CHURCH ON THE OTHER SIDE

In one of my Seminary classes a Korean friend of mine posted his thoughts on our class discussion.
I thought it was so telling about how we view seminary not only in Asian Countries, but even in the US!
This is a response from Brian McLaren's book: Church On The Other Side

“In the church on the other side, there will be only leadership by personal authenticity, leadership that flows from who you really are.” (112)
“New approaches to training will be needed to produce this new kind of leader. Scholars will increasingly see themselves as valued consultants to leaders-as will leaders. Seminaries may become more like consultant agencies to local churches.”(114)
“Leadership must become a matter of love and spirituality, a place for spiritual sages, not just organizational technicians.”(117)

At least when these three factors are considered in evaluating the current leadership of Korean church, its reality is found in the exact opposite direction. Every year over 1000 (I guess almost 2000-remember the total population of Christians in my country is less than 9 million) people apply to seminaries of various denominations and are tested for admission. Their admission is decided by criterion not of personal authenticity and divine calling, but of good score. It is not easy to build authentic leaders for the church in the environment where about 300 students at a seminary are taking their classes at a time. That would be why many would-be pastors are trying to study abroad. But the more decisive reason for staying in the other countries for studying would be that most churches demand advanced academic degrees like Th.M and Ph.D, not spiritual sages. Besides it seems to me that the purpose of the seminary in Korea even in the US lies in not equipping a minister but producing scholars. Is it true that a smart student is a good minister?

Am I a very severe cynical man? But it is obvious that after graduating from this school with the degree of Mdiv, I won’t be able to minister to the people and be ordained in Korean churches as a pastor because they won’t qualify me coming from George Fox Seminary which has poor reputation in my country. I think it is a matter of real belief as a minister to accept the assertion that “leadership must become a matter of love and spirituality, a place for spiritual sages, not just organizational technicians.”(117)