In
John Calvin as Teacher, Pastor, and
Theologian: The Shape of His Writings and Thought (Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2006), Randall C. Zachman writes:
John Calvin
lived during a time when many Christians, both Roman and evangelical, recognized
that the ministry of the church was in crisis. It is difficult for us to
imagine what the training of ministers must have been like before seminaries
were created precisely to address the lack of adequate ministerial formation
during this period. John Calvin was well aware of the dire consequences of this
lack of ministerial formation. According to Calvin, neither bishops nor priests
were skilled in the interpretation of Scripture or particularly adept at
teaching the summary of the doctrine that leads to genuine piety…Due to the
neglect of Scripture and its teaching by the leaders of the church, Calvin
thought that the ordinary people in the church were liable to believe anything
that their pastors told them, leading to the superstitious worship of God. (p.
11)
In
Calvin’s time, the church was in crisis. In our time, the church is still in
crisis. Whenever and wherever there is a lack of ministerial formation, there
will be a congregational de-formation. The spiritual formation of pastors
shapes the congregation’s health unimaginably. Calvin wrote the Institutes and his biblical commentaries
to train future pastors so that they were theologically sound and biblically competent
to take care of local congregations. “Once pastors are equipped with such a
summary of doctrine [through the Institutes],
Calvin with his biblical commentaries offers them further assistance in their
reading of Scripture.” (pp. 63-64)
As
a teacher or doctor of the church, Calvin saw the consequence of pastoral deformation,
which led to congregational deconstruction inevitably. That’s why he devoted
all his efforts to restore the proper interpretation of Scripture and Christian
dogmas in the life of the church.
