Simon Cox Blog: One-on-One with David Hatcher on Theological Education for All

Monday 21 August 2017

One-on-One with David Hatcher on Theological Education for All

The Church in Brazil is growing through reproducible training.

Ed Stetzer: Tell me a little about your burden for theological education in Brazil. How did that come about?

David Hatcher: Jesus created the Church to be His school, from pre-school to PhD. Unfortunately, Christian education—Bible education and knowledge—is really shallow in churches all over the country. Research has shown that this is the number one problem among conservative Christian churches. There’s a lot of Pentecostalism, which uses a lot of the prophecies and visions, but there is very little actual knowledge of scripture. So when we created the seminary, we knew it shouldn’t just be for leaders; it needed to be for everyone.

Ed: So when you started the seminary, you called it Sunday Seminary. How did you go from traditional seminary to Sunday Seminary?

David: At the time, I was working as a director of a seminary. Ephesians 4:11-13 tells us that everybody has to be prepared. So we decided to basically take the seminary curriculum and break it down into six-week (12 hr) modules, because we found that that was the ideal. We basically took the seminary and put it into the church on Sunday morning. We included classes on Tuesday nights as well. People can go through the basic seminary curriculum in about eight to nine years. As good educators we review, evaluate, and have daily homework just as in a college program.

Ed: The Church in Brazil has been described by many Brazilians as being a mile wide and an inch deep. A lot of growth, but not a lot of depth. How then do you help Brazilians value education?

David: I think that when Christians get an opportunity to learn under good teachers, they love it. And they love being able to come to church and leave with more than just a good feeling. They want ...