I am definitely for more localization of ministerial training; there’s value to having someone from “home” or from “near here” who is familiar with the culture of the church and the people in the community. And there are so many stresses among ministerial candidates as it is - having to move to totally new places where there may or may not be any support network … that just seems unkind.

But changing the system … wow. That would take a huge effort. Not sure who would be willing to take it on; the congregations?

And could we get there with our current attitudes about education?

I like the idea of regional centers, but I’d rather see them as the home base for operations throughout their region, with the idea that they go out to the ministers rather than bringing the ministers to them. If every congregation were also a branch of a regional seminary, this would alleviate the need for both a denominational licensing body and a subsidized full-time education for potential ministers.

When every volunteer minister is a seminarian, it should no longer seem like such a burden for seminarians to hold down day jobs. Positions of greater responsibility within a congregation would come with stipends and additional subsidized training, thus allowing people to ease into full-time pastoral ministry as their gifts and graces lead. There would be no need to fork over thousands of dollars and uproot your life for three years to pursue a calling to ministry, and ministry would no longer be an all-or-nothing set of letters after your name. Volunteer ministers would be exactly where they need to be to get the education to become a full-time professional, and our church walls would swell with potential full-time professionals.

Especially in the information age, the denominational licensing aspect of seminaries is rapidly becoming obsolete for a congregationalist system. If we focused on training volunteer ministers within our congregations, paid ministers could come directly from their ranks; when ministers did relocate or get called to new communities, where their resumes once said “M.Div.” they would instead list several years of training and internship in the various ministries of their previous congregations. Now more than ever, we can examine actual experience and past success in intricate trustworthy detail, so let’s look at that instead of fretting about granting titles.

Anyway, just my 2c. Thanks for the thought-provoking post!