church Planting: An Introduction to
the What’s, Why’s, and How’s of Global
Church Planting.
*Smith, Glenn. “Canadian Urban Ministry: Proposals for New
Initiatives.” Pages 77–95 in Discipling Our Nation: Equipping the
*Stetzer, Ed. Planting
Missional Churches.
*Sweet, Leonard. “Not Your Father’s Seminary: How Seminaries Must Reinvent Themselves— A Conversation with Leonard Sweet on “NexSem.” REV! (March/April 2008): 70–3. Available online: http://www.rev.org/ArticlePrint.asp?ID=2871.
*Tunnicliffe, Geoff. “
*Zdero, Rad. The Global
[1] John M.
Frame, “Proposals for a New North American Model” in Missions and Theological Education in World Perspective (ed. Harvie
M. Conn and Samuel Rowen;
[2] Roger S.
Greenway, “Getting David out of Saul’s Armor,” in The Urban Face of Mission: Ministering the Gospel in a Diverse and
Changing World (ed. Manuel Ortiz and Susan S. Baker;
[4] Daniel O.
Aleshire, Earthen Vessels: Hopeful
Reflections on the Work and Future of Theological Schools (
[5] A quick analysis of ATLA Religion Database reveals that the 1970s produced a trickle of articles/books on the subject of church planting; by the 1990s, it had increased to a steady flow.
[6] J. D. Payne,
[8] Tom Julien, “The Essence of the Church,” EMQ (April 1998): n.p. [cited 29 Aug. 2011]. Online: http://www.emisdirect.com/emq/issue-248/1442.
[9] Charles Brock, “What Are the Absolute Essentials in Church Planting?” in Church Planting Institute Online. (15 November 2009): n.p. [cited 20 August 2011]. Online: http://www.cpqa.org/index.php?option=com_ content&view =article&id=151:what-are-the-absolute-essentials-in-church-planting&catid=34:qaa-for-church-planters&Item id=65.
[11] J. D.
Payne, The Barnabas Factors: Eight
Essential Practices of a Church Planting Team Member (
[12] Several
authors have noted three levels of development. One of the best explanations of
them is found in the Church Planter
Manual by Timothy J. Keller and J. Allen Thompson, (
[13] Commission on Accrediting, Standard 4, “The Theological Curriculum,” Section 4.1, “Goals of the Theological Curriculum.” In Aleshire, Earthen Vessels, 29–30.
[14] Gary V.
Nelson, Borderland Churches: A
Congregation’s Introduction to Missional Living (
[15] Richard
Hibbert opines that of the scores of the church planting books published in
recent decades “[v]ery few of these texts . . . provide anything approaching a satisfying
theological basis for church planting.” Richard Yates Hibbert, “The Place of
Church Planting in
[17] Craig Ott
and Gene Wilson, Global Church Planting:
Biblical Principles and Best Practices for Multiplication (
[21] David J. Hesselgrave, “Essential Elements of Church planting and Growing in the 21st Century” EMQ Vol. 36. No. 1 (January 2000): 24–32. Cited: 20 August 2011. Online: http://www.emisdirect.com/emq/issue-127/472.
[22] John S.
Hammett, Biblical Foundations for Baptist
Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology (
[23] Darrin
Patrick, Church Planter: The Man, The
Message, The
[25] Ray Bakke, A Theology as Big as the City (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1997), 117fn. Bakke read Hansen’s comment in The Art of Pastoring (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1994), 10.
[30] The lists are found in 1Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6–9. While some of the two dozen or so character traits are included in both lists, others are not. The lists are therefore not exhaustive and may reflect the situation of the two different churches.
[31] For example, see Brock, “What are the absolute essentials?” and Hesselgrave, “Essential Elements of Church Planting and Growing in the 21st Century.”
[32] Roland
Muller, The Messenger, The Message, The
Community: Three Critical Issues for the Cross-Cultural Church Planter (2d
ed.;
[33] “Ed’s Big 7 Church Planting Mistakes,” Taken from Kent Shaffer’s 7 October 2009 blog posting of the list Ed Stetzer shared at Lab 3 of the Catalyst Conference. Cited 29 August 2011. Online: http://churchrelevance .com/tag/ed-stetzer/.
[36] J. Allen Thompson, Church Planter Competencies as Perceived by Church Planters and Assessment Center Leaders: A Protestant North American Study, Ph.D. dissertation, Trinity International University, Deerfield, Illinois, 1995. These are listed in Keller, Church Planter Manual, 69.
[39] Keller’s manual was the only church planting book found in the research for this paper that actually addresses the development/maintenance of spiritual renewal—both on the individual and corporate level (179–214).
[40] The other
three are interpretation, contextualization, and performance. Charles R. Foster
et al., Educating Clergy: Teaching
Practices and Pastoral Imagination (
[42] Payne, Discovering Church Planting, 121. Elsewhere, he states that “it should be understood that . . . these [two] great activities must be bathed in prayer,” (74).
[44] Will
Metzger, Tell the Truth: The Whole
Gospel, to the Whole Person, by Whole People (2d ed.;
[55] This in no
way denigrates church planting in rural areas. It is just that the vast
majority of people in
[58]
[69] Michael
McKinley, Church Planting Is for Wimps:
How God Uses Messed-up People to Plant Ordinary Churches That Do Extraordinary
Things (
[70] Reginald W.
Bibby, “
[72] Geoff
Tunnicliffe, “
[73] Glenn
Smith, “Canadian Urban Ministry, Proposals for New Initiatives” in Discipling Our Nation: Equipping the
[80] Reginald Bibby, There’s Got to Be More: Connecting Churches and Canadians (Winfield, B.C.: Wood Lake, 1995), 15.
[82] Project
[83] Richard Johnson, “Heaven tops hell in Canadian belief poll,” National Post, September 3, 2010, n.p. [cited 3 February 2010]. Online: http://life.nationalpost.com/2010/09/03/heaven-tops-hell-in-canadian-belief-poll/.
[84] CNBC website. The convention, formerly known as the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists (CCSB), voted to change its name in 2008. A similar seminary name change is under review.
[85] CNBC ethnic churches include 35 Korean churches, 18 multi-ethnic, 17 Cantonese, 12 French Canadian, 10 Mandarin, 10 Haitian, 9 First Nations, and a smattering of Filipino, Arabic, Hispanic, Bengali, Ghanese, etc.
[95] For
example, see the
[97] Paul G.
Hiebert and Tite Tienou, “Missions and the Doing of Theology” in The Urban Face of
[99] Standard 10 on distance education is under review and will be addressed at the 2012 ATS biennial meeting, which may have implications for the residency requirement.
[100] Leonard Sweet, “Not Your Father’s Seminary: How Seminaries Must Reinvent Themselves—A Conversation with Leonard Sweet on “NexSem,” in REV! (March/April 2008): 71. Also available online: http://www.rev.org/ArticlePrint.asp?ID=2871.