Greater Love Assembly

Office of the Apostle

7325 S Cottage Grove Ave · Chicago, IL

studio6817@yahoo.com

Beloved in the Lord,

It is with deep conviction and pastoral concern that I, Apostle Larry D. Fisher, issue this memorandum to those who carry—or sense themselves being called to carry—the weighty responsibility of teaching and preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I write not to diminish the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, nor to discount the profound value of life experience, but to contend earnestly for a truth too easily neglected in our day: that the call of God upon a life demands the preparation of the mind.

A Call Is a Commission, Not a Completion

Many who are called upon to teach and preach the Gospel have, across centuries and cultures, explored the educational benefit that disciplined study adds to their ability to excel in the calling. The apostles themselves, though filled with the Spirit at Pentecost, did not abandon the Word for the wind of experience alone—they "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship" (Acts 2:42). Paul, the most educated of the apostles, urged Timothy to"do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). Correct handling is the fruit of instruction; it is not born of zeal alone.

Life Experience Is a Gift—Not a Curriculum

I honor life experience. The lessons forged in suffering, in long pastoral service, in the patient shepherding of souls—these are precious and irreplaceable. Yet experience, however rich, is partial by nature. It records what has been encountered; it does not, of itself, transmit the disciplined frameworks of biblical languages, hermeneutics, systematic theology, church history, ethics, and pastoral care that allow a minister to rightly divide the Word rather than merely react to it. A single ministry gift—a prophetic utterance, a healing anointing, a preacher's eloquence—is a gracious endowment of the Spirit. But no single gift, standing alone, can sustain the doctrinal integrity, pastoral wisdom, and ethical clarity that the body of Christ requires of those who stand in its pulpits and its classrooms.

What Classroom Instruction Provides That Experience Cannot

• Accountable frameworks. Structured instruction places a minister under the discipline of tested theology and peer review, guarding against the private interpretations that shipwreck both teacher and taught.
• Breadth beyond biography. A curriculum exposes the student to the whole counsel of God, to two millennia of Christian thought, and to global perspectives that no single life can accumulate.
• Hermeneutical discipline. The classroom forms the habit of reading Scripture in context, culture, and continuity—an instinct that protects a congregation from distortion.
• Mentored formation. Instruction brings the student into relationship with scholars and seasoned ministers who can correct, refine, and commend a calling before it is tested in public.
• Endurance for the long arc. Gifts may open a door; disciplined preparation sustains a ministry across decades of faithful service.

The Testimony of Those Who Have Gone Before

From Augustine to Luther, from Charles Spurgeon to Howard Thurman, the great voices of the Church did not regard learning as a rival to the Spirit but as a servant of it. They submitted their anointing to the forge of study, and the Church was strengthened for it. To imagine that one may dispense with instruction because one has been called is to stand against the example of nearly every faithful minister the Church has raised up.

An Appeal

Therefore I appeal to you, as those who will give an account (Hebrews 13:17): do not settle for experience alone. Do not rest upon a single gift. Submit your calling to the disciplined environment of classroom learning, where the Spirit who called you will also shape you—where zeal may be informed, where knowledge may be sanctified, and where your ministry may be built not on the shifting sand of sentiment, but on the enduring rock of "the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 1:3).

The classroom is not a substitute for the anointing; it is the steward of it. I invite you to accept nothing less for your calling.

Soli Deo Gloria,

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