A Brief History Of Ministerial Training
The training of preachers and missionaries has had a long history. The immediate question before us is whether ministerial training should be formal or informal, in a church-based seminary setting or in a privately run one, including the granting of academic degrees or merely aiming at competency in preaching. In short, is an educated ministry to be preferred over an effective ministry? Are they mutually exclusive? The factors that give rise to differences of opinion on this issue lie in history. We shall therefore consider the historical factors here.
I. The Pre-Reformation Period
We begin our story with John Wycliffe (1330-84), the “Morning Star of the Reformation”.1 Europe had been engulfed in Roman Catholic superstition for centuries. John Wycliffe was a theologian who taught in Oxford University. He resisted the authority of the Pope, challenged the indulgences, and rejected the confessional. He affirmed the biblical teaching on faith: “Trust wholly in Christ; rely altogether on his sufferings; beware of seeking to be justified in any other way than by his righteousness.” With the help of his friend John Purvey, they translated the Bible into English — believing that every Christian should have access to the Scripture in his own language, instead of hearing it in unintelligible Latin.
Wycliffe’s followers became known as Lollards, who travelled everywhere preaching and distributing tracts. Wycliffe wrote three important books, which were brought to Prague by two visiting faculty members of the university there. These writings were to influence John Huss (1369-1415), a priest and professor of theology at Charles University. Through the Moravians, i.e. the followers of John Huss, Martin Luther came to know the writings of Huss and Wycliffe. Luther was to be used by God to spark of the Reformation in 1517, resulting in Protestant churches being founded throughout Europe.
Note that up to this point, theological education was closely connected with the universities, founded throughout Europe from century to century since the days of Charlemagne (742-814), Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.2 The University of Oxford began in 1096 while the University of Cambridge was founded in 1209. These were to be the two leading universities training preachers for the Church of England.
II. The Reformation in Britain
William Tyndale (1494-1536) was a leading figure of the Protestant Reformation in England.3 He translated the New Testament into English. (Wycliffe’s Bible was never printed and made widely available, since Gutenberg’s printing press appeared only in 1440.) Although Tyndale’s translation of the Old Testament was not completed before his death, his work became the basis of translations of the Bible into English, including the King James Version of 1611.
The Church of England broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534, during the reign of King Henry VIII. During the reign of King Edward VI (1537-53), Archbishop Thomas Cramer invited the Italian-born theologian Peter Martyr, and the French theologian Martin Bucer, to help with the Reformation in England. These men occupied the chairs of theology in Oxford and Cambridge, respectively. It is to be noted that the Puritan movement consisted of those who attempted to reform the church from within and those who stayed out because they believed that the church was beyond the possibility of reform. The latter became known as the Separatists, or radical Puritans. Between 1661 and 1665, Parliament passed a series of Acts, called the Clarendon Code, which were designed to enforce conformity to the worship of the state church. One of these was the Act of Uniformity of 1662, which required all ministers to conform to the Book of Common Prayer. From scruples of conscience, 2,000 ministers refused to conform and were ejected from the state church. They joined the Dissenters, or Nonconformists.
The Nonconformists were now denied theological training in the universities, nor could they teach there. Growth in numbers among their churches continued despite persecution of the Dissenters from 1662-1672 and from 1680-1685. The passing of the Act of Toleration in 1689 granted partial religious liberty to the Nonconformists, which did not include the opportunity of theological training in the universities. Theologically, how did the Nonconformists thrive?
III. Dissenting Seminaries
The Great Ejection of 1662 swelled the ranks of Nonconformity, swamping it with men who had been trained in the universities. Together with the earlier Separatists, many of these men engaged in the training of preachers by personal tutelage in their homes. Some examples include the following. There was a Richard Franklin who studied at Cambridge and served in the Church of England until ejected in 1662. He set up a private academy in his own home to train young men for the ministry. He continued this work from 1665 till his death in 1698.4 Among the Particular Baptists, Richard Sampson was sent from his church in Plymouth to be trained under a Mr. Thomas in Bristol in 1689.5 Mr. Thomas was an ejected Nonconformist Baptist pastor who had been training men for the ministry. This was before the Bristol Academy began to operate under Bernard Foskett, based in the Broadmead, open-communion, Particular Baptist church. Two early ministers of the Broadmead church — Thomas Hardcastle and George Fownes Sr. — were trained at Cambridge University. (There were two Particular Baptist churches in Bristol. The one in Pithay practised closed communion.) In London, the Particular Baptists had two able leaders who were university trained, viz. Benjamin Cox (1595-1664) and Hansard Knollys (c. 1599-1691).6 Knollys was trained in Cambridge, while Cox was trained in Oxford.
The seminaries that started after the Great Ejection may be classified into three types: the first had tutors for a limited time; the second had tutors that continued the work to the next century; the third had several tutors that constitute what we would call a faculty, today.7 The first type were strictly private academies, in the sense that they were operated by individual ministers of the gospel. (The Log College founded by the Presbyterian, William Tennent Sr., at Neshaminy, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1726 was of this type. It operated in a log house of size 20 feet by 20 feet, producing able students who featured prominently in the religious revivals known as the Great Awakening.8) The second and third types were denominational seminaries. An example of the second type was the academy in London operated by the Independents, whose first tutor was Dr. Isaac Chauncy.9 The third type were public academies controlled by a group of trustees, which were established after the Act of Toleration in 1689.10 One such was the Bristol Academy operated by Bernard Foskett. The teaching medium was English rather than Latin. It was one of the few academies which trained only theological students, while the majority trained students for a variety of professional work. It is to be noted that all these seminaries were church-based, i.e. they were operated by churches or by individuals who were ministers of churches. It was only from the late 18th century that seminaries and missionary societies broke away from accountability to the churches that first started them, and the phenomenon of para-church organisations began to proliferate.11 Before coming back to the Bristol Academy we need to backtrack a little.
The need for an educated ministry had been an issue with the Particular Baptists for a long time. In as early as 1651, Thomas Collier was arguing that ‘human learning’ was not necessary to an effective ministry. One should rather seek the power of the Spirit of Christ instead of making an idol of human learning.12 The Baptists had suffered persecution alongside the Congregationalists and Presbyterians, which drew them closer together. One result of the interaction between them was the realisation by the Baptists that the other two denominations placed a great emphasis upon a learned ministry.13 When the first General Assembly of the Particular Baptists met in London in 1689, one of the decisions taken was that of strengthening the ministry among the Baptist churches by starting a fund which would be handled by nine of the London ministers. The money was to be used to encourage ministers in their travels to preach the gospel and to strengthen churches, and to assist suitable candidates in the pursuit of formal theological study, including “attaining to the knowledge and understanding of the languages, Latin, Greek and Hebrew”.14
After the Act of Toleration of 1688, the Particular Baptists held four General Assemblies in London. The first General Assembly of the Particular Baptists of 1689 was well attended, but subsequent ones not so because opposition to the ministerial fund seemed to weigh on the delegates’ minds. In the fourth General Assembly of 1992, it was decided that there would be two General Assemblies in the subsequent years — one to be held in Bristol, the other in London. The branch in London failed to meet because of the continuing controversy over congregational hymn-singing among the prominent leaders. The 1693 Assembly in Bristol acknowledged that human learning was not to be equated with Spirit-given ability to teach the word of God, and that the knowledge of the biblical languages “in itself is not essential, nor absolutely necessary to constitute a Minister of the Gospel”.15 The churches continued to meet as the Western Association, but was plagued with doctrinal controversies. It was reorganised as the Western Baptist Association in 1733, by the initiative of Bernard Foskett (1685-1758), the pastor of the Broadmead church in Bristol. The 1689 Confession was adopted as its doctrinal basis. Arminian churches were excluded from membership. Once the doctrinal matters were resolved for the Association, Foskett turned his attention to the training of an educated ministry under the provisions of Edward Terrill’s bequest. Terrill was an elder of the Broadmead church who kept a record of the church’s history. The Bristol Academy, which started functioning in 1734, trained over 70 students in the next 25 years, up to the death of Foskett. It continued functioning after that, while the London churches struggled over the training of ministers.
The success of the Bristol Academy has been attributed to a number of factors, including: (i) the perseverance and able leadership of Bernard Foskett; (ii) the availability of funds due to the bequest of Edward Terrill; (iii) the belief in an educated ministry, which has been there from the beginning; (iv) it was based upon a single church rather than dependent upon a grouping of churches or an Association.16
IV. Dissenters Today
The tension between an educated ministry and a practical ministry continues to today. Differences of opinion do not fall neatly into one of these two positions, as definitions differ and the boundary lines do not all coincide. A general understanding of an educated ministry is one in which a minimum academic qualification is set for admittance, a structured approach to study is adopted, only academically qualified tutors/lecturers teach, and an accredited degree is granted upon completion. A practical ministry is generally understood to be one in which no minimum academic qualification is needed for admittance, pastors with practical experience do the teaching, godliness of life in the student is sought, and practical proficiency for the job is aimed at.
The arguments against an educated ministry include: (i) academic achievement is not mentioned as a requirement for ministry in such passages as 1 Timothy 3:1-11 and Titus 1:5-9; (ii) the Lord did not choose highly educated men to be His immediate disciples; (iii) the approval of God is more important than the approval of men; (iv) preaching is not to be limited to trained preachers only but to all who are gifted. The arguments in favour of an educated ministry would include: (i) the school of prophets is seen in the Old Testament; (ii) the Lord’s training of the twelve is a pattern for the formal training of preachers; (iii) the primacy of preaching and a high view of Scripture requires that preachers be trained in “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15); (iv) common sense requires that academic qualification for admittance, and on completion of study, be indicated by an accreditation system that everyone is familiar with (cf. 1689 Confession, 1:6, where common sense is appealed to).
Most people who have wrestled with the training of preachers would hold to a position that straddles both sides of the divide. What truly matters to them are: (i) a degree should not be looked upon as more important than being filled with the Spirit for service; (ii) the accrediting body should not be one which requires compromise on the doctrinal position of the seminary; (iii) a high standard of education should be maintained regardless of whether a degree is offered. An incident that occurred closer to our time illustrates these concerns. At the official dedication of the London Bible College which today is known as the London School of Theology, in 1958, the late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached against the mere pursuit of degrees at the expense of true spirituality and zeal for God. His message had a dampening effect upon the staff and students, including the principal, Ernest Kevan.17 This being a perennial issue, the College had consciously chosen to offer accredited degrees from London University. Furthermore, it was a theological college — not a seminary — which trained gospel workers of all kinds, although emphasising on the training of men for the pastoral ministry.
Today, the country of Indonesia requires an accredited degree for anyone to teach in any institution — whether public schools, Christian schools, or seminaries. All such institutions are required by law to be registered with the Department of Religion. In Malaysia, schools and colleges need to be registered and validated by the government before being able to take in foreign students. The seminaries that operate in the country are accredited by Christian bodies and, as such, have had difficulty taking in foreign students. Many countries require proof of proficiency before granting specialist permits to foreigners who intend to teach in schools and seminaries. These are some practical considerations that favour a formal approach to ministerial training. A sampling of the situation that prevails are as follows. The London Reformed Baptist Seminary, operated by the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, offers a high standard of instruction for the ministry which is non-accredited. The Grace Ministerial Academy in Manila, Philippines, offer non-accredited training. A number of Reformed seminaries in USA offer online or residential courses that are accredited by Christian bodies. The Puritan Seminary in Michigan, USA, offers degrees that are validated by the state of Michigan.
Up to this point, we have used the terms academy, seminary, school and college interchangeably. Although there are nuances in the use of these terms in different parts of the world, the following explanation gives the general understanding. A university is an institution consisting of a number of faculties, each faculty dealing with a broad discipline, e.g. engineering, economics, theology, etc. Each faculty consists of a number of colleges, schools, or departments, each dealing with a specific sub-discipline. For example, in the Faculty of Engineering, there are the College of Civil Engineering, the College of Mechanical Engineering, the College of Electrical Engineering, etc. In the Faculty of Theology, there are the College of Pastoral Studies, the College of Religious Education, the College of Biblical Counselling, etc. A stand-alone college, therefore, offers education in a specific discipline at the level above high school, and leading to a Bachelor degree. From the mid-19th century, those colleges that offer the Bachelor degree after four years of study are called university colleges while those that offer a Diploma (called the Associate Degree, in USA) after two years of study and a Certificate after one year of study continue to be called colleges. Note, by the way, that the term “school” is a general one meaning any institution where people learn — including colleges and universities. When used in its more restricted sense, schools offer teaching that is below the college level.
Traditionally, a seminary is a stand-alone institution that specifically trains men for the pastoral ministry, pitched at the Bachelor degree level and above, although a formal degree may not be conferred. In many situations today, men who have had a Bachelor degree in another discipline may desire to be trained for the pastoral ministry. The Master degree in Divinity or Theology is therefore offered by the seminary, requiring two to four years of study. Obviously, one who already has a Bachelor degree in Theology would require less time to get a Master degree. What about men and women who do not possess a Bachelor degree, but desire to be trained for some gospel ministries? They would study in a Theological College that offers a Bachelor degree in Divinity, or Religious Knowledge, or in Theology. A seminary that does not seek accreditation from a higher body, or validation from the civil government, might also call itself a Ministerial Academy. One that offers theological training for men and women for all forms of gospel ministry, without seeking accreditation, would call itself a Bible School or a Bible Institute.
The main issue, however, is not to be forgotten. A high standard of training is to be aimed at, without compromising on the cultivation of personal godliness and practical usefulness in ministry. Allowance must be made for the training of those who may not be too well-endowed with academic ability but are nevertheless Spirit-filled and able to be useful in the Lord’s service. Were not the Lord’s first disciples made up of such, in contrast to Paul, the apostle “born out of due time” (1 Cor. 15:8)? Back to the history of ministerial training in Britain, it is to be noted that by the mid-19th century, concern was expressed over the tendency of Baptist colleges to emphasise academic achievement at the expense of spirituality in the students.18 Presumably, this concern would have applied to the Bristol Academy as well.
V. Conclusion
The Dissenter’s spirit is very much alive in Reformed circles today. The pursuit of godliness alongside quality training for the pastoral ministry is the aim of Bible colleges and seminaries. There seems to be a lack of interest in the training of men, and women, who desire to be in ministries other than the pastorate. Is it not a pity that such individuals have had to seek theological training in non-Reformed institutions? There is also disagreement over the issue of accreditation. Those inclined to the right who prefer non-accreditation should not castigate those inclined to the left who believe in the value of accreditation. All are agreed that when scholasticism and academic degrees are pursued for their own ends, one would have departed from studying “to be approved to God (2 Tim. 2:15)”.
References
1. Wood, D. C., 1984. “The Evangelical Doctor”, on John Wycliffe, written at the popular level.
2. Bogue, D. and Bennett, J., 2000. “History of Dissenters”, Vol. I, pp. 209.
3. Edwards, B. H., 1988. God’s Outlaw: The story of William Tyndale and the English Bible”, written at the popular level.
4. Bogue, D. and Bennett, J., 2000. “History of Dissenters”, Vol. I, pp. 212-214.
5. (Ivimey, J., 1811-1830. “A History of the English Baptists”, Vol. II, pp. 138ff.
6. Poh, B. S., 2013. “A Garden Enclosed: A historical study and evaluation of the form of church government practised by the Particular Baptists in the 17th and 18th centuries,” pp. 26, 28.
7. Bogue, D. and Bennett, J., 2000. “History of Dissenters”, Vol. I, p. 224.
8. Alexander, A., 1968, “The Log College”, Banner of Truth Trust.
9. Bogue, D. and Bennett, J., 2000. “History of Dissenters”, Vol. I, pp. 222-224.
10. Hayden, R, 2006. “Continuity and Change: Evangelical Calvinism among eighteenth-century Baptist ministers trained at Bristol Academy, 1690-1791”, p. 63.
11. This happened to the Bristol Academy after 1770 (Hayden, R., p. 129), and the first Particular Baptist Missionary Society after 1818 (Appleby, J., 2007, p. 251). Religious, educational and moral societies proliferated from the end of the 18th century (Poh, B. S., pp. 251, 252).
12. Hayden, R., p. 21.
13. Hayden, R., p. 64.
14. Hayden, R., p. 14.
15. Hayden, R., p. 18.
16. Hayden, R., pp. 21, 64, 207.
17. Brown, P. E., 2012. Ch. 16.
18. Appleby, J, 2007. “I Can Plod: William Carey and the early years of the First Baptist Missionary Society”, Grace Publications, p. 306.