A few weeks ago I presented a paper at the Southeastern regional meeting of the Evangelical Missiological Society. My paper’s title: “Educating Today’s Pastors Toward an Apostolic Imagination.”
After spending eighteen years (and counting) in the academic setting and the same amount of time (and counting) in pastoral ministry, I decided to write this paper. This paper is written with the academy in mind, specifically my missiologist-friends. However, others may glean from this writing as well.
The pastor (i.e., lead pastor, senior pastor, primary pastor) is the most important individual when it comes to a local church understanding and engaging in the mission of God. Apart from the pastor’s direct leadership and regular attention to missions, a local church is unlikely to be involved in intentional, sacrificial, and perennial global disciple making activities. Therefore, the pastor’s missiological education is critical to the Great Commission task.
Missiologists face challenges when it comes to the education of pastors. I describe two challenges in the paper: 1) the desire to defend the discipline; and 2) the power of pastoral imagination. I also provide six guidelines for educating pastors:
- Maintain High Academic Standards, but Answer the “So What?”
- Listen to the Churches, but Lead to and through Blind Spots
- Teach Them How to Think about Global Realities
- Help Them Think, but Provide Answers
- Teach Them Theology was Birthed from the Mission of God
- Teach Them to Stand between Two Worlds
You may download a copy of the paper here.