by Steven D. Mathewson

Some of the most important training I received during my seminary years came from my "other seminary." You see, I attended two seminaries simultaneously in Portland, Oregon, during the mid-1980s. My favorite of the two was Western Conservative Baptist Seminary. My least favorite was Matawan Manor Seminary. Western Seminary was accredited by the Association of Theological Schools; Matawan Seminary was not. Western Seminary had world-class professors; Matawan Seminary did not have anyone with a doctorate. In fact, few of its professors were Christians! Western Seminary required extensive training in Hebrew and Greek. Matawan Seminary had no language requirements.

But Matawan Seminary provided me with some educational experiences I never received at Western Seminary. Today, I am a better pastor, writer, and Bible scholar because of my experiences at Matawan Manor Seminary.

The curriculum at Matawan Seminary included fixing leaky faucets, shampooing carpets, and repairing holes in sheet-rocked walls. But more importantly, I learned how to shepherd a diverse group of people. I tried to help a young man deal with an anger problem after frequently receiving phone calls from other tenants about his late-night fights with his wife.

While repairing a stove burner in another apartment, I pleaded with a man and his girlfriend to pursue adoption rather than abortion. Once I shared the Gospel with a frightened tenant who pulled a knife on a guy with whom his girlfriend had been cheating.

As it turned out, my job at the Matawan Manor Apartment complex did more than pay the bills. Oddly enough, it kept the goal of my studies at Western Seminary in focus. It provided a laboratory for loving and shepherding people—including the poor and the outcast. That is, of course, the heart of Christian ministry.

In the course of your seminary studies, you may find yourself resenting the part-time or full-time job that seems to consume precious study time. Or your budget may force you to live in a less-than-desirable neighborhood. But I encourage you to look at this as your "other" seminary in which God has enrolled you to prepare you more fully for His kingdom work.

"Be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless."(I Corinthians 15:58 NLT)

Steven D. Mathewson
Pastor of Dry Creek Bible Church in Belgrade, Montana, and author of The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative (Baker, 2002).

r. Leonard Sweet says interactivity is the key to the emerging culture.

Ever wonder how reality TV will play into your ministry?

Dr. Leonard Sweet, author of the best-selling book, Post-Modern Pilgrims, and professor of Evangelism at Drew University, certainly has. And he thinks it’s a big one! MinistryMentor talked to him recently about life and ministry in a Post-Modern seminary world.

How do you think seminary has changed since you attended?

I’m tempted to talk about the "post-Christian" and "post-modern" thinking, but it’s also "post-middle-of-the-road." When I went to seminary, I looked at the middle as the safe place. The art of compromise was bringing people to the middle; to get the heart of something was to get to its center. Today it is exactly the opposite. When I was in school, we were living in a "bell curve world," which created a middle world: a big middle class, mainline denominations, middle management, and mainframe computers.

There is now a new normal distribution term, called the "well curve." The well curve is where middles are flattening—it’s mitosis of the middle while the ends are getting huge. This has caused a major shift in my own thinking.

Ironically and wonderfully, a well curve world is actually more biblical than a bell curve world. The essence of orthodoxy is paradoxy. God is one; God is three. Jesus is fully human; Jesus is fully divine. There is no way to stay in the middle when you talk about that stuff.

So what’s the impact of post-middle-of-the-road ministry today?

To be in ministry today is to think much more about biblical categories and first century categories. Also, this is a karaoke culture, and the understanding of representative ministry, where one is going to represent God to one’s people and the people to God no longer works.

When I started off in ministry, I was a one-man band at funerals. I read Scripture, I delivered the eulogy, etc. If you’ve been to a funeral recently, funerals can go on for hours if you let everyone talk. There’s a huge shift in mindset from performance to participation. It’s time to rediscover the priesthood of all believers.

That’s all good, right?

Absolutely. The one reformation doctrine that was never implemented in the modern world is that everyone is a minister. That is another major shift, and it’s only going to get more severe: Reality TV is reinventing television to become an interactive media. Interactivity is the key to everything, including ministry to the emerging culture.

So how is this world shaping students differently?

Students today have an understanding of a new delivery system for learning and faith development that seminaries haven’t adjusted to. We are print people, and the whole delivery system has been print and books. The new delivery system is digital and electronic and interactive, and education still does not match the learning experience of the students. Seminaries are being challenged.

Also, there is a greater interest in "spiritual leadership." When I went to school, ministry was seen as a technique. The words "spiritual" and "leader" are being restored in seminary today. Students today want to be more spiritual and help others become more spiritual, and they want to look at this issue of leadership. I never took a leadership course. I never understood the need for leadership.

What is the number one thing that students today, in this post-modern world, can do to prepare for ministry?

I look at it this way: To make a swing work you have to do two things at the same time—lean back and kick forward. That’s how I would encourage students. Lean back and learn the traditions and text and 2,000 years of church history. Lean back into God’s everlasting arms. Then, in the power and passion of those arms and the text and tradition, kick forward into the kingdom of God, not into the latest fad, fashion, or trend.

It’s time to stop focusing so much on getting people to church and more on the Great Commission. The mission statement Jesus gave doesn’t start with "come" it starts with "go." The question shouldn’t be how to get more people into church, but how to send better people out of church.

We are measuring churches by seating capacity, not sending capacity. We’ve got to get the church out there in the world. That’s a whole different mind shift from when I went to seminary. We have to rediscover the original biblical challenge, the one that started with Abraham.