Evangelical seminaries such as The Master's Seminary are an excellent blessing from the Lord. The seminaries serve the church well by training men to rightly interpret Scripture, guard Christian doctrine and extract lessons from church history. They do an excellent job of teaching academic subjects such as Greek, Hebrew, systematic theology and apologetics. Seminaries play a vital role in preparing pastors for ministry.
Seminaries, though, are not churches. They cannot provide everything that a man needs to become a fruitful pastor and leader of God’s people. The gap must be bridged between the academic study provided in seminary and practical, hands-on training that can occur in the context of the local church. The best lessons in leadership are not gained from a book. The Harvest Training Center finishes the work of building a pastor.
The leaders of Harvest Training Center for Church Planting (HTC) choose men with proven ministry gifts, whom God has called, and train them to be church pastors and leaders. Rather than simply repeating the lessons of seminary, the Training Center builds upon it, giving those skills and tools that are best learned in the context of local church ministry. The focus is on individual character and developing preaching and leadership gifts. The Center’s teachers are men who are proven church leaders, as well as excellent communicators of God’s Word. The men in the class work through a rigorous 30-week program, running from September through April. Every subject covered in the school involves both theology and practice and is geared toward the needs of the preaching pastor.
The purpose of the Harvest Training Center for Church Planting is to train godly, gifted men to become effective church leaders. Our approach is modeled after the Lord’s own. Jesus did not set up a classroom, pass out a syllabus or give a final exam. Rather, he poured himself into his disciples. They shadowed him for a span of three years, observing his behavior, listening to his teaching and asking him questions. And when the time was right, Jesus sent them out to engage in significant ministry of their own.
The Twelve carried on this work. They trained leaders like Barnabas, who in turn discipled a young Pharisee named Saul. The Apostle Paul (as he is best known to us) was especially busy here, pouring himself into men like Timothy, Titus, Silas, Epaphroditus and others. And he was already thinking about the next two generations of leaders when he told Timothy, ‘What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also’ (2 Timothy 2:2). This commitment to leadership development was, in part, how the early church turned the world upside down.
By God's grace, I (Jason) was one of five seminary graduates from around the country chosen to go through this year's program and to plant a Harvest Bible Chapel. Jason and Grethel will move back to Miami in early May to lead the core team face-to-face until launch in September of 2009.