Attending seminary was never on my radar. In fact, up until I was enrolled and taking my first classes, I couldn’t have told you exactly what happens at a seminary or why anyone goes to one. My first recollection of having encountered a woman who had been to seminary was my World Religions professor my freshman year on a secular college campus.
During one class discussion, she referenced something she had learned “in seminary” on a particular subject. I recall little else about that class, but her passive mention of having gone to seminary was a uniquely profound moment for me. I was struck by this notion, confused even, because after all, didn’t only men attend seminary, and also, weren’t those who did, like, monks or something? This was the perception my eighteen-year-old mind had as to those who went to whatever this place was called seminary. This free-spirited humanities professor, however, with her bohemian dress and wild curly brown hair, who often held class outside and led us in yoga exercises, busted my narrow paradigm wide open.
I was a communications major set on a career path of sports journalism. Also a volleyball player, I had achieved my lifelong goal of being a collegiate All-American athlete. Then during my junior year, the Lord brought me into a markedly different, intense period of spiritual refining. I underwent a more serious level of discipleship than ever before, and within several months’ time, I came to understand that God was calling me into full-time vocational ministry.
Fast forward to Christmas break of my senior year when He further defined that calling. My last collegiate volleyball season had just ended, and I was headed into my final semester with an internship at the Fox affiliate Sun Sports Network of Florida, an invitation to the Olympic Festivals, a contract to play professional volleyball in Germany, and plans to attend graduate school as a graduate assistant volleyball coach at Florida State University. Days before that semester began, however, I went to Nashville to attend Passion, a large Christian conference for college-aged students. I was unfamiliar with Passion, knowing none of the speakers and only very few of the music artists there. I went simply to hang with friends. Within those days, however, God began to radically redirect my life course.
During one general session, I sat far up in the rafters alone to better process with God. There, I experienced a life-defining moment. I heard the soft internal whisper of the Holy Spirit say, “I want you to teach My Word, and to teach My Word you must know My Word.” I assumed what the Lord meant was for me to memorize His Word. While true, God also had an additional path for my coming to “know His Word” that I might “teach His Word.”
On my return drive home, I listened to purchased recordings of messages from previous years at Passion. One such message was titled, “The Crucified Life,” taught by Beth Moore who asked the question, “What in your life has to die so that only one Savior can live?” Immediately the Holy Spirit whispered again, and I heard, “Volleyball must die for you. I want you to go to seminary.” Though I hadn’t a clue what a seminary was exactly or where any were located, I said yes and never looked back.
Members of the religion faculty at school, as well as pastors at my church, all helped to guide my search. That spring, instead of flying out to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, I flew to visit seminaries. After a handful of campus visits, I found my first seminary home when, during spring break, I attended what was then called “Preview Weekend” at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. I began that fall, and at the Lord’s direction over the course of many years, went onto complete an MDiv in Biblical Languages, a ThM in New Testament from my other beloved seminary home at Gateway Seminary, and then a PhD in Biblical Interpretation back in New Orleans.
My story highlights a key component when questioning why go to seminary, which is calling. Like with Abraham, God continues to call people out from where and what they know, into “land” only He knows (Gen 12:1-4). And this patriarch stands as a model, who, in layman’s terms, did the thing. The writer of Hebrews relayed, “By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going … For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb 11:8-10).
Has the Lord called you to attend seminary? Have you obeyed? If not, what obstacles are keeping you from taking this step? I can assure you from this side of that journey, everything this yes will certainly require, the Lord will be faithful to provide.
A second consideration is the ministry equipping and theological shaping that seminary training uniquely provides. Jesus preached, “Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). The Greek term used there for “humble,” praus, stems from animal husbandry language and conveys strength (like that of an ox) which has become disciplined, under control.1 Through the seminary process, students (i.e. ministers) ideally mature spiritually, intellectually, experientially, and so forth as they come under the teaching of ones with greater levels of knowledge and experience than their own. You don’t know what you don’t know. To find out what you don’t know, however, in this case leads to great benefit.
Ezra the priest, as an example, comes to mind. Scripture describes Ezra as “a scribe skilled in the law of Moses,” who had “determined in his heart to study the law of the LORD, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:6,10). The Lord honored Ezra’s devotion and diligence, giving him favor with King Artaxerxes (Ezra 7), and utilizing him to translate and rightly interpret the law of God for the people of Israel (Neh. 8–9). To lead in any capacity, is first to learn. Seminary provides an environment unique to any other for obtaining necessary theological learning and ministerial training.
A final appeal for attending seminary, is the network of ministry connections this experience fosters. Those I studied alongside and learned under, both in physical and online classroom settings, are now ones whom I daily interact with for reasons ranging from ministry opportunities, resource help, words of counsel, encouragement, accountability, and the list goes on. Seminary offers a built-in community of fellow ministers whose presence and influence extends well beyond the school years into your remaining lifetime.
If I could go back to that freshman World Religions class, I would inform my eighteen-year-old self that seminary is a school for concentrated learning in theological studies and practical Christian ministry. And that those who attend are people like her, and you, and that the question really isn’t why should I go to seminary, but rather, why not go?
Work Cited
- Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, and Geoffrey William Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1985), 929.
ABOUT COURTNEY VEASEY
Director and founder of Brunch Ministries, Courtney Veasey brings nearly twenty years of public Bible teaching experience to those she continues to serve through Christian enrichment and leadership events. Her ministry service also includes local church, parachurch, and academic posts previously held in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and California. Courtney is a graduate of Florida Southern College (BA), New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (MDiv; PhD), and Gateway Seminary (ThM). One of the many loves and passions she has is finding just the right greeting card whatever the occasion. Connect with Courtney at brunchministries.com.
