Most of what we learn in life is determined by the questions we bring to it. As a young seminarian, fresh out of college, I don’t have significant pastoral experience. In my classrooms are older men and women, several of them in their sixties...
Imagine a very little boy sitting on his father’s lap, watching a basketball game. The father talks with the boy about the game as they watch, telling him all sorts of things about the players and the rules and things like that. Most of these things...
Is it worth it? The time? The money? The sacrifices? Those were just a few of the questions running through my head and heart as I stood over the washing machine a number of years ago moving a load into the dryer. It was not a good season in many...
During seminary, you’ll develop a unique set of skills. You’ll be able to parse every Greek verb in the New Testament, list the minor prophets in canonical and chronological order, create Turabian or APA style footnotes in a flash, and...
Seminary doesn’t pay for itself, nor does the rent. But, what jobs are best to balance the study load and the budget? After talking with some seminarians, here are six ideas to get you started finding a job to help support your study habits. 1...
I read a book called Out of Context by Richard Schultz last semester for a seminary class. The author goes through common exegetical and interpretive mistakes in teaching the Bible, including those that famous preachers or authors have made, and...
The great greatest personal change I have experienced during my time in seminary is to daily surrender to God. Before seminary I went to a summer discipleship program a year or two ago. The program helped change me and I was able to see how to daily...
“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;” Hebrews 12:15 I have been alive long enough to have a good share of life experiences. Many that...
“By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” — John 13:35 Some say that they don’t go to church because Christians are hypocrites. We could easily respond and say that we are all hypocrites to one...
Going to Seminary is an obvious step towards our calling. Being part of God’s harvest and furthering His Kingdom on earth is such a privilege to be part of and the workers are few. Going to Seminary is a unique calling on one’s life. We leave in two...
The Daily Office: Seminarian’s Best Friend For my seminary Internship, each semester we have a different spiritual practice to engage in for the semester. The goal is to expose different people to different ways of engaging God in a deep way so that...
My one year at the first seminary I attended was perhaps the most formative time of theological change in my life. The seminary itself was in the midst of a redefinition and realigning of its commitments and leanings, and so points and counterpoints...
Do you have any rituals? My roommate gets up most every morning at around the same time, goes for a run, makes a French press of coffee and sits out our kitchen table and reads his giant red-leather Study Bible and journals for a long time after. I...
Avoiding discouragement is part of the battle. When the world looks at only using the scientific method and tangible evidence as the sole means of valid decision making, it becomes difficult to convince even believers that what God has designed you...
If you’re like me, you had to make the difficult decision of uprooting and leaving a wonderful church to attend seminary. Others of you have chosen to stay local, have been commissioned by your denomination, or aren’t terribly particular...
God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but my name, LORD, I did not make myself known to them. – Exodus 6:2-3 The seminary journey often leads to days (or months) of...
There are a variety of ways to find community on a seminary campus. I certainly don’t mean to offer this writing as the only way. Every day I’ve found people gathered in the community room watching football, or a great show. I watch other seminary...
There is that old time “joke” of calling seminary, “cemeteries.” What is the cause of this notorious designation you ask? I can personally testify to experiencing some of this so called “deadening” as the Bible becomes a piece of literature to...
Confession: I’m a night owl. I can’t do mornings. And yet, there is a long tradition in the Church of beginning your day with devotional meditation with God. I’m working on it. But in the meantime, one of the great ironies is that few things can put...
I write this now after having completed an intensive three-week long course. It was one of those in-between semesters courses that fit a whole semester into a month. The work that would usually be spread over the course of a week was instead crammed...
In one of the first episodes of the U.S. version of The Office (about a paper company), one of the employees is asked why, though he hates his job, he doesn’t quit. He says something like, “Because what would I do with all these useless facts about...
What is brotherhood? One definition I came across is, “the feeling of kinship with and closeness to a group of people or all people.” I would like to venture to say that brotherhood is necessary in seminary and generally, in life. As a second year...
I’m writing this article so I don’t have to do Greek homework. The worst part is I know I’m procrastinating. Actually, that’s not the worst part… I have put my Greek homework off for the whole week. Now that I have that confessions off my chest, we...
How often do we need to pray? What does prayer look like? How can I know I’m doing it right? Often, the interesting aspect of beginning seminary life is not the amount of security you find, but the lack of depth you uncover. It was during my first...
About five years ago, I did my first year of seminary. I took a break after that year and have now returned to a different school to continue. Recently, I stumbled on an old journal entry I wrote on the last day of my first semester. I was a very...
When it comes to the “theological education” aspect of seminaries, there are several different philosophies. One school of thought says that you go to a school that shares your convictions (or is close enough) and you learn that particular...
Before I came to Seminary I was a big fish in a little pond. In my hometown I was spiritual for my age, and I was already working at the church. I had no problem in any theological debate, and really, there weren’t many to be had in my small...
Perhaps you have heard repeatedly about the importance of having a mentor during seminary. Perhaps you are at a seminary that requires it. Or perhaps you believe that mentorship is overrated and really isn’t beneficial. Regardless of where you stand...
My mom, an avid reader who often is in the middle of four books at the same time, once passed on some counsel to me: Don’t read good books, only great ones. The advice is both challenging and inherently futile; for how can you know if a book is...
John Calvin famously opened up his Institutes with a profound set of lines about the close intimacy between knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves. He did not start with Scripture or hermeneutics, but anthropology. In the Protestant focus on...