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Seminary days: an opportunity to bless churches and students
By Glenn Watson
COCHRANE, AB—For one weekend each year, the partnership between CNBC churches and the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary & College gets “up close and personal.” This year, 30 CNBC churches hosted 27 CSBS&C students in hamlets, towns and cities from Vancouver, British Columbia, to St. John’s, Newfoundland, and from Worsley, Alberta to Montreal, Quebec, for Seminary Day 2010. In the process, pastors and churches across Canada made immeasurable contributions to the lives and future ministries of emerging leaders.
“I got a glimpse into a pastor’s life,” says Aaron Scofield, “and learned that our studies in the seminary are only part
of what we need.” Watching Pastor Ray Shannon in Fairview, Alberta, Aaron was moved by the challenges of ministering to families in deep need, and of the demanding pace of a pastor’s life, from early morning to late at night. Meeting these challenges requires more than just a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, he learned: “We must study God, and gain godly wisdom.”
David Ferguson saw in Pastor Ron Braun in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, a bi-vocational pastor who has an impact in a community as he walks with God and interacts with people in service and humility. Josh Poffenroth, observing his friend Mark Colebank at Towers Baptist Church in BC, learned that “a pastor’s life is not defined by the half hour in the pulpit on Sunday mornings, but by the relationships he has with his people when the preaching is over.”
Benje Bartley, experiencing the warm, bilingual, and multicultural fellowship of the Église Baptiste Évangélique de Maniwaki in Quebec, gained a vivid picture of a fundamental truth: “No matter what background people come from, they all need the same thing. They need Jesus.”
Students were blessed not only by the mentorship of godly pastors, but also by the support of the congregations themselves. Calvin Poon was encouraged by the reception of Surrey Chinese Baptist Church: “Their attitude towards me said, ‘We want to bless you, to help you grow and to practice what you are learning in seminary.’” Pastor Alan Au passed on a commendation from a couple who was visiting, “The student preacher scored an ‘A’ this morning.” Student after student returned with the same story, “I was blessed as I sought to be a blessing … They didn’t need me, but God used them to bless me.”
But the blessing goes both ways. After his sermon, a church member told Jerry Wallace that, in his devotional time that morning, God had given him the exact same scripture Jerry had used for his sermon text. “I felt strongly that God had given me this message for First Baptist Church of Grand Forks,” Jerry said.
Alan Braun said of Zeta Lee, the student who visited Royal Heights Baptist Church, “We were all greatly impressed with the quality of students the seminary is training. Many told me that his coming was very timely and his message was from the Lord.”
Pastor Darcy Cust, of Smeaton, Saskatchewan marveled
that Paulo Fogaça’s computer skills opened doors for conversation and ministry with a young man who has been visiting the church. “When we have the opportunity to have seminary students come, it is far more than just an experience for the student and the church,” Darcy says. “It is an opportunity for the Lord to bring someone alongside to build His kingdom.”
As students return to the campus, sharing stories and praying together for the churches they have visited, there is fresh vision of the tough places for which God is preparing them. Having spent the day hearing the heart of Pastor Dick Hale for the church he has served for 25 years in Worsley, Alberta, Trevor Schaffrick concluded, “God could call me here. There’s no reason Pastor Dick is here and I shouldn’t be. God could call me to a place like this …. Wherever he leads, I’ll go.
”Thank you, CNBC, for your partnership in training leaders for tough places!
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