By the time you read this post, the students at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary are in the third week of classes. One of the courses that I’m teaching this semester is Introduction to Church Planting, and as always, loving every minute of it. I have the greatest students in the world (there is your shout-out, now you owe me 🙂 ).
From time to time, I like to share with you a little about my philosophy behind theological education, particularly as related to the church planting courses I teach. I have blogged about this issue before (see HERE), and published this article in 2007 for Lausanne World Pulse, for those who are interested. Now, here is another post. 
My wife is a physician. I remember the long days of medical school, followed by the even longer days of residency. My wife was not a doctor when she started med. school. And she was not allowed to go off on her own direction until she completed her residency training.
In North America, a person is not legally allowed to practice medicine without the proper credentials. And in order to obtain the proper credentials, a person must pass through a set of predetermined standards that an accreditation board has established. To become a physician and be able to practice legally, he or she must compete college, med. school, and residency. Then he or she becomes a grade A, 100% certified, physician free to practice on their own (within the laws of your state and the U.S. gov., of course.).
I have been teaching for eleven years, and have also been observing the larger American Evangelical perspective on theological education. Unfortunately, many people now approach theological training much the same way as they understand medical training: go to school and let them certify that you are legitimate and ready.
A seminary does not make ministers of the gospel like a medical college makes physicians. My classes do not make missionaries. Sure, I can equip students for the ministry (Eph 4:11-12). But, it is God who calls them. It is God who makes them. It is God who grows them.
While I’m obviously for a person obtaining as much theological education as the Lord will allow, the classroom (including mine) is no substitute for the field. While in school, seminarians should be significantly involved as leaders in local church ministry.
As I share with my students, the classroom is a sterile laboratory. It is a safe environment. In this controlled atmosphere, we are able to mine the depths of theological truths, wrestle with the application of missiological principles, and debate over missionary methods. Such is a good thing.
But, even the most practical discussions remain as theory until someone makes application. The gospel does not advance on theory alone.
My philosophy on theological education is deeply rooted in a marriage that I believe was made in heaven. This marriage sums up how church planters (and all ministers should be trained). This marriage is the union of the intellect with the application, the union of the mind with the hands. Or, in contemporary jargon, the union of the classroom-based training with the field-based training.
The practical component is never to be divorced from the intellectual component.
If theological education is not applied education for the edification of the Church, then it is of little value to the Kingdom. If the classroom does not play out on the field, then my classroom time is of little value in the multiplication of disciples, leaders, and churches.
In all of my church planting courses, I require field-based components, usually carried out in the city of Louisville. These components may consist of significant involvement with a church planting team, weekly field activities, observations, people group research, serving with more experienced church planters, or brief field-based exercises.
Through the church planting program at Southern Seminary, students are able to earn up to 20 hours of credit in church planting courses (7 classes). Again, while all of these courses involve some field-based training, 8 hours (3 classes) consist of total immersion in missionary field work.
While I have been crafting this program for the past 7 years, the Lord has been gracious in revealing to me its strengths and limitations. I am always laboring to improve the quality of missionary training, making certain that such training keeps the classroom and the field hand-in-hand.
For what God has joined together to build His Church, I do not want to put asunder.
