How to Stay Christian in Seminary
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Seminary is exhilarating . . . and dangerous.
Seminary can be thrilling, with the potential to inspire and equip church leaders for a lifetime of faithful ministry. But it’s not without its risks. For many who have ignored the perils, seminary has been crippling. But with an extra dose of intentionality, and God’s help, this season of preparation can invigorate your affections for Jesus.
How to Stay Christian in Seminary takes a refreshingly honest look at the seminarian’s often-neglected devotional life, offering real-world advice for students eager to survive seminary with a flourishing faith.
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- Helps students to gain a bliblical perspective on seminary training
- Provides a much-needed balance as it navigate the beautiful but treacherous waters of a seminary education
- Gives pastors-in-training the keys not only to survive seminary, but also to keep their faith intact during a season that leaves many feeling drained, disillusioned, and dissatisfied
- Introduction: Seminary: Life or Death? (David Mathis & Jonathan Parnell)
- Know Your Value of Values (Jonathan Parnell)
- Be Fascinated with Grace (David Mathis)
- Study the Word for More Than Words (David Mathis) Push Aside Your Books and Pray (Jonathan Parnell)
- Love That Jesus Calls the Weak (Jonathan Parnell)
- Be a Real Husband and Dad (Jonathan Parnell)
- Keep Both Eyes Peeled for Jesus (David Mathis)
- Conclusion: Be a Christian in Seminary (David Mathis)
I am exceedingly grateful for David Mathis and Jonathan Parnell for writing this helpful book. They touch on an issue of great concern in theological education, and on a topic of great concern to me personally. So much so, I wish that every seminary student in every seminary in America would read this insightful book and apply its teachings to their lives.
Jason K. Allen, President, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Written by two men fresh from the trenches of theological education, this little volume is sure to help the new seminary student navigate the pitfalls of misplaced priorities, overcommitment, undercommitment, and decentralization. It is full of grace, truth, and wisdom, all the while keeping Jesus right at the center of everything. I dare say, it may even help to soften the crusty interior of those of us who have spent more than a few years serving in the context of theological education for the church.
Miles V. Van Pelt, Alan Belcher Jr. Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages, Reformed Theological Seminary
Mathis and Parnell here contribute to a small but important stable of books that everyone thinking about attending or already enrolled in seminary should read. Studying theology is not an intellectual game, nor is it simply what you have to do to receive credentials. It is, rather, the project, both art and science, of living to God in intelligent, affectionate, and obedient response to God’s Word. The seminary is no ivory tower but a crucible in which Christian wisdom and spirituality are tested and refined—not only, or even primarily, by exams, but by the vital tests of everyday life. How to Stay Christian in Seminary alerts students to the real curriculum that undergirds degree structures: the pedagogy of the triune God that aims at forming the mind and heart of Jesus Christ in students and disciples.
Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School