The Preacher as Lifelong Learner

Mark Littleton

Probably every pastor or leader in ministry considers the need for continuing education an essential, not an option. But what is the best way to get it, and where? Above all, why?

 

Kim May, a pastor in Liberty, Missouri, considers his efforts at growth and learning as a pastor through various courses and helps as just that: an essential. “Having been in the pastorate for thirty years, I definitely value it,” he says. “I have received continuing education through conferences and seminars and also my own personal research and reading.”

Almost any pastor or leader in ministry can profit from various kinds of continuing ed, depending on what they’re willing to spend on it, and whether they can find it locally or otherwise. May says that he has taken classes at a local school, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, that qualified him to supervise interns at his church for training in ministry.

For May, some of the most helpful resources were John Maxwell’s leadership seminars. “I’ve gone to two or three of those over the years,” he says. “I learned how to relate to people in certain contexts, whether they were confrontative or friendly, open or closed, and how to deal with critics and others. In seminary, at least when I went, they didn’t teach that kind of thing.” He attended Wheaton Graduate School and Fuller Theological Seminary, where he received an M.A. in theology in 1979.

Jim Rawdon, now out of the ministry because of a bicycle accident that left him with a brain injury, received a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree at Midwestern while he served at a pastor. He says, “I like learning. Going to seminary the first time at age 37, I heard guys all the time telling me they didn’t know why they had to take certain required courses. I always knew immediately why I needed that course, because of being a church member from in my twenties and early thirties. My M.Div. gave me a basic biblical theological education. The D.Min., though, gave me much more insight into social ministry, preaching, worship, administration.”

Lawdon asserts, “When you work for a D.Min, you’re learning after you actually know something about ministry because you’ve been in it. When you get out of seminary the first time, you go into the ministry with all these preconceived ideas. You’re stupid. Many of them don’t work, and you end up floundering and trying new things. After awhile, you realize you just need to know more. So, by being in the ministry, you go into the D.Min. with much more understanding of the questions you need to ask, of the subjects you need to work on. You know the kind of problems people have and you’re more eager to learn.”