I find that continuing education provokes controversy in some quarters. Some congregations wonder why we pastors need it, and some of us fail to use it productively. Still, the same church member who disapproves of our two weeks “away at some institution” would not accept a physician who uses the cancer cures he learned in medical school in the fifties.
The treasurer who questions writing the check for the pastor’s journal subscription would never do business with a banker unaware of interest-bearing checking accounts.
The parent who misses the youth director “off playing around at some youth workers’ convention” would not want a physics teacher for her daughter who never felt the need to study after getting his degree from old A&T in ’43.
In this changing world, practitioners of any sort must have continuing education. That includes us pastors.
Types of necessary education
Many of us need remedial education. As surprising as it is to some lay people (and as obvious as it is to others!), we have not learned everything by the time the ink dries on our diplomas. I attended a fine seminary, for instance, yet I learned almost nothing about management. My curriculum simply didn’t contain that one subject which so consumes my time. Other pastors gravely feel the effects of missed classes in homiletics, counseling, Christian education, New Testament, or any number of other subjects. Seminary alone cannot adequately equip us for a lifetime of ministry.
Even the classes I took were not completely retained. During my intensive Hebrew class, I also happened to be courting and becoming engaged to my wife. Oddly enough I have retained her strikingly longer than Hebrew syntax.
We simply do not remember everything we once learned. Some things must be learned again.
Nor did I adequately appreciate certain classes. I used systematic theology texts as a sure cure for insomnia. It all seemed so detached from “real ministry.” Now when people ask about infant baptism or the Trinity, I realize that I need remedial work on systematics, which I now consider interesting.
We also must retool regularly. I find that new ideas come along-often good ideas-and I need to update my technique.
In seminary I purposely avoided church growth theory, but I came to greatly appreciate it later.
Reading some of that material revolutionized my ministry approach. New trends in society demand new responses from the church. I had to learn how to minister in a “rurban” town, a sociological setting unheard of twenty years ago.
Shifting marriage patterns, sociological phenomena, revised new church development techniques, and many other rapidly changing situations and ideas demand pastors who have given them recent thought. We periodically need to be retooled.
Personal renewal, spiritually and mentally, is a third reason for continuing study. Pastors can run dry. Challenges become problems, and problems can look insurmountable. Along with the need for continuing spiritual input, we need a fresh flow of ideas. When your bag of tricks is empty, ministry is a dreary prospect. Have you ever felt all alone in a particular situation, and later discovered nearly every pastor faces it? You can feel stuck with an “unsolvable” problem that others have already remedied.
Very little is new under the sun, but we must read to know where the resources are found. I know I need stimulation and encouragement. Many a pastor has found renewed interest in ministry by sharpening pastoral skills. It can save your life.
Education costs everybody
You soon find that this continuing study has considerable cost in both time and materials. The time I spend reading could be spent at hospital bedsides or church activities. I could use it to prepare for a class or polish my sermon or enjoy some exercise. How many sets of tennis equal one good book? My decision to spend the time precedes any study. Since it does not demand urgent attention, it requires conscious priority.
Your church won’t automatically appreciate the time you spend studying. It makes you inaccessible. They see little direct evidence of its effect. It doesn’t appear “people-centered.” When was the last time you were praised because you “spend a day a week in study”? Still the church must learn that you need exactly such time to continue the process of education.
Even churches that understand the time commitment sometimes fail to fathom the considerable expense of materials. Book prices have soared, with magazines and journals following close behind. Subscriptions to basic journals and magazines easily run me $50 a year. One hundred dollars more might add only a half dozen books to my shelf. We need these materials, yet they cost us dearly. Without considering continuing education classes, seminars, and events, which entail registration and transportation costs, you can easily go through $200 a year for written materials. If you are not spending close to that, you are either a great borrower or a nonreader. Education bears an increasing price tag.
Who bears the cost?
If continuing education is needed and if it is expensive, who, logically, should foot the bill? Often the expenses have come right out of the pastor’s pocket. We order the journals and buy the books. We benefit from the reading and stimulation. It is our education, our career. By default, we not only budget the time to continue our education, but also stretch our financial budgets to buy the materials. Left unexamined, I suspect this is how the arrangement will remain.
On examination, however, this is not the most equitable arrangement. Continuing education is a professional expense, not a personal expense. The secretary doesn’t purchase the manual for the new word processor. The office picks it up as a professional expense. The stockbroker attends seminars on company time and company money. The military officer is sent to schools at government expense. The office, the firm, the military service ultimately benefits from each of these expenses. And your church receives the fruits of your continuing education.
The church supplies the pulpit you preach from and the telephone in the office. They buy the paper for church correspondence. Nobody expects you to spend your salary for such professional necessities. Since study is also a necessity, shouldn’t the church also provide your needed reading materials?
Your church budget is probably as strained as mine, yet even a $50 line item for journal subscriptions or books will signal both you and the congregation that continuing education is important. A reasonable request for an initial $50 to $100 per pastor can eventually grow to a more realistic $200 or more in a few years. Such financial backing, along with a message from the church that the time will also be given ungrudgingly, will add tools to your tool box and competence to your practice. The church will benefit from a more capable and confident pastor equipped with the latest tools and training. You will be freed to use your time, but not your family’s resources, to continue your education for everyone’s benefit.
I appreciate the specified amount, built into my salary package, that my church gives me yearly to further equip myself for ministry. I am convinced that the reading I do has made me a better pastor, and I am encouraged in my study habits by the understanding of my congregation. We all gain by the arrangement.
-James Berkley
Dixon California
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