Hilary Batty spent a good part of her childhood in the south of Portugal (see photos-now, and then!). She has known Joel Lopes, mentioned below, since he was a child! We thought she would be a great person to find out what is happening in the newly-formed Martin Bucer Seminary in Portugal, in which two of our missionaries (Diego Lopes and Joel Lopes) are heavily involved. Hilary tells us what she discovered. It is an encouraging story.

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Hilary continues ...

'I caught up with Joel Lopes as he was taking a well-earned break following a busy second semester at Seminário Martin Bucer Portugal, where he is Vice-president and Dean of Students. We spoke about the purpose of the seminary, and he reflected on the challenges and encouragements of their first year in operation.

Joel and two other Portuguese pastors, Tiago Oliveira (President and Academic Dean) and Tiago Cavaco (Vice-president), founded the seminary in December 2018.  Diego Lopes joined the team as Executive Coordinator in January 2019. Both Joel and Diego are EMF missionaries - Joel pastoring the Igreja Acção Bíblica in Faro, Algarve, and Diego the Igreja Baptista da Margem Sul, just south of Lisbon.

Although a small number of seminaries already existed in Portugal, there wasn’t a seminary where reformed theology is taught. Evangelical Christians are a minority in predominantly Roman Catholic Portugal, and the number holding to reformed theology is smaller still. With the promotion of reformed theology in view, the seminary is aptly named after Martin Bucer, a Dominican friar from Alsace who, influenced by Martin Luther, left the Catholic church and played an important role in the development of reformed theology.

The primary purpose of the seminary is to train pastors, but institution's three-year theology programme is open to any committed member of their local church. The programme therefore runs at three levels - basic, intermediate and advanced – differentiated by the means of assessment and the amount of preparation expected for classes.The advanced level aims for academic excellence on a par with university studies, and most of the current cohort of 18 students are men taking this level in preparation for pastoral ministry. Nevertheless, students taking the other levels include men and women involved in other areas of church ministry, or church members simply interested in deepening their knowledge.

The programme covers everything that you would expect in a pastoral training course. There are thirty modules that fit within the three disciplines of Biblical Studies, Theology and Pastoral Ministry. Modules cover Biblical Languages, Old and New Testament, Hermeneutics, Historical and Systematic Theology, Counselling, Preaching, and Church Planting. There are also modules in Applied Theology, including Portuguese History and Culture, and the History of Protestantism in Portugal.

Modules are taught in a variety of ways by a range of teachers. Some modules involve an intensive week of face-to-face teaching (held at the Primeira Igreja Baptista in Lisbon) accompanied by weekly online classes. Others have classes that are recorded or that are live online. The seminary has guest lecturers from its namesake Seminário Martin Bucer Brazil and from Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary (PRTS) in the United States. However, much of the teaching is carried out by Joel, Tiago Oliveira and Diego Lopes. Balancing this teaching load with full-time pastoral ministry, family life and their own PhD studies, is one of the biggest challenges that Joel, Tiago and Diego currently face. A coexisting challenge for the seminary is that of long-term financial sustainability in a country where evangelical churches are few and small, and often can’t afford even to support a full-time pastor.

It is serving these evangelical churches in Portugal that is the second purpose of the seminary, and one that is inextricably linked with that of training pastors. The seminary works very closely with local churches, with the latter retaining responsibility for the pastoral care of trainees and for providing opportunities for trainees to put into practice what they learn. There is a hope that the seminary will also encourage deeper study of the Bible within the local churches themselves. Although it is early days, Joel has already seen this in his own church, where a small group of young people decided to meet outside of formal youth meetings to study together in more depth. They asked one of the seminarians to lead them, which gave that individual an opportunity to apply what he was learning himself about Biblical theology. '

We thank Hilary for her hard work in putting this article together, and ask you to pray for this venture at Martin Bucer Seminary, which plays a key role in the advance of the gospel in Portugal.

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