Dear First Year Seminarian,

Today you are embarking on a journey that doesn’t conclude with graduation but rather at the end of your life. Don’t forget that this journey was initiated by God not an application process. You are preparing for a calling and not a career. So when things get hard…like really hard, I hope that this letter will remind you that you are loved and you are not alone.

Identity
Over the coming years, you will find yourself asking more questions than you can ever be provided answers. Questions about theology, history, the church, and progressive dispensationalism…but most importantly you will find yourself asking questions about…you.

Who am I?
Why me?
What am I going to do?
Am I good enough…smart enough…do I have an answer?

In those moments it is easy to slip into a seminarian slumber, to lock yourself in the library trying to find an identity that is right before you but hidden behind mounds of paper. Sure it is in the most dense theology text books and in tedious assignments that appear meaningless, but it is in the very words of Jesus. The words that seem so close but feel so distant…

You are a child, a son or a daughter.
You are a friend.
You have been justified and redeemed.
You have been accepted and welcomed in.
You are a new creation.
You have a place in the body of Christ.
You are sealed, hidden, and cherished.

The Danger
Along the way people have warned you, “don’t let the word of God turn into a textbook.” The temptation is real. While piecing together a brilliant exegetical you miss the very presence of God. You miss Jesus drawing you near.

You will receive grades, sharp comments, and criticism based on your time in Scripture. Naturally, devotion turns to obligation, holiness turns into deadlines, and the red letters become red markings.

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world (graduates with honors, passes the proficiency exam on the first try, has his thesis published) and forfeits his soul?”
– Jesus in Matthew 16:26 (italics obviously mine).

The words that you are writing about or being tested about are the most beautiful words in all of human history. Savor them, enjoy them, wrestle with them, but don’t lose them…don’t miss them!

Community
You have asked those who have gone before you what the most impactful part of seminary was for them. Here is my answer and my encouragement.

I had professors whom I loved, I took classes that gave me life, but the most impactful part of seminary was a band of men who surrounded me. They loved me, they challenged me, they walked with me, they held me, they wept with me, and they celebrated with me. And the most incredible part is that they still do that for me and their wives do that for my wife.

This is the hard work of the pastor. Finding godly men to surround yourself with doesn’t get easier when you land your first pastorate, in fact it gets infinitely harder. I promise this, the people you surround yourself with through seminary will be your pastors and your friends for the rest of your life.

Conclusion
Work hard, not for the grade but for Christ and his Kingdom.
Stay up late and get up early but don’t sacrifice your family.
Read A LOT! but don’t miss falling deeply in love with the words of God.

When you get to the finish line, remember that it is not a race that you are finishing but one you are just beginning. It is a high calling that God has given you. And whether you go on to pastor a church, write a book, or teach biology to 6th graders God has called you to shepherd his people and to train them up in Christ-likeness.

Finally, I want to encourage you. Don’t give up. Don’t lose heart. Work hard. Rest well. You are not alone and you are not the first person to tank a Hebrew paradigm. Regardless of how this season of your life turns out, you are not defined by it. Your identity is sure and complete.

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
-1 Corinthians 1:26-30

Grace be with you,
Stephen