Small Groups vs. Hebrew

Should the emphasis at seminary be practical or theological? In a recent discussion, a friend advocated for more classes focused on practical ministry skills over ancient languages. His examples was a class on effective small group ministry vs. Hebrew reading skills. Here are a few reasons I prefer Hebrew.

• Shelf-Life. Most of the books we read for practical ministry classes are recent publications and don’t stay in print for long. In twenty years, few will remember today’s buzz about Small Groups. Hebrew Grammar (and pronunciation) does not change very fast. Academics make tweaks to the grammars, but knowing Hebrew won’t be passé for a long, long time.
  
• Cultural Specificity. The rural churches in Africa are not very interested in our contemporary small group strategies. But if their churches are growing, and they develop Bible Schools, and those develop into seminaries, they will be interested in Hebrew.
• Better Exegetical Investment. This might not be fair, but if Scripture plays a role in developing Small Group strategies, it’s usually (I find) founded on fairly simplistic proof-texting. Leaning Hebrew is not a magic key to understanding the depths of the Bible, but it forces the student to deal again and again with the text of Scripture.
• Better long-term preparation in ministry. If I count up the hours I hope to be spending studying the Old Testament text vs. the hours I will be spending on Small Group Ministry over the course of a career of pastoral ministry, the Old Testament wins. This is not always the case, and here it is important we know our calling.
• Hebrew is harder. I find reading the practical ministry books much easier than trying to learn an ancient language. Which means that if I have the motivation, freedom, and ability now, I want to focus on what is harder, knowing that when additional stresses come, I may be able to work through practical issues better than struggle through learning an ancient language.