It is time to admit Seminaries are what they are . . . businesses.

Over at Gentle Reformation, President York of RPTS Seminaryresponds to Carl Trueman’s lecture about “Follow the Money” given at a convocation at Westminster Seminary California.  Trueman lists some problems, but he states them as descriptions as well.  Ultimately, Trueman is trying to argue for a greater Catholicity among the Reformed Seminaries, and I think this is where both York and Trueman fail to completely understand the basic nature of the seminary as a business.  Trueman openly admits that it is a business, but also says it is a “spiritual organization”.  He offers no proof for that nor does he state how the two interact other than occasionally saying that the business part militates against the spiritual part. 

York doesn’t outright deny the business nature of the seminary, but does seem to think seminaries can operate against the unwritten rules of business.  He argues that non-hostile competition is healthy.  York’s point is that one can learn from the other seminaries good points and benefit.  But is business competition ever really “non-hostile”? 

The answer is no.  There is a small pool of reformed students, and they are going to choose one seminary above another.  The minor difference marketing that Dr. Trueman opposes or feels unfortunate (and York agrees) is simply a fact of life.  It must happen or the seminary will not thrive.  Trueman’s main application to read more broadly including journals from other seminaries is really not an answer to the problem, but a symptom of it.  Seminaries have journals IN ORDER TO promote the minor difference, to communicate the ethos of the seminary.  It is the seminary’s version of “publish or die” from the secular academic word. 

York’s response to this with a call to build collegiality among seminaries and promoting the strengths of other seminaries is pie-in-the-sky fantasy.  After all if you have a pool of 10 students and you tell them all how great the other seminary is, then you should expect to lose all 10 students.  Trueman may be right that businesses don’t ‘rubbish’ the competition, but they don’t talk up the competition either.  Can anyone imagine Wendy’s talking about how great Burger King’s fries are?  Bud Light doesn’t talk about how Miller Light makes beer with corn syrup so that lovers of corn can see where to go to get a different beer, but to take away Miller Light’s buyers.  There can be no real collegiality between those in competition.  And competition is healthy, but not really non-hostile since the stakes are always going out of business and fading away. 

The complaints about seminary are good to hear from someone like Dr. Trueman.  The call to follow the confessions rather than the teaching of the seminaries is laudable.  But, as Trueman admits seminaries shape the student much more than denominations do.  And there in is the problem.  The denomination is the church, but has little influence.  The seminary is a business, and ends up shaping the future of the church.  So, it was disappointing that Trueman, as a historian, stopped so short and fail to take that next obvious step.  It is time to end seminaries.

The church after all existed and thrived for centuries prior to seminaries.  Pastors trained future pastors, and denominations examined them, sometimes sent them to other pastors, and the church carried on.  In this way, the need to meet the payroll is removed.  The business aspect is gone.  The denomination is back in control.  Why do we bother merge business with a spiritual mission?  Why is the church handing off training to businesses? 

The Parsonage Model answers all the problems Dr. Trueman raises.  It avoids the inbreeding thinking that has helped create divisions from insiders (he mentions Enns and Shepherd).  It protects the local church.  It places the Confessions back in the center and minimizes the minor difference.  It forces prospective pastors to serve in the local church.  It avoids the problem of debt and of mission creep into the realm of church (York sees this as a positive, but I agree with Trueman it is a negative).  It is in the business of the kingdom of Christ.  All of the problems go away. 

It is time to see seminaries for what they are . . . businesses.  And it is time to stop using businesses to train pastors.