Problems with Our Relationship Withthe Academy in Methodism

[@r.s.schock4573]

I think we need to be very aware of what doctrines and theology are being taught. The reason, I say this is because we had a minister working to finish his ordainment telling our congregation that the Bible was only a historical fiction of actual events. I really stumbled with that.

[@opsword786]

I totally agree with you! Sincerity about God is the most important thing in ministry. Just because someone believes they are called by God, doesn't make it so. Most seminaries have been corrupted. Watch Enemies Within the Church.

[@philliplayne102]

Something to keep in mind are persons coming from a situation like my own. I originally went through what the Cumberland Presbyterian Church calls the Program of Alternate Studies (PAS). It is similar to the alternative education route in the Global Methodist Church. After I was ordained for several years, I received a MDiv . I am currently slowly working on a DMin. I needed the confidence that completing PAS gave me before I went back and got a MDiv. It also grounded me theologically in that when I came across something goofy in seminary, I had the tools to confront what was not Biblical. (When one goes to a fish fry, one doesn't eat the bones!) The non-degree training gave me the confidence to pick out the theological bones.

[@davidleinweber]

Such an important topic. By their fruits ye shall know them. Quality of ministers arguably declined with emphasis on professional credentials (which is not the same thing as education, per se), as with secondary education teachers. Get ready because now it’s going to affect teaching at the college level.

[@jeremysmith7476]

With you 100% on this. Look at how the church is exploding in Africa not just in GMC, but where they are raising up indigenous missionaries with some Bible training but no seminary and they are taking villages and regions.

[@robertkersten3971]

This is what I find interesting. There’s all this concern over how high a quality a theological education must be in order to become an elder, but when you look at Paul’s list of qualifications for an elder ( overseer) or deacon, there’s no mention about that requirement at all. The qualifications are all about Christ-like character and reputation within their community. Dr. David Watson once wrote an article on how in the Cuban Methodist churches, one had to already have planted a congregation before they were even considered for seminary training. This would indicate that in addition to the qualifications listed in 1 Timothy and Titus, one had to display certain Spiritual Gifting’s as well.

[@marshalldarcy7423]

From whence does authority arise. Religion is a social agenda.

[@sullivan1858]

Kevin Watson's article completely missed the point I thought. Seminaries are cemeteries were faith goes to die. The problem with seminaries is that they DONT produce highly educated and better preachers, rather they produce half infidels and quasi atheists! In fact, theological liberalism runs so deep in our seminaries and Christian colleges that even "conservative" professors, operate within, and think within, a leftist framework. Granted these so called conservative GMC scholars are not communists nor woke, but I have noticed that the foundations and presuppositions of Leftism are commonly blindly accepted without question or without even realizing that they are operating within a Leftist framework and foundation. But this issue of radical Leftism that is anti-Christian and so predominate in our college campus was entirely ignored in Watson's article. He missed the elephant in the room....

[@plainspokenpod]

This is possible. I know this is one of the critiques within modern right-leaning political thought. This notion that contemporary conservativism resembles the liberalism of a previous liberal body, or that it operates within a liberal framework, has a good deal of merit in the political sense. I'm not sure how to demonstrate that in the religious sense. In Watson's article, while he would acknowledge that many academic institutions are a problem, he also is clearly of the mind that institutions like Asbury are part of the solution. What does he not see that you see? Or where would the two of you disagree if you were able to visit together, do you think?

[@sullivan1858]

@plainspokenpod not only is it in politics, but also in theology as well. While many so called conservative theologians would not go beyond Nicene Orthodoxy they never the less adhere to liberal foundations and presuppositions and thus undermine their own foundation for their more conservative conclusions. Ex: Anti- individualism, Anti- Literalism, Anti- Inerrancy, hegelianism, higher Criticism, early Creed minimalism etc... all ways in which they think in Leftists frameworks

[@schmeeps4052]

I will gently disagree with your conclusion. The problem with the circuit rider days is that there simply weren’t enough ordained or properly trained ministers to go around, and that this is why we hold to the tradition of celebrating communion once a month, instead of every week, as the Anglicans observe. All of the major founders of Methodism had elite training. Ministers need to be taught doctrinal standards and be held to those standards so that they can form their congregants in this particular form of Methodism. I am afraid that otherwise, we will just get a lot of pastors who exegete Scripture badly and allow for other denominations’ doctrines to seep into their church. I have already seen this happening and do not wish for it to continue. Let us not forget that the CoE was faced with a lot of issues, and remember that men such as John and Charles Wesley were like “brands plucked out of the fire” and helped to call attention to the very major institutional problems that faced their church in those days. We desperately need more intellectual powerhouses in the GMC and we desperately need good solid clergy. I am concerned about the rise of anti intellectual sentiments, especially in the church. I understand removing a lot of what plagued the UMC, but I am growing increasingly concerned that the GMC seems a little too willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater and therefore become indistinguishable from any other low church Protestant denomination. I don’t want the GMC to become just another Nazarene church.

[@russ254]

people that went to seminary should be disqualified from leading congregations.

[@patrickchaney5828]

I'm interested in why you think that?