It's true. This last week I found out that my application to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School was rejected. That's right. I am officially a seminary reject. I guess they didn't like my essays - Why Everyone Should Be An Open Theist, Doug Pagitt: A Prophet & My Personal Hero and perhaps my best work ever, I Guess I'll Try Seminary Because I Have Nothing Better To Do, But Don't Expect Me to Finish. Whatever the case, it turns out that I'm just not TEDS material.
To be honest, the news is sort of bittersweet. On the one hand, it was cause for much celebration! As I've said before, I really wasn't too thrilled with what I saw and experienced at TEDS. I didn't want to go there. But due to financial circumstances, I felt obligated, even pressured to seriously consider it. To make matters worse, I wanted to go to Bethel Seminary just as much as I didn't want to go to TEDS. So when I got the rejection letter in the mail, I immediately busted into some vintage Michael Jackson-esque dance moves on our kitchen's hardwood floors accompanied by a passionate shout out to Jesus.
On the other hand, I am deeply saddened by what I believe it says about our denomination's seminary.
(Before I proceed, let me just say that I don't write any of this out of bitterness. I try not to take myself too seriously. So my ego wasn't crushed by the school's decision. In fact, word of my application's rejection was the best news I'd had in weeks - an answer to prayer even! And so I write this not out of spite, but out of genuine concern and heartfelt sadness for our denomination and its seminary.)
Allow me, if you will, to take a moment to make a case for myself. Now I will be the first to admit that I am not a great student - I mean, I'm not bad, nor phenomenal, just average - but there are some specific things that I believe make me a pretty good prospective seminary student - particularly to TEDS. Here are some examples:
- My personal recommendations include: two former recipients of the EFCA Church Planter of the Year Award, one bible professor and TEDS alumnus, a leadership and management professor from another school and seminary, and an additional EFCA pastor.
- In my sixth year of ministry now, I've got enough experience to suggest that I'm in ministry for the long haul while still being young enough to exhibit teachability. At the very least, I obviously won't be ducking out of the pastorship within two years of graduation, as some sources cite is now the average.
- Although I limped through my first year and half of college with a meager 2.75 GPA before dropping out for a while, I have earned nothing but A's (okay okay, and one B+) over the last two years in my current program.
- I had already been personally chosen by both the EFCA Midwest District Superintendent and Associate Superintendent for Church Planting to receive this year's Church Planting Scholarship at TEDS.
- Lastly, I've had the privilege of serving as a pastor and elder in an EFCA church plant that has grown to an attendance of 300-500 people - one that is regarded by the district to be one of its biggest success stories of the last three years.
If the seminary exists to serve the global church by developing its leaders, as it claims, then I would consider myself to be a pretty ideal candidate. But I was rejected and the only reason I was given was that the school I am graduating from lacks proper accreditation. So this wasn't a character deficiency decision, a spiritual issues decision, or even a lack-of gifting or calling decision. This was solely an academic decision. That makes me sad.
It makes sad because it confirms some of my initial concerns regarding the school. It reveals that TEDS really doesn't exist to serve or empower the church, but to develop Christian brains. While I do believe we need talented men and women representing Christ in academia, what makes me sad is that #1, TEDS doesn't acknowledge this as their mission, and #2, the school flies the colors of our denomination. As a result, impressionable young men and women desiring to go into full time ministry are mistakenly being sent to TEDS from EFCA churches around the country.
My experience reveals that (in the selection process) TEDS cares more about academic performance than they do about Kingdom-impact. If this is their primary criteria for selecting students, then it also says a lot about their priorities in the kind of faculty they employ and the kind of programs they deliver. And this, in turn, directly affects the kind of men and women they are producing.
Let me be clear that I am not suggesting that TEDS change. They are very, very good at what they do. And as I've already mentioned, producing scholarly Christians that are able to thrive in academia is a good thing and a needed thing. What I am advocating, however, is that
- the school get honest about their mission and confess that they really don't exist to develop leaders in the church, but instead, exist to develop Christian scholars.
- they surrender their post as the EFCA "flagship school" so that young pastors-to-be in the EFCA can be sent to schools that have their best interests (and The Church's best interests) in mind.
On second thought, the second action might be better taken by the EFCA itself. We should be investing our time, our money, our resources, and our people in a school (or schools) whose primary aim is to further Christ's Church by building into men and women who will shape its future. The world (and the church, for that matter) can do without more scholars. But neither can afford to go on without more Spirit-filled, Christ-following, Kingdom-bringing leaders.
