Has Al Mohler Padded His Resume?
I have criticized the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for his hiring, his guest speakers, his strange radio program, his blogging, and his overall performance.I also have asked readers to pray for him and have quoted him favorably from time to time. I consider him a brother in Christ.
Which makes this report from Jerry Grace all the more troubling. The seminary web site says that Dr. Mohler "served as pastor and staff minister of several Southern Baptist churches." Sounds like he had some serious pastoral experience, doesn't it? Yet Dr. Mohler admitted to Jerry, "I did not serve as a full time pastor of any church prior to my election as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1993."
Simply amazing. Does this mean that Dr. Mohler is guilty of resume padding?
At the very least, it means that the head of an institution which has for its main purpose the training of Southern Baptist pastors has never served as a full time pastor.
Southern Baptists, what say ye?
Charles
posted by Charles @ 9:09 PM
12 Comments:
Mohler is the best SBC entity head!
troubling. how can you train pastors to be pastors if you have never been one yourself?
volfan007
QUOTE from bio
"served as pastor and staff minister of several Southern Baptist churches."
Quote from Mohler
I did not serve as a full time pastor of any church prior to my election as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1993
Is there a contradiction? No
If Mohler's bio said, "served as full time pastor and full time staff member for several Southern Baptist churches there would be.
If his bio said he graduated from Cambridge and he didn't that would be. IF his bio said he walked on mars and he didn't that would be something.
This is nothing. If you are going to accuse someone of bearing false witness using a world wide medium like the internet. You should bring more than this junk.
Go build the kingdom.
volfan007,
It's called doctrine.Mohler is the best SBC entity head. Look what's happened to the SBC over the last several years. Poor theology leads to poor churches.
volfan007,
It is possible. By analogy, how can Charlie Weis coach football since he never played football? He's done pretty good at Notre Dame. He also has 3 Super Bowl rings.
Charles,
If you want the job so much and seem so much more spiritually minded than most men why not apply?
Are you kidding me -- volfan007 -- did all of your professors in Seminary and College (if you went to a Christian College which in the state of Tn. would exclude Carson-Newman and Belmont) have experience as Pastor or any other staff position. I don't think NOBTS President had any so called position and most likely many others....
anonymous,
i went to ut...so i didnt go to a christian college. but, every prof. at the seminary i attended had to have pastoral experience. i went to mid america baptist seminary in memphis. it was extremely valuable to hear thier experience come thru in the classroom....very, very valuable.
again, how can dr. mohler possibly know what its like to be a pastor if he has never been one? he cant. i guarantee he has no idea what we deal with out here.
volfan007
Anonymous said...
By analogy, how can Charlie Weis coach football since he never played football?
I don't think the "analogy" is very precise. If we read on Weiss' resume or bio that he "played" football somewhere, then it might be closer to being an "analogy."
So you went to a secular Undergrad -well that for me doesn't seem very helpful for getting into seminary and the pastorate. In fact I would think you would have to have a undergrad degree that would make you qualified for seminary. I bet your Science Professors never worked as true Scientist before! Adrian's Seminary isn't even a part of the SBC seminary chain so are you sure you are to be a Southern Baptist Minister or other? and Does that Degree count? As you said your professors had experience that does not mean they held a full time position - I new a professor there years ago and he did some preaching but never a full time staff member at a church and I would say that that is true of many there. Your comment about not having any idea of what it is like out here is rediculous - you don't have to do something to understand the realities if that were the case then every minister would have to experience everything good or bad (i.e. alcholism, divorce, rape etc.....) to preach on it and to council others about it!
anon,
back when i went to mid america...every prof. had to have experience as a pastor. they wanted to convey that practical experience to the student.
also, we are not talking about drinking to be able to counsel a drunk. we are talking about a pres. of a seminary thats supposed to be training pastors to pastor churches who has never been a pastor himself. and, i dont know if you are a pastor or not, but i will guarantee you that unless you've been a pastor, you dont know how things are out on the field. there are things that a person just cannot learn from academia about pastoring a church. you have to live it.
volfan007
Folks,
Although I am not surprised at the hair splitting folks will go to to defend Dr. Mohler saying things like "he's the best SBC entity head", I am surprised that there are people who are trying to provide some "technicality" loophole to provide some truthful explanation for Dr. Mohler's claims of pastoring a church.
For those of you who find comfort in the explanation that maybe he served as an interim somewhere I am shocked. I asked Dr. Mohler explicitly, which he kindly and quickly did, to clear up some misunderstanding between the statement his web site makes and what I had understood was a bit different. The words are his that he never served as pastor. He had plenty of opportunity to list interim pastorates but did not choose to do so. But at the end of the day, what real difference does it make. Would you think serving as an interim pastor, for which there is no shame and in my opinion considerable glory and deserved thanks on all our parts, would fill the expectation of someone whose job it is to train pastors and head the SBC flagship seminary?
Mohler said what he said and his web site says what it says, or it did.
Jerry Grace
Experience does not mean the same as long term it could mean short term interim. Mark makes great points about this situation. Mohler is the President elected by the Big Wigs of the SBC back in the day including your beloved Adrian Rogers, Paige Patterson and the like so if you have a problem with his being placed in this position you should have taken it up with the powers to be and still can. I am a wife of a pastor and I have many years of field experience but well maybe because I am the wife of and not the pastor my experience doesn't count.
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