A while back, I attended a performance of Rebirth of a Nation, a film created by Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky) that seeks to deconstruct and remix the 1915, W.D. Griffith film, Birth of a Nation, a highly acclaimed cinematic venture and one of the...
In my first year of seminary, I was in a New Testament class with an eccentric and somewhat unorthodox professor who enjoyed challenging various long-held theological assumptions and beliefs with the goal of helping us freshly think through these...
Was Abraham called to kill Isaac? Yes. He went forward with that plan until God “called” otherwise. Would he have been disobedient to continue with the original “calling” of killing Isaac after God said “stop”? In the church today we have a very...
It won’t take you long upon your arrival at seminary how much things may have changed from previous generations of seminary educations. One of the biggest differences is just how digital everything is. Most seminaries have some sort of online class...
In any school, especially graduate school—including seminary—one of its greatest costs is to one’s sleep. At least, I know that’s the case for me. I spent most of my adult schooling years with an average nightly sleep duration of 4 to 6 hours. And...
“What scares the New Atheists” | The Guardian // For the first time in history, there exist societies in which the default worldview and assumption is secular. In these places, people walk out there doors and the existence of a god is...
This week is Holy Week. And though we are in the final days before the highest annual joy of the Christian Calendar–Easter–these days are meant to be marked by the deepest and most difficult times of meditation on suffering and death...
In your first year at seminary, you will inevitably be on either the giving or receiving end of what is probably the oldest seminary joke in existence, perhaps dating back to the time of Jesus himself. “Why do we have to buy all these textbooks? You...
My last post on this site, years ago, was a fiery little piece called “Realizing Seminary’s Not For You“. At the time, God had powerfully and clearly led me to a place of realizing that seminary was not the place He had for me at...
Using the Christian Church Calendar can be an incredibly meaningful way of engaging God, and the tradition of the Community of Faith. It’s also a way of sharing one’s spirituality with the global church, both past and present. Here, I...
[This article is based on parts of the manuscript for a message I gave on “Beauty” at Epiphany Fellowship. On my personal blog and the webzine I run you can find the audio, manuscript, and full blog series inspired by the message.] We...
How many of us will come out of seminary, just to relate to our friends “out there” “in the world” in this way?
Don’t.
Thanks to my friends at Patrol Magazine for originally posting this video.
photo credit: loreshdw I recently wrote an article about letting seminary change you doctrinally. In it, I laid out some broad ideas of Truth, doctrine, and how the seminarian needs to treat these things in order to get the most out of their...
“I knew perfectly well at that time, as I had for years and years, that the Lord absolutely transcends any understanding I have of Him, which makes loyalty to Him a different thing from loyalty to whatever customs and doctrines and memories I...
I think it’s time for me to start the site NotGoingToSeminary.com. It’s almost been five whole months since my last article was posted on this site. Much has happened. As I recently revealed in a recent post on my personal site...
As usual, I’m going to to take the rhetorical back door to my topic. I’ve spent all week moving. I’m moving from a room in the third floor of a Brooklyn Jewish woman’s house to a house in a slightly “rougher” part...
Semester 1 Stats: Less than 4 months (Sept-Dec) Pages of papers written: 114 Pages of notes taken: 154 Pages read: about 1,900 (+/-100) Total pages written: 268 (I produced just over 13% of what I consumed) Ending GPA: 3.2 Wow. That first semester...
Recently, my family and I made a trip down to Texas to see my extended family. My grandfather is nearing death. Every time we see him could very well be the last. There’s so much I want to ask him. What’s his greatest fear in all this...
Words, words, words. If you’re in seminary, then your world is based wholly on words. Deep words. Big words. In seminary you will hear many words, you will read many words, you will write many words, and you will speak many words. This being...
I don’t know about you, but I live in a strange tension. I’m a preacher at heart. Every conversation no matter how casual somehow turns to Christ and his impact on our hearts and lives. Every biblical text I read goes through the...
You go to every blog, you speak to every pastor, you read every book. They all say the exact same thing about seminary. Sure there are varied articulations, but they all have the same heart: “Don’t lose sight of what matters most.”...
This post was written by Paul of The Long Way Home and Reform & Revive. Paul recently got accepted to Westminster Theological Seminary and is currently in his last semester at Virginia Commonwealth University. Hello world, my name is Paul. Just...