When this article appeared, a group of Presbyterian ministers had been meeting regularly over coffee in the pastor’s study of the First Presbyterian Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. They had no specific agenda, but simply shared conversation together as colleagues in the ministry.
One of the ministers in the group had returned from an 8-day retreat at Wellspring, a mission group of Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C. The mission group seeks to nurture faith communities around the country by sharing their own experience of renewal as a church. This pastor was deeply stirred by his experience at Wellspring. His changing understanding of ministry in the church became a subject of conversation in the sharing group of ministers at Kalamazoo. Another minister in the group, Charles E. Kinzie, was prompted to write a letter to the other pastors in the group, reflecting on his own experience in the seminary and in church ministry.
Because of the relevance of his letter and the questions it raises about the relationship of theological education and professional ministry to spiritual growth and the renewal of the church as community, we have printed portions of the letter below.
I entered the seminary nearly two decades ago. In the intervening years we have been through everything from church renewal and all kinds of theologies to concern over the vocational crisis of ministers. Yet in those years I have not heard one word spoken publically concerning our spiritual condition and the resulting plight of theology. We have talked over the years as if these two elements were still intact; we have acted as if all that was needed was a little retouching of the outward circumstances of our calling. We decided erroneously that what we needed was professional training for a professional ministry. Now we know that none of these measures will suffice.
Read the Full Article
