Peter Adam
Do you know that 70% of Australians do not go to university after they leave school?
This includes people who choose not to go to university, and those who are not able to go to university, those who engage in VET or TAFE level and style education, many who go into paid employment without tertiary training, and those who don’t get jobs.
First gospel gap!
Do you know that most Theological Colleges and Bible Colleges which train people for gospel ministry do so at university level?
This means that:
People who want to train for gospel ministry can only do so with university level humanities [languages, texts, history, theology and ethics] education. Despite the fact that we are facing a shortage of trained gospel workers for ministry in Australia and overseas, we are cutting off a major source of supply of such workers! This is the first gospel gap!
Second gospel gap!
The fact that people who are trained for gospel ministry have mostly been through university-level training often means that they are best able to ministry to people both in evangelism and pastoral care who have received university-level training for their employment. This means that we are often ill-equipped to minister to people outside this restricted world. This is the second gospel gap: our weakness in ministering to that 70%!
Remember that:
- In the past Bible Colleges provided training in ministry for people who for whatever reason, were not able to do university-level study. They trained excellent people trained for ministry in Australia, and for overseas mission.
- There are many ministry contexts in Australia in which people with VET or TAFE level training would be really well suited for ministry.
- There are many ministry contexts in mission fields overseas in which people with VET or TAFE level and style of training would be really well suited for ministry.
- We should not confuse intellectual clarity and ability with academic competence. I have met many people who think very clearly and who are not at home in the academic world. I have met some people who are academically very competent, but who do not think clearly or creatively!
- The worst thing to do to someone who is not academically competent is to require that person to do an academic degree. Either they do badly and then feel that they are only second-rate in ministry because they did not get good results. Or they manage to master the academic way of thinking, and then produce essays instead of sermons to meet the academic standard they learned in college!
- Well-trained lay people are a great resource for a local church, and the more well-trained lay people we have in our churches, the more people will be well-prepared to train for full-time gospel ministry.
- If we focus on ministry by and to university-educated people, we are failing to minister to the majority of the population.
- Among this majority of Australians, are many migrants, many people of other religions, many poor and deprived people, and many indigenous people.
- Jesus used the ‘apprenticeship’ model of training on the job in his three years with his 12 disciples.
- Jesus’ disciples, Peter and John, were in the view of the educated elite, ‘unschooled ordinary men’ [Acts 4:13 NIV 2011]. They nevertheless did wonderful ministry!
- Paul described the glory of the church of Christ crucified in these words.
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption [1 Corinthians 1:26-31].
Elitism contradicts God’s plan for his church. I am writing about Australia, but I guess that thus issue is relevant to other Western countries where theological education for ministry has become more academic.
We need to close these 2 gospel gaps, training people from the 70%, and bringing the gospel to the 70%.
The Vocational Bible College provides excellent resources to help in the training of these 70% of Australians, these ‘everyday people’. See https://www.vbc.edu.au/
Andrew Beddoe runs this College. They train “Everyday People” through VET sector training, through apprenticeships.
We still need our Theological Colleges and Bible Colleges!
Paul used his learning to good effect in his gospel ministry. The web provides much information about reality, atheism, religion and Christianity. Some information is productive, and some is destructive. Ordinary people can easily find much information to combat Christianity. We need well-trained people to do ministry in this sphere as well.
We need both kinds of training programs, to serve both kinds of people, for the sake of the gospel and God’s glory.
I have been involved in Theological College training for ministry in various ways since 1973. I am very committed to theological education, both in churches and in Theological and Bible Colleges. It is just recently that God has made me aware of these two highly significant gospel gaps. We need both kinds of training programs, to serve both kinds of people, for the sake of the gospel.
In the early church, Christianity flourished in the towns and cities, but in many areas, there was little evangelism in the countryside. Christians had to be challenged to close this gospel gap! [See Chapter Two, ‘The Challenge of the Countryside’, in Richard Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity, California University Press, 1999, pp. 34-65.]
Let’s work together to close these 2 gospel gaps in Australia!
Why not think how you could make use of the ministry training provided by VBC in your ministry?
Gracious and loving heavenly Father, please open many doors in Australia for people who do not go to University to be well trained in lay ministry, and also continue to raise up from among them labourers for your world-wide gospel harvest.
And please open many gospel doors for Australian Christians to minister the gospel to everyday Australians, plant churches, and make disciples.
For Jesus’ sake. Amen