Lay Pastors: Uneducated Implements of God

Tags: History

I have a theory that God delights to use uneducated men as shepherds in situations where we turn the pursuit of God into the empty traditions of religion. Here are some examples of such men:

1. A.W. Tozer
   • Highest education: a few weeks of high school
2. John Bunyan
   • Learned only to read and write – no formal higher education of any kind
   • Never learned Greek or Hebrew
   • “The Pilgrim’s Progress – ‘next to the Bible, perhaps the world’s best-selling book . . . translated into over 200 languages.’” -Piper
3. Dwight Moody
   • without higher education, founded three schools;
   • without theological training, reshaped Victorian Christianity;
   • without radio or television reached 100 million people.
4. Charles Spurgeon
   • Little formal education (some college)
   • Began preaching at 16
5. William Carey
   • No formal education – self taught
6. Andrew Fuller
   • Farm raised
   • “He had no formal theological training but became the leading theological spokesman for the Particular Baptists in his day.” -Piper
7. Hudson Taylor
   • No theological education
   • Some medical education
   • Gathered missionaries which other mission societies rejected as too uneducated
8. John Newton
   • 2 years of boarding school, after which he went to sea with his father
   • Self educated in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew
9. David Brainerd
   • Expelled from seminary in his third year

John Owen (who not only attended but taught seminary) believed that the goal of theological education was two-fold (source):

• “to live acceptably before God”
• “the cultivation of a most holy and sweet communion with God, wherein lies the true happiness of mankind”

If Christians were educated in a way which esteemed these views, God’s pulpits might not be so often in need of men such as these.

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