How should the Church of Jesus Christ train-up new pastors for its congregations? The typical method that has been in place for many centuries is to send young men away to a theological seminary—where they are separated from their own families, separated from their local church leaders, and separated from the experience of “hands on” ministry. Instead of training them for ministry in the context of a local church, they are put into a formal academy that is far removed from the normal challenges of life. The problem with this approach is that “life integration” is lacking.
In contrast, many church leaders are now rediscovering that young men are more profitably trained for ministry in a local congregation under the instruction of a seasoned pastor. It is with this thought in mind, that we will begin instructing our two pastoral interns—Joel Stanton and Cody Winton—in basic Christian theology and ministry skills. Their fledgling efforts at ministry will be carefully supervised by our church officers. We will be present to encourage them and to give them correction when needed. This is exactly the way that Jesus trained his disciples to carry forth the gospel in the first century (cf. Matthew 10:5-42; Mark 3:15-19; Luke 6:40).
Central to our pastoral intern training program will be a “Theological Roundtable.” We will gather on Wednesday and Saturday mornings at the Serven home where I will meet with the interns for early morning devotions and breakfast. Then we will open up our teaching times to men and boys who would like to attend (9 AM-thru lunch). Our initial textbooks will be: Louis Berkhof’s Manual of Christian Doctrine and Charles Spurgeon’s The Soul Winner: Advice on Effective Evangelism. We have some exciting times ahead! Please pray that God will bless our efforts at training-up pastors for the family-integrated churches of the future. If you would like to attend, then contact me for the details.
–Pastor Marcus J. Serven
Covenant Family Church is a conservative, Bible-believing, and elder-governed congregation located in Wentzville, MO which seeks to evangelize the lost and equip those who have been converted to walk worthy of their calling in Christ. 
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church continues to be vigorous in its defense and propagation of the historic Christian faith, particularly as it was articulated by the Protestant Reformers of the 16-17th centuries. 
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