I agree strongly with you that building ministry and ministry training mostly around Bible teaching and theology is very short-sighted. I notice Jesus didn’t do that! One other aspect ….

The Bible teaches that we all have different gifts and abilities, and that, to some degree at least, gifts and ministries go together. It is tragic when we force people of a different gifting into the teaching mould because that is the main, or only, model we have for clergy. It is quite likely that in any congregation, there will be gifted (though not necessarily trained) pastors, evangelists, intercessors, encouragers, teachers, dare I suggest even prophets and people with healing gifts, and quite unlikely that the trained pastor/minister will have all these gifts. Yet because the congregation pays the clergy, and because of expectations, the minister can sometimes be forced to stumble along doing things he’s not gifted at doing, missing his true God-given vocation, and denying the opportunity for truly gifted people to fully express their gifts. Everybody loses!

If a minister is particularly gifted in certain areas, they should be released to use those gifts if at all possible. Better still, see everyone as a minister, and empower and equip them accordingly.