Over the Summer I was accepted onto the staff at the North American Reformed Seminary (TNARS) as a local mentor. This arrangement enables me to be able to mentor seminary students locally at our church while all their reading materials and assignments are provided free online. At New Life we currently have two students enrolled and a third has applied. I see this as a great way for our church to help play an active roll in the equipping of our members for ministry without encouraging them to accumulate large amounts of debt in pursuit of formal, higher education.
As president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Al Mohler remarked that he wanted to put SBTS out of business. Mohler was quoted saying in an interview, "There is always the danger that my statement will be taken out of context! I do not mean to say that Southern Seminary should cease to exist in the very near future. I emphatically believe that the best and most proper place for the education and preparation of pastors is in the local church. We should be ashamed that churches fail miserably in their responsibility to train future pastors. Established pastors should be ashamed if they are not pouring themselves into the lives of young men whom God has called into the teaching and leadership ministry of the church."
