Free? Or Cheap?

Christ Church offers Greyfriars Hall free of charge. You read that right, there isn’t a financial price tag for Greyfriars Hall! That might lead to an assumption that the training will in some way be “cheapened” by this; “after all,” the question might go, “how are you to pay competent tutors, instructors, lecturers, etc.?” This is a very important question, and we have been blessed to have a fine Christian liberal arts college, New Saint Andrews, a few blocks away, and this institution is also under the spiritual oversight of Christ Church’s elder board, so as to ensure our community is providing a robustly Christian education!

Now, this also provides us with a shared wealth of “instructional resources” with which Greyfriars Hall students are able to glean. Furthermore, the reason we make the training free of charge is two-fold.

First, we believe the local church should shoulder the burden of training and equipping men for the ministry either within her own walls or to be sent out to advance the mission of Christ’s kingdom in areas where there isn’t a healthy, evangelical, reformed church.

Second, we recognize that men who are pursuing pastoral ministry also face the reality that their “career” is not as financially lucrative as it would be if they pursued some other field; this could discourage many an able and gifted man from taking steps towards being evaluated and trained for Gospel ministry. We offer Greyfriars Hall free of charge in order to remove certain hurdles that should not prohibit a man from pursuing ministry; this also enables us to better enforce the biblical hurdles that should prohibit certain men from ministry!

Along this vein, William Perkins discusses three things that hinder good and godly men from pursuing pastoral ministry; the third reason is included here:

The third and last reason is especially relevant to ministry in the New Testament era, namely the inadequacy of the financial recompense and status given to those who enter this calling.

All men are flesh and blood. In that respect they must be allured and won to embrace this vocation by the kind of arguments which may well persuade flesh and blood. The world has had a careless attitude about this in every age. Consequently in the law. God gave careful instructions for the maintenance of the Levites (Num. 18:26). But especially now, under the gospel, the ministerial calling is poorly provided for, even although it deserves to be rewarded most of all. Certainly it would be an honourable Christian policy to make at least good provision for this calling, so that men of the worthiest gifts might be won for it.

The lack of such provision is the reason why so many young men with unusual ability and great prospects turn to other vocations, especially law. That is where most of the sharpest minds in our nation are employed. Why? Because in legal practice they have all the means for their advance, whereas the ministry, generally speaking, yields nothing but a clear road to poverty.

This is a great blemish on our church. I wish it were not true that the Roman Catholics, those children of this world, are wiser (in this particular area), than the church of God. Reformation here is a work worth the labour of both prince and people.

Unless special attention is given to this matter, it will be left unreformed. No doubt, in the Old Testament period, if God Himself had not given direct orders for the material support of the Levites, they would have suffered the same privation as the ministry does today. These considerations, taken together, produce an infallible argument. For who will accept such vile contempt and such a weighty responsibility for no reward? But where there is so much contempt and such a heavy burden, yet such a poor reward, is it any wonder that a good minister is ‘one in a thousand”?

Greyfriars Hall is our attempt to reform this matter, and by God’s grace we trust He will bless our efforts!

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Why Is Greyfriars Hall Free?

Enjoy watching as Pastor Doug & Ben Zornes discuss this topic further!

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Before you go…

Peruse a few of our other INTERVIEWS

If you’re interested in potentially attending Greyfriars Hall:
APPLY HERE

Where’d the Name Greyfriars Hall Come From?

We realize that the name of our pastoral training program might seem a bit obscure. After all, it has the word “friar” in it, which summons up a wide variety of imagery; depending on who you are it might sound either too “catholicky”, or else too Monty Python.

We’d like to set the record straight on the name and give some insight as to why this name was originally chosen. Greyfriars Kirk was a rather important site in the story of the Scottish Covenanters fight for gospel purity & biblical authority. It was both where the famous National Covenant was signed, and where some 400 “covenanters” were held prisoners awaiting trial for so-called disloyalty to the king.

They were kept there under guard for five winter months, with little more than four ounces of bread and water, and little shelter, before either being executed, transported abroad as slaves, or else were given their liberty on signing oaths of allegiance to the king. Many Covenanters died in the prison and were buried in Greyfriars kirkyard, in the spot traditionally reserved for criminals.

George Gilfillan said of these saints and their zeal for Christ’s headship of the church:

They were terribly in earnest. The passion that was in them , like all great passions, refused to be divided. Their idea possessed them with a force and a fulness to which we find few parallels in history. It haunted their sleep , it awoke with them in the morning – it walked , like their shadow, with them to business or to pleasure – it became the breath of their nostrils and the soul of their soul.

You can see that that description is very much the sort of spirited zeal that any pastor or minister needs for doing gospel work in the church and the world. It is what we desire the men of Greyfriars Hall to come away with.

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A Conversation

Pastor Douglas Wilson and Ben Zornes discuss where the name for Greyfriars Hall comes from, as well as why it was chosen.

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Before you go…

Peruse a few of our other INTERVIEWS

If you’re interested in potentially attending Greyfriars Hall:
APPLY HERE

The prevailing notion of truth in the Western Culture of the 21st century, is that it has about the same rigidity as a trampoline. Everything is “fudgable” and should we insist on some objective basis for truth we are running the risk of being insensitive to millennials’ “feelies”.

For the Christian preacher, his task is not simply to dialogue, discuss, or even debate; his task is to declare God’s Word. This means that he is asserting that the message he brings has its authority outside of his own fancies. He speaks as one persuaded that what he speaks is truth and it is true because it is God’s Word.

Greyfriars Hall stresses the importance of not only piety and boldness, but it must be rooted and grounded in the sacred Scriptures. All of life is addressed by the Bible. So, we drill into our students the fact that all our thoughts, actions, words, and sermons must be subject to the scrutiny of the Word of God. A wise Puritan put it well when he said:

Preach the truth. Take heed of giving your own dreams and fancies in God’s name. All is chaff, except the pure word of God. Oh stamp not God’s image on your own coin! We live in high-flown times: many people are not content with truths which lie plainly in the Scriptures; and some, to please their wanton palates, have sublimated their notions so high, that they have flown out of the sight of the Scripture — and unawares run themselves, with others, into dangerous errors! Make not experiments upon the souls of people, by delivering what is doubtful. Better feed people with sound doctrine, though it be a plain meal — than that you should, with an outlandish dish, light on a wild gourd, that brings death into their pot.

William Grunall – “Preaching”

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Preach the Truth, Man

In this interview, Pastor Douglas Wilson and Ben Zornes discuss why this is so important and how we undertake to train men for the ministry with this as their understanding!

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Before you go…

Peruse a few of our other INTERVIEWS

If you’re interested in potentially attending Greyfriars Hall:
APPLY HERE

A Common Question

One of the more frequent questions about Greyfriars Hall is how does it compare to a typical seminary experience. There are certainly areas overlap and disparity. In the following video, Pastor Doug gives a compare and contrast to answer this question. So often the pursuit of pastoral ministry is thought of as merely an academic foray; however, as Christians, our standard for ministers must be God’s word and what it states to be the attributes of a godly man and therefore a godly minister.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once made a pithy statement in regards to what is really necessary for a man to become a minister (and it isn’t a degree):

What matters? The chief thing is the love of God, the love of souls, a knowledge of the Truth, and the Holy Spirit within you. These are the things that make the preacher. If he has the love of God in his heart, and if he has a love for God; if he has a love for the souls of  men, and a concern about them; if he knows the truth of the Scriptures; and has the Spirit of God within him, that man will preach.

Indeed, we cannot be too frequently reminded that our standards must be biblical standards, not worldly standards. Enjoy the video, share it, and if you’re interested in the adventure of pursuing pastoral ministry get in touch with us!

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Furthermore…

If you missed the first interview with Pastor Douglas Wilson, head over and read this blogpost: Purity, Boldness & Truth.

If you missed the interview with Pastor Toby Sumpter, go here: A Greyfriars Hall Discussion: Pastor Toby Sumpter.

If you missed the interview with Pastor Mike Lawyer, this is the place to click: A Greyfriars Hall Discussion: Pastor Mike Lawyer.

Also, meet the other FACULTY of Greyfriars Hall.

If you’re interested in potentially attending Greyfriars Hall: 

APPLY ONLINE

Greyfriars Hall is a ministerial training program which aims to prepare men for serving the Church. As such, the courses necessarily revolve around three main themes: Purity of Life, Boldness in Preaching, & Truth as Foundation. A pastor must live above reproach, must be courageous in Gospel proclamation and must be grounded on the authority of God’s Word in order to truly minister grace unto the Church of Jesus Christ.

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Over the next few weeks we will be releasing interviews with the Greyfriars Hall FACULTY, discussing various aspects of our training, our vision, and the details of the program.

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A Greyfriars Hall Discussion with Pastor Douglas Wilson.

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If you’re interested in potentially attending Greyfriars Hall:

APPLY HERE

Don’t miss Ben’s interview with Pastor Toby Sumpter and this interview Pastor Mike Lawyer