THE BEST POSSIBLE GIFT Why the church
deserves leaders who
are theologically educated
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Don Carson asks: Why study theology? Theology is ideally about our knowledge of God. It encompasses reading and teaching the Bible, knowing how the scriptures are put together, what they say about Christ, the cross, reconciliation, forgiveness, the resurrection, and much more. If anyone is reading the Bible, he or she is doing theology. You cannot be a Christian in any meaningful sense and not do theology. The purpose of studying theology is to go deeper, to become more knowledgeable, to be a better reader of the Bible, and to understand more of who God is as he has disclosed himself in scripture. When you study how others have interpreted scripture in the past, you are carrying out historical theology. When you put biblical subjects together, you are in the area of dogmatics. When you examine what bearing the word of God has on your life and conduct, you are into theological ethics. Training in theology is bound up in the mandate to produce mature Christians, which includes not only a deeper understanding of the word of God, but a stronger ability to 2
Don Carson Research Professor Trinity Evanglical Divinity School teach it. If your primary task is the preaching and teaching of scripture, you want to be as well formed as you can possibly be in all the areas of theology. Otherwise you are not fulfilling your calling to rightly understand and interpret the word of God. There are many models of theological education, and each of them has advantages and disadvantages. I am happy for people to get theological education by almost any means they can, but for the good health of the church, you need a percentage of people to be thoroughly trained, and that requires serious study, with serious time in serious halls of learning.
Does theological training matter? Theological education is a costly business. Whether you are raising your own support, or whether it’s being funded by the church – and therefore raised by the generous giving of believers – it’s expensive to be trained for ministry.
If your primary task is the preaching and teaching of scripture, you want to be as well formed as you can possibly be in all the areas of theology. Don Carson
There’s a personal cost, too. Giving several years of your life to theological education is sacrificial. If you’re studying full-time, it often means uprooting from church, friends and family and starting over in an unfamiliar place, with a completely new set of people. And if you’re studying part-time, you have to learn to divide your time and energy between college, home and church. That’s not easy. Given that theological education is so costly, we have to ask if it’s a necessary and good thing. Evangelical faith naturally warms to a practical, hands-on approach to preaching and teaching the gospel, and nurturing Christians in their faith. Because of that, it’s easy to think that the best way to prepare for ministry is just by rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck into it. You learn on the fly under the guidance of an experienced pastor and pick up the theoretical stuff as you go along. Surely Christian ministry is ‘better caught than taught’? There’s no doubt that practical experience is absolutely essential in discipleship and ministry. When it’s put together with Bible study and prayer, practical experience is a vital way of discovering where God is leading your life and what he is calling you to do. Many people exploring ministry take part in church apprenticeship schemes which give them wonderful opportunities to receive training and experience across the whole 3
Become a lifelong learner
If you’re giving 30 to 40 years to full time Bible-teaching ministry, often in a very challenging context, then a minimum of two or three years of theological training is an essential
foundation for the future. What good theological training does is equip you to be a lifelong learner. The pace at which culture is changing and the challenges I face as a pastor and church planter mean the ability to think biblically and in a way that connects with the culture of the day is indispensable to provide leadership in the church. I’d be clueless without the essential skills and knowledge I gleaned through my years of theological training.
Neil Powell Pastor and planter 2020 Birmingham
breadth of Christian ministry as part of a local congregation. If you’re thinking of training for longterm Christian leadership, or for a lifetime in gospel ministry, then formal theological education is a natural next step from church apprenticeships and other creative training schemes. There’s a very good reason why it’s important to consolidate your practical experience of ministry by getting into serious academic study. Gabrielle Samuel, an Independent theology student, grew up in a Manchester church which didn’t believe in the trinity. In her late teens, she got serious about 4
It’s a mistake to imagine we can survive only on enthusiasm or by imitating what others have done. You need a solid foundation of theological and biblical understanding to sustain you in ministry for a lifetime.
her faith and started doing in-depth Bible studies with friends, beginning with the book of Romans. ‘I started to see the Bible in a new way,’ she says. She realised what the loss of the trinity did to how we experience the cross, the atonement, salvation and Jesus himself: ‘I have definitely seen first-hand the repercussions of poor teaching, poor theology and poor thinking around gospel issues,’ she says. ‘That’s why I was adamant about putting in time to understand God’s word, because I refuse to be part of teaching people poorly. I love God’s word; it is his power to save. I want to teach it well and as accurately as I can.’
Tim Keller Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City
Jarrod Howard Browne is a South African who worked in a church for five years before coming to London to study theology. He says: ‘Shooting from the hip and not really understanding what you’re talking about is dangerous. When a child gets things wrong, it can be really sweet and you might laugh at their mistakes. But in an adult who is there to teach, care for and pastor others, shooting from the hip and making it up as you go along can be really harmful. For me, the key issue is being able to rightly know God and rightly communicate him to others so they might know him for themselves.’
Today, preachers have to present truth to people from several diverse cultures all at once, and to those who are considerably more ignorant of the Bible and more hostile to its authority than a generation ago. Leadership of any institution, including churches, requires more communication and organizational skill than in the past. People’s personal problems are more complex. Over my forty years of pastoral ministry, I’ve come to the conclusion that ministers need more comprehensive and exacting theological education today than when I came into the work. Tim Keller 5
A lot of the time you are thinking on your feet
When I was thinking about the ministry I wanted to do, I knew I’d need training in lots of different areas, including doctrine, biblical studies and applying the Bible in different contexts.
Not many women are doing ministry in urban areas such as this. At college, we spent a lot of time thinking through doctrinal issues and asking how you would apply them to a particular pastoral situation. That’s really, really useful now in my day-to-day ministry, because a lot of the time you are thinking on your feet and you don’t have time to go and sit in your study and think of a response. I’ve learnt a lot from the women I work with. They are inspiring. Some have been through a lot and it is a joy to see the consequence of God’s grace in their lives. I love what I do and I am so grateful that God has set me apart for this.
Retreating into an ivory tower? It’s sometimes said that people who go off to college to study theology are retreating from the real world and disappearing into an ivory tower of books, essays and complicated debates. There’s a certain amount of truth in this caricature, especially for anyone who decides to study theology full-time. 6
Grace Forsythe Women’s worker Trinity Church, Everton
For people who are naturally good at academic work, there’s always a danger that an intensive time of studying the Bible and theology can become an end in itself, instead of being grounded in the service of other people. Theologian Don Carson, a founder of the Gospel Coalition, identified several other dangers in theological training in an interview he gave a few years ago. He spoke about the danger of arrogance, because when you study theology, you get to learn more theologically important things than the average Christian. And he also identified what can happen if you think you have become a biblical ‘expert’ – the
Phil Chadder Chaplain of HM Prison Brixton
Theologians and heart surgeons
A number of years ago my wife had to have open-heart surgery. I was really very thrilled at the time that the surgeon had spent a long time
in a bit of an ivory tower learning his trade. I don’t think I’d have had any confidence if we’d gone to the appointment and he’d just said, ‘Look I’ve done a bit of a distance learning course and I’d love to have a go. I’m keen, I’m committed to your heart working a bit better.’
temptation to move from being mastered by the word of God, to being a master of the word. In other words, ‘You want to be boss, rather than letting scripture be boss over you.’ Don Carson believes that if you’re training in a strong enough institution, then there will be plenty of people who have navigated these spiritual dangers for themselves and can give you wise guidance if you go astray. Good theological colleges take practical steps to guard against arrogance, the expert mentality and ivory towerism by encouraging their students to grow not just academically, but also in their relationships, in prayer and evangelism, in their church life and their practical skills in ministry. Despite all the dangers, there’s real value in taking time out from the practical demands of everyday life to be trained and prepared for your future work. As Don Carson concludes (on page 2): ‘For the good health of the church, you need a percentage of people to be thoroughly trained, and that requires serious study, with serious time in serious halls of learning.’
If we have that approach to heart surgery or any kind of medical procedure, we need exactly the same approach to theology. For me, that meant taking time, stepping back for a while, and becoming equipped not just for two, four or six years, but for a lifetime of ministry. Learning in a community where the prime concern wasn’t the content of your head but the content of your character was a great preparation for ministry.
Doug Moo, who teaches New Testament in Wheaton College, Illinois, believes that spending time in dedicated study is hugely important, because it’s the best way to build up the depth of biblical and theological understanding you need for serving others. 7
Imagine you have a problem with your knee, he says. You would want to see a doctor who knows the workings of the knee inside out, wouldn’t you? ‘I want that doctor to be able to look at the knee, x-ray it, manipulate it, decide what’s wrong. At the same time, I want to see that degree hanging on his wall. I want him to be someone who knows the literature, who has studied what other people have said about the knee. I want someone, in other words, who has a strong basis in theory and understanding in order to practice medicine well with me.’ What is true for medicine, is also true for theology, which has been called the medicine of the soul. ‘If we’re hoping to produce people who are able to cure souls,’ says Doug Moo, ‘they need to have the best theoretical training they can get in what the soul is, who Jesus is and how he operates. I think you can only get that by taking a certain amount of time to pull away and give some intense study to these matters.’ Theological education doesn’t give you all the answers, but it helps you know what questions to ask and where to go to find the answers. You can’t be a teacher unless you are also a learner, and time in study helps you become that. 8
Jim Packer on training in an age of scepticism I think theological training is enormously important. In fact, I would say that since the culture we live in is now so much out of touch with Christian values, training those who are going to lead congregations is more important than ever. We are back in the 1st century situation, where the culture is against us and Christian leaders are vulnerable right from the start of their work. In the world in which I was brought up, there was the remnant of a Christian culture. There was sympathy for the church and what it was doing, and willingness to listen to Christian leaders when they preached and visited people at home. That willingness has been replaced not so much by unwillingness as by absolute incomprehension: ‘Why on earth do you want to do these things?’ If you’re a Christian minister living with cultural scepticism of this kind, you need to be very sure of who you are and what you stand for, and you have got to know your stuff very thoroughly indeed. The Bible, doctrine and church history are the primary things, as far as I’m concerned.
Jim Packer Professor of Theology Regent College, Vancouver You need a thorough grounding first of all in the text of the Bible, rationally read and understood. The Bible and theology courses have got to be solid. Then church history, it seems to me, is the story of the war of the word in the world. The word of God challenges whatever the culture is. Every generation has to speak to the world as it actually is in that generation. Church history is the object lesson in how to do it, how not to do it, what constitutes wisdom in this task, what mistakes have been made, what blind spots have developed. People who don’t know the mistakes made in the history of the church sentence
themselves to make those mistakes again. And conversely, people who don’t see the brilliance of pioneers who changed history are regularly found without ideas about how they can change their own situation. They become maintenance people. I don’t think ministers are there just for maintenance. I want to see them doing evangelism. I want to see them challenging the culture and the products of the culture in ways that make people think, ‘Maybe there’s something here for me, after all.’ You need to have your mind and heart fertilised not only by the Bible and theology, but also by church history, in order to be the person who can make that happen.
If you’re a Christian minister living with cultural scepticism of this kind, you need to be very sure of who you are and what you stand for, and you have got to know your stuff very thoroughly indeed. Jim Packer 9
The best possible gift There’s a deeper, more theological reason for dedicating time to studying the Bible and theology. And it’s this. In one of the most inspiring passages of the book of Ephesians, we are told that when Christ ascended, he gave gifts to his people. But what are these gifts? Surprisingly, they are people. First and foremost they are the apostles and prophets, but they are also ‘the evangelists, the pastors and teachers’. Here’s the passage in Ephesians: ‘Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’ Ephesians 4:11-13 If you are called to ministry, then you are in this list of people. You are a gift which Christ is making to his church. We often think of a ministry as being something which God gives 10
Mark Smith Planter & Pastor City Church, Dublin
Don’t be content with a superficial understanding of God
God is infinitely beautiful and interesting. There will never be a moment of my life that I won’t be surprised and overjoyed by God. I can constantly dig deeper into the treasures he has
in himself, and never be bored or reach the end of that. I encourage everybody to begin that exploration. Don’t be content with a superficial understanding of who God is, because there is so much more to explore and to enjoy. My theological education was and is invaluable. Without it I wouldn’t now be able to meet people with different needs and questions, and engage them with the beauty of God and the challenge of the gospel. That’s something I want to do my whole life, and theological education has set me up to realise that goal.
to you, but in this passage we see that you and your ministry are given by God to the church. That puts things in a very different light. It raises a question which is worth spending time thinking about: How can I become the best possible gift for Christ to give to his church? Everyone will come to different conclusions about that question as they take it to heart. But becoming the best possible gift surely involves you growing to become more and more like Christ, as well as coming to understand all the riches of our faith in its height, breadth and depth. It’s only by becoming mature yourself that you’ll be able to help build up the people of God so they attain ‘the whole measure of the fullness of Christ’. Mark Herbert, who recently left college to become assistant pastor of a Baptist church in Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire, talks about the most important thing he gained from his time in training. ‘I learned a lot about who God is and who I am. That might seem very simple but actually I think it’s hugely profound. Knowing that God is God and I’m not, and knowing that his resources are limitless, whereas mine are very limited – that’s just hugely helpful as I go into ministry. What matters is that he is my strength, he is my wisdom.’
The passage in Ephesians 4 implies that the work of Christian leaders falls into two parts: ‘to equip God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up’; and also to protect God’s people from ‘every wind of false teaching’ (Ephesians 4:14). Mike Ovey, the Principal of Oak Hill College, believes these two tasks form a biblical pattern for everyone called to Christian ministry. On the one side is the positive work of building up God’s people in the faith, and on the other side is the critical work of protecting them from every kind of false teaching. Mike is struck by the alarming images the New Testament attaches to false teaching. There are the destructive winds of false teaching here in Ephesians 4, but Paul also spoke about ‘savage wolves who will come in… and not spare the flock’ when he said farewell to the elders of the Ephesian church (in Acts 20:29). Says Mike: ‘If you’re any sort of shepherd, you’ve got to be able to spot what a wolf looks like; and sometimes as the English proverb has it, wolves come in sheep’s clothing and it’s not obvious they are present. When that happens, you can’t afford, for the sake of the safety of the people of God, to have a minister who cannot spot a wolf. That’s one of the things a truly rigorous theological education trains you to do.’ 11
The shape of theological education What are the essentials in a good theological education? Jim Packer, on the previous pages, outlines three key areas which are at the heart of it all. Fiona Gibson Vicar, Bedfordshire
Thinking theologically and praying humbly
What did I take away from my theological education? I’ve learnt to look and think about everything theologically. I look at a situation or listen to a question, and I unpick the
strands going on behind it. I examine them in the light of the scriptures and what God has said about himself, about humanity, about the world, about Jesus. And I’ve learnt that nothing, but nothing, is accomplished without prayer. I’ve prayed more in the last three years I’ve been in ministry than I did beforehand. What was modelled for us was this: surround everything in prayer, bathe everything in prayer, offer it to the Lord. Because, actually, only he can do it. I can’t convert anybody, I can’t solve anybody’s problems. But I can walk with them and pray for them, and God can be at work in them.
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First and foremost is a thorough understanding of the Bible, including its structure and story, how its different parts relate to each other, and what its message is. This can include studying the Bible’s original languages of Hebrew and Greek to get as close as possible to the word of God. Many people who come to study theology are especially looking for a better understanding of the Bible to equip them for their work. Gabrielle Samuel says: ‘I was looking for somewhere that would train me to handle the Bible well. To handle the Bible faithfully. To handle the Bible in a way that was going to be useful long term.’ The second essential is gaining a sense of how the message of the Bible has been interpreted and understood by the church over time. This includes church history,
This pastoring thing is no joke
One of my first engagements, having stepped into the pastorate, was to lead the funeral of the mother of one of the brothers at church. It was huge. There were five or six hundred people there, standing room only.
People were looking at me as the one speaking on God’s behalf – and I felt the weight of that. I was like, ‘This pastoring thing is no joke. If I’m going to speak on God’s behalf and it’s going to impact people’s lives, I’d better be as confident and as clear as I can be in what I’m saying.’ Going into theological training and bringing that into my context has been tremendously beneficial. I learnt from
Efrem Buckle Pastor of Calvary Chapel, Lewisham
which Jim Packer calls ‘the story of the war of the word in the world,’ with the word of God challenging every generation. But it also opens up the 2,000 year-old conversation Christians have been having about the Bible and its meaning. For Efrem Buckle, a Calvary Chapel pastor in south London, this focus on the Bible and its story over time was a highlight of his time as a theology student. ‘One of the areas I most enjoyed and benefitted from was biblical studies. It wasn’t just a better understanding of the scriptures themselves, but also the history and the
great men who have gone before, great men of our time, people who have spent a lot of time praying and thinking about the issues of scripture and then communicating that in clear and erudite ways. That, for me, was a privilege.
journey of the scriptures. Whether I was in New Testament or Old Testament studies, for me it was a tremendously enriching and empowering experience, because it definitely equipped me to have a greater confidence in approaching the Bible.’ The third essential focuses on doctrine. It looks into how the biblical revelation as it has developed over time can be organised into a more systematic framework. This enables you to see how different themes in the scriptures come together so that it is possible to talk about the doctrine of creation and fall, or the doctrine of salvation or the holy trinity. 13
From these three essentials – a thorough knowledge of the Bible; the history of how the Bible has been understood, interpreted and applied; and then putting it all together in a systematic way – theological education can take many different forms, depending on the kind of ministry you are preparing for. If you are preparing for the pastoral ministry, then classes in preaching, biblical counselling, worship and youth work will give you the understanding and skills you need. If you are going to serve the church overseas, or by crossing cultures in the UK, then classes on cross-cultural communication and contextualisation will help shape your training in the way that will equip you best. ‘My education gave me a theological mindset and a mature knowledge of the scriptures, so I can base my ministry on what the Bible actually teaches,’ says Neil Powell, a church planter in Birmingham. Neil is a founder of the 20:20 project, which aims to plant 20 new churches in Birmingham by 2020. Eight have been planted since 2010. ‘As I teach the Bible, I work hard to study and reflect what the scriptures say. So a knowledge of the biblical languages and how the whole Bible fits together, and a knowledge of systematic theology, which helps me understand how others have approached issues in the Bible, have just been invaluable.’ 14
Mark Herbert Assistant Pastor Long Crendon Baptist Church
Engaging with the challenges of today A good theological education is outward-facing and engaged with the world and culture we live in. There are obviously many challenges Christians and the church face at the moment and which need to be factored into theological training.
Developing Christian character
You can’t rush your training for ministry. The pastoral epistles talk much more about Christian character than they do about ability. And you can’t rush the
development of your character. Taking time out to learn and study at college has been absolutely brilliant for developing Christian character. Some people ask me, ’Is that possible when you’re kind of stuck in a Christian bubble?’ But I learned so much about myself and my relationship with God while I was living at college. I wasn’t able to think through some of the big theological issues while I was working in a church because every time I got down to do a bit of study, the phone would go or someone would call in. Having two years of space and time
Gabrielle Samuel Theological student
to come away and study has just been hugely beneficial.
Mike Ovey, the Principal of Oak Hill College, believes that three of the most pressing challenges in the UK today are: other religions, especially Islam; an aggressive secularism; and the impact of social media on communication. On the first issue, Mike says: ‘The big question is Islam and how other religions relate to it. Theologically, we’re talking about the uniqueness of Christ, and how we communicate Christ in our particular time and place.’ This chimes with the experience of Neil Powell in Birmingham: ’There’s a growing cultural diversity in our city. The Pakistani community, for example,
Teaching God’s word is not a light thing
Teaching God’s word is a great responsibility. It is not a light thing. If we believe the gospel is the power to change people, we want to be equipped to speak of it well. That’s why it’s important to
spend time thinking through the big theological questions and how to apply the scriptures in different situations. So I think it is worth putting yourself through your paces, making sure you are fit for work when it is time to carry on in ministry. I have definitely seen first-hand the repercussions of poor teaching, poor theology and poor thinking around gospel issues. That’s why I’m adamant about putting in time to understand God’s word, because I refuse to be part of teaching people poorly. I love God’s word; it is his power to save. I want to teach it well and as accurately as I can.
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now makes up 21 per cent of the population. One in every two children in Birmingham today is born into a Muslim family. As churches in the city, we recognise that we’re not really equipped to reach them effectively for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a great challenge and opportunity.’
Both these issues are complicated by what Mike calls ‘the Twitterisation of communication’. He gives an example from the summer of 2014, when the horrific suffering of Gaza was at the top of the news agenda and also trending for several weeks on Twitter. Says Mike:
The second issue Mike identifies is aggressive secularism, which often manifests itself as a sort of cultural anger. Certainly the new atheists seem to be enraged that religious people still believe the things they do. Mike believes that underlying this anger is a fear that religion and violence are inextricably linked. How Christians work in this new landscape, where faith is viewed with suspicion, is a crucial question for anyone entering ministry today. This issue is about mission, and it’s also about maintaining the good health of God’s people. Steve Rees, the Vicar of Christ Church in Potters Bar, knows what this looks like at first hand.
‘A championship footballer produced an argument on Twitter saying that God doesn’t exist, because if he was all-powerful and loving he’d stop what was happening. It was fascinating. How do you answer an argument like that? This very issue was argued extensively during the Enlightenment by various philosophers, so there are 300 years’ worth of good answers to it. But how do I get them on to Twitter?’
‘One of the biggest challenges is to hold onto our roots in terms of scripture and its teaching. There’s huge pressure for cultural drift and losing our distinctiveness. Will we hold onto what God has said, or will we drift away from that? That’s a question every generation faces, I think. But particularly now and for us.’ 16
These are just three key challenges which anyone in ministry today has to think through and work with. Dan Adams, who is a youth and families minister at Farnham Baptist Church, and is studying theology part-time, says: ‘Being biblically faithful and orthodox is vital, of course, but so is working out how our understanding of the Bible engages with culture now. That has really sharpened my ministry. Whoever I’m talking to, I want to be able to connect truth with the world view they’re coming from.’
Applying the words of Jesus’ parable, the culture we live in now is the soil where we are sowing the seeds of the gospel. What is the best way to plant those seeds so they produce the best possible harvest? Next year, the soil may be different. The challenges we face change all the time, and it could be that other religions, aggressive secularism and the problems of social media will give way to a different set of problems. That’s why a good theological education not only trains you to think incisively about particular issues, it trains you to think, full stop. It enables you to apply your thinking flexibly and become, under God, a positive and dynamic resource for the church into the future. Neil Powell says:
Steve Rees Vicar, Christ Church Little Heath
A great foundation for ministry
I went to theological college with clear convictions about scripture and the gospel. But studying gave me depth and confidence in what I believed.
I think theological education is key, because it gives you deep roots and a sound foundation to build your life and ministry upon. When you finish your training, you come out and face all sorts of situations, and it’s the systematic theology, the doctrine lectures and the biblical studies you receive at college which gives you a great foundation for the rest of your ministry. The church placements I had at college really shaped the way I thought about ministry, and they still have an impact on the way I do ministry now. What I found really helpful was the way church placements linked in with what was going on in the classroom. They gave me a tangible expression of what church life looks like.
‘What good theological training does is equip you to be a lifelong learner. The pace at which culture is changing and the challenges I face as a pastor and planter mean that the ability to think biblically and in a way that connects with the culture of the day is absolutely essential to provide leadership in the church.’ The gospel does not change, but the culture we live in is changing all the time, and that calls for intelligence, creativity and a particular kind of training. Church leaders need both biblical literacy and cultural sensitivity to bring the life-changing message of Jesus to people today. 17
The making of... The Best Possible Gift isn’t just a booklet, but also a series of online video interviews. To capture them, a small team from Oak Hill College took to the road with cameras, a list of questions and a moderate to serious coffee addiction. We interviewed students still training in theology, as well as former students working in many kinds of ministry in the UK and Ireland. 18
We were fascinated to talk with church planters Neil Powell in Birmingham and Mark Smith in Dublin, who are pioneering new churches in cities which present lots of challenges to the gospel. We also enjoyed meeting with people doing ministry in both Anglican and Independent churches, and in very different social settings, such as Fiona Gibson, vicar of three rural parishes near Bedford, and Efrem Buckle, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Lewisham, which faces all the challenges of inner city life. We did a morning inside HM Prison Brixton, talking to its chaplain, Phil Chadder, before going on to Dagenham, where Grace Forsythe
Oak Hill College All the UK students and former students featured in this booklet trained at Oak Hill College in north London. The college believes passionately in theological education and works hard to shape that education under the word of God. For more information about Oak Hill, find the website here:
oakhill.ac.uk was then doing women’s ministry in a deprived urban area. We asked everyone we interviewed about the training they received, the challenges and opportunities they face, and why theological education is important. We’re grateful to Don Carson and Tim Keller for contributing to this booklet, and to Jim Packer and Doug Moo, who we interviewed in 2009 and 2014. All the interviews with students and former students are online, so if you’d like to hear more from any of the people featured here, please follow the address below:
oakhill.ac.uk/greatestgift
Credits Published by Oak Hill College Produced by House Communications Limited Writing and design: Simon Jenkins Photography: Eleanor Bentall and Richard Hanson (page 9) Video: Quirky Motion Print: Yeomans Press © The Kingham Hill Trust 2014 A company limited by guarantee Registered in England No. 365812
Oak Hill College 19
Over my forty years of pastoral ministry, I’ve come to the conclusion that ministers need more comprehensive and exacting theological education today than when I came into the work. Tim Keller
I am happy for people to get theological education by almost any means they can, but for the good health of the church, you need a percentage of people to be thoroughly trained, and that requires serious study, with serious time in serious halls of learning. Don Carson 20