5 things you should consider about seminary

Some of you have been in seminary or are considering to go to seminary to be trained theologically. Well, praise the Lord for that. As you are praying and thinking about this, or if you are already there, I pray that you make the most of your time learning all you should. I believe that seminary is a huge blessing to those who want to present themselves ready for the ministry by handling the Word accurately.

But apart from that I would like to challenge you to consider these things prayerfully.

1. Seminary will most likely train you but not disciple you.  Seminary is a good place where you  can learn a lot of knowledge about the Bible and theology but it is unlikely that it will focus on your growth in character as you are growing in your knowledge of the scriptures. Your growth in handling the scriptures and accurately dividing the Word doesn’t mean that your character has grown along with your knowledge about the scriptures.

If your seminary doesn’t focus on your discipleship along with your training in knowledge, let me encourage you to pray that the Lord brings along an older man or another believer/pastor that can disciple you as you pray for future ministry in your life. Yes, theological training is important but equally important is the need to be discipled so we learn to be shaped and transformed by the Word that we study.

2. Seminary doesn’t qualify you for ministry. So many people go to seminary thinking that once they are done, they are ready for ministry. That is just not true. A theological degree can speak of the discipline of a man but his character will speak of His love for God and others. A man should consider being a pastor, not because he has a theological degree but because he is qualified according to 1 Ti 3:1-7, Ti 1:5-9. I don’t want to discourage my brothers from pursuing theological knowledge, but I do want them to think of the great responsibility and the privilege of serving God with their education. 

I highly suggest this to you brother: pursue godly character more than the prestige of a degree. Pursue Christ in such way that your delight is in knowing Him and not in what you know. 

3. Seminary will not make you arrive. Graduating from seminary is not the culmination of our studies in our whole spiritual life. Sometimes it’s just the beginning of it. If we graduate seminary thinking that we have attained full knowledge and self-dependency, that is just dangerous. A seminary degree will mean that you know how the handle the word, but what good is to know how to handle the word if you are not depending on it? 

I pray that as you are in seminary, you grow in deeper dependence on the word as you are learning more about it. I pray that knowing deep things about God and thinking great thoughts about Him helps you to love others in a greater manner as you cling more closely to the unquenchable Grace of God.

4. Seminary is not the only way to prepare: Seminary is good. It is helpful and is a huge blessing to be trained under godly men, but as you walk, you will find men that have been trained without a seminary degree. That’s right - there are men who don’t have a theological education but who can divide the word because they have disciplined themselves by reading books and by studying the scriptures diligently. Seminary shouldn’t teach us to underrate ministers who don’t have a theological degree but to be encouraged when we see a brother who knows how to divide the word rightly and believes it.

5. Seminary doesn’t give us the right to make theology a WWE playground: There are things that are wrong in our theology for most of us, but we must understand that we are not always called to fix every theological misunderstanding that a person has. By this I mean that picking debates on everybody's theology doesn’t make you more holy, just more annoying. Sometimes the most effective way to teach others in the midst of our theological differences is not trying to correct them every time we see them but simply loving them consistently.

Avoid debates as much as you can, learn to live in light of the precious doctrines that you will learn, and pray that you will grow to have the right posture to interact with people who differ from you theologically.

As my good friend Martin Manchego once said: “God weights our hearts not our minds.” God is interested that we experience the transforming power of His word, it does no good to us to know how to speak about it if we won’t submit to it. We must seek to be discipled as we grow in our knowledge of the scriptures. We must seek to grow in our character as we pursue a theological degree. We must think of God’s reputation as we pursue a doctorate or masters in theology. Soli Deo Gloria.