Someone recently told me that their Church is against Seminary trained preachers, and against theologians. I replied that this was incredible. A preacher without theology is like a pilot without map and compass. A casual glance at history reveals these great leaders, Paul, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Finney, and others, all theologians. And, Spurgeon didn't go to Seminary, but he had theology that was rigorous because he was a rigorous self-learner all his life. In order to condemn bad theology, you must need good theology in the first place. Or, else you're worse than an existentialist. A theologian without the Bible, however, is like a plane that has lost contact with the ground -- it can't land!
In 1995, while waiting alone in a van for his colleagues who had gone shopping, Wilson Burhankar, presently Senior Associate Pastor at the Fellowship Church of Itarsi, fell into ecstasy remembering the awesome goodness of God in his life. It was his first year in the Seminary as a teacher and his first year as a full-time Worship Leader at the Itarsi Church. He remembered the ill-battered lifestyle that he had lived prior to knowing Christ, the drunken boozes, the street fights, the nights spent singing at religious gatherings, and the continual stress and pain inflicted on his family because of his sin-laden lifestyle. But, one day the Lord changed his life all over. He came to the Seminary and underwent three years of theological training. The greatest surprise came when Dr. Thomas asked him to consider to stay back and minister here as a worship leader. Inside he felt totally unworthy, and yet was confident of the grace of the Lord. As he sat in the van considering these things, the...
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