I anticipated that this book would be good, and it didn’t disappoint me:

Paul R. House. Bonhoeffer’s Seminary Vision: A Case for Costly Discipleship and Life Together. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015. 32-page PDF sample.

After I read this book last May, I wrote this on the title page:

Very good book. It made me even more grateful that I get to train future pastors at Bethlehem College & Seminary in an environment that’s ideal for doing what Paul House advocates.

Some excerpts (#8 is a zinger):

1. I recently saw a seminary advertisement that had the audacity to call online degrees “personal” because there could be a voice on the phone, a potential letter in the mail, and a hand to shake on graduation day—surely a minimalist definition if I ever saw one. (p. 28)
2. This book attempts to do two things. First, it tries to examine Bonhoeffer’s theology and practice of theological education in their original context. Second, it endeavors to assert the biblical necessity of personal, incarnational, face-to-face education for the health of pastors and churches. (p. 29)
3. Bonhoeffer makes it plain that students should be completely committed to Christ and his calling in their lives. Why is this assertion so radical today? Consider how most seminaries conduct their admissions processes. In many cases we could hardy be farther from Bonhoeffer’s point of view. Many if not most seminaries in the United States have virtually open enrollment policies. They take whoever applies, though it must be noted that applicants usually have to pass a background check and have recommendations from a church, a pastor, and/or an academic. … The seminary in many cases needs to have higher standards than those who recommend students to them. … To put it bluntly, in most cases if one has money, recommendations from a church (often in checklist form), and a qualifying degree (or its equivalent), one is admitted. (p. 89)
4. Online classes, hybrid classes, and online degrees are the current hoped-for cash crops. … There is one simple theological reason to doubt these courses will save the seminary budget, or that it will matter much if they do: they bear no resemblance to the commitment Christ asks of persons he calls to ministry. (pp. 93–94)
5. We need faculty members who know Christ, have steeped themselves in the Bible and theology, have decided that serving Christ takes precedence over academic position and prestige, have served congregations in some substantial way, and are willing to give themselves personally to students. These are essentials, not optional features. These qualities must be verified, for they mirror the traits for ministers found in 1–2 Timothy and Titus. This means that, among other things, a seminary teacher must reject the careerist mind-set that afflicts many today. (p. 96)
6. Some seminaries pay little and/or push teachers into so much church, denominational, administrative, and instructional work that the teacher has no time to think, much less time to grow deeper in Christ, deliver fresh material, or write books that will enrich others. (p. 96)
7. Faculty and students are the most precious assets a seminary has. (p. 97)
8. Pastors whose goal is to brand their ministries, build their reputations, manage a complex organization, become popular enough or singular enough to have off-site video churches, command six-figure book contracts for products mainly ghostwritten, and have thousands of followers on social media outlets do not match anything in the Pastoral Epistles. They match the “super apostles” who opposed Paul in Corinth. (p. 139)