![\"inflatable-church-4_786434c.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/137\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/07\/inflatable-church-4_786434c-thumb-600x391-6223.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nThe full page ad said it all. <\/span>A Masters of Divinity degree offered now with
\nonly ONE required <\/i>course in Bible,
\nONE in theology, and none in church history over a three year period! <\/span>And a more economical one as well— you can
\nhave the degree with only 75 hours of course work! <\/span>Why labor in the vineyard for 90-96 hours (the length of most
\nM.Div. degrees), when you can get a more spiritually formed and forming degree
\nwith as many as 21 few credit hours required than the traditional degree? <\/span>Doubtless the marketing department of this
\nparticular school (which shall remain anonymous) had a say in this. <\/span>One
\ncan over hear the conversation— “Let’s tap into the current post-modern interest
\nin spirituality, and attract more degree seekers that way!” <\/span>The problem with this is, we primarily need
\nmore truth seekers, not just more degree seekers interested in spirituality in our
\nseminaries. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
How should one react to the
\ntrumpeted announcement of such a degree by an important Evangelical school? <\/span>Should we all rise up and call it
\nblessed? <\/span>I think not. <\/span>Frankly, I think we should be appalled, because this new degree is both a travesty and a tragedy. The
\nlast thing in the whole world we need of an Evangelical educational institution
\nin an age of Biblical illiteracy is a curriculum that requires not only no
\nBiblical languages, but much less actual Biblical content, never mind
\ntheological content or knowledge of Christian history. <\/span>This is not merely a dumbed- down curriculum,
\nit’s just plain dumb, and makes no sense. This is a recipe for further bad
\npreaching, teaching, and counseling, and will just further promote the current
\namnesia we find in the church about our Biblical, theological and church
\nhistorical heritage.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
But it’s not just that the
\ntheological focus of the degree is changed in this advertised program, it also
\nseeks to offer more tools and practical skills for ministry, at the expense of
\nunderstanding the theological and Biblical character and basis of Christian
\nministry. <\/span>I am all for practical skills
\nand tools for ministry, but not at the expense of actual understanding of God’s
\nword, of theology and of Christian history. <\/span>It’s no good having tools if you don’t
\nunderstand their theological purpose and Biblical function and historical
\nbasis. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Imagine going to a dentist who
\nsaid, “I have all the latest tools and gadgets to do oral surgery on you, but I’ve
\nnever actually studied what the purpose of each tool is, and how it should be
\ncarefully used…. But what the heck, look at my shiny tools! Let’s operate!” <\/span>The book of Hebrews tells us that the Word of
\nGod is like a two edged sword, able to penetrate between bone and marrow, soul
\nand spirit…if properly used. <\/span>But what if
\none doesn’t understand the Bible and is preaching it anyway? <\/span>What if one doesn’t grasp the meaning of this
\nor that profound theological concept but is throwing around theological words
\nhere there and yonder in impressive fashion complete with video clips and slick
\npower point slides? <\/span>What happens is
\ndistortion, and sometimes even the disabling of the congregation from its
\nability to understand God’s Word. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
What is my advice to theological
\nschools heading in this direction, or already embracing it? <\/span>Well, let me tell you a good ole N.C. story.<\/p>\nThere was a little white frame
\nchurch near the coast of N.C.
\nthat was very appealing. It kept a peeling and peeling and peeling. <\/span>So the trustees thought they would surprise
\ntheir young preacher whilst he was taking his week of vacation and scrape and
\npaint the church. <\/span>The trustees, being
\nfrugal sorts, went to a Mega-Store and bought all the white latex they could
\nget for $50. <\/span>They set Saturday morning
\nas the work day for the trustees and they got there early, because it was a hot
\nand humid July Saturday. Indeed, it was so humid near the coast on this weekend
\nthat you could cut out a piece of humidity and eat it for breakfast. <\/span>But I digress. <\/span><\/p>\nAnyway the trustees began scraping
\nthe little white frame church at 6 a.m. and completed that job by 7:30. <\/span>Fifteen minutes later they began painting the
\nchurch, but in order to make the paint provide several coats they mixed in 30%
\nwater into the paint. <\/span>They finished
\npainting the first coat at 10 in the morning, and the second coat by 1 p.m., at
\nwhich point they broke for gallons of sweet tea, eastern N.C. barbecue and hush
\npuppies. <\/span>By 2 p.m. they commenced putting
\non the final coat, and by 3 p.m. they were admiring their work. <\/span>The church fairly gleamed in the sun. <\/span>But then in the distance over the Atlantic Ocean they heard thunder, and then they felt the
\nwind, and lo they saw a dark ominous cloud the size of a man’s fist on the horizon,
\nblowing their way, and a worried look came on the faces of the trustees. <\/p>\nThe rain and hail and thunder and
\nlightning reached the church within twenty minutes, and so hard was the rain
\nblowing, it blew horizontal up against the sides of the newly painted church
\nand the paint began running off the walls down into the grass around the
\nchurch, down into the gravel parking lot, and as the Bible says, the
\ncountenance of the trustees fell. <\/span>One
\nlooked up into the sky and said….<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
“What did we do wrong O Lord?”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And a voice came forth from the
\ndark cloud and said “REPAINT, REPAINT AND THIN NO MORE!” <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In short, if you choose to take this Master of Divinity
\ndegree you may become the master of something, but it won’t be Divinity, and
\ndat’s all I got to say ’bout dat! <\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The full page ad said it all. A Masters of Divinity degree offered now with only ONE required course in Bible, ONE in theology, and none in church history over a three year period! And a more economical one as well— you can have the degree with only 75 hours of course work! Why labor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n
M.Div. Lite! Less Filling- Tastes Great!! - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/07\/mdiv-lite-less-filling-tastes-great.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"M.Div. Lite! Less Filling- Tastes Great!! - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The full page ad said it all. A Masters of Divinity degree offered now with only ONE required course in Bible, ONE in theology, and none in church history over a three year period! And a more economical one as well— you can have the degree with only 75 hours of course work! 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Lite! 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n