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On a mission
Lincoln seminary launches doctor of ministry program
By Steve Arney
sarney@pantagraph.com

Robert Idell speaks up while Chauncey Lattimer Jr. looks on during the first doctorate course at Lincoln Christian Seminary. (Pantagraph/STEVE SMEDLEY)
LINCOLN -- Five ministers sit as students around a horseshoe-configured room for a class titled "DMIN1003 -- Developing a Biblically Grounded Ministry."

Each has skills they want to gain or improve upon as they return to college for doctorate degrees. Each has experience. Kevin Dell is the youngster, and he's showing some gray at age 35.

Each also is part of Lincoln Christian Seminary history as the school has taken a leap forward this month with its first doctor of ministry class.

Robert Lowery teaches the course, and program director Jeff Snell monitors. They exude joy that a program talked about with various degrees of seriousness during two decades has now landed, with the enrollment of the first six students, one of whom dropped the first class because of an illness.

Snell sounds a tone of being pleased with the expected outcome: Better ministers, better equipped.

"I think we are slowly building something that will be a strong contribution to the mission of the school," Snell said Jan. 10, the third day of the doctor of ministry classroom activity.

That stated mission is "to glorify God by enhancing the practice of leadership ministry in churches and parachurch organizations."

Like all courses in the program, "Developing a Biblically Grounded Ministry" involved one week of intense classroom lecture and discussion, with most students staying on campus.

But prior to classroom sessions, they had seven books to read, and if they had read one previously, they were supposed to ask Lowery for a substitute book. After the week of classes, they had papers to write.

In this formula, with classes occurring periodically, students continue full-time jobs and commute to Lincoln for the one-week classroom segments.

In class, Lowery challenges a notion that the Bible says it all about format and operation for churches and ministry, saying the Holy Bible cannot be the sole source.

Martin Luther called it "sola Scriptura," or solely Scripture. Lowery counters with a competing ideology of "prima Scripture," or Scripture first. Tradition, reason, experience and leadings of the Holy Spirit come after that, he says.

He warns against "traditionalism," in which tradition and ritual trump the other elements, including Scripture, and he warns that Holy Spirit guidance in a church often suspiciously resembles human desires.

This talk of traditionalism turns the class to Dell, who embraced the faith in his 20s, thereby discovering the traditions and the walls of traditionalism while already into adulthood. Over lunch, he says it is his fortune that people where he is minister, Bartonville Christian Church, seem willing to examine all traditions, not merely follow them.

His goal is to be a better teacher for his church.

All of these students are active in ministry; it's required to become a doctoral student at Lincoln Christian Seminary. They have plenty they can teach. Snell counts on them doing so, and it is one of the benefits of gathering them together now, versus during their earlier years.

Snell said this fall, during final preparations, "The level of interaction takes quantum leaps forward (over undergraduate and master's classes), because of the seasoned students sitting around the table. So, the peer interaction happens at a much higher level."

In their daily lives -- as church pastors, for example -- they don't typically put aside their immediate tasks to interact on "sola Scriptura" and "prima Scriptura." The template here is for sharing of experience alongside deeper examination of scholarship.

In class, the topic turns to one of the class debate issues: Should divorced people be allowed to serve in ministry?

Lowery can offer the textbook arguments. But a student, Chauncey Lattimer Jr., adds real-life stuff to the topic.

In the 1970s, Lattimer prepared for a career in ministry as an undergraduate at Lincoln Christian College and Seminary and in graduate school at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. But when he got a divorce, he thought it precluded a ministry career.

He spent 16 years at a policeman in Louisville, Ky., before becoming a church minister in the 1990s. He decided to again pursue ministry, and said he thinks he has something to offer, especially through his personal turmoil of divorce.

"We grow through pain," he explains over the day's lunch break.

He is pastor at Martinton Church of Christ.

Unique to Lincoln Christian Seminary is a "pastor care" emphasis of study, teaching ministers how to minister to pastors, and Doug Lawson is the first student in the program. A retired Navy chaplain, Lawson commutes from southwestern Missouri, where he is a hospital chaplain.

He said he may either develop a new career or simply add a side specialty of helping pastors.

The other students said they wanted to be more effective in their current jobs.

Robert Idell, preaching minister for Antioch Christian Church in Toluca, is specializing in development of church leadership.

For him, one sentence from an aging church elder with years of leadership summarizes Idell's reason for being at Lincoln.

"He said, 'No one had ever taught me what it means to be an elder.'"



4 specialties for doctoral students



Founded in 1944, the 1,200-student Lincoln Christian College and Seminary is affiliated with the independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, both conservative branches of American Christianity. The institution acts like two separate colleges with some shared resources, including top administration. Undergraduates attend the college and post-graduates attend the seminary.

Its doctor of ministry program is the seminary's first doctorate program. It started in January with six students. It is open only to practicing ministers, and it puts its students into specialty areas. Those areas are:

• Pastor care: Believed to be the only program of its kind in the nation, pastor care seeks to help ministers in their care of other ministers. It aims to equip these counselors as they keep pastors strong, invigorate those needing to be refreshed and help them cope with personal and church crises.

• Church/parachurch leadership: Centers on organization and fostering of biblically-based leadership and in fostering culture within these groups consistent with biblical principles. Promotes improved leadership styles and development of team-based ministry.

• Spiritual formation: Focuses on improving discipleship and in ministering for the spiritual growth of individuals and groups.

• Preaching: Helps preachers improve sermons through delivery and through the study of Scripture and extra-Biblical material.

SOURCE: Lincoln Christian College and Seminary literature

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Jeff Snell is director of the doctor of ministry program. (Pantagraph/STEVE SMEDLEY)
Robert Lowery is one of two deans for the seminary; he's also the teacher of the first doctor of ministry course. He relishes provoking class discussion but looks to "Scripture first" for answers on Christianity. (Pantagraph/STEVE SMEDLEY)
Lattimer was a police officer specializing in accident reconstruction before returning to his initial career path of ministry. (Pantagraph/STEVE SMEDLEY)
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Reader comments on this story - 3 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

rotten apples??? wrote on Feb 10, 2007 1:40 PM:

" It's not brain washing. It's study. It's men and women choosing to further their education. Each makes the choice to be there. To claim brain washing is to show ones ignorance. God as absurd? You need to remember that your existence is soley based on God. He made you, created you, and even gave you the freedom to make poor posts. "

Jon wrote on Feb 9, 2007 8:59 PM:

" Lincoln Christian College and Seminary is a wonderful environment and I am very thankful that such a place exist to prepare future servant leaders for the next generation. Dr. Lowery is an excellent professor and the campus is blessed to have great leaders like him among the staff. If you have read any disrespectful comments by other readers you are welcome to come check out the campus yourself and make your decision. I can assure you that you will enjoy your visit and will be impressed with the lives of the students and faculty. Blessings. "

rotten apples wrote on Feb 9, 2007 3:07 PM:

" hi, they have a name for things like this: "indocrtination and brain washing". it would be harder to argue against if their concept of what a "god" was wasn't utterly western, personal, and absurd. "
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