We’ve been back in Slovakia for six months so I’m a little overdue with a ministry update. Lots going on at the seminary, in our denomination and in our local church. Click through for the latest news on the seminary first.
Back at the Seminary
We got back to Slovakia just in time to start the spring semester. It’s a good thing because my favorite class to teach is Introduction to the Old Testament and it’s no good teaching online.
This is the best course to teach in the whole bachelor’s program because the Old Testament is such a mystery to most people. Just ask Andy Stanley. If he knew how to read the Old Testament he’d never say we need to unhitch ourselves from it.
(Stepping down from my soapbox before it’s too late.)
Anyway, it’s always amazing to see the looks on students’ faces when the whole Bible starts opening up right before their eyes.
In the Master’s program this semester I taught Hebrew Exegesis – Poetic Literature and Advanced Exegesis of Proverbs 1–9. I don’t get to teach those classes every year so it was kind of a treat.
Thirty Years of Ministry Through the Seminary
The year 2022 marked my thirtieth year in Slovakia and in 2023 the seminary completed its thirtieth year of existence (I’ve been teaching for more than twenty). This last April we had a two day celebration and it started me thinking about how I see the impact of the seminary over the years.
Not long ago a Slovak friend said that about the time I first came to Slovakia in 1992 he could count on one hand the number of people in the Cirkev bratská (our denomination) that could rightly handle the Word of truth in expository preaching—with fingers to spare. I should mention that it wasn’t for lack of faithful believers who loved God’s word, read it daily and preached faithfully on a regular basis. It was simply a lack of solid theological education. Due to communism, faithful believers lacked the resources that would have equipped them to better study, teach and live out God’s Word.
Thinking about that, it struck me that today we have more than a handful of men just in our congregation that rightly handle the Word of truth in preaching. I give the seminary a lot of credit for this because it’s helped raise the bar so that not only our preachers are better able to handle the Word of truth, but they’ve passed that on to the elders and others in their congregations.
And it’s not just the preaching. Our evangelical churches are much better equipped to handle new theological issues that we’re facing in a world that is changing at an ever increasing rate.
Theological education is important to the health of the church and as a foundation for church planting movements.
Not All Roses
We’re facing some real challenges at the university. Funding is going down and we’re losing teachers and administrative staff. It’s tough times and they get tougher every year.
As a volunteer at the seminary (and I’m not the only one), this doesn’t affect me in the same way it does the paid faculty. But it still has a direct impact on my ministry. For example, two years ago I volunteered to take on the job of “Credit Coordinator.” That means I have the administrative responsibility for scheduling and student records and I’m the point of contact for student questions about their program. Not a fun job and it takes too much of my time, but it’s just one example of how budget cuts are effecting all of us at the university.
The Task Force for Seminary Development
Two years ago, when we were well into this frustrating situation (see this post for more on the challenges we’re facing), we put together a task force to seek God’s guidance for the future of the seminary. We feel like we’ve come up with the best plan possible (hopefully more on this in future posts) and we’re thankful for new resources to help implement the plan. The seminary received a large gift from one of our supporting churches (we have the best support team ever!) and we recently learned we’ll be receiving a $30,000 matching grant from the EFCA ReachGlobal strategic initiatives fund!
Prayer Requests
I hope to share more about our plan in future posts but here are a few ways you can pray for our seminary.
- Pray for our students so that they will take maximum advantage of their precious opportunity to dig into the study of God’s word and theology.
- Pray for our faculty as we face ever increasing work loads, decreasing finances and low enrolment.
- Pray as we seek to create new partnerships with other seminaries throughout Europe that do not offer accredited Bachelor’s degrees. We see this as a way to take advantage of our accredited programs to build our enrolment and strengthen theological education elsewhere in Europe.
- Pray for research grants that we have applied for. Praise that we recently learned we were awarded one of these grants and pray for the other two. This is part of our hope to increase funding to the seminary and build up the church at the same time.
- Pray for wisdom in being good stewards of this amazing ministry. Pray that the plans we’ve made as a task force would be God’s plans and not just ours. In any case, pray that the Lord would give us wisdom to discern His will and follow wherever he leads.
Lee Eclov says
Thanks Todd. I’m touched in reading this.