Professors are people too

A couple years ago I was humbled (okay, a couple minutes ago I was too, but that’s another story) … when I realized that my professors were so caring, authentic, and well, human. This epiphany moment? I was walking across campus and two different profs, a couple minutes apart, asked us how our son was doing, and how work was going for me. After our conversation, I walked away asking myself: “Do I ever ask how their family is? Do I expand my care for them beyond the classroom?”

Times like that are evidence of God’s grace, for He could have showed from the heavens, “You are an idiot! Pray for these men and women who mentor you!” Yet, He chose to show me through a subtle process that through my own folly and self-absorbed view of seminary I was forgetting to recognize our profs are people too.

One of the caring professors who paused to ask about us is our President. Even though Kari and I were and are co-TA’s for his theology course, I hadn’t realized the great place of intercession we could play in his life and that of his family. He prays for us; do we pray for him?

Always giving, seldom receiving

Professors give and give and speak and counsel non-stop. While we get 10-minute breaks during class, they rarely get a moment without a question about the syllabus, a recommendation for a book, or most of all, request for special considerations for a homework assignment. (Not to mention some of the ridiculous questions we ask in class!) We take and take and take. They give and give and give.

Many if not most of our beloved professors serve in some leadership capacity in their local church. They have families, financial obligations, health concerns deadlines for research, and probably a plethora of faculty meetings we don’t even know about. Plus, they are simply an integral part of the Body of Christ, for which He died. Their spiritual life must remain vital in order to impact ours.

Do you pray for your professors? When you sit down with classmates and are tempted to criticize a certain prof for a certain viewpoint or project he assigned, stop yourself and consider how this is my brother in Christ pours of his life for you sake. Let’s stop and pray for him.

Today or this week, be mindful of your professors, and pray for them. Also, pause for a moment and consider how you can practically bless them. Little things like:

• a handwritten note
• a word of encouragement
• join with other students to do something creative for them
• give an update from a prayer request you shared with them earlier
• ask to buy them lunch
• if they ask you to call them by their first name, then do it
• did I mention hand-written notes?
• send a card on their birthday or over the holidays
• ask them about their kids
• ask to see pictures of their grand-kids
• pay attention in class (close your laptop if you don’t need it!) — this is an ultimate sign of respect (and of course it goes without saying you are paying for it, and if roles were reversed you probably would appreciate the students’ full engagement)
• don’t start to pick up your items until the class period is complete and your are dismissed
• staple your assignments
• follow the syllabus guidelines for your papers (okay, these two are more of a blessing to us TA’s)

Any other ways we can bless our professors? After all, they are people too.

The Diverse Fabric of the Kingdom

The other day my wife and I had some friends over for a meal after church, one of whom was an American of Hispanic background and also a seminary student. We came to discuss some of our experiences at seminary. One of the things we spent a bit of time reflecting on was the difficulty that some international students have integrating themselves into the community.

It is no secret that many of our evangelical seminaries are dominated by white, middle-class Americans. For this one fellow, he even felt that to a certain extent the seminary had become a sort of clique for this demographic. Although I largely fit the demographic, and look and sound American, I have noticed that there are even occasions when I find myself feeling slightly out of place. It is hard to put my finger on it, but a British friend of mine suggested that there is something different in the way I think in comparison to many of my American brothers and sisters in the seminary.

One of the things that I get excited about is the changing face of Christianity. As its center rapidly shifts from the West into the developing world where it is growing at astonishing rates, there are things that are going to change in the future. We are going to be increasingly confronted with different theological expressions borne out of different cultural and historical contexts. We are going to come into contact with new forms of worship. We are going to see what place prayer occupies in the lives of believers from different backgrounds. It is very exciting and will give us tremendous opportunities to rethink the way we do things, and provide new ways for thinking about our fidelity to Scripture.

By why wait for these changes to be more evident here? The opportunity presents itself already now. The body of Christ is spectacularly diverse, and we need to embrace this diversity. Even if your seminary is dominated by the typical demographic, there are likely some students who come from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds and we are to be one with them in Christ Jesus. There is also a lot we can learn from them. Consider these suggestions:

• Get to know them. Just sit down and talk with them. Find out who they are, where they are from, and what their story is. A lot of us have unique stories about how we found our way to seminary, and those who come from different parts of the world are no different. You will get a feel for how people from different areas of the world operate and think just by talking to them on this level.
• Discuss theology and faith with them. As I alluded to above, they are probably going to have different perspectives on different issues, and it is well worth your time to explore those differences. To some degree it might be difficult for you to understand where they are coming from because there is a cultural barrier between you, but do what you can to try and get inside that framework and understand their perspective. It will be a rewarding experience.
• Be open-minded. Allow them to criticize Western culture and the Western Church, or if they are from a different part of the West, American culture and the American Church. Hear what they have to say and give it an honest and fair analysis. Dialog with them about it and see what different understandings their criticisms are built on.
• Make them feel at home. While you may be away from home as you attend seminary, you’re probably still in a familiar context and environment. For some international students, however, everything may be entirely foreign to them. Invite them into your home, share a meal with them, get your families together, avoid dominating your conversations on Monday with football talk, go to worship with them, invite them to worship with you, eat their food, talk about their culture, just hang out together. There are a myriad of ways to make this happen.
• Pray together. Above all, because your bond is found in Christ, embrace that. There is no greater unity to be found than when His people kneel together before Him.

Perhaps you have some other suggestions from your own experiences that you could add to this list. Please do, that’s why comments are enabled on this site. Interact with us.

It is important to remember that the Kingdom of God is not one nationality or ethnicity. It is global and universal, and cultural distinctions are broken down by our unity in Christ (Gal. 3:28). The fabric with which the Kingdom is woven together is incredibly diverse.  Embrace that, learn from it, and rejoice in the diversity of God’s people!

When God Lets Us Choose

Right now Jeff and I have two possible opportunities (for a pastoral role for Jeff).  One seemed like it was a no-go, then the other sprung up, then it died down and the other seemed like it was back on, a done deal. Then, no word for weeks, while the other has emerged again a bit stronger.  Whenever we’ve leaned one way, something makes us tilt back to the center.  At this point, we have no idea which will materialize, or even which we’d prefer.

I’m a black and white thinker. It’s natural for me to analyze situations constantly to determine what the very best situation is.  I also am passionate about rejecting the sacred/secular duality, and instead embracing that God is in every details of life…the sacredness of the mundane.  So even in college I remember asking God, “What way should I walk to class today?  Is there a specific way you want me to go, so I’ll meet someone or is there is something you have for me?”  Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of times I just had to run the shortest way because I was late, tired, or sick of the rain, but I’m a pretty hard-core believer that there’s usually a “best way” to do things.

Isn’t it funny how God challenges us in the way we naturally think?  I’ve had this funny feeling, this strong feeling lately that in this two-opportunity situation Jeff and I are in, that God might be asking us to choose.  We’ve prayed, we’ve weighed, we’ve given both our best shot.  We’ve listed pros and cons, we’ve sought counsel.  You name it, we’ve done it.  And granted, neither one has been exactly handed to us at this point, but I still have this strange suspicion that God’s asking us to choose.  And not just choose what is the good option and the bad, or even between better and best.  But just to choose what we’d most desire to do.

My fingers stutter even writing those words. I am not a “best life now” kind of girl.  I don’t choose things based on what I want or like (unless it’s ice cream flavors); I choose based on ministry, effectiveness, efficiency, utilizing resources, sense of should, greater benefit, etc.  And most of the time, I do believe those are the right things to factor in when making decisions. But could it be, could it possibly be, that there are times when God actually says, “I’ve chosen you. You’ve followed my path. Now you choose … what would you like?”

My Family Ministry professor shared a similar experience. He reached a point where he had to choose which direction to go in ministry. Everytime he prayed, he envisioned a tennis match with God. He kept hitting the ball back at God: “What do You want me to do?”  And everytime, God kept hitting it back at him, saying: “What do you want to do?”  At first it frustrated Him–of course God must want Him to do a certain one thing, right? But then eventually He realized that in this one situation, God was actually allowing Him to just choose what he wanted to do!

I met with my mentor professor today and without me even bringing this idea up, she said, “It sounds like God is letting you choose. Like when you hold out for Dutch (my son) an apple and a banana and say, ‘Which one do you want, Honey?’  Both are nutritious. Both are great options, both will nourish him. One is not better than the other.  The end result is the same, and because you love him you’re letting him choose according to his heart’s desire, because it pleases you to let him.”  So simple.  I don’t expect Dutch to evaluate the fiber content of each or estimate his need for potassium or evaluate which piece of fruit costs less.  He just chooses and we are both happy.

Of course I still believe that most of the time God has the “right choice” for us. But as we consider our options–which seminary to attend, where to live, which job, or smaller things like what to do on a Friday night with our families, perhaps at times our loving Father hands us two glorious options, an apple and a banana, and says, “Here precious child. Which one would delight you?”  Perhaps sometimes God just lets us choose.

Why is this semester so ridiculously difficult?

Perhaps you have encountered some unexpected hardship as a seminary student this semester. Lost a job? Seen unexpected expenses creep up. Seen a side of your anger you didn’t realize was there?

God is not surprised. Nor should we be (at least not in general).

The hidden seminary class

We may not have noticed the class on our course schedule, but it is there. In fact, I’m convinced that without this class seminary would be a waste, or at least ineffective. It is the class of Sanctification, the one where the Holy Spirit works inside us, by using every means possible to perform His eternal work (Romans 8). Our character is deeply affected, we see our true selves, and often are not happy with what we find. Let the transformation begin.

Have you experienced the inconvenience of little things like there not being a computer available to print the course notes or a time-sensitive assignment, or locking the keys in our car, or an important document disappearing from your thumb drive? Or perhaps you did what I did last Spring, leaving my laptop in class and getting almost home, then racing back only to find the building locked for the night (and not planning on returning to class until the next week, after a break).Yeah, Kari was in the car with, and I was not what they call a “happy camper” right then. I repented when I got back in the car, and through the experience God showed us one practical way to shift our schedule and create a healthy margin as to not run ourselves ragged.

Those experiences build our character, but they also reveal it. We start to see who we really are. Or perhaps the trials are “outside” of seminary, with the loss of a job, not connecting well with your spouse in daily mis-communication, or an issue with a child, health complications, or financial worries (welcome to seminary!) — the list goes on and on. I can say I’m big on all-of-life-being-preparation, but do I embrace trials as being from God?

God is actively shaping us into the type of people who love Him more than we love His gifts, and to reflect Jesus’ worth, work and ways. (Reflectors don’t have light in themselves, they just reveal the real light, reflecting it.. Can you relate to this shaping experience?

One constant thread through all my problems

So, why is it so hard? Perhaps part of the answer lies in the common denominator in all my problems:

• Me.

Yep. More than learning skills and getting some neat letters to place after my name, God is rescuing me from myself. Oh, thank You Jesus that You are the only One able to do so! (Romans 7:24-25). Paul Tripp has some helpful words on the subject:

“The good news of the kingdom is not freedom from hardship, suffering, and loss. It is the news of a Redeemer who has come to rescue me from myself. His rescue produces change that fundamentally alters my response to these inescapable realities. The Redeemer turns rebels into disciples, fools into humble listeners. He makes cripples walk again. In him we can face life and respond with faith, love, and hope. And as he changes us, he allows us to be a part of what he is doing in the lives of others. As you respond to the Redeemer’s work in your life, you can learn to be an instrument in his hands.”
- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (Phillipsburg, Pa.: P & R publishing, 2002), 16.

This added class on our schedule of life is the work of a gracious God who loves us too much to leave us unchanged. We can press on through these trials (see Phil. 3 to see what Paul considered worthy to press on towards). In fact, God purposes, not only to help us navigate through the various stages of seminary, but more than that: to become the kind of people who love Him more than the journey. That’s why this semester is so ridiculously difficult.

(By the way, this hidden seminary class is not an elective. Enjoy!)

Faithful Life, Thought, and Belief

While you are in seminary, it is likely that you will come into contact with the term “worldview.” If you have really smart professors or fellow students who want to impress you with their knowledge, you might hear them use the word Weltanschauung instead. That is the German word from which we derive the term worldview. What the idea of worldview basically denotes is the foundational beliefs and principles that govern your life. As it is, everybody has a worldview, whether they are conscious of it or not.

We live in an age of declared relativism, where people confess the right to believe whatever they want. You are undoubtedly familiar with those who put together their own religion—a veritable smörgåsbord (there, now you have learned both a German and a Swedish word) composed of a host of differing parts from various religions that they find attractive. Truth becomes a hazy standard that is entirely up to the individual to determine, and no one truth need apply to anyone else but that individual, let alone a community or society.

Those of us who are Christians all share the very same basic root of our worldview–the person and work of Jesus Christ–but from there we are confronted with a great deal of diversity in our interpretations of what it means to live with that as our foundation. There can be just as much diversity within the Christian faith in terms of worldviews. This post is not meant to try and convince you that one or another Christian worldview is the one you should follow, but instead to encourage you to work to ensure that your worldview is comprehensive and coherent.

I have a number of regular people who remind me of the need to determine the validity of my worldview on a regular basis. I hear it quite regularly from professors, see it in many of the books I read, and talk about it with friends. Some of today’s leaders in the Church decry things like systematic theology as outdated and irrelevant for Christians in the 21st century. However, I am of the firm conviction that systematic thought of any sort is certainly not without its place. The fact is that if you assume a set of beliefs and principles that guide your life and you do not apply those consistently to each area of your life and thought, glaring contradictions will emerge in short order. Look at the way we criticize politicians when they say one thing and do another. So it is when people look at us as Christians and see contradictions. If you believe something, you need to live like you believe it.

Certainly, it is challenge to work towards a comprehensive worldview. But as a Christian, it is essential. If you are going to claim Jesus Christ as your Lord, he needs to be Lord of your entire life. Someone I know—a bit of dilettante poet, I suppose—once said, “Jesus Christ is Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.” You might interpret this in a different way than I do, but what it boils down to is that you cannot relegate his rule to only one part of your life. It has to impact all of it. I am constantly confronted with the fact that I do not live like this, but instead live sinfully before the face of God, giving my allegiance to other things in my life and in this world. I am grateful for those who help me see the idols I inadvertently worship and the misconstrued beliefs that I hold to. Though I often live like it and though our world proudly proclaims it, I am not the sole arbiter of truth, and need the community of believers to guide me in the wisdom of God.

Surround yourself with a community of believers who strives earnestly to discover what it means to live as Christians in this world and how to do that faithfully. Seminary is such an incredibly opportunity to do this. If your current worldview has contradictions in it, work to resolve those. There is no divorce in the Christian faith, no part that is left untouched by the transforming power of the Gospel. How you live and what you believe is not an indifferent matter. A comprehensive, biblically-rooted worldview is essential to living as faithful servants of God in this world.

Note: this is a slightly altered version of a similar post I wrote for my blog in August of this year.

Humbling ourselves BY casting our cares upon Him

Greek has seemed to be a little disjointed until we arrive in the relative deep-end of participles this semester. I am certainly still wading around in the shallow end, but being pushed further into learning how to swim in this new language (but still with those orange arm-floaties!). Last week I read a couple fascinating notes about the participle of means (”by means of”) while reading Wallace’s Greek Grammar (p. 630).

Humble yourselves … by casting your cares upon Him

The first illustration comes from the oft quoted passage in 1 Peter 5:6-7: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God …” Many times I’ve heard the next clause quoted in isolation: “Cast your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.” Do this! Yes, how needed and true it is, for He does care for us. But “cast your cares upon Him” is not an imperative clause (casting is a participle, not a verb). We miss the point when we think of the phrases separate as “Humble yourselves. [And] cast your case upon Him.

The point of the Apostle seems to be that the specific way we humble ourselves before God is to cast our cares upon Him. We show humility by casting our cares upon Him. Dependence and submission in all of life — even the small stuff — reveals an attitude of humility (and creates it too).

He emptied Himself … by taking on the form of a servant

The next illustration came right underneath, where the famous kenosis passage is in view (Phil. 2:6-8). Specifically, in verse 7, where the participle should be translated “he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant.” Debate has gone on for at least the last two centuries as to what it means that Christ emptied (ekenosev) Himself. Wallace notes the typical pattern of this specific participle, that it follows the verb, and that the verb is vague, even needing (’begging’) to be defined. “By taking on” shows the means of Christ’s emptying Himself. He did not subtract His deity, but rather added the form of a slave, willingly, becoming a man, suffering and dying — even death on a cross (v. 8).

But wait, isn’t emptying normally thought of as subtraction, not addition? Wallace notes that as well, and points out the poetic features of the whole passage (most likely it was used as an early hymn). Earlier in verses 1-4 he commanded them to think and do “nothing from selfish ambition and vain conceit.” The word for conceit (kenodoxian or “empty glory”) is used by Paul to remind them of what not to do. Then Jesus comes along and shows them what to do — what it means to empty His glory (the words almost rhyme) — they are to have that same mind towards one another. Brilliant and powerful insights, Dr. Wallace!

The opposing directions in view in both passages are startling. We receive God favor by humbling ourselves, and specifically by casting our cares and burdens upon Him. (He opposes us directly even second if we go the other way, which is revealed in our not taking our cares to Him.) The antidote to seeking empty glory is to stare at the One who emptied His own glory to reveal His infinite worth in the lowliest form of all, a slave unto death. He will change us. Let this mind be in us, continually, Lord Jesus.

Proclaiming Our Faith in the Power of the Spirit

Let me say first that we want you all to know that those of us who write things for this site are real people, and our contributions are often reflections both on our experiences in seminary and on the path of faith. With that said, I want to lead off with a bit of a personal story to give a bit of context as to where I’m going with this post.

Apologetics has been something of a theme for me in the past few months. It began when we taught through Tim Keller’s excellent book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, in our adult Sunday School class at church. Now I have the privilege of taking John Frame’s apologetics course this semester here at RTS. As a result, I’ve been digesting a lot of information and gradually have felt more prepared to interact with those who have questions or objections to our faith.

Or so I thought.

Conversations

Last week, I was sitting in the café area of a local bookstore and I was doing some reading for the apologetics course. There were a couple of people at other tables within close proximity of me. Sometimes when I am on my own in a situation like that, I try to disguise what I am reading so as to avoid confrontation or any sort of conversation that might make me uncomfortable, and somewhat ashamedly I admit that this was one of those times. I felt concerned that, should someone want to talk with me, my witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ would be entirely inadequate. When the bookstore closed, I left and drove home feeling the weight on my conscience for my hypocritical actions.

That night, I had a dream. I was sitting in a coffee shop or bar of some sort with my brother. It was a pleasant environment, peaceful and relaxing, when suddenly out of the blue a young man in the corner started loudly criticizing Christianity in the way that many people in our culture often do. The attention of the crowd turned to him. My brother and I became increasingly bothered by his sentiments, and after a few minutes of listening to him, I mustered the courage to walk over to him and talk with him. I cannot recall exactly what I said in that dream, but I do remember finding out that the generalizations of his views of Christianity were not influenced by interaction or contact with Christians, but instead by the media and popular culture. I encouraged him to sit down and talk with Christians, to find out about their faith and why they follow Jesus and other important questions. He calmed down, thought about the idea, and then told me that he would do so and that he had unfairly judged a group of people he had little familiarity with. We exchanged phone numbers and he said he would call me so we could sit down and talk.

When I woke up in the morning, I felt greatly comforted. God used that dream to show to me that my cowardly actions that evening in the bookstore were unnecessary, and I felt more assured than ever that if such a situation presented itself in real life, His Spirit would be with me to grant me the words to say.

The Greatest Apologetic

I have found that seminary has a sort of double-effect: on the one hand, it gives us a lot of solid answers to a lot of questions. But on the other hand, it can raise a whole host of other questions we never previously considered. Again, it comes down to realizing that the more we grow in knowledge, the more we realize we do not know. This realization crosses my mind whenever I think about engaging with those who do not know Christ. I have been educated enough that I can give pat doctrinal answers to a lot of questions, but that may not be what people are looking for. Talking about the reality of faith and grace can be a lot more difficult than talking about theological concepts like justification. Everyone is different, and every approach will require a different nuance.

If you have read Keller’s book, you would be familiar with the great answers he provides to some of the major questions skeptics of Christianity have. Yet he admits that these answers may not always satisfy, and that sometimes you will need to, in essence, “play it by ear” and simply love them in the hopes that as they witness your testimony to the Gospel in how you live your life, they will be led towards faith. Our faith is not a disinterested confession of a number of doctrinal points, but it is a lived life. It transforms our entire being, and our radical difference from this world should be so blatantly obvious that people are drawn to us to find out what makes us different. While we certainly must know the basics of this faith, that knowledge has to inform how we live, or it is meaningless. We would also do well to remember the words of Francis Schaeffer, who said that the greatest and final apologetic, more effective than words, is the observable love of Christ between Christians. Actions always speak louder than words.

The words are 1 Peter 3:15 are familiar to many of us-”always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” God has given us His Word and His Spirit so that we can confidently, graciously, and lovingly bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is our responsibility to immerse ourselves in that Word, and to draw from that deep well. In seminary we find ourselves with a wealth of resources from which to learn from, such as Kari mentioned recently with her post on the un-mined treasure that is the seminary faculty. We have the community of believers to strengthen and uphold us. We have teachers like Keller and Frame who are willing to share their wisdom and insight with us. We have a responsibility to take advantage of the opportunities given to us, and in doing so we can go forward with confidence in the power of the Spirit.

Jesus’ promise to His disciples is no less a promise to us: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). What comfort and what joy.

Let us proclaim the love and grace of our most precious Savior.

The Stages of Seminary

This is a guest post by John Dyer.  John is the director of web development at DTS and creator of the site Best Commentaries.

In my final year at Dallas Seminary I began to emerge from a time where I had become somewhat cynical. As I thought about how I had changed and observed students going through similar phases, a common pattern seemed to emerge among all of us. Not every seminary student will follow this pattern, but you might see yourself or someone you know somewhere along the continuum.

Stage 1 – Enthused - “I love Jesus”
First year students are often the most joyful people on a seminary campus. They love the Lord, and they are excited to dedicate their life to serving him and his church. They do every assignment with vigor, attend every chapel the campus offers, and tend to be a little mystified at those students who do not have the same fervor that they do. Stage 1 can as long as a year or two, but sadly has a tendency to fade out rather quickly.

Stage 2 – Smug – “I love Barth”
Sometime in the first year or two, students begin to notice that what garnered attention at their home churches – deep love for God and his people – is not as noticeable in the classroom. The academic setting naturally emphasizes the importance of knowledge – knowledge of theology, theologians, and theological positions. Slowly, students stop raising their hand in class to ask questions, and begin to raise their hands to make statements showing their brilliance.

The ancient spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and Scripture meditation tend to a backseat to skills that can be graded numerically. In conversation, students at this stage are more likely to drop the name of an obscure theologian (“It wasn’t assigned, I’m just reading it for fun”) than to speak of the goodness of God. This phase is one of the longest, and quite often students from Bible colleges or strong Bible churches tend to skip Stage 1 entirely and begin seminary at Stage 2 (I know I did!).

Stage 3 – Disillusioned – “I hate seminary”
All of the gesturing and posturing of Stage 2 eventually gives way into a third stage characterized by cynicism thinly veiled as “critical thinking.” The tell tale sign of students this stage is the tendency to be decidedly anti-something or other. They might have been pro-something before, but now they are very much against it. They regularly point out serious – grave, even – errors in their church, their tradition, or their seminary. Perhaps the student noticed his or her own smugness from Stage 2 and begins to question the entire concept of seminary itself. If you hear a student start a sentence with “The church never …” or “Christians always …” he or she is mostly like struggling through Stage 3 which, along with Stage 2, is often long and difficult.

Stage 4 – Broken – “I hate pride”
Somewhere toward the end of seminary or perhaps some time after it, something remarkable begins to happen. The finger that was pointed at everyone and everything in Stage 3 is supernaturally turned back toward the accuser. As the student enters this final stage, he begins to realize that the problem is not the American church, systematic theology, or Zondervan. “The problem is me,” he finally realizes.
Although the student is now an expert in critiquing sermons, theological systems, and church models, he begins to remember that the reason he entered ministry was to bring the Gospel to broken people, not already perfected people. It dawns on him, “Of course the church has lots of problems. Why else would we need to go to seminary to learn how to minister to them?” The sharp cynicism that was only able to point out the problems is now capable of illuminating needs and seeing opportunities to minister to the very people to whom God has called him.

My Journey
For me, seminary functioned a lot like how Paul described the function of the Law. There is no problem with the Law; it was not designed to save us, only to point out sin and point us to Christ. I used to think that seminary was supposed to save me, and instead it made me cynical. I finally realized it wasn’t seminary that had changed me, but my flesh that had ceased upon seminary as a way to amplify my pride. Thanks be to God that seminary eventually performed its function as schoolmaster to point me to Christ that I might point others to him.

The Ministry of Prayer

Introduction

The longer I am a Christian, the more I discover the power of what I call the ministry of prayer.  It seems as though praying is a difficult thing for most people to do.  According to one professor, quoting statistics from a prayer conference, those in attendance (lay men and women) prayed an average of five minutes a day.  The ministers did some 40% better.  They prayed seven minutes a day.  Take into account that these men and women were at a conference on prayer and you start to get the picture of how little most people pray.

Personal Prayer

No, I am not going to pontificate on our need to pray more often and more regularly.  I am certainly not the person to say that even if I do believe it.  However, what I have called the ministry of prayer is just that–a ministry.  Yes, we should set aside time for personal prayer each day.  Yes, we should set aside time for family prayer each day.  Yes, we should set aside time for corporal prayer in church each week.  But, that is not all.

On the flip side, we should be ready for spontaneous prayer at any moment.  When you are walking around the house and you see a picture of someone, you might say a quick prayer.  When you are driving, you might say a quick prayer for those next to you on the highway.   When you are at a restaurant, you could pray for your waitress.  You get the picture.

What I have found is that this helps to cultivate a lifestyle of prayer.  Paul tells us to pray without ceasing.  I am one of those that believes he means pray all day and all night.  I believe Paul is telling us to live such a life of prayer that everything we do, from getting dressed to going to bed, is bathed in prayer.

Prayer as a Ministry

This leads me to a sort of pet-peeve of mine.  Have you ever told someone you would pray for them only to either forget about what you were going to pray for or, worse, not pray for them?  I know I have…a lot.  I would get so mad that I forgot that I would actually blame God for letting me forget.  Talk about a snowball of sin!  I had to do something about this so as to no longer sin against everyone and God.

Now, when I say I am going to be praying for someone, I will usually stop (if able) and pray with that person immediately.  There have been many times where I have stood in the middle of a parking lot or a hallway or classroom praying with someone over a particular issue.  One of the neatest moments is when I asked a waitress if I could pray for her while blessing the meal.  She joined my table while we prayed and then sat and listened as I explained the gospel to her.  Unfortunately, I do not know what has become of her.  Only God knows that.  However, prayer led to a gospel message.  How cool is that?

The Effect

I have noticed at least three by-products from doing this.  First, I am much more likely to remember what I was supposed to be praying for as well as for whom I was praying.  Second, others have seen this take place and have offered to pray as well.  I figure the more prayer the better.  Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you minister most effectively to the person’s soul when you pray for them immediately.  Most people take it with a grain of salt when you tell them you will pray for them, but if you do so immediately, and with them, they usually leave much more encouraged and ready to face whatever it is they will be facing.

Conclusion

I am not going to sit here and challenge you to go live a life of prayer (we should be doing that already) or to begin praying for every person you run into.  However, I would like you to consider the magnitude of prayer.  When you pray, you approach the throne of God on someone else’s (or your own) behalf.  Is there anything more honorable than that?  Most people would love to plead the case of a good friend in trouble to someone who could help them.  We should be more urgent in pleading these cases to the only One who can help all of us.

Starting Seminary Year 4 of ?

For the last couple years I’ve been blessed to be a teaching assistant for first-year Theology at Multnomah (actually co-TA, as Kari does most of the paper-grading). Once or twice a semester I get to fill-in for our prof and teach (preach!) on Soteriology, Ecclesiology or some other section in our unit of systematic theology.

Inevitably, my intro includes a reminder to proofread their papers (Please, I beg you!), mentioning that my aim in life is for the Gospel and being a faithful husband and loving father, and the little caveat is that while I am an MDiv student teaching you today it is likely that some in the room may graduate before me. I am totally serious.

This week marks the start of our fourth year in seminary, out of only-God-knows-how-many. It is formally known as the first term of Fall classes at Multnomah. On Tuesdays I have Preaching in the morning, Greek in the afternoon. The Hermeneutics/Bible Study Methods class on Friday will include most of those same students that I’ll be grading papers for in Theology. That’s technically a first-year (first semester) course, but I’m just getting around to taking it in my fourth year. Yeah, the Registrar knows me by name, always taking classes out of sequence.

Detour: When the Journey Twists and Turns

Ryan has chronicled his 6-7 year journey to arriving at seminary here and here, and first day in class about seven months ago — back when we all knew him as “Just a Guy.” He is especially encouraging as he (and family) can empathize with enduring trials and disappointments.

Come what may, one thing you can bet on is that things will not go as planned. Since you’re in seminary it’s probably unwise to bet ( = gambling), but perhaps we can all relate to the setbacks to flying through our graduate training in the Word. When we look on page whatever of the course catalog we normally don’t notice SF 101 The Triune God Rocks Your World. Spiritual Formation (seminary-speak for ‘growing like Christ’) comes in all shapes and forms, and God the Spirit will use any means necessary to form us into the image of the Son (Romans 8:28-30; Colossians 3:10).

Yet these trials are minor and brief and certainly not strange (1 Peter 1:6-9). Christ suffered and endured in infinitely more ways that we ever will, and we get to taste a bit of His love in the midst of following in His steps. (And let’s never forget that suffering comes before glory — Romans 8:14-19.) For the Apostle Paul, sharing in the sufferings of our Savior was the height of all Christian experience, knowing Christ (Phil. 3:7-11).

Pausing and Restarting

So, I better wrap this up. Actually, for me this is more like year 3.2 of seminary. After our first year, we were had our first big surprise: first baby on the way! So I continued working full-time in a construction management/engineering career, but dropped my classes for the year — seminary was on pause. Had to forfeit my scholarship for the year (which I later found out was given to my best friend; God knew He needed it more.) That was 2006-07, perhaps my best year of ’school.’ During that year as ‘not-enrolled’ I was able to devour a stack of books waiting to be read, reflect on the Word more devotionally, take a summer course, and began to see my job as a mission field and not just a means-to-an-end. When our son was born, Kari took a full year off in there too.

This Fall is her last in-class course, and I’m gearing up to grade papers of students who may yet still graduate before me. As we embark as a family on “year 4″ — pregnant with baby #2 — so grateful for Christ’s sustaining power, the fact remains that the Object and chief end of our journey is HIM, not us. That is why the process is so vital.

Oh, that the life and character of Jesus would be formed in us!

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