Dear 9th Witch,
In my denomination, the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, you CANNOT be a
pastor without a Seminary Education, even if it is Distance Education under
the DELTO program. Our two Seminaries, in St. Louis, MO and Ft. Wayne, IN
respectively, teach each and every graduate in Confessional Lutheran
Christianity. This DEMANDS that all LCMS pastors know The Bible in English,
Latin, Hebrew, and Greek, as well as learning some German, the history of
the Bible, Liturgical History, and other pastoral studies.
The LCMS's official position is that only men will enter Seminary or be
Divinely Called to serve a congregation. This is under Biblical command
found in 1 Timothy 2, 1 Corinthians 11 and 1 Corinthians 14. The LCMS will
accept a pastoral vacancy before it will allow female clergy!!! Hallelujah
for that!!!
Concerning other denominations, I agree with you, many pastors are
completely untrained. How unfortunate for their poor, confused
congregations, who so easily fall into this spiritual mode or that, while
ignoring the basic educative essence of Our Faith found only in the Holy
Bible, in its original autographs. I had been involved in such churches,
where the "pastors" believed they were "called to preach" by the "holy
spirit" after a single prayer! These churches ended up led by EMOTIONS
rather than COMMON SENSE, and ended up DISINTEGRATING because there was no
proper teaching or doctrine.
Really, a good pastor from a good, Godly denomination will be thoroughly
trained at Seminary, and will be trained in historical Christian doctrine
from the Bible's original languages plus Latin. Anything else is just a
fake.
Sincerely,
Richard C. August
> *>When told that the Church Pastoral Office is skilled labor, he coos
> that it
> *>is not. After all, how can being a church congregation's resident
> *>theologian, Bible interpreter and teacher, student catechiser,
> instructor in
> *>the Word of God, meditation leader, and visitor of the sick and
> invalid
> *>possessing a good bedside manner, be a skilled laborer when he's
> neither a
> *>mathematician nor a draughtsman-engineer?
>> They can't. Many's the preacher, some with schooling, some without.
> Nearly anyone can be one, negating the "skilled" part of "skilled
> laborer".
> *>
>
