Send us preachers!
There is currently a "dust-up" in my denomination. And while I want to speak to it, I also want to speak to a larger and, frankly, more troubling issue behind it. A brief history for my non-Presby friends reading this: the Presbyterian Church (USA) requires ordination exams - read "big hairy finals" - that students must pass in their final year of seminary (or later) to be eligible for ordination. They are in expected areas: worship and sacraments, polity (church government), theology, Bible content, and exegesis (one's ability to draw out of scripture the Word of God in the context of teaching and especially preaching). Exegesis is the one in question right now. There is a committee - we ARE Presbyterians, after all - who oversee the administration of these exams and the content which goes into them. They are most deliberate in their work; the exams are developed over a period of years. I'm grateful for the thought that goes into them, and the broad swath
