Wasting Seminary

I’ve been meaning to point this out ever since it was posted, but so much has been going on I haven’t had the time.  So, if you haven’t already seen it by now, check out Derek’s list of 45 Ways to Waste Your Theological Education.

I was digging #’s 2, 19, 20, 25, 36, 45 and, for those interested, Terry will be tackling #20 in a upcoming post.  Surely with all those numerical references you’re intrigued enough to go check out his list!

After you read it, let me know your thoughts.

Writer Introduction - Jeff Patterson

A couple days ago I introduced you to Kari Patterson.  Today, we’ll meet her husband Jeff:

Jeff, how did you come to know the Lord?
God is so good. I grew up in a mainline Protestant denomination and probably heard the Gospel at some point, was an altar boy, and overall a “good” kid, but I didn’t know Christ, wasn’t aware of my own depravity, and then at the age of 18 everything changed. Jesus rescued me and His life came into my soul. As a freshman in a fraternity at Oregon State University a Campus Crusade for Christ Staff person shared the Gospel with me. Right then I first came face to face with the Gospel of God’s Grace and Jesus became my Savior and Lord, my joy and my all. Before then I literally did not know John 3:16, who this John character was, nor what the 3, 16, or colon meant. The Bible became my daily bread and campus ministry at Oregon State was where I first cut my teeth in church life.

Why did you decided to go to seminary?
Kari and I had considered seminary for a while, and for me I had thought about it since college. We took some steps to explore it back in ‘03, but God showed us not yet. After some jarring ministry experiences culminating in ‘04 we simply sense “the call” and explored some more. Crazy as it sounds, we hadn’t even considered Multnomah before, while longing to return to Oregon, the land we love, as missionaries we connected with friends who had just started at MBS. Providence took over in God’s unfolding of our path to school, and the best part of it is being able to go together, both as students.

What has been the hardest part of seminary for you?
Balancing life. Work. Commute. Our son. Finances. Digging deeply of Christ as our Fountain daily. Did I mention my of wonderful wife? Okay, I’m probably the hardest part of her seminary experience. Seriously, the experience has been awesome, but not for the faint in heart nor with those lacking a little sense of humor. Our schedules have had to adapt and change and nothing has gone perfectly-has-planned (like when my car became a paper weight). This year living with Kari’s parents has been a challenge mixed with joy all the same.

What has been the most rewarding part of seminary for you?
Doing this together with Kari. I probably wouldn’t have the same experience if I had enrolled as a single straight out of undergrad. Now seven years later and a few years in the “real world,” all of this has helped make me a better man, and seminary is all part of this trajectory of growing in Christlikeness. All of life is preparation in God’s economy.

What do you want to do after seminary?
We get this question quite a bit. We don’t know exactly, but we are less picky than we were a few years ago. Teaching, pastoring, loving and serving in the church, and of course being a faithful husband and loving father. We sense God’s call to be missionaries to the Pacific Northwest, our homeland, and potentially church planting in or around Portland. Anyone have any prophecies for us? In the meantime we would love the opportunity to serve in the church vocationally while finishing up school.

How’d you start blogging and Why do you Blog?
I first started blogging during our pregnancy with our son Dutch. The DutchBlog was a place to share thoughts and ultrasound photos and anticipate our miracle boy being knit by our Creator in the womb. I wrote every page and post in raw HTML with CSS, and then transitioned to using a CMS platform (boy does that save time!). Started mixing in my thoughts and eventually Kari got hooked as an outflow for her passion for writing.

Someone mentioned to me in person a few weeks ago they really appreciated my thoughts on a specific post. I truly didn’t know who was reading my words, if anyone was a regular reader outside of family and some close friends. He asked me, “Who is your audience?” I don’t know exactly. Anyone who is breathing? Well, God is my Audience of One – may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart and mind be pleasing to You O Lord. I also blog because it is enjoyable, and helps shape my thoughts, collect quotes, form my theology and hopefully help others make much of Jesus who is to be their Treasure. Lastly, I love the Church, and want to see Her become all Christ has redeemed Her to be. I hope all five of my readers are able to burn brighter in unconditional love and sacrifice for the church, having connected to my small flicker of a light.

My life purpose is to know, love and enjoy the Triune God above all else, and I think blogging helps me do just that, and hopefully helps others do the same.

Thrifty Thursday - Help With Your Money

For a lot of seminary students, financial considerations are something that is always on the mind. Getting an advanced degree is not particularly cheap, and especially as a lot of us enter our studies married and possibly with children, this becomes an even greater undertaking.

I am blessed to be married to an accountant. My wife and I complement each other well because she is good with budgeting and working with numbers, while I am not. Left to my own devices, I’d probably find myself in quite a financial mess once I was done seminary. In high school, my wife was introduced to Dave Ramsey, a well-known radio personality and author who is also the founder of Financial Peace University. She decided that we should enroll in the 13-week program, and although I have a proclivity to steer away from anything numbers-related, I agreed.

It has been simply amazing. If you have not heard of Dave Ramsey, you need to stop what you are doing right now (well, finish reading this first) and go find out who he is and what he does.

The content of the course is a simple step-by-step guide to learn how to budget and plan financially for emergencies and the future. There are a lot of churches that host FPU, and a typical night has an hour-long video presentation by Ramsey guiding you through the process followed by a group discussion led by the person who organized FPU at the church. Lessons include creating your budget, getting out of debt, how to buy insurance, and suggestions for investing and retirement. Ramsey has an infectious personality which will really fire you up to get your finances in order. And because Ramsey is a Christian, his lessons and his methods are influenced by principles of stewardship and biblical wisdom on how to deal with money.

The people who organized the FPU we’ve been attending told us that churches have ministries for everything imaginable, except for finances and handling money. There is so much potential here not only for students, but for everyone in the church. This is a simple and practical way to get involved and serve in your church. Christians in the West control such a large amount of the money in the world, yet our churches have the lowest rates of tithing anywhere, our missionaries are grossly under-funded, and we ourselves are plagued with debt and financial problems. Here is an opportunity to really grab hold of.

You can visit Dave Ramsey’s site for more information on Financial Peace University and other services that his company offers. Also, there is a search feature where you can find an FPU program in your area. The cost is around $100, but what you will benefit from it is worth so much more than that.

Writer Introduction - Kari Patterson

As promised, over the next two weeks we are going to be introducing you to all the new writers at goingtoseminary.com.  First on deck is Kari Patterson.  We shot Kari (and all the writers) a list of questions. Here are her answers:

Kari, how did you come to know the Lord?
For God’s mercy I will be forever grateful.  I prayed to receive Christ at the age of five, after my mom explained the gospel in 5-year-old language for me.  I’ll never stop praising God for the amazing godly heritage I have in my parents and grandparents, who prayed for me even before birth.

So, why did you decide to go to seminary?
In college God clearly revealed His call on my life for full-time ministry.  I was also incredibly blessed to earn a full-ride graduate scholarship to be used anywhere in the U.S. Determined to use it, I planned to attend Columbia College in Chicago to get an MFA in fiction writing while Jeff earned an M.Div at Moody, but God re-routed us and showed me that it was Him, not creative writing, that He wanted me to study.  After a significant detour and wilderness experience in the SF Bay area, God opened the door to return to our own backyard and attend Multnomah Biblical Seminary in Portland…together.  His plan, as always, was perfect.

What has been the hardest part of seminary for you?
By far the hardest part has been the challenge of balancing a home, husband, son, work, and school.  I know of only two other women in our entire seminary who have small children…with good reason. It’s like living in two worlds.  I gave birth to Dutch seven days after finishing my last final of fall semester in ’06, then took a semester off before returning the following fall.  We also lived 1 1/2 hours away from school, so the commute was a bear.  But looking back, every second has been worth it.

For you, what has been the most rewarding part of seminary for you?
The personal growth in my walk with my Savior, and the personal growth in my marriage to Jeff.  I have fallen in love with Jesus over and over again as I’ve learned more of His nature, His love, His power, and His grace. And I’ve fallen in love with Jeff as we’ve gazed at the Savior side by side.

How’d you start blogging and Why do you Blog?
Blogging saved my life!  A year ago we left our home, jobs, town, church, and moved in with my parents so that we could finish seminary full-time and live on our savings and have help with our son while we were in class.  It was the most stripping experience of my life, but Jeff was wise enough to buy me karipatterson.com so that I’d have a creative outlet.  Without my blog I would not have survived this year.

Extra: What’s it like being a woman in seminary?
It’s like being surrounded by men!  took a Development of Spiritual Character class my first year that was all guys except me.  I called it Men’s Discipleship Class.  They were always talking about sexual purity and I just kept my head down.  But the great part was they always wanted my opinion—the “woman’s perspective” they called it.  Overall I’ve felt exceedingly respected and honored throughout my experience.

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Ok everyone, sound off and let welcome Kari to the crew!

Two Cent Tuesday - After You Graduate…

This question is in honor of all this year’s seminary graduates.

Now that the sentimentality is out of the way, let me be clear… I hate this question.

I guess the thing that I hate about the question is that it seems to me that, by asking it, seminary is being reduced to a means to an end. While, for some, I know it is just that… but for me, seminary isn’t that. The fact is that when I decided to come to seminary I was already in vocational ministry and quite happy and content with my position. For me, seminary is not about getting a piece of paper so that I can now go and fulfill God’s calling on my life. Rather, for me, seminary is about being better equipped for the calling I already have. That calling, however, is not on hold while I’m in seminary.

The way that works out in my life is that I am currently involved in a church plant in Orlando and, God willing, I’ll walk my calling out in the context of that church plant. Now, does that mean I’ll be on staff and getting a pay check… maybe, maybe not… but either way, seminary is about equipping me to better steward the ministerial responsibilities God entrusts to my care.

So, sure… what do you plan to do when you graduate… better yet, why haven’t you already started doing it now?

That’s my 2 cents… what’s yours?

Going to Seminary 2.0

Today is the official launch of GoingtoSeminary.com v2.0! So, first off, all you feed readers come check out the new digs. Second, let me show you around the new site. For one, you’ll notice that we’ve given the site a general face lift. We’re using the Revolution Pro theme by Brian Gardner. Not only is Brian a wordpress and design guru, he’s also a fellow believer. So, we’re pretty happy at goingtosemianry.com to support him (buy his themes!).

Along with the face lift, we’ve added an online forum. I went back and forth on this one for a while, but ultimately decided to give it a shot. It is designed to be a place where more dialog can take place than what happens within a given post. There are forums for issues relating to family, money, and other topics relevant to seminarians. Go give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

The third update in version 2.0 is the addition of 5, yes FIVE, brand new writers. You’ll begin seeing their work roll out this week, so give them some love and let them know you’re glad they are here. You can get a brief introduction to them in the bloggers section. Also, over the next two weeks we’ll be posting an interview with each of the new writers so that you can get to know them a little better.

Finally, as part of Version 2.0 the time has come to reveal the secret identity of “Just a Guy.”

…Drumroll please…

My name is Ryan Burns and I’m an M.Div student at RTS-Orlando. Hmmm… that was a bit anticlimactic. Well, none the less, the mystery is solved.

Welcome to GoingtoSeminary.com 2.0, we hope you enjoy then new additions.

Soli Deo Gloria
_ryan

The blog and a book

The Blog

Goingtoseminary.com will be offline tomorrow afternoon as we make the final push for v2.0. For all of you who keep up with the site through feed readers, be sure to give us a real visit next week to see the new digs.

A Book

I read a great post the other day by Michael Foster titled “Much, Not Many.” For all those who aren’t taking classes over the summer, this is some profound advice.

Brothers, only other fools are impressed by your book collection. Do yourself some good and listen to C.H. Spurgeon:
Master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until… read the rest

Thrifty Thursday - Save on Groceries

This guest post was written by Terry Delaney. You can read more from Terry at Diary of a Seminary Student and Said at Southern.

If you are like most seminary students, money is tight. In order to be good stewards of what God has given us, we need to find ways to make our budgets stretch. In this day and age of high gas prices and even higher food costs, money disappears fast. This is where Angel Food Ministries comes into the picture.

Angel Food Ministries is a non-profit, non-denominational organization dedicated to providing food relief and contributing to benevolent outreaches in communities throughout the United States. They do this by partnering with church to provide quality groceries at below grocery store prices.

The beauty of the program is that you get about $60 worth of groceries for $30. There are no conditions that need to be met other than you pay for your box of food and/or the special boxes you want to purchase each month. There is no need to show proof of income or even residency. There are no membership fees or long term agreements to sign. All you do is find a church that is a host site for the delivery of the food, pay for your food before the deadline (it varies according to whatever state you live in) and bring an empty box or laundry basket to carry your food home on the day of pickup at the local church in your area.

The food is name brand quality and usually consists of frozen meats and veggies and some box type dinners. You can view a menu, which changes every month, here. Keep in mind that the menu can vary from state to state and location to location. In case you might be little worried about the quality of the food you’ll get:

Our food is “restaurant grade” meats, frozen vegetables, fruits, dairy products, etc. which we acquire through our involvement with only the best producers/vendors of high quality, “name brand” foods. Never “seconds” or “day old” type products are involved.

Again, the cost for one box of food is only $30 and you’ll get about twice as much food than if you were to go to your local store and buy the same items there.

There is also information on how to become a host church if this is a ministry that you would like to share with your community. I know of some churches that purchase boxes of food to bolster their own food pantries and others who choose a family or two each month to help out with groceries.

Seminary Bloggers - Last Call

Hopefully at the end of this week I will begin working on goingtoseminary.com v2.0’s launch.  As I’ve mentioned previously, with v2.0 I’m looking to expand the writing staff.  If you are a seminarian and would like to write for goingtoseminary.com, then please use the contact form to get in touch with me.  I’ll be making my final decision this week, so hurry up.

Off for a couple days

Hey gang,  I just finished my last test today and thus my first semester has come to an end.  We’re off to visit granny and family for the weekend, so we’ll catch up when I return.  Hope everyone’s semesters ended well.  Anyone got a good story to share?

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