“Seminaries and theological colleges can do some things extremely well, but they must not be seen as pastors’ finishing schools. A great deal of the polish must be administered within the context of the local church. In that context, pastoral apprentices learn much more about how to live, minister, preach, interact graciously with obstreperous people, bear one another’s burdens, pray fervently, weep with those who weep and laugh with those who laugh–by observing how mature Christians excel in all these areas.”
-D.A. Carson, Basic for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996), 72.
