Multiplying Without Restraint

Just finished a week of seminars in Thailand.

I met a man, with no formal education, who has launched 47 highly successful churches. He ministers among the "hill tribes" in the country.

Sadly, the week before (in another Asian nation) I met a man who wants to require that all our pastors be college graduates who also attend a seminary.

That guy would obliterate the ministry of the first man. His restraints would have prevented this church multiplier from being in ministry at all. The guy became a pastor by being discipled by another pastor. He already had a wife and children--hence no time or money to spend for a formal education.

While that would be tragic in itself, there is another dark spot to the restraints of education. The guy who wants to demand education is actually pitting the classroom against the model Jesus left us. He makes the seminary into the "hole in the hourglass," causing it to become an obstacle rather than a blessing. 

We need our schools. But they are best left either to the young, or to the veterans who can do a better job because the school had vision for "in service training."

Let the church turn them into pastors and let the seminary turn them into better pastors...