How to Survive Seminary - Engage the Heart

I learned my first seminary lesson a week after I realized God designed me for ministry. When the prophet Isaiah answered God’s great commission to warn Israel of their sins, Isaiah answered with, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8). Isaiah practically screamed his heart out in the presence of the living God. Learning to engage the heart, is perhaps the most important lesson we need to learn before diving headfirst into ministry.

The Tuesday after I began applying to seminaries, I visited Capital Bible Seminary in Washington DC. They were having a welcome week where we could visit chapel and sit in on an actual class. Even though I chose not to go to this school, instead going to Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, I learned a lot from the quick thirty-minute chapel service.

An actual student gave the lesson. He was an older student, one who had hoped to graduate when he was twenty-five but didn’t graduate until he was forty. He sat down on a stool and broke up the Bible to the story of the Prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32.

Many of us know the story about the son rebelling, leaving home, and coming home broken, but we forget about the older brother. When his brother comes home and his father kills the fattened calf for his young brother, he says to his father in verse twenty-nine: “Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.”

The older son grew tired and weary. The relationship became about doing instead of serving out of love. He wanted his reward and he forgot about the heart attitude. Notice how the father replies in verse thirty-one. “Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we have to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.”

As leaders in the church and ministry, we have to celebrate and rejoice. We have to engage the heart as much as we engage the mind. The older brother couldn’t rejoice because he was too focused on the doing and not on what the purpose of the doing was—to glorify God.

My home pastor sat down with me for breakfast one day and I explained my fear that seminary would turn my relationship with God into a chore. I’ve been praying long and hard about keeping my quiet time my own, and not substituting my studies for my relationship with God.

I also don’t want to feel legalistic about sitting down in the word everyday, because I know that will turn it into a chore too. But more importantly, I also don’t want to simply ignore my fellowship with Christ because I have Bible homework.

My pastor told me it feeling like a chore is unavoidable. This will simply happen no matter what. BUT, the way to press forward is to engage the heart at every available opportunity. He told me to go to chapel. “Most people skip out on this for class,” my pastor said, “But don’t. Go regardless because it’s a time to worship and praise God.”

He also suggested I go to as many extra events as I can that offer to engage the heart. Apparently, many seminary students skip out on church service to study for grades. By the time Sunday comes around, they’ve had enough God to last a lifetime, but this isn’t a good thing.

So at the very start of seminary, I’ve committed to several goals. While in seminary, with the Lord's help, I will:

1. Keep my relationship with Christ the most important part of my life


2. Put my all into learning everything I can to help people grow in their relationship with God


3. Continue to love people and share the gospel message


4. Engage my heart and mind as often as possible through attending chapel, worship services, and other special opportunities

I know I won’t be able to succeed everyday at this, but if I go for the long term, I’m confident I will continue to grow and develop in my walk with God. And this applies to more than just seminary. This applies to everyone. When we get so bogged down in the feeling of ministry, we need to tilt our gaze upwards and remember the reason for our ministry.

So the bottom line is, as I approach seminary, I hope to engage my heart as much as I engage my mind. I don’t want to be like the older son who fell into doing instead of praising. I don’t want to date seminary and turn my back on God. I want to use seminary as an approach to deepening my relationship with Jesus Christ. Seminary should not be something we just survive. Seminary should be something in which we really grow and get to know God.

Update: I've now been at seminary for two years and found that it's a real struggle to continually engage the heart. Somedays are simply better than others, usually the best are when I get some time to spend worshiping the Lord through study and prayer outside of classes. Although I made it to a lot of chapel services the first year, the second year took a major hit. But I also started to go to a weekly Soul Care group to keep up with some other guys on campus. This has been a huge help and I will continue to participate my final year.

Image By: h.koppdelaney