Going to Seminary

So, are you married? Does your spouse want to get his or her degree as well? There might be a great opportunity available for you.

Many seminaries offer the spouse of full time students the opportunity to attend the seminary at no charge at all! Now, this is really an amazing offer. The catch is often that the spouse my “audit” classes for free. That just means he or she can sit in on the classes for free. However, there are a few seminaries that will actually offer your spouse to take classes FOR CREDIT! Now, THAT is amazing. Your spouse is a real student, with real coursework, receiving a real grade, that will result in a real degree. Can you imagine that, two degrees for the price of one!!!

Now, one challenge is that most of us can’t have both spouses attending seminary full time. So, how can you both get your degrees? Well, an admissions officer I spoke with recommended that one of you go full time halfway through the program, while the other goes part time. Then, when you hit the midway point of the program, switch. Your spouse goes full time, and you go part. The program takes longer, but again, 2 for 1 is worth it if you ask me.

So, as your looking at seminaries, be sure to ask the admissions officer what kind of opportunities there are for your spouse. You might be pleasantly surprised.

In my never ending quest to provide information that will help you decide on the right seminary for you, I occasionally find other people who have weighed in on the subject. Today I came across an older post by Mark Denver at togetherforthegospel.org.

In his post, Mark explains five factors to consider when choosing a seminary. They are:

1. Confession of Faith – “…Look to be trained at an institution which seems to be committed to a right understanding of God’s Word…“
2. Quality of Education – “…While there is no precise way to measure such quality, factors which indicate it are the school’s faculty, the required curriculum and the library facilities…“
3. Cost – “…The calling that you are following doesn’t usually pay the kind of salaries doctors, businessmen or lawyers may receive. It is part of your being a good steward to consider the cost of the education you are pursuing…“
4. Church – “…you must also consider if there is a good church nearby that could be a place of ministry and spiritual encouragement and direction while you are in the seminary…“
5. Connection for Life – “…consider what connections for the rest of life you might make by attending this seminary or that theological college…“

His points are good and certainly ones that I agree with. His points about indebtedness and the fact that pastors aren’t making the same kind of money that MBA’s will be making after they graduate is a really great and something that we’ll discuss in the paying for seminary section in the near future.

In my never ending quest to provide information that will help you decide on the right seminary for you, I occasionally find other people who have weighed in on the subject. Today I came across an older post by Mark Denver at togetherforthegospel.org.

In his post, Mark explains five factors to consider when choosing a seminary. They are:

1. Confession of Faith – “…Look to be trained at an institution which seems to be committed to a right understanding of God’s Word…“
2. Quality of Education – “…While there is no precise way to measure such quality, factors which indicate it are the school’s faculty, the required curriculum and the library facilities…“
3. Cost – “…The calling that you are following doesn’t usually pay the kind of salaries doctors, businessmen or lawyers may receive. It is part of your being a good steward to consider the cost of the education you are pursuing…“
4. Church – “…you must also consider if there is a good church nearby that could be a place of ministry and spiritual encouragement and direction while you are in the seminary…“
5. Connection for Life – “…consider what connections for the rest of life you might make by attending this seminary or that theological college…“

His points are good and certainly ones that I agree with. His points about indebtedness and the fact that pastors aren’t making the same kind of money that MBA’s will be making after they graduate is a really great and something that we’ll discuss in the paying for seminary section in the near future.

With the advances of technology these days it is truly amazing the education one can get just by hoping online. Which raises a question, “How important is getting the actual seminary degree?”

Now, as I mentioned in my “which degree is for me” post, if you want to be a pastor in a denominational church, then the answer to this question is pretty obvious… very important. But, say you’re just wanting to expand your education, or you simply want to gain some deeper understanding in a few areas, but the actual degree isn’t something you need… or maybe the finance just aren’t there…or maybe you just want to test the waters.

Well, there is an option. Many seminaries are starting to make their class lectures available for FREE! That’s right, you can sit in on literally hundreds of hours of seminary teaching and never leave the comfort of your iPod.

Here is a list of some of the seminaries I know who are giving away their lectures. If you know of anymore, please post a comment and share the goodness.

SEMINARY COURSES AVAILABLE FOR FREE:

• Reformed Theological Seminary (iTunes Required)
• Fuller Theological Seminary (iTunes Required)
  
• Covenant Theological Seminary
• Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Registration Required)

Because of the “unique” scholarship/referral system at Rockbridge Seminary you could theoretically get all your degree for free. Check out their referral system here.

This post will help narrow your list by asking a very simply question that The Clash asked in 1981, “Should I stay or should I go?”

Now, location is a big deal for some people. Are you willing to move across the country to go to seminary? How far are you willing to go from home? From friends? From family?

The fact of the matter is that the right seminary for you might not be in the location you want it to be in. You might be a beach bum and yet feel a calling to Regent College in Canada. Or maybe your a big city kid from New York and you’re sensing the call to study at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky.

At that moment I guess a better question to ask is not “should I” but rather “will I.” Are you really prepared to be uncomfortable and go places you might not typically want to go?

If your answer is no… it’s just my opinion, but you’re probably not ready for seminary. As ministers, we are called to live follow the example of our king, who though God, humbled himself. A king, who when faced with going somewhere that was more than a little uncomfortable answered his father with, “not my will, but your’s be done.”

So, think it over. If where you want to go to seminary is some place that might be uncomfortable for you… then your training has already begun.

According to a report from the Association of Theological Schools, the average tuition for a full time seminary student (05-06 school year) was $11,039.

So, if that’s the average… then some of you are paying less and some more… I think that number is probably pretty close to the ballpark I’m going to be in. Maybe we should have a competition and whoever has the highest tuition bill we all send him or her $5 through pay-pal.

Maybe once the readership here increases we’ll start the competition.

Professor, pastor, and theologian, Dr. John Frame wrote a pamphlet called, “Learning at the feet of Jesus: A Case for Seminary Training.” This is a quick and easy read that will, hopefully, help you in your decision making process.

Here is an excerpt from the opening page:

LEARNING AT JESUS’ FEET:
A CASE FOR SEMINARY TRAINING
At some point in their walk with Jesus, many Christians ask whether they should attend seminary — either to earn a degree or just to take a few courses. I’ve been teaching in seminaries for thirty-five years, and I’ve done some thinking about this question. In this pamphlet, I’ll encourage you to go to seminary if you can, and I’ll try to help those who are seeking guidance for this important decision.

I want to thank the good people at Reformed Theological Seminary for making this available, free of charge, on their website.

So, one of the books that helped me the most in finally making the decision to attend seminary was Bruce K. Waltke’s book, Finding the Will of God: A Pagan Notion? In his book Waltke masterfully addresses an issue that is all too common in the church, namely divination.

Somewhere along the lines we have come to the conclusion that God is some con-man trying to pull a slide-of-hand trick with us and keeping his will from us. So, with that in mind we try all kinds of cooky ways to try and find out what God’s will is (anyone else played bible roulette before?).

Waltke points out that what most Christians try to pass off as “finding God’s will” is really nothing different from pagan divination. To remedy the situation Waltke offers (the last half of the book) practical suggestions on how a believer can “know God’s will.”

Now, I’m not typically the kind of guy who like “step” books… 12 steps to a better prayer life, 101 ways to evangelize the lost… But Waltke’s recommendations are so simple, practical, and pastoral, that I couldn’t help myself from saying, “Duh… I knew that… maybe I should remember that next time.”

Now, pretty much, if I know someone who is trying to make a big life changing decission, I recommend this book… So, to you trying to decide if God is calling you to seminary… check it out.

Distance education has come a long way. Seven years ago I decided to try and earn my degree through one seminary’s distance program. It was pretty good, but I still have stacks and stacks of tapes and giant notebooks. The quality of teaching was there… the medium was seriously lacking.

That isn’t the case today. Now seminaries are using technology to help deliver first rate theological education around the world. Now, instead of 37 cassette tapes and 200 pages of notes, you get 1 dvd. On the disk you have .mp3s of you lectures and you notes are there as .pdf as well.

Along with the “work on your own” model, many seminaries are now offering web courses. Now, you can actually log onto a virtual classroom and “sit in” with residential student and watch and hear the professor though streaming video. What’s even better is you now have the ability to actually “raise your hand” and ask the professor a question, whether through text chat, voice chat, or video chat. Try doing that while listen to your tapes.

While there are still big differences between distance and residential programs, it appears that seminaries are starting to embrace and utilize technology in order to get theological training into the hands of as many people possible. I guess what I’m hoping to see next is seminaries starting to lead the way in technology and distance education… Now that will be exciting stuff to watch!

253 seminaries… that’s a bunch. So, how do you decide on which one to attend?

Well, this is seminary, so prayer is always a good starting place. As you prayerfully submit your decision making process to the Lord, there are a couple things to think through. In this post, we’ll look at step one, “what degree do I want to pursue?”

This is step one because knowing what degree you want to pursue will help eliminate all seminaries that don’t have the degree and it will also help in future steps when you are looking at specific aspects of the program within the seminary you are considering.

Most seminaries offer several standard degree options (We’ll only be looking at Masters degrees in this series):

• Master of Divinity (M.Div.)
• Masters of Theology (Th.M.)
• Masters of Arts (M.A. in ___ )
  • Biblical Studies
  • Theological Studies
  • Christian Thought
  • Counseling
  • Missions
  • Youth Ministry
  • Religion

Now, this list isn’t exhaustive, but it is a good representation of what is available. So, what is the difference in all of these?

The M.Div. is seen as the “traditional” degree that someone would go to seminary to get. This degree is almost universally the standard for ordination in all mainline denominations. Meaning, if you want to be a pastor in a denominational church, then this is probably the degree you’re going to want to go for.

The M.Div. is going to take the longest to get, requiring 106 credit hours to graduate. You will be will be required to learn both Greek and Hebrew and you will take courses in theology, history, bible, and communication. Almost every M.Div. program is designed specifically to prepare the student for pastoral ministry.

The Th.M. is an advanced degree that almost always requires you to first have your M.Div. in order to be accepted into the program. That said, I feel like I’ve seen a few Th.M.’s that didn’t require it… but I believe they are few and far between.

The Th.M. is designed to allows a student the opportunity to take specialized advanced studies in theological research. Th.M. programs typically require 30-60 credit hours for graduation and will typically require writing a thesis paper. This degree is typically gained in preparation for doctoral studies (Doctor of Ministry, D.Min.; Doctor of Theology, Th.D.; Doctor of Psychology, Ph.D.) and typically emphasizes a specific area of study. For example, at Reformed Theological Seminary, the Th.M. program focuses on Reformation Studies (saw that coming).

Finally, the M.A. is a degree designed to give concentrated study in a specific field. Part of the appeal of the M.A. is that you are only taking classes that are in your area of study. So, for example, if you want an M.A. in Biblical Studies, then most of your coursework will be in classes studying, very specifically, the scriptures. However, an M.A. in Missions will also, study the scriptures, but it will focus more class time on engaging and ministering within different cultures.

Now, I don’t have the time to go into the details of all the M.A.’s available, but I hope you get the gist of what the degree is all about.

Knowing the degrees that are available to you will be useful as you seek to narrow down your list of seminaries. If you know you want an M.A. in Counseling… well, you’ve just knocked down a whole bunch of schools.

Our next step will be to consider geographic issues. “Should I stay or should I go?” – The Clash