Seminary Alternatives on the Front Burner Again
Seminary alternatives are on the front burner again, thanks to the Rev. Tim Ahlman and his Unite Leadership Collective (ULC) Lead Time podcast, with this episode interviewing Pastor Eli Thomas. Pastor Thomas is a former ELCA member who colloquized into the LCMS not long after earning an MDiv from Faith International University, an interdenominational seminary with Lutheran roots in Washington State. This institution claims to be “committed to biblical inerrancy.” I called to see if they admit women into the MDiv program, and the answer was “Absolutely.”
What the advantage would be in getting an MDiv from this institution vs. one of our own seminaries, I don’t know. Maybe it’s cheaper or easier. I didn’t get into the tuition and all of that.
At any rate, Pastor Ahlman and his sidekick Jack Kalleberg have indeed, “obviously… made [their] opinions known” on this topic of LCMS pastoral formation and alternative institutions - including the nonresidential Luther House of Study and Kairos University, led by a lady “pastor” - also a previous guest on their podcast. After stirring up a bit of controversy, Pastor Ahlman was counseled not to continue discussing this matter, and he issued a public apology and commitment not to speak to this topic. Admittedly, this apology looks a bit like a hostage situation. And, in fairness, an agreement entered into under duress (if that is the case) is null and void. I’m a free-speech kind of guy, so I’m not without sympathy for Pastor Ahlman as a dissenter, but I have to admit, I would have been more impressed had he responded by cracking his neck, popping his knuckles, putting on the vintage soft-drink tee-shirt that said, “Make 7-UP Yours,” and responding by saying that he would talk about whatever he wanted to.
But he didn’t. And I get it. Obviously, the cost of perhaps being tossed from synod was greater than the cost of offering a promise - at least for the “short term” (as Kalleberg put it).
So, I do have a mixed reaction to this latest salvo fired by the ULC. One can only watch them yet again put forth these ideas (with which I disagree) and commend them for their shrewdness. I disagree with Pastor Alhman, but I do understand that he is entitled to his opinion. And I do think the advantages and blessings of our seminaries stand like a fortress against the missiles of their detractors. We who have benefitted and are grateful need to speak up and speak out in defense of our seminaries!
I also find it kind of funny that most of the pastors who are calling for different alternate routes to ordination are almost all graduates of Concordia - St. Louis. I’m sorry that their seminary experiences weren’t like mine. I’m indeed grateful for my three years of training and formation at Fort Wayne, studying with outstanding scholars and churchmen - some of whom were still working on their doctorates when I was their student, and some who were, or have become, well-known academics since that time (as have several of my classmates). The list of my professors is a litany of the Who’s Who of confessional Lutheran scholarship. I received a top-shelf education, but that education was only part of the total picture of formation. I will go into more detail a bit down the page. My only criticism is that I would have liked it to have been a year longer.
At any rate, how can we not admire the bodaciousness of the ULC guys?
Their guest was not speaking spontaneously, such as in a live facetime, putting them in an awkward position given their commitment. Rather, he was invited, he was prompted, the podcast was edited - and moreover, the part that they are “not talking about” was used as the lede (yes, that’s how it is spelled), that is, the teaser to open the program. Bodacious indeed! Shrewd to be sure!
You can watch it right off the bat here, and here is the transcript:
Pastor Eli Thomas, (guest): “What really got me was the was the topic of pastoral formation. I'm like, why can't we, I mean we've got some great colleges. Technology's come so far. Why can't we provide robust pastoral training to meet the needs? I've got a guy I don't know how to get him into ministry.
Jack Kalleberg: So you've got us at an interesting time in the history of our podcast right now Eli. We have made a commitment, just for the short term, not to be discussing the topic about pastoral formation [guest laughs] for the for the sake of peace and unity of the church and at the same time, you know, we are hoping that others would engage in robust conversations about this topic. Obviously we've made our opinions known about this in the past. I think the best way for us to respond about this right now is probably to say what is it that you would hope to see with respect to pastoral formation in the future. What what are your thoughts? I think Tim and I are not going to make a comment on this right now, but you are certainly free to make a comment on it. What is it that you would like to see in the future? If you like, let's just think future focused? What is it that you think gets our church body to a place where there is not just robust pastoral formation but maybe more accessible, more people participating in it more, you know, something that results in more people being able to take the call into ministry?
As I have said previously, I used to agree with the ULC guys on this. When I first began to look into seminary, I was determined to do some kind of non-residential alternate route. I was in my mid-30s and married. I had a lucrative career. I wanted the easy way that would not cause me to have to move and give up my job, my house, and the money that I had at that time. But thanks be to God that I changed my mind. While working full time, I completed my bachelor’s degree (that I had left off to go to trade school to pursue an IT career). Then, I gave up the job, the house, and the career. My wife and I loaded up a U-Haul, and did not look back. And we would not change a thing. I had classmates who gave up way more than we did: houses, property, and businesses that they owned; men who had large families - and they still took the leap of faith. I had one classmate who began seminary as an Alternate Routes (AR) guy, but transferred into the MDiv program when he realized just what he would have been missing because of the shortcut.
I studied under the legendary Reverend Professors Kurt Marquart, David Scaer, and William Weinrich. I studied under the (at the time) young and upcoming professors: Peter Scaer, John Pless, Naomichi Masaki, Larry Rast, and Roland Ziegler. I studied under the likes of Tim Quill, Charles Gieschen, Richard Nuffer, Daniel Gard, James Bollhagen, Cameron MacKenzie, Detlev Schulz, Arthur Just, as well as a visiting (at that time) patristics and homiletics professor named James Bushur, and another visiting professor named Vassilios Tzaferis, who was the former director of excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority. I did not have any classes with the Rev. Dr. Dean Wenthe (who was seminary president at the time), but had hours of fruitful and delightful conversation. I sang in the Kantorei under the direction of our beloved Kantor Richard Resch. Of course, there was also volunteer work to be done in exchange for credits at the co-ops. There was fieldwork in the local Lutheran retirement center and in the parish (my supervisors included Pastor Paul Kaiser and Synod President Matthew Harrison). There was also a year of internship in the parish under the supervision of a pastor, an experience that we call “vicarage” in our parlance. Some of my classmates studied abroad for a year at Cambridge, England or Oberursel, Germany. Others delayed ordination for further academic study. But wherever the Lord called us, we forged bonds of brotherhood that last to this day.
How could any non-residential or non-LCMS institution come anywhere near this level of quality, and applicability to our synodical service, in terms of education?
And, of course, formation is much more than education. It involves face to face interaction in the real world with faculty and students alike. Indeed, some of my classmates are now professors. Formation includes the dorms, the Gemuetlichkeits, time with profs in their offices with deep conversation, laughs, cigars, “Lutheran beverages,” and opportunities to reflect on the Word of God and the life to which God is calling us. It means living, working, studying, and praying as a community.
Formation also centers on worship. Chapel was not just daily, but multiple times a day. We communed together weekly at chapel, and again weekly at our fieldwork parishes. We had confession and absolution. And there is also the blessings of diversity (the real kind, not the woke, superficial focus on skin color). We were not formed by one or two mentors, or by a couple of parish pastors who happen to live near us, nor even by a few limited hours by Zoom. Rather, along with the vast and diverse experience of our professors, we also had a diversity of celebrants and preachers in chapel - men from not only the LCMS, but also from our sister churches from around the world.
There is no substitute for living the liturgy, day in and day out. The sheer repetition led to my having memorized the services quickly. I only needed my hymnal for the hymns. This cannot be done by means of some home-study or distance-learning, - nor by one or two intensives a year - and certainly not by enrolling at an interdenominational seminary.
Another great advantage of seminary and worship life was the hymnody. We sang the glorious hymns that many of our local parishes simply don’t. Had I been formed by a pastor from a local congregation or circuit, I would never have sung, learned, and come to love our rich Lutheran tradition of hymns. I have since been able to bring those gifts and treasures to the congregation that I serve. I was shocked to learn that a vacant congregation that I (and other area pastors) helped out - a very old, established, historic LCMS congregation - did not know the hymn: “Lord, Thee I Love With All My Heart.” At the seminary, I was able to learn how to sing and chant by enrolling in the chapel choir, and later had the joy to sing with the Kantorei. Once again, no apprentice or distance-learning model could provide this to me as a student, so that I could, in turn, provide this to my parish as a pastor.
Once again, we invest in what is important. So men, young and old, right out of college or second career, if you are serious about serving in the fields of the Lord, then be serious. Find the best - not the quickest, cheapest, or easiest - path. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Put your face to the plow. If you start cutting corners now, you will establish a habit of lowering the bar. The pastoral life is not easy. There is no quick and easy and cheap way to live the life of the servant of the Word, so get used to it now. As they say in the military, “Embrace the suck.” And though seminary life is not always easy, it really and truly doesn’t suck. If this life is for you, even though it may be difficult - and even challenging at times - it will be a joy!
And speaking of the military, I have colleagues in the chaplaincy who have a warning about lowering the bar in search of finding ways to get men into the ministry without rigorous seminary formation. Our LCMS chaplains are well-trained - not only in terms of education and formation, but by our service as Seelsorgers within our tradition of pastoral care, our ability to pray publicly, and in our love for conducting worship. At our latest Ministry to the Armed Forces training, several of our LCMS chaplains reported having to deal with non-LCMS chaplains who had received their MDiv degrees online (which the Department of Defense will accept if the candidate has a proper endorsement from a recognized church body or endorsing agency). My colleagues reported that there are some chaplains in the armed forces that have never actually preached a sermon, never conducted a worship service, nor even have ever seen a dead body. They don’t know how to lead prayer. Some of them completely fell apart - especially when they found themselves ministering in a combat zone.
How sad, and how avoidable!
So, yes, I disagree with the ULC guys. I do believe that the residential model - and not just that, but residential study and formation at our two excellent seminaries in the LCMS - is the gold standard. And just as the ULC guys aren’t going to talk about it anymore (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), I’m also not going to talk about it. Just kidding. I will talk about whatever I want to. I don’t have a shirt that says, “Make 7-UP Yours,” but I’m sure I can find one online. The Internet may not be the best for forming pastors, but it has its uses.