Seminary's role in pastoral preparation.

I don’t think seminaries can do everything. And I get very tired of hearing young men or pastors who are seasoned, blame the seminaries for their inadequacies. I don’t think seminaries are designed to make complete pastors. Pastoring makes complete pastors. Life makes complete pastors. Families make complete pastors. Seminary is a little slice of influence in life. They’re good for languages. They’re good for theology and they’re good for historical theology. They’re good for apologetics. And they’re good for a few techniques here and there. And that’s pretty small. I mean, just think of what the challenges are in ministry. And if you go into ministry and say “Oh, the seminary didn’t prepare me for this!” I’m going to say to you: “Why do you think it should?” […] I skipped every practical course I could and took exegesis instead. And I would do it the same today. Why? When I took my first pastorate, I had never baptized anybody. I had never buried anybody. I had never dedicated a baby. I had preached fifteen sermons at age 34. I had done two weddings. I had never sat beside a hospital bed while anybody died. I was totally green. And I went to school for five years—the school of life. I did a funeral every three weeks for 18 months. And the old people fell in love with me. It was the best gift I ever got, because they all showed up at the funerals. The young people never came to the funerals. All the old people came to the funerals. They heard me preach over and over again and began to like this young fella who helped them die well—who helped the families. I didn’t know how to do a funeral. I just opened my bible and read about death and resurrection and gospel and thought: “Whoa! I’ve got good news!” I didn’t need a course of funerals—what a useless course. The month before I took the church I went to David Livingston on vacation at a motel and I said “I’m gonna be a pastor in a month. Show me how to baptize people.” He took me to the swimming pool and he said, “take your left hand, put it on their right hand, leave the right hand free to hold their nose, grab ‘em by this arm right here, put your hand behind their back, push ‘em under and pull ‘em up.” That didn’t take a course! And it was free! […]

Here’s the point: I want guys to come out of seminary loving their bible, knowing as much of it as they can. I want them to be broken and humble. I want them to be prayer-filled. I want them to be full of the Holy Spirit. I want them to love people and care about the lost. I want them to have a vision for the world. And a few skills and a willingness to make a lot of mistakes and learn heaps in their first years.