The first mission is to the local areas near your church. This is a church function, not a seminary function. It is sad when a seminary that has worldly credentials stands above and a part of a local body of Christ. The evangelists and all ministries ought to all flow out of the church. It is the church where its officers are made through the public ministry of the word. Bachelor, Master degrees and doctorates are unnecessary and extra biblical technically. Only a church through its pastoral offices can adequately evaluate whether or not a man is truly called and proved to be an Overseer-Shepherd or Presbyters in a duty constituted gospel church. You can not find any institution outside of the church in the NT. What seminary did Timothy or Titus graduate from? These men were specifically chosen to establish these offices. I was a member of a Reformed Baptist church in Monteville, NJ, which had a ministerial academy that was part of our church and ovessen by our pastors. If you felt a calling and had a good testimony, you would first received into the church as a member and then attend the academy, which was a four year program. This idea and program aligns with the New Testament beautifully. Any graduate would be tried and tested by the pastors and the church body to measure one's calling and obtain a good report by our church in order to be recommended to the pastoral office in any church we had ties and connections to. The Pastors college at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London followed the institution enacted in Spurgeon's time are the only churches I have ever come across who follow a truly biblical system.
What exactly does Paul Washer mean in minute 30:22? What is helpful to read for church history without roman-catholic-view (the 1500 years before the reformation)?
