Raising and discipling gospel workers

Recently I spent some time visiting seminaries and theological colleges in other parts of the world to see how they viewed the challenges and opportunities of the moment. What I encountered was clear thinking realism about the scale of the challenges facing theological education today. Colleges cannot expect to rest on their reputations and wait for the students to come rolling in. Prospective students need to hear all the options and factors involved in a robust theological education. Why this place? Why this course? Why this mode? Why these teachers? These questions become even more important in the current climate of hostility. Even churches are not immune to losing focus on equipping and sending gifted men and women to train and be sent to the ends of the earth. This is reflected in the decline in the number of people engaging in vocational ministry, and consequently fewer are committing themselves to full-time residential theological education.