@elsh, thanks for commenting. It's great that you received mentorship at your local church. Was that mentorship from your pastor while you were training to be a pastor?

Being able to study through online courses is a great opportunity, and vastly different than the way most people have been educated historically. I've got no beef with online education (or education in general). The issue is that whatever doctrines you learned from the online course could have been taught to you by the local church, by your mentor. If they taught you those doctrines, what was the point of getting the formal online education? Was it a certification course, or a degree course? Was it a requirement before you could serve in a ministry? If it was, that's the heart of the problem. Mentorship includes teaching in all matters related to the faith. If you get that from your mentor through the local church, you should be well qualified to serve as a pastor ... if that is your calling.