I just posted my first monthly column over at Presbyterian Bloggers.  You should really read it there, but for folks who use RSS, I post it here.  Comment here, there, and everywhere.    

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This is my first post in a new monthly column on Presbyterian Bloggers creatively entitled, “Seminary Reflections.” It’s about, um, well, reflections from a Presbyterian seminarian.

By way of introduction: I’m a senior Master of Divinity student at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. Last year I served as a full-time Assistant Minister at a congregation in the Church of Scotland during which time I started my blog, A Wee Blether. I’ve really enjoyed my time at Columbia and am a big advocate of the school (not to say we’re perfect). That said, my posts will be more broadly focused on PC(USA) seminary in general rather than specifically oriented to life at Columbia.

My first reflection has to do with seminary curriculum and the practical life of a pastor. For a few years now, I’ve helped gather support during Columbia’s annual Fall Phonathon. This task involves calling alumni and friends of the seminary to ask for pledges to the Annual Fund. When speaking to a CTS grad currently serving as a pastor, one of my favorite questions to break the ice is, “I’m about to sign up for courses for spring semester and have room for some electives. Now that you’re in the parish, looking back, what sorts of classes do you wish you would have taken more of?”

Curiously, I get a wide variety of far-from-consistent answers. There was the pastor who told me he really wishes he would have taken more Bible courses. He said that several folks in his congregation just know their Bible better than he, so he wished, for their sake and his, that he would have taken more Bible electives.

Then there was the pastor who told me I should take every Christian Ed course I could. “That’s what you use immediately when you get out,” she said. “Even if you know everything in the world about something, if you don’t know how to teach it it’s no use.”

Several folks I spoke with said they wished they had taken more classes from a particular beloved professor. Others, now serving a church in a context they had not anticipated, wish they would have taken a course particular to inner-city ministry, or rural ministry, or older adult ministry.

Though I’m not participating in this year’s Phonathon, I have the usual class choice dilemma, this year even more so as it’s my last semester.

Should I take, “Theology, Ethics, and Sexuality” or “Death, Dying, and Bereavement”? “Paul Tillich on Sin and Salvation” or “Literature for Christian Children”? “Wisdom Literature” or “Hispanic and Latino Culture and Theologies”? There’s the ultra practical “Leading Christian Worship” or “Greek Reading” or “Exploring the Missional Church”?

What a quandary! Thank goodness, I’m under no illusion that one’s pastoral education stops when one graduates. In fact, I think only then does it truly begin. But it’s an interesting thought experiment, current pastors considering what they would like to study more of at the moment.

If you’re a pastor out there (or other interested folk), what would you choose?