Packing List: What Should You Take with You to Theological Seminary?

By Gabe Tribbett (D.Min., ABD), Director of Deploy, Grace Theological Seminary

No one goes to seminary alone. Married students take their spouse and kids, and of course, the family dog. Single students take a cadre of friends and family who walk that journey with them. Aside from those you love the most, who else should go to theological seminary with you?

You should bring your community with you: your mentors, guides, and sending church. These people are essential to your formation and success in seminary training.

Guides

Wise guides are invaluable. They understand the lay of the land and have already learned how to navigate the terrain. Effective guides not only know the way, but they know you and what you need. They help you orient your life and studies toward the best outcomes. Like Google Maps or GPS, they guide you toward your destination without getting lost en route. They also help you see the significance of the varied experiences and opportunities you encounter. Sometimes they even nudge you to make important course corrections.

Spiritual guides, like life coaches, play an essential role in helping you to have a healthy and accurate understanding of yourself and others. They can help you refine your emotional intelligence in ways that catalyze spiritual growth and lead to more effective ministry. A strong guide ensures you do the hard work of internalizing truth rather than just filling your head with knowledge.

One of the most important goals of seminary training should be embracing theological study in ways that promote transformation. You need God’s truth to penetrate your heart and transform your life. Guides are invaluable to the transformation process. They coach you in relentlessly renewing your mind in ways that refine your character (including blind spots, pitfalls, insecurities, pride, and recalcitrance). Guides also coach you on how to respond to complex ministry situations. They push you to incarnate the grace and truth of Jesus and express the fruit of the Spirit in all of your tasks and interactions.

As Robert Murray M’Cheyne once guided a young minister-in-training, “It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus.”

A good guide knows that you need more than professional training. They are committed to seeing you experience personal development and spiritual growth in the ways of God.

Look for wise guides worth imitating, and remember to take them to seminary.

Mentors

Competent mentors are a game-changer. They provide just-in-time coaching and facilitate the formation of leadership and ministry skills. They know what it takes to be effective in ministry and how to get you there. Seasoned mentors leverage their knowledge and skills accrued over many painstaking years to help you hone yours. In effect, a good mentor can accelerate your learning by decades.

Theological seminary should always include mentoring—not merely from faculty but also frontline practitioners. One of your goals for seminary should include developing competence across ministerial arenas, including being one who “does your best to present yourself approved unto God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). As the Psalmist declared of David, “With upright heart, he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand” (Psalm 78:72).

Seminary training should produce competent leaders who are faithful yet effective. Solid mentors will help you shepherd others with integrity of heart and skillful hands. Look for seasoned leaders who are both approachable and have mastered the skills you want to acquire. Ask them to mentor you, and then remember to take them to seminary.

Sending Church

Sending churches are seminarians’ lifeline. They keep students tethered to the safety and security of the gospel. When you strain under the weight of seminary education, your church will keep you from buckling under the pressure. Strong churches protect us from drifting away personally, spiritually, and theologically.

Your sending church is one of your most vital pipelines of support. Your church family knows you. They have received edification from your exercise of spiritual gifts. They have not only embraced you but affirmed your calling. You need your church to pray over you as you strive to “guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (2 Tim. 1:14) and “to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). They keep you rooted so you can flourish and bear fruit.

Sending churches also provide contexts for practicing ministry. Your church is an essential incubator for learning and growing as a minister. The best way to learn the contours of ministry is through the real-world laboratory of the local church. Rather than study in isolation, you need opportunities to explore, discover, test, refine, hone, and strengthen your tools for ministry. Churches force seminarians to stay connected to the frontlines of ministry. They require you to relate to the people you serve. Engaging people and their situations will keep you from becoming enamored with the pleasantries and complexities of academic study while growing cold in your love for God’s people. Your seminary training should have a significant bearing on you and the everyday life of the people you love and lead.

The church is God’s vessel to deliver hope to the nations. The church is called to identify, raise up, train, and send out leaders. Seminaries cannot replace the local church, but they can be vital partners who provide resources and training to help strengthen and supply churches in the Great Commission.

Look for a theological seminary that promotes the primacy of the local church and whose faculty not only treasure Christ but also love his bride.

Your sending church is your lifeline, so remember to take them to seminary.

Take your family and friends, and perhaps even Scruffy, with you to seminary. But remember also to bring your community together. You will need your guides, mentors, and sending church. Grace Theological Seminary offers competency-based theological education where you can work directly with guides, mentors, and your sending church. Discover seminary education with a unique focus on you and your ministry.

Find a theological seminary that values your community and what each member contributes to your learning, growth, and ministry.