Mark Hallock serves as the Lead Pastor of Calvary Church in Englewood, Colorado. He also serves as President of the Calvary Family of Churches, a family of churches committed to planting and replanting churches for the glory of God (thecalvary.org). He is grateful for 17 years of marriage to his wife, Jenna, and loves being a daddy to their kids, Zoe and Eli. He is a graduate of Denver Seminary (M.Div) and Westminster Theological Seminary (D.Min), and the author of several books, including The Shepherd Preacher, The Underdog Church-Planter, and Replant Roadmap.
Mark, you were instrumental in launching the William Tennent School of Theology. Can you tell us how it came to be?
This is something that a lot of us were praying and dreaming about—without even knowing that others were also praying and dreaming about it. One thing that continues to be obvious to all of us in leadership is that well-educated, gospel-centered pastors are critical to the health of our churches. So how are we educating our pastors—and not just pastors, leaders in our churches as well—doctrinally, and also in terms of applied theology? Are we really equipping our leaders to shepherd God’s people well?
The truth of the matter is, there are already great seminaries out there. But the vision we have is outside the box a little bit. To be in tune with who we are, to understand those we feel called to minister to, what culture is like in 2020, what’s missing in a lot of theological training, what’s missing specifically in terms of distance learning… Tennent brings together some pieces that are unique, different than traditional theological training or even other innovative options.
Tennent came from the passion to see leaders ingrained in truth, not just in their heads, but with hearts set on fire to the glory of God. We want to be rooted not in a pragmatic, shallow, worldly approach to ministry, but in the Word and the timeless truths of the gospel.
Tell us a little about your own seminary experience. What were the high points for you?
I had two pretty different seminary experiences. I got my M.Div. at Denver Seminary and my D.Min. from Westminster Theological Seminary, and really enjoyed both. I was blessed in that. But two very different schools.
Denver Seminary is broadly evangelical. I appreciated learning from a very diverse group of teachers and students within the umbrella of conservative evangelicalism—folks in different traditions, from different streams. At the same time, during my journey there I began to figure out who I was, theologically. I began feeling comfortable with being a Reformed Baptist, leaning into Reformed convictions about the gospel. I began to understand congregationalism in the best sense—that Jesus empowers God’s people in a local church to plant churches that plant churches that make disciples who make disciples.
That led me to look for a seminary for my doctoral studies that would stretch me within some of those new, Reformed convictions. And that’s why Westminster was so awesome for me. There weren’t a lot of Baptists—there were a lot of Presbyterians—but it was rooted very deeply in the Reformed tradition, specifically in regards to the solas—Sola Scriptura (the authority of Scripture), in faith alone, in Christ alone, for God’s glory alone, all by grace alone. I was also able to lean into a historic Reformed understanding of pastoral ministry. That’s where I was so shaped in what I call “shepherd leadership,” or the shepherd pastor, the shepherd preacher. It’s what God has always been about—raising up pastors who shepherd God’s people—who know the flock, lead the flock, feed the flock, and protect the flock.
We are not called to be entertainers, we’re not called to be therapists, we’re called to be shepherds of God’s people. And that’s serious business. So I was thankful, at Westminster, to study under some men who really were passionate. It’s become a passion of mine—to pass that on to students at Tennent, in the Calvary Family of Churches, and beyond.
A few years back, the Gospel Coalition ran an article entitled, “How to Stay Christian in Seminary.” The opening paragraph said this:
“This sentiment is common. Seminary is dangerous. It can turn the Word of God into a textbook and zealous disciples into pompous eggheads. To be fair, these critics have probably seen a tragic irony play out: seminary, the very tool intended to bolster faith and love for God, can create cold, listless hearts.”
As you think about your own seminary experience and your dreams for Tennent, how do you think a school of theology can avoid becoming a cold ivory tower?
First, it’s going to reflect the faculty. The bottom line in any organization is—look at the top. What those folks bleed is what the institution will bleed. It’s true in the church, it’s true in seminary: we need leaders who are on fire for the Lord—who love God, who love the Bible, who love God’s people. And that comes through not only intellectually, but emotionally, and very practically in terms of how they interact with people, their commitment to the local church, their belief in the gospel and reaching the lost.
A seminary can state on a website what its values are, but what its values actually are is shown in what the faculty lives out. That’s why we see a lot of seminaries that once were incredibly solid, vibrant, and growing, that are now dead and cold, that have left orthodoxy. It always starts with those at the top, who leave core tenets of the faith. Their hearts grow cold.
In my own experience, I saw professors who were clearly abiding in Jesus and seeking Christ, and those where I wondered quite frankly if they were really in a good spot with the Lord. There was a lot of knowledge, which is great, but there wasn’t a lot of heat, there wasn’t a lot of passion. I think seminary should be about forming the whole individual—head, heart, and hands. The mind, obviously—we want to shape the mind through sound doctrine and teaching the timeless truths of Scriptures. But we want to see those truths set our hearts, our affections, on fire—that we would love God even more because of the truths we’re learning, that we would love the things God loves, which would then overflow into our hands, into our actions, into our lives, as we preach, as we teach, as we counsel, and as we love people really well.
When a seminary is holistic, you’re going to see students who change the world for the glory of God. Where you don’t see that, students will really struggle.
Part of Tennent’s stated vision is “to develop shepherd leaders by shepherd teachers, offering excellent theological education in a life-giving, relational community…” How should the aim of raising up “shepherd leaders” impact the methodology or model of seminary education?
At the heart of being a shepherd leader is the word, “shepherd,” which is all about personal, loving, caring, authentic, real relationship. You could be a teacher and not have relationship; you cannot be a shepherd teacher and not have relationship.
Reflecting the relational nature of our Savior is key. We realize that education outside of relationship doesn’t form people the way we need to be formed. Jesus called the twelve to himself and said, “Follow me”—watch me, learn from me. It wasn’t to have a posse of yes-men, it was because Jesus clearly understood that as he spent day after day talking, caring for, listening to, weeping and laughing with his disciples, they would be conformed into his image. That’s the ethos that we want to see at Tennent—that we would seek to be conformed to the image of Jesus, as faculty and as students, that we would walk together and help one another in the journey.
If you understand that, it will affect the way you teach a class, the way you meet with students outside of class, your tone, your conversation—it affects what you care about. I think that a seminary that seeks to reflect the heart of Jesus, by God’s grace, is a seminary that will see lives changed, transformed for the good, and leaders that can then go on to whatever they’re called to, making a similar kind of impact as they seek to shepherd others. And on and on it goes.
Can that kind of education really happen online? I think of the “one anothers” in the New Testament. There’s such a picture of life-on-life discipleship in the Scriptures, the power of being in one another’s lives, learning from one another, even the power of physical touch. All these things are so key to our formation. We’re not just trying to educate, we’re trying to form.
Honestly, there are challenges with our model! There’s a reason why seminaries are continuing to move online. If the goal is to have a ton of students in order to pay the bills, there are ways to be pragmatic. But what are we sacrificing in terms of conviction? Technology can be a huge blessing, but can it form the kinds of leaders we feel called to be? Our goal is to raise up, to form and send out, a certain type of student. It’s the same with parenting, or any relationship. Follow me as I follow Christ, walk with me as I walk with Jesus, talk with me, hear me, hug me—let’s do this together.
In your book, The Shepherd Preacher, you speak often of humility, writing, “Genuine, Spirit-wrought humility must mark the life of a pastor. Arrogance and pride have no place…” In a culture where celebrity pastors and bombastic evangelicals frequent the news, what responsibility do seminaries bear in cultivating a humble ideal?
We are shaped in major ways by our seminary experience, by the community, by the teachers and professors that we learn from. You’ll catch the values that are the DNA of that learning community, good or bad. Whether in a local church or a seminary, we’d better be about valuing the things that Jesus values.
Humility and love are at the core. I think of James, where God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The last thing I would want a student to do is minister in such a way that the Lord opposes their ministry. And that means we’ve got to fight to kill the sins of pride and arrogance with humility, constantly. We need to help students understand that this is a fight for their life.
Humility is never something we can master, and yet God is so drawn to humility. We see it in the incarnation; we see it in the types of leaders He raises up all through Scripture. God is not drawn to the big and the powerful. He’s drawn to the underdog. He’s drawn to the powerless. And in fact, as Paul says, if I’m going to take pride in anything, it’s in my weakness, because in my weakness the Lord makes his strength known. This is the key to effective pastoral ministry. It’s becoming less, it’s becoming humble, it’s becoming meek in ourselves, that we might declare and worship the greatness of a mighty God, who’s worthy of all glory and honor and praise.
When you have humble leaders, watch God do incredible things. Do you want to make his name great? Is that the passion of your life? It can’t be just a side value, it’s got to be at the very core of who we are if we want to be the kind of clay the Potter wants to use.
The Calvary Family of Churches often uses the language “joyful, passionate, disciples of Jesus Christ.” What do you see as the connection between joy and shepherd leadership?
I love talking about joy. How you can be saved by Jesus and not know the joy of the Lord? How can we not be the most joyful, loving people in the world as Christians? I don’t get it! We’ve been born again, we’re new creations. Life is hard, but God’s better! Jesus is better! The supernatural joy of the indwelling Holy Spirit should overflow from the life of a believer through good times and bad times. It’s so counter-cultural, so supernatural, so other-worldly, that it makes the world go, “What is up with those people?” Yet we have born-again Christians who do not exude the joy of the Lord, and we wonder why our witness is so weak. We wonder why people don’t want to be part of our churches.
The fruit of Christ is joy. It’s not something you can fake. Joy is supernatural; it’s the Spirit at work as we yield to Him. Yes, it’s foolishness to the world, and yet it should mark every true believer. As the Westminster Catechism put it, “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever,” which I believe. Not only are we blessed in our salvation, because we get to enjoy God, but now we get to invite others to enjoy God as well.
If you want to see churches where there’s a lot of love, a lot of joyful obedience to the Lord, a lot of sacrificial giving, a lot of mission-mindedness, a lot of prayer, a lot of passionate worship, you’re going to see a church led by leaders who exude the joy of the Lord. It has to be true in a seminary! How dare we claim to be theological educators, how dare we claim to be lovers of the Scripture, and lovers of the gospel, and not show students how incredibly amazing this is experientially, that we can’t help but smile. We can’t help but sing. We can’t help but exude joy, because God is so great.
I know for me, the teachers, the men and women, who’ve had the greatest impact on my life as a believer, hands down, are those that exude the joy of the Lord. It makes me want to know more of it and to live that out by God’s grace, and I want others to catch it, too.
In seminary, you will either catch joylessness or joy from your professors. And at Tennent, we want students to know the joy of Jesus.
What’s your prayer for the long-term legacy of Tennent?
In a day and age where seminaries continue to drift from their original vision and convictions (sadly, churches are the same way), I think God has given Tennent a really clear vision—theologically, in terms of our doctrinal convictions, but also philosophically, how we want to educate and the types of students we want to produce. My prayer is that we would stay steady and faithful, not trying to win the approval of the world, or even the church, but seeking the approval of the Lord through thick and thin, through good times and bad—to be faithful, by God’s grace, in our convictions.