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At seminary I learned about apologetics, kingdom theology, church history and preaching. Good thing. This knowledge has fueled the boilers of my calling as a church planter. But there were other things I wish I had learned and which I soon would need most urgently.

I am grateful for knowledge I gained about apologetics.
However, with the exception of one very helpful class, I did not learn what to do with apologetics. There was a substantial distance between seminary discussions and actually sharing my faith with the flesh and blood moderns, post-moderns, and pagans of my parish.

What still seems strange to me is that I was not really encouraged to translate school debates into a passion for personal evangelism. This I had to learn in the fifteen round 'clutch and grab' school of fighting for someone's soul.

I learned a lot about theology of the kingdom at seminary.
Rivers of Vos and Ridderbos carved deep channels into my grey matter. I learned to think in 'kingdom categories'. I will always be grateful for this. However, I was not consistently prodded to apply the priorities of the kingdom to the field of harvest.

A pressing need for simple integrity is what drove this home for me. Sure, the kingdom is 'not yet' here. But it is 'yet' here! Christ's present rule is a social, political, location specific reality- or it is nothing. His kingdom comes in 'earnest' if not in fullness, every time the good news of justification by faith alone enters the heart of an unbeliever, (or converts a hardened Christian). If his kingdom is not here, in saving souls, then where is it?

When we pray for his kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as in heaven we proclaim his will and passion for social justice, community renewal, rehabilitation and mercy. This will touch down on earth. This is as certain as his 'on earth' resurrection, and as 'here and now' as his present reign over all things (Matthew 28:18).

I also learned about preaching at seminary.
Thankfully, I am able to study a passage, craft a message, and deliver it to a sympathetic group of believers. What someone forgot to tell me is that an enormous amount of Jesus' and apostolic preaching takes place outside the gates. The biblical language for word ministry- 'heralding'; 'witnessing'; 'evangelizing'; 'proclaiming' presumes this.

The world is white for harvest so the matter is urgent. This 'whiteness' not only promises the readiness of many to be reaped for life, it is at the same time a warning that many could be reaped for unquenchable fire.

The inconsistency between preaching classes and kingdom harvest was squared away for me by a spirit longing and fear to see people come to Christ. God has given me a shepherd's harsh willingness to leave the ninety-nine to find the one. Expectations of others aside, I am aware of a deeper calling. Woe to me if I ignore it!

On the whole I can still say that I appreciate and am thankful to my teachers for what they taught me. However, there was one glaring absence in my schooling. It still stuns and grieves me. During three years of pouring over the Scriptures I was taught almost nothing about the importance and power of kingdom prayer.. Prayer was not a subject. I was not taught how to pray or inspired to pray. I am sure a lack of prayer accounts for the desert like nature of much of my time at seminary- an experience which continued well into my years as a pastor/ planter.

Since then, as I have planted two churches and served as a church planting coordinator, I notice a similar experience with many of my friends and colleagues. I watch many of them move from church to church without a prayer life and without prayer support. Wandering without aim or power, they remind me of wounded gazelles- just lion bait on the Serengeti. The question is not if they will fall, but when.

After nearly five years in Vancouver we are beginning to see consistent advance into the heart and nerve center of the city. The deciding factor, with nothing else a close second, is a sustained and concerted commitment to pray. If preaching is the dynamite of gospel ministry, prayer is the tinder which ignites and gives it explosive effect. Just recently I felt like we were trying to run in chest deep water. There seemed to be no ministry breakthroughs. I called one hundred leaders and supporters and asked them to pray. The following Sunday, two people decided to give their life to Christ and be baptized and a third new convert asked to be baptized.

Seminary has been good for me. It has been necessary, but not sufficient.
As long as knowledge trumps everything else in selection and placement, we will never field a team worthy to take on this world and its devils. Apologetics, kingdom theology and preaching are essential, but almost useless unless we include godliness, prayer and a passionate calling for mission in our training and final evaluation. Anything else is simple negligence- for those we train, for a lost world, and before Christ who spent his life to ensure a final and complete harvest.

Read More from John Smed (December 2003) John Smed has been a church planting coordinator for the PCA's Mission to North America and is now church planting in Vancouver, Canada. Check out his efforts at http://www.gracevancouver.com