Seminary Adventure

It has been nearly a year since I wrote my last blog post. Shame on me. However, I have certainly been doing enough writing lately! For the past eight months I have been attending Heritage Theological Seminary in Cambridge, Ontario. After finishing my Honours Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, God guided me into the next brief stage of my life: attending Seminary! I was quite looking forward to higher education where I could learn more about my faith, the most important aspect of my life. University was an incredible time of growth for me, but what I learned in the classroom from the typical atheistic professor was not applicable to my relationship with God. My hope was that Seminary would teach me more about God and the Bible.

And it has certainly done that! On my first day of class, I walked into the classroom with my white and pink backpack and pulled out my purple pencil case full of colourful highlighters, pens, and Post-It notes. I set my Tupperware container of Teddy Grahams or Goldfish Crackers (I forget now which it was as both are favourite snacks of mine) on the table so I would have a snack to keep me alert during the three hour class. I was mortified when the professor asked us to go around and say our name, where we were from, and...our favourite theologian! What is that? I had spent the past four years reading Communications articles and textbooks. The most Christian reading I did was historical fiction and missionary biographies during the summer. I sheepishly said I didn't have one but that I'd just finished the fascinating book, Through Gates of Splendour, by Elisabeth Elliot. As if that wasn't enough, he then informed us that we were going to get into groups and do an exercise using our Bibles. Who ever thought of bringing a Bible to Bible school? Not I! So I had to sit there silently for the next ten minutes as the other, much older, students pored over their ESVs and NIVs.

I rushed home from class, called my mom, and cried my eyes out. Why am I here? I'm half the age of the majority of the students. The average Seminary student is a middle-aged man, married with children, returning to school to become a pastor as a second career. And I was a 21-year-old who still found delight in my Goldfish-shaped plastic snack container. Mom wisely advised me to persevere. I did.

It would probably take me weeks to express in writing all of the marvelous things that I have learned this past year. For instance, in Biblical Introduction, we were required to read the ENTIRE BIBLE in two months. It was insane. But oh so worth it! To be honest, I did have to skip over some of the Minor Prophets, but the rest of the Bible I did, in fact, read. Wow. I see the Holy Scriptures in a whole new light now. God is great. God is good. God is sovereign. God is creative. God is holy. God is merciful. God uses sinners like me to do his work. In Small Group Ministry, I read a great book by Joseph H. Hellerman entitled, When the Church Was a Family. Now I long for the Church today to be what it was always meant to be: a family. A body of believers with Christ as the Head. By far my favourite book of the year was Christian Theology by Millard J. Erickson. It's a whopping 1312 pages. But through this book I began to understand what I believe and why I believe it. I could go on. Perhaps I shall in future posts.

The main things things that I've taken away from my Seminary education are: a love for the Scriptures, a desire to be a lifelong scholar of the Word, an awe of my Great God, a thankful heart for the absolutely incredible things I can see him doing in my life, a fascination for theology that I never dreamt I would ever have, a passion to pray, and an answer for people in my life who ask me to give them a reason for the hope that I have (1 Peter 3:15).