Dear ______: It does sound like you are now in the thick of things in your new semester. Glad to hear your new classes are exciting. Sorry to hear that you are finding yourself overwhelmed with your reading assignments. I remember one classmate who added up all the pages assigned for all his classes for […]
Learning to Learn (Letters to a Young Pastor)
Dear ______: Last time I wrote I was full of athletic metaphors — the Olympics were a big deal at our house. Now I’m tracking backward from the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, and thinking about how thriving in seminary is like learning to swim. We all start out with the flailing […]
Getting Through Seminary by Avoiding Contamination? (Letters to a Young Pastor)
Dear ______: The description in your letter of that particular group of students sounds like me when I was learning to swim: I thrashed around as hard as I could just to survive and get out of the water. Many enter seminary with the strange goal of avoiding contamination. I’ve seen two very different kinds of […]
Should You Look for a Mountaintop Experience? (Letters to a Young Pastor)
Dear ______: Thanks for writing. Glad you found the distinction between Protestant and Non-Protestant seminaries useful. Seminary as new car showroom? Yes, your car analogy works pretty well: Protestant seminaries are built on the chassis of an academic program, with spiritual features and option packages. Catholic and Orthodox seminaries are built on a monastic chassis, […]
What Kind of Seminary Is This? (Letters to a Young Pastor)
Dear ______: Sorry if I burst your bubble when I said that Seminary can’t really be your church for the next few years. It really depends on what kind of seminary you chose. Like it or not, choosing just about any Protestant seminary means your school doesn’t even try to be a church. Don’t worry: […]