Why do people go to seminary

Who can you turn to in a time of doubt? Seminary helps you build a fellowship of trained, supportive religious friends. You can turn to your fellow pastors for academic, spiritual or moral support during times of trouble. You may even find employment opportunities through them. Many seminary students praise their graduating cohort as their most important relationships after Jesus Christ.

An important part of ministering is providing psychological support to your flock. Yes, Jesus recruited illiterate fishermen to be his disciples. But they were not all illiterate and they were not all fishermen. Without a doubt, they had a more comprehensive seminary education than anyone else on earth.

When Jesus was done equipping the twelve, he filled them with the Holy Spirit before sending them to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Seminary is similar: an intense time of equipping where one spends three years with Jesus. Then, the anointing of the Holy Spirit will provide the power for ministry. There are many great resources today that were not available ten years ago.

In an MA program, what you almost never get are original languages like Greek and Hebrew. An MDiv basically gives you a smattering of all the MA programs plus classes in the original scriptural languages. So if you want original languages, you can go one of two routes: 1 Get an MDiv. This is an expression of supererogation.

The first option is like buying the large custom built van MDiv with its already included features. None of these are doctorates, but you can continue on and earn a doctorate.

The most likely reason you would get a PhD. You wake up at 7AM and have a quiet time. You have four classes scattered through the morning and early afternoon. As you walk back to your dorm or trek across campus to the library, you join the masses of nerds who are flipping through Greek flash cards.

After all, you want to be a good steward of your time, or at least you want to look like you are. In some sense this day looks no different than your undergrad days, but the classes are harder. So imagine four or five such classes stacked in a semester. Seminary can be a rich time for you spiritually. The rest of your afternoon and evening could be split between studying and your part-time job at Starbucks. Look for a school that understands itself to operate consistent to Scripture: one that is confessional.

This is important! The presuppositions a seminary holds about Scripture and salvation will not only work their way through lectures and required reading, but also in its approach to learning.

You see the slippery slope. For most of us there are forms of theological liberalism that are like carbon- monoxide: they appear harmless or undetected but are poisonous none-the-less. Because of the formative nature of the M. For advanced studies or a Ph. Seminaries are everywhere--kind of like chiropractors. You notice them in the phone book, you notice them attached to small brick buildings, you notice them in the passing comments of a blog.

You have to be able to sift through them and discern which are best. There is usually a reason why you hear of some and not others. A good professor is first of all a godly man. Doctrine and life cannot be separated. Brilliant professors are usually devoted followers.

You want big heart and big brains. Let me warn you that often the professors who write all the books are professors who are given much time to do research. This means the more research leeway that they are given, the less time for teaching they have. Make sure you look into the possibly less known second-tier professors and investigate them. Quality is also seen in academic commitment and rigor. You want a school that is accredited, preferably by something national like the Association of Theological Schools www.

Not only will accreditation help you transfer credits if you need to change seminaries, but it will ensure that you are receiving a level of quality. Quality can be assessed in terms of libraries and resources.

Trust me, you want a decent library. You need access to good reference material, journals, and historical documents. Part of your decision on a seminary should include a visit to their library or at least a comparison with other libraries of the number of volumes it contains.

Finally, quality can be judged in terms of the facilities. During my visit to the seminary I ended up attending, I asked a student how he chose this particular one. It would be great, but not a deal breaker, if a school leveraged things like good technology. A few years of seminary provides crisis rich opportunities, which in turn accelerates the rate of developing meaningful friends.

These folks are not only your study partners, but they are the friends who struggle with you to make ends meet. But having a degree from a reputable school such as TEDs does bring a measure of stature, of credibility. When I open the Word on Sundays, I would like people to be confident that I had devoted my life to serious study of the Word. Mdiv, Trinity goes a long way to securing that.

There is so much I have to learn about being a pastor, about leadership, about life. I look forward to serious reflection and study on this during my time at TEDS, not only in the classroom, but also in the friendships and mentoring opportunities available to me.