Top Ten Things to Know When Considering Seminary
Cross-posted from my column at Presbyterian Bloggers.
10. Seminary is not church camp; if you want to relive camp’s glory days volunteer at camp.
9. Greek may be as difficult as you’ve heard, but it’s worth it. Some people even think learning Hebrew is fun!
8. You read a whole bunch of books other than the Bible.
7. Unless you want to date a seminarian, it’s a killer on the love life.
6. Seminary is about disruption and putting a stronger faith back together again, not just cementing your current understandings.
5. Pastors don’t make much money and an M.Div. isn’t marketable beyond the church.
4. Consider several seminaries; like ice cream, they have have their own flavor.
3. If you love God, love people, and love the church, seminary may very well be for you but Jesus loves you just as much without an M.Div.
2. If your idea of a great dinner conversation includes mention of the Trinity, predestination, or a distinction between the gospel writers, seminary may be just what our God ordered.
1. If you’re seeking a degree that will change yourself and empower you to change the church, sign right up.
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Interesting list – but I take a bit of issue w/#5 – know a good number of folks who have combined MDivs with previous experience and/or education and found themselved very marketable in non-profits (values or faith-based, not necessarily either/or), advocacy and social justice work, and the like. Some were ordained, others not.
I didn’t go in looking for a wife, but I got married. But if you go in looking for a “good” wife/husband you’re probably not going to find someone in seminary. In my experience you will probably creep people out! Just saying.
greg
@Sarah, yes, but it was really the previous experience that made folks marketable when combined w/ the M.Div. And M.Div. alone is not marketable beyond the church.
@Greg, that’s definitely the right way to approach things.
And I would add to number 9 that in addition to Greek’s difficulty and awesomeness, it is much easier to learn than a living language. You don’t have to speak it. All you need to do is be able to read it and translate it. So much easier than asking for directions to the train station in Prague.
the public school district I work for took my M. Div and gave me both the step/column for the masters plus a 1K stipend each year. they didn’t even ask about it, just took the transcripts.