When training pastors, it’s worth thinking about what we are actually aiming for. Often it is said we are aiming for excellence. It’s difficult to quantify what that means exactly. But often, it is the precursor to a certain kind of theological training that covers lots of things that isn’t essential to everyday pastor ministry.

That non-essential kind of training is broadly academic, training people to be academics, who might well go on and make excellent academics. But that kind of academic training is not essential to being a competent pastor. It is the kind of training that would probably lock out most of the Apostles from every functioning as a pastor in the churches they were involved in.

What we actually want in our pastors is competence. There are lots of interesting academic discussions we could have that are not particularly pertinent to church life and, to be honest, never really came up during the course of my pastorate. Having people excel at such discussions isn’t really necessary. Certainly, not necessary if they are going to pastor well.

But we can’t get away from the fact that there is a base level of knowledge that any pastor will need to know. There are some things that really do come up all the time and are necessary for every pastor to know, things that are vital gospel issues or matters that crop up in the church time and again. Having a solid handle on these kind of things is incredibly important. That doesn’t mean one has to be a world-leading expert, but you do have to have a certain level of understanding and knowledge of what the scriptures say and the wider theological issues surrounding it in order to address the matter properly.

All that is to say that we want competent pastors, who can teach competently, defend the faith once for all delivered to the saints competently, protect their people from wolves competently and encourage their flock towards righteousness, holiness and godliness. Competence and academic excellence are not the same thing. Training academics and training pastors is not the same thing. It helps to be clear who we are training for what role because it might change how we do it and the ends to which we are working.