The Only Professionally-Designed Ministry Simulation You’ll Ever Find!

A few years back through our Summit Christian Leadership Center, we developed a leadership training experience that is the first of its kind in the seminary world:  The Sweetbriar Baptist Church Ministry Simulation.

Our faculty and students have all been delighted and surprised at how powerful and effective this experiential learning environment is for helping participants strengthen their leadership skills.  Several dozen students have completed the simulation over the past few years, and each of them rave about how beneficial it was for them.

We still have five slots open for the next installment of Sweetbriar Baptist — to be held January 16-20, 2012. We’re so excited about this new resource that we’d like to make a special offer to our alumni and supporters.

If the church you lead (or attend) will agree to take up a special offering for our Students’ Scholarship Fund, you can send two participants to Sweetbriar at no charge.  This is a great learning experience for vocational or non-vocational church leaders!  The personalized feedback you get from our faculty will encourage you with your leadership strengths and give you real direction for how to improve in areas where you need to grow.

Time is running out, and space is limited.  Call Gail Banz today at 215-368-7538, ext. 139 or email gbanz@cbs.edu for more information.

Why Pastors, and Not Professors, Are the Answer to Biblically Illiterate Congregations

Those of us who teach Bible and theology in Christian colleges and seminaries learn quickly to live with chastened hopes of making a significant impact on the church in America today. I am well aware that any influence I might ever have on believers outside my local church is indirect. That is, in shaping future pastors, church planters, missionaries, teachers, and counselors, I do have the joy of influencing believers all over the world through the graduates of our seminary. But my teaching and writing, especially the academic side, while necessary, is not what will transform churches.

Yale University theologian, Miroslav Volf notes that in his context of mainline liberal churches, theologians are completely irrelevant to the average churchgoer. He observes that while scholars address other scholars and students, the church is listening to other voices:

Theologians are on the sidelines. Like the streetcorner preachers of yesterday, they find themselves talking to a crowd too hurried to honor them with more than a fleeting glance.

“Theology, Meaning and Power,” in The Nature of Confession, ed. Timothy Phillips and Dennis Okholm (IVP, 1996), 45.

Now, the situation may not be as dire in conservative, Bible-believing churches, but the principle still applies to some extent. It’s not the college and seminary professors that will change the church. Pastors who faithfully preach and teach the Word to their congregations in the power of the Holy Spirit are the ones who will be the most instrumental in significant change. They are the ones who must keep their fingers on the pulse of the people in the pew and counter the various influences of error today. While professors can fulfill their role in training ministers, no one should live with the illusion that they are more important to the average Christian than they really are.

God Does Not Want to Know What We Think

We live in a culture where everyone has their say, where I can press the interactive buttons and register my view on television, where I can set up a blog and proclaim my views on anything and everything to the world, where the most friendly thing we can say in welcoming newcomers is ‘We want to know what you think’, but dare I say it – God does not want to know what we think. He wants us to know what he thinks.

Christopher Ash, The Priority of Preaching (Christian Focus, 2009), 35.