Letters to a Young Pastor: Welcome to Seminary

Dear ______:

Welcome to seminary! You’ve made it. That’s great. Thanks for letting me walk with you through the process of listening for God’s call.

As I said when I saw you, I think you’ve made a good decision. It isn’t the only good decision you might have made: You could have served God as an app developer too. Or a social worker, for that matter, or a lawyer — I’ve always thought you would make a fine lawyer.

But seminary is an excellent choice: you’ll learn a lot, both about the faith and about yourself, and a seminary degree is a necessary step on the path toward being a pastor, at least in your denomination.

You will meet some amazing people in seminary — if you have eyes to see.

Probably many of the people you meet will have a lot in common with you: they too feel called to ordination and pastoral ministry.

Of course some of those you meet in seminary are on very different paths.

Some of them are from denominations that don’t require a Master of Divinity degree.

There are quite a lot of denominations like that, where your own inner sense of call and the local church’s affirmation are really all you need. These are the admirable ones, to my mind. They are investing a lot of time and money because they want to learn, not because they need the degree to get a job.

Others are not pursuing ordination or pastoral ministry at all.

The seminary I went to had a Ph.D. program as well as an M.Div. A whole lot of the students were aiming to get into doctoral programs and teach somewhere.

Some seminarians want some theological training to be better grounded as counselors, or mission workers, or whatever.

I’m not sure if this is the case at your seminary, but at some schools you would also meet a couple other kinds of students.

Some will be fresh from an adult conversion.

That’s where you almost found yourself a while back: newly alive in Christ, and only able to make sense of that faith by entering professional service. Pray for these people: graduate study in theological disciplines isn’t actually a great place to start.

Some will not have even have had that adult conversion.

These are explorers, spiritual seekers, who really want to take the questions seriously. If their friendship network doesn’t include any smart and mature Christians it may feel like the only viable choice.

Pray for them too. Graduate level study helps most if you have already answered the single biggest question: whether to follow Jesus, seriously and passionately, for life. If that’s an open question, seminary may not help so much.

And some will seem completely antagonistic to what seminary has to offer.

Pray for them too. Pray especially for them. They may be rebelling against their family’s or church’s rigid and constraining religion. They may have been pressured into a calling that doesn’t actually fit. They may just be cranky and cantankerous — and they may not even know it.

So here’s my advice to you as you find your way in this new community:

Aim to be Christ’s servant and ambassador, right now, among all these people.

Fight the temptation to pigeon-hole everyone you meet into one of the handy categories I’ve just outlined.

Aim instead to love them as Christ has loved you.

That includes learning from them and sharing your own perspective with them.

Christ walked patiently with you through some serious ups and downs and dead ends before you found your way to living faith. You can do the same for the people around you.

Seminary is part of your training for a life of ministry. That life is largely about loving others toward Jesus.

Start now. You’ll grow into it. Plus you’ll make some amazing friends.

Blessings,

Gary

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I’d love to hear from you in the comments! Who were the most interesting and surprising people you met in seminary?

This is the first post in a new series.

To go to the start of the original pre-seminary series, click here.