1. | Jul 22, 2014

Terrific question! This is my stlrggue as well. I have been in the ministry 20 years and over the past 5-7 years have felt the call to be more involved academically and theologically. I have the benefit of teaching at a local Christian college, but when I do my desire is to deliver two things: good content and grounded practice. I pastor a small church, so I'm not the big time name the college would be interested in hiring full time. However, every one of the faculty in the pastoral ministries department NO LONGER PASTORS. So, I like the real-world, real-time experience I can give students. But I also want to give them substance. Too often adjuncts are seen as pushovers. I have seen the syllabi of other adjuncts who pastored and I would be upset if I was a student taking that class. Then, there is my church. I want to deliver real-world biblical truth to them without sounding too academic. One thing I take solace in from church history is the early church's theologians were pastors. There weren't seminaries. There wasn't the formal training we know today. Augustine was a bishop. He had a church! I'm no Augustine, but I take comfort in the example he and other church fathers set for me.