EN: What’s the point of theological college?
MO: For me, a theological college exists to serve local churches, working in partnership with them to carry out the great commission of Jesus to make disciples of all nations. Everything we do has to be seen in the context of that big picture — we’re here to help churches do what Jesus calls us to do.
One idea which is guiding Oak Hill a great deal just now is that our task is to train the equivalent of GPs, rather than specialists. A good GP has the breadth and depth of medical training to deal with whatever medical problem next walks through the door. They can’t say, ‘I’m only going to treat people who’ve injured their left elbows, but I won’t treat anyone who’s got ingrowing toenails’. The same is true of church pastors. They can’t pick and choose the situations and problems which arise in their churches, but have to offer biblical care and teaching to their people wherever they are in life.
You think about what happens to the average minister. On Monday, they may be conducting a funeral; on Tuesday, they could be making a hospital visit; on Wednesday, marriage preparation; on Thursday, teaching at the midweek Bible study. And then, on Sunday, they are doing a full, formal sermon. Now that’s a vast range of activity, calling on very different skills. So the training we give has those different skills, as well as an overall theological education, very much in mind.
