Well, to be honest, they aren’t exactly pirate ships, which would not be very Christian. They are more like privateers, operating with letters of marque and reprisal. But let us not get distracted from the main point.
Greyfriars Hall has been operating for some twenty plus years now, graduating its first alum in 2004—which meant we started the program a few years before that. The central idea was that the training of future ministers is a task that ought to be undertaken by the church, and not by a detached academic institution. Graduates were given a letter of completion, tailored to their gifts and accomplishments, which was a letter that like-minded churches took seriously. At the same time, although the work was equivalent to a graduate degree, there was no pretense. It was a letter, not a diploma.
Now that Greyfriars Hall has been incorporated into the range of programs offered by New St. Andrews College, and is offering an accredited MDiv, one of the most obvious questions is to ask whether we have drifted from our earlier commitments to a ministerial training program that is overseen by the church. The answer is no—in fact, the hands-on involvement of our students in the life of the local church is even more robust than it was. In order to complete the MDiv, the student has to be placed by Christ Church as an intern in one of our local churches, beginning with his second year. If that doesn’t happen, for whatever reason, the student can still earn an MA, but not the MDiv. All the MDiv graduates will have ecclesiastical calluses.
We live in a time when the crying need is ministerial training that is scholarship on fire. We need ministers who will preach a hot gospel, straight no chaser, and who will be equipped to cast a hopeful and theologically-informed cultural vision across generations. This is what we mean by “All of Christ for All of Life.” Some churches preach a hot gospel, but they have no cultural vision. Others have a cultural vision, but preach an anemic Christ, which means their cultural engagement consists of copycatting the world.
We need thick, potent Christian communities that build and fight. But this begins with covenant renewal worship, and for that, we need ministers. You can’t have a reformation, revival, and renewal of Christendom, if you don’t have Christ at the center of a worshiping community. And how will they hear without a preacher?
But ministers like this don’t fall from the sky—they have to be trained, equipped, and educated. Moscow has been at this work of reformation for coming up on 50 years, and thus it is an ideal place to receive that kind of education. Multiple CREC churches that are located here enable practical ministry under experienced oversight. This also costs money, and so I draw your attention to the last paragraph and to the video just above it. As that scholarship fund grows, we can take more qualified students on.
Greyfriars Hall intends to be a “Build and Fight” Seminary. When we say this is designed for outlaws and pirates, we do hope that everyone understands that this is tongue-in-cheek. But what is not tongue-in-cheek is the fact that our graduates will frequently be treated as though they were outlaws and pirates. We would fix that, but it is not really our problem.
The program includes language study (Hebrew and Greek), Bible, Theology, Church History, and Pastoring (preaching, counseling, internship). The first semester, students will take Hermenutics from me, Covenant Foundations from Jared Longshore, and Old Testament Survey from Joe Rigney. What emphases will the students be trained in? Among other things, it will be the centrality of worship, high octane Protestant theology, rigorous academics, a commitment to Christendom, and this will all be done as a band of brothers. The MDiv program is training for ministers, and so it is for men only. So . . . band of brothers.
There are groups of Canon+ listeners out there who would love a CREC church in their area. There are opportunities to plant churches in strategic places. In addition, the CREC now has some fairly substantial churches that are in need of associate ministers. As we have been gearing up, some of our graduates have remained here to work with us here on the Palouse, but the plan is to launch many Greyfriars elsewhere.
Last thing. We shouldn’t forget to gas up the car for a trip like this. Our funding mechanism is the Ezra Scholarship. This covers 75% of the cost of the seminary education so that the Greyfriars can devote themselves to their study of the Word, and to do it and teach it (while also providing for their families). In the light of all the above, we don’t mind asking individuals and/or churches to contribute to the Ezra Scholarship. In fact, you may consider this to be just such an ask—here’s the “contribute” page.