One debate I listen to and even participate in all the time is “what’s more important, that you are called or that you are educated?”
I think the answer is simply yes to both fronts. But overwhelmingly I can speak from experience that it is vital that you back your calling up with formal education. Not just any education… But the best you can get your hands around.
Not to toot my own horn, but this is why I feel prepared for the task I am doing here in Romeo. At Moody, I was able to sit under the feet of someone I see as “a great practitioner of youth ministry,” Dr. Bob MacRae. Bob has more experience in church-based ministry than anyone I’ve ever met. If I come across something I need help on, he’s been there, done that, and talked to 200 people who’ve gone through the same thing. He’s never been a prolific author for this reason, so a lot of people have never heard of him. Then, with my masters, I feel I am studying under one of the “great minds in youth ministry” Dr. Dave Rahn. He is a prolific and recognized name in the YM academic world. Between the two of these, I feel and can see that I am being prepared fantasically for the ministry task well into the future.
To not seek any formalized education is plain dumb. I don’t understand and have no notion for the laziness and short-sideness of rushing into the ministry task unprepared. Of course, if you are a nice guy and have a pleasant and submissive personality a church will hire you. I’ve met enough full time idiots to know that churches will hire anyone with a pulse and a smile. But they are rarely good at what they do.
I was just re-examing so parts of the book Youth Ministry that Transforms and I was fascinated to see that those who ran the largest groups were not the ones with the greatest amount of education. Hmmm… Could this be that when people get a good grasp of their task of correctly dividing the word of God that they are less interested in building a crowd as they are of building a healthy community? I don’t know.
But in my opinion… As strongly as I can state. Formal education is the best way to enter the profession of student ministry. It is the best entry point. (The second entry point being internship.)
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