Christians only: Opinion of seminaries

[Del Tachi]

While I don't have an explicitly negative opinion of seminaries, I still believe that lay ministry is the best and most Biblical form of pastoral management.

Some disparate critics I have of seminaries are:

1.  The primary place for pastoral training should be within the local church.  Isolating would-be ministers in sterile academic environments for 3-4 years may be great for paper-writing and encouraging esoteric theological debates, but it's really bad for missional living.

2.  Somewhat as a consequence of #1, many seminaries seem to be breeding grounds for the type of overly-critical Christian who sees the church as an impediment to good theology rather than the reason for it. 

3.  In a rush to cater to the increasingly niche interests of students, faculty and donors, most seminaries do not offer anything approaching a systematic theological education.  The idea of a cohesive "body of learning" is all but lost in the modern academy.