I'm back from four days in Chicago at a training for work. I'm still gathering my thoughts on that one, so I am going to just refer you to someone else's good writings!
Pastor McCain at Cyberbrethren has a very good post on how without doctrine, you can't have mission, and without mission, there is no point to doctrine.
I especially liked in the comments section, where someone refers to a quote from a Reporter supplement saying about the SMP program --
"We can't assume we will have the luxury of training workers [pastors] first when people are dying without the Lord Jesus."
Then Pr. McCain responds rightly that Jesus knew what He was doing when He handpicked twelve men and trained them for three years, and when He took Paul into the desert for a time of training before sending Him out.
As he rightly and capably said "This kind of talk is emotionalistic and lacking in proper awareness of the need for well educated pastoral theologians. People are dying every single day, and I do not see med schools rushing men out undertrained."
Oh, I didn't read the comments section. That last part was good! I certainly wouldn't want an undertrained med student working on me unless it wasn't going to be any worse than no treatment at all. But I'd probably be feeling the effects of it for the rest of my life, if I were still blessed enough to have one.
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