Future Direction and Emphases

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 Addendum

 
  The Board has considered various questions and challenges at this time because God has so blessed OTH. What are the things we have come to espouse that we dare not jeopardize? What is our long-range vision for OTH as “institution?” The following are decisions by the Board President and various other faculty members.

  1. Focus on Men - We have given ourselves since the beginning of OTH to see a cadre of men raised up by God and adequately trained to serve as pastors. While we have now provided good facilities for the classes and extensive effort has been expended to provide a good library, the focus has remained on the men rather than trying to develop OTH as an “institution.” And we are committed to maintain that emphasis: men.
     
  2. Insistence upon Excellence - We are committed to the thesis that quality leads to quantity and not vice versa. Paul the apostle required Timothy to seek “faithful men,” and God has blessed this commitment at OTH. We are committed to the well-known motto: “We’re looking for a few good men.” And we believe that such men blessed by God ensure the continued growth of the church and the raising up of even more good men. But we will indicate that we do not mean by this to try to unduly increase the numbers of OTH beyond our ability to maintain that excellence.
     
  3. Blend of Academic and Practical - We do not hold these as opposites nor as antagonists, but rather together they are the sine qua non of effective pastoring. The influence of the actual ministry being the context of OTH has provided an excellent paradigm for our students to grasp by “osmosis.” As the opportunities in developing churches expand that environment, we anticipate changing some courses from classroom to actual mentoring on site. For example, we have shifted Evangelism II (Church Planting) as a classroom study to being covered in mentoring situations within congregations and missions. At the same time, we recognize the imperative for the academic work in order that the preaching, teaching, counsel, and shepherding be substantive and not superficial. The pastoral ministry requires this blend, so we seek to provide the training in the way God expects His pastors to minister.
     
  4. Recognition of the Battle - We are not naive about the kind of work a pastor is called to do. Jesus told His disciples, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves” (Mt. 10:16). The kind of warfare in which we engage has no parallels: it is life and death; it demands the utmost in integrity; it summons us to confront sin in high and low places; it involves subtle and vicious attacks upon the pastor’s work and character; and in it all he is to maintain a spirit that resembles our Lord Jesus, Who was nicknamed “a friend of tax gatherers and sinners.” Such warfare must be waged in the framework of a “kingdom mentality,” as the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy: “And the Lord’s bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will” (II Tim 2:24-26.)

    This emphasis then means at least two important foci in OTH training:

    1. enlist the right kind of men, and
    2. train them to conduct spiritual warfare.
    We are conscious that we are responsible to equip these men so we know they are adequate for the task to which they are called.