The semester is winding down and summer “break” is approaching. On my to-do list this summer is launch goingtoseminary.com version 2.0.  One aspect of version 2.0 I am really looking forward to is the addition of more writers.  As the comment sections will show, I am not the end-all of seminary information.  There are many seminary students out there who have a wealth of experience and insight that would be tremendously valuable.

So, with that in mind I am now accepting applications for anyone who would like to join the goingtosemianry.com team.   At this time the job is unpaid.  Writing experience, link love, and the warm fuzzy feeling of helping people out is all I really have to offer.  Should the Lord provide some sponsors for the site then I fully intend to share the love with the contributors… but, right now, I can’t promise anything.  That said, here are the details:

Job Opening: Writer
Qualification: Current Seminarian, strong writing skills
Details: The position requires you to regularly provide articles relating to all aspects of seminary life.
How to Apply: Use the goingtosemianry.com contact form to let me know you are interested.  Provide your name, seminary, and a link to your blog if you have one.  In particular, if you’ve written any posts online that you would consider goingtoseminary.com material, please send me a link to that as well.  For those who do not have an example piece posted online, I will need you to send me an example article of something you would write for goingtoseminary.com.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.  I am truly looking forward to this next step in the life of this humble little blog…

OH, and part of the v2.0 launch will be the reveal of who Just a Guy really is… that’s right, for both of you who haven’t figured it out, I will finally reveal my true identity… I know! You can just about cut the anticipation with a knife!

I realized that it has been a while since I’ve written a post for all you out there who are considering seminary. Since the summer is approaching and there are a number of you applying and making final decisions about the fall, I thought I’d throw out an idea I was thinking about the other day… namely, interviewing current students.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, it is actually quite easy to hunt down seminary students online (hmmm…. that sounded shadier than I intended). Anyway, my point is that if you are considering a seminary, it is highly likely that you can find a student (or students) who attend the seminary and have a blog. Simply google: “I attend Seminary Name” or Seminary name blog student and see what you get. Odds are, the search will get you on the right path.

Once you’ve found a seminary blogger, find their contact info and shoot them an email. Explain that you are considering attending their seminary and wanted a students insight. Most bloggers are are MORE than happy to give you their opinion. It is kind of the whole concept behind blogging…

Now, in giving this idea I feel it is also important to also say that you should take any replies you get with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, you don’t really know the person you contacted… they could have just bombed a test and, at that moment, have very unhappy thoughts about their seminary. So, keep that in mind. But, none the less, this is another way for you to navigate the tricky and sometimes overwhelming waters of selecting a seminary.

(If you give this a try, report back to us and let us know if it was helpful!)

Note:  Chuck, please use the contact form so I can get you your prize.   

Congrats go out to Chuck (aka, Chuckles, Chucklebunny, Chork, Chubbs, Charlie Bucket, Bucket, Bucket-Boy) who was the winner of our April Seminary Meme Competition. For answering 6 simple questions, tagging 5 other people, and being the name Just a Gal drew out of my Windies hat, Chuck gets to go on a $100 spending frenzy at Eisenbrauns.

For the inquiring minds in the group… here are Chuck’s answers (oh, and if you wanted to know, he attends Asbury Seminary):

What class do you think has most impacted your spiritual life?

Wow…so far, probably OT720 Biblical Archaeology. Getting to dive into the physical remains of the Old Testament world has been amazing for helping me digest the biblical text.

What seminary professor has been the most influential while in seminary?

Gah…I think this is really a tie between Dr. Richter and Dr. Dongell, though I’m tempted to lean toward Dongell.

What is the greatest challenge you’ve faced in seminary?

Adjusting to being back in school full-time while my wife works full-time to support us. There have definitely been moments of tension there.

What has been the greatest reward you’ve experienced in seminary?

Primarily, being connected with an amazing local congregation in which to worship. This has been a huge time of refreshment and spiritual renewal for me.

What are your plans after seminary?

I’m hoping to go on to PhD studies somewhere (right now looking at Notre Dame) for Early Church studies/Patristics.

How many times have you been asked question #6?

5,636,220,184 times. Exactly.

Again, congrats to Chuck and, of course, MANY thanks to our generous sponsor Eisenbrauns!

The semester is almost over and one of my big summer projects is going to be working on the launch of goingtoseminary.com version 2.0.  I have a bunch of ideas I’m wanting to put into place, but before I rush in and commit all this time and energy into it, I wanted to check and see what you all thought.  So, sound off… What do you like about the site?  What do you dislike?  Any ideas for things we should put into 2.0?

Some of the things I’ve been thinking about:

• Minor design tweek (nothing major, just a little change)
• Adding an online forum
• Hiring (yes, as in paying) some other seminarians to help write

Feel free to let me know what you think about those ideas, but more so, feel free to let me know what you think would be a great addition to the site!  Vod or Pod casting? Book reviews? More contests? Less Contest? Social networking? … You name it, I’ll consider it.  Now is your chance… share your two cents!

Update: For some reason Technorati and Wordpress are not picking up all the links from everyone’s site who is participating in the meme.  For this reason, please drop a comment on this post after you’ve filled out the meme so we can ensure that you are entered into the comp.

This month’s competition at Going to Seminary is a good (and easy) one. The best part though is that one of our site sponsors, Eisenbrauns, has offered to supply this month’s prize… a $100 gift certificate to their online bookstore!

So, how can you win the $100 gift certificate? Easy:

This Seminary Meme is part of a competition sponsored by Going to Seminary and Eisenbrauns. If you’d like to be entered, simply answer the 7 questions below and tag 5 other people. You’ll also need to post this paragraph (links included) with your answers as the links will be tracked back to your blog and will count as your “entry” into the competition. On April 30th, 2008, one blogger will be selected at random to win a $100 gift certificate to the Eisenbrauns online bookstore.

Please feel free to modify the question so as to make it appropriate to your situation as a pre-seminarian, seminarian, or seminary graduate (example given on first question).

1. Where do (will/did) you attend seminary?
2. What class do you think has most impacted your spiritual life?
3. What seminary professor has been the most influential while in seminary?
4. What is the greatest challenge you’ve faced in seminary?
5. What has been the greatest reward you’ve experienced in seminary?
6. What are your plans after seminary?
7. How many times have you been asked question #6?

Tagged (almost everyone who has ever left a comment on Going to Seminary): Jeff, Tyler, Shaun, Chad, Jon, tlange, Sovann, Julie, Chris, Jake, Paul, Jason, Terry, Anthony, Mark, Ryan, Jeremiah, Chris, Ben, Nick, Paul, Eric, RC, Raymond, Deb, Shari, and Andy

Oh Happy Day!

Good news bloggers, someone FINALLY wants to pay you. The folks over at college scholarship are hosting scholarship competition for BLOGGERS!

Everyone rush over and drop in your application. Now, the scholarship isn’t awarded until October but, hey, go ahead and get your entry in… then you’ll forget about it… until you get the $10,000 email!

This year there is no need to “beware the Ides of March.” In fact, quite the opposite! This year you can look forward to the Ides of March to find out if you are the winner of a brand new 4GB iPod Nano from Going to Seminary… or other cool prizes:

1st prize - 4GB iPod Nano
2nd prize - 1GB iPod Shuffle
3rd prize - $25 iTunes gift card

Just as Rome was not built in a day, neither will this competition be won in a day (unless you’re really good). This one will take some effort, which is why I’m dropping the coin for the cool prizes. So, here are the rules:

This competition will be run on a point system. On March 14th the person with the most points wins. Winners will be announced on the Ides of March (the 15th).

So, how do you get points? Points will be awarded for various tasks you complete - see below. For some of these I will need you to report your activity to me, so I am trusting that no one will cheat or lie (seriously, that would be very uncool).

The Point System:

1 Point - Post a link to Going to Seminary that has seminary related words as the link text. (1 point limit PER DAY)
EXAMPLE:
- This is a cool site about going to seminary. (1 point)
- Check this out. Visit here. (0 points)

1 Point - Create a Going to Seminary flyer and post it somewhere on your campus. (1 point per flyer - 10 point max)
- for this one you need to email me (justaguy [AT] goingtoseminary [DOT] com) and let me know how many you posted and the name of the campus on which you posted them. You are welcome to use any graphics or images found on Going to Seminary for your flyers

3 Points - Add a Going to Seminary badge to your site (scroll down to get the code)

5 Points - If you email me a picture of your flyer hanging somewhere on campus (picture phone images are fine). Please include the name of the campus

10 Points - If you make a verbal announcement before the start of a class about the website (email me the name of your seminary and the class in which you made the announcement).

15 Points - Get your seminary to include a link to Going to Seminary on their next mass email to students (most seminaries have a regular email to students with announcements and events, etc). I’ll need a copy of the email to confirm

20 Points - Get your seminary to post a link to Going to Seminary on their website.

25 Points - For the most creative way you get the word out about Going to Seminary. (I reserve the right to give away more than one of these if you all get really creative)
Example:
- Getting a Going to Seminary tattoo
- Make a Going to Seminary t-shirt and wearing it to class
- Stand on the street corner with a banner with the site URL on it
- Get a skywriter to write the URL over the sky above your seminary
- Get creative… Get the points.

50 Points - The big daddy… Get a seminary (or, heck, anyone) to become a site sponsor.

So, there you have it. Go get some points and I’ll start tracking the results.

Wow… it is 2:56 a.m. and it is finally finished. If I wasn’t so exhausted I’d explain how INCREDIBLY difficult this conversion was. Well, I hope you like the new digs… I’ll be tweaking it here and there over the next couple weeks, so feel free to let me know what you think.

…sleepy time…

After months of hard work we’ve finally claimed the #1 spot for the search query “going to seminary” on google.

For the last 4 months I’ve been #2 on this results… behind some blog post some guy wrote in 2006.

My goal… however ludicrous it might be, is to get #1 ranking on the search “seminary” … yeah, I know, I said it was ludicrous.

I am the KING of being distracted. However, I tend to be distracted by things that are actually important. The bad thing about that is I feel justified and guilty at the same time.

I find myself having a plan for the day and easily diverting from that plan in order to accomplish something that, yes needs to be done, but yet isn’t on the plan. For example, I’m a web developer. To pay the bills I make websites. In order to maintain a balanced life I schedule out my week to a fairly precise timing. There is a time for work, a time for study, a time for class, and a time for family. Now, if I would stick to the schedule I actually think I’d get a WHOLE lot more done. However, while studying I check email… checking email leads to check a blog leads to editing a blog leads to answering a clients question leads to fixing a glitch on their site leads to…. spending my entire study time working.

I don’t have any answers here… so this post is basically pointless… except for the fact that it is distracting me from (let me look at the schedule)… yup, reading.

Do I need to post? Yes. Was I supposed to post 5 hours ago so I could be reading now? (sigh) Yes.

Anyone have any tips on keeping to your schedule… I’m a pro at making them… it is keeping them that I find difficult. Help?