Inadequacy of Ministerial Formation

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.