It was my first B in a very long time.
After I began taking Hebrew in seminary, I knew it could be troublesome. I had heard sufficient warnings, and a part of me needed to rise to the problem exactly due to that. I’m aggressive by nature. I needed to do properly. I needed to show one thing.
If I’m trustworthy, I additionally needed to impress individuals. Not simply my classmates, however my household and mentors. Someplace alongside the best way, I had picked up a quiet concern that if I didn’t excel, others may assume I wasn’t a tough employee or that I wouldn’t achieve success. That strain mattered extra to me than I initially realized.
Robust grades in different courses had come pretty simply—both as a result of the programs weren’t particularly demanding or as a result of they aligned with my pure strengths. Hebrew was completely different. I’ve at all times been okay at languages, however they’ve by no means come simply to me. It was gradual, grinding work. It required a number of time, repetition, and targeted effort.
Because the hours piled up, I started to see the associated fee. My endurance thinned. My time with my spouse and kids suffered. Ministry commitments felt squeezed fairly than built-in. My mindset shifted: I spotted it wasn’t value all of that simply to get an A, which at first felt like failure. But incomes a B allowed the whole lot else to be higher.
This realization, hard-earned and uncomfortable, turned an early lesson that reshaped how I understood success in seminary: Seminary exposes our limits in order that we will embrace them earlier than ministry raises the stakes.
3 misguided standards
Many seminary college students really feel strain not as a result of they lack self-discipline or want, however as a result of they’ve quietly absorbed unhelpful narratives about what success is meant to seem like. These standards, or measures, are hardly ever taught explicitly, but they form expectations, habits, and anxieties in highly effective methods.
1. Chasing grades
GPA issues far lower than college students usually assume—particularly for ministry. Seminary grades are designed to evaluate studying in a selected course, throughout a selected semester. They aren’t verdicts on value, calling, or long-term faithfulness. Accrediting our bodies such because the Affiliation of Theological Colleges explicitly distinguish between tutorial evaluation and broader formation, recognizing that non secular, pastoral, and vocational competencies resist easy measurement. In different phrases, grades have an actual however restricted goal.
A part of the confusion comes from a misunderstanding of stewardship. Scripture affirms the worth of mental effort. We learn in Proverbs 22:29: “Do you see somebody expert of their work? They are going to serve earlier than kings” (NIV). However mind shouldn’t be the one present entrusted to us. Time, well being, household, and relationships are additionally a part of what God has given us to steward. Analysis from initiatives just like the Duke Clergy Well being Initiative persistently exhibits that long-term ministry resilience is formed by practices that promote well-being, relationships, and sustainable rhythms—elements which might be invisible on a transcript.
Mind shouldn’t be the one present entrusted to us. Time, well being, household, and relationships are additionally a part of what God has given us to steward.
The actual rigidity for college students shouldn’t be between excellence and irresponsibility, however between trustworthy effort and fixation. GPA is sensible throughout the slender body of a semester. It fails as a measure of formation exactly as a result of formation unfolds over years, not grading intervals.
2. Evaluating ourselves
One other highly effective narrative of success is comparability. College students examine skills, solutions at school, ministry alternatives, and connections with admired professors. These comparisons are sometimes delicate, however they quietly recalibrate expectations. As a substitute of asking what faithfulness seems like for this particular person, on this season, college students start navigating their lives by another person’s presents and timeline.
Comparability distorts vocation as a result of it ignores the fundamental Christian fact that presents, callings, and seasons differ (1 Cor 12:4–7, 18; Rom 12:6; Eccl 3:1). Visibility and GPA can simply change into proxies for calling, value, or future effectiveness, particularly in environments the place affirmation feels scarce. Perfectionism usually follows not as an indication of excessive requirements however as a response to compressed expectations: Every little thing feels prefer it should rely now. Comparability guarantees readability, however it normally delivers nervousness.
3. Crossing the end line
Commencement issues—however it isn’t a end line. A seminary diploma is finest understood as one chapter, one device, and one season inside a for much longer technique of formation. I usually ask potential seminary college students this query: Should you graduated along with your seminary diploma yesterday, what would you be doing at this time? Issues come up when seminary is handled as the decisive step fairly than as preparatory coaching.
Misunderstanding this carries apparent dangers: burnout, well being pressure, household stress, or unneeded monetary expense or debt. However there are subtler risks, as properly:
- failing to be taught ministry triage,
- unrealistic expectations, and
- low resilience when life and ministry inevitably exceed one’s coaching.
Seminary graduates have informed me that an important classes they discovered for ministry whereas in seminary had been by no means graded.
You will need to say this clearly: Seminaries already care deeply about formation. The problem shouldn’t be intent, however scope. No establishment, nevertheless trustworthy, can full the formation of a minister in a couple of brief years. A profitable seminary expertise is outlined not by completion of the work however by a proper orientation to the work itself.
3 wiser options
If the above narratives distort formation, what ought to exchange them? I need to recommend three wiser methods of fascinated about success in seminary; three corrections that honor the truth that seminary is a formative season, not a last verdict.
1. Connecting with others
The primary and highest precedence in seminary is reference to God. Jesus doesn’t body faithfulness by way of productiveness or mastery, however by way of abiding: “Abide in me as I abide in you … other than me you are able to do nothing” (John 15:4–5 NRSV). Seminary can simply prepare college students to handle texts, arguments, and schedules whereas slowly neglecting the habits that maintain a dwelling relationship with God.
Close to the tip of my MDiv, I used to be requested in a survey from the Affiliation of Theological Colleges what e-book had most formed my non secular progress throughout seminary. My trustworthy reply stunned even me. It wasn’t a required textual content. It was my very own follow of studying the Bible yearly throughout these years. That behavior did extra to type me than any single course. It sustained a protracted obedience fairly than brief bursts of educational depth.
Connection additionally contains relationships with others: household, classmates, ministry leaders, and congregations. A lot of the true formation in seminary occurs between courses—over meals, shared frustrations, and occasional ministry collaborations. In my expertise serving on ministry hiring boards, demonstrated ministry expertise and relational knowledge matter way over specific tutorial distinctions.
Seminary is a relational ecosystem, not merely a tutorial one. Even assigned studying connects us with a “nice cloud of witnesses” (theologians, biblical students, missionaries, and ministers previous and current), permitting us to be taught from mentors past the classroom.
2. Cultivating contentment
A second wiser lens is contentment, studying to reside faithfully inside limits. In John 17:4, Jesus can say to the Father, “I’ve introduced you glory on earth by ending the work you gave me to do” (NIV), regardless that a lot remained undone. Faithfulness, it seems, shouldn’t be the identical as exhaustiveness.
Faithfulness, it seems, shouldn’t be the identical as exhaustiveness.
Contentment rejects each entitlement and exhaustion. It refuses the idea that we deserve ease, but in addition the idea that faithfulness requires fixed depletion. Contentment frees college students to be taught truthfully, say no properly, and settle for “adequate” with out guilt. Seminary is without doubt one of the first locations the place this lesson could be discovered with relative security.
3. Clarifying our path
Lastly, success in seminary requires readability: about who you’re, what this season can and can’t do, and what faithfulness seems like now. Readability restores proportion, and proportion reduces nervousness.
That is particularly necessary when distinguishing diploma paths. The MDiv or DMin is a sensible diploma, oriented towards individuals, presence, and pastoral knowledge. A PhD is a tutorial diploma, oriented towards analysis, educating, and scholarly contribution. Complicated these objectives inevitably produces misplaced strain. Seminary serves college students finest when it helps them to see their path clearly—not as a totalizing id, however as one trustworthy step in a for much longer journey.
Embracing your limits
One of many quiet assumptions many seminarians carry is that human limits are issues to beat, fairly than realities to obtain. We assume that faithfulness seems like ever-expanding capability: doing extra, understanding extra, managing completely. However Scripture persistently tells a distinct story. Many times, God chooses to work not by way of unbroken energy, however by way of acknowledged weak point. Divine energy shouldn’t be displayed by bypassing human limits, however by assembly us inside them (2 Cor 12:9–10; John 15:5). Limits should not obstacles to faithfulness, however the circumstances beneath which it turns into doable.
As I discover extra totally in The Good Information of Our Limits (Zondervan, 2022), limits should not proof of failure or disqualification. They’re a part of God’s design for human life. Limits gradual formation to a human tempo. They interrupt the phantasm that progress is linear, controllable, or purely self-generated. In that sense, failure usually turns into a present—not as a result of it’s nice, however as a result of it exposes the place now we have quietly come to depend on ourselves fairly than on God.
Seminary can expose these limits, making them unmistakably seen. Mental pressure, emotional fatigue, and competing duties press collectively in ways in which reveal how finite we really are. This isn’t a flaw in theological training. It’s one in all its ignored graces. Seminary is a safer place to come across limits than ministry usually is, exactly as a result of the stakes are decrease and the constructions extra supportive. Seminary generally is a present exactly as a result of it reveals our limits earlier than ministry makes them unavoidable. Studying to call and settle for limits early can forestall way more painful classes later.
Pastoral ministry will repeatedly place us on the fringe of our capability the place knowledge runs skinny, time runs out, and options are unclear. Those that have discovered to belief God in these locations should not much less ready. They’re extra so. Formation that makes peace with finitude doesn’t decrease the bar for ministry. It prepares us to serve faithfully throughout the limits we can not escape, and to obtain these limits not as obstacles however as websites of grace.
Development, not GPA, is the truest measure of success in seminary as a result of it varieties ministers who embrace their limits and serve faithfully over the lengthy haul. When seminary is known as one season amongst many, college students are freed to be taught truthfully, and establishments are honored with out being overburdened.
Grades describe a second. Formation shapes a lifetime.
Sean McGever’s prompt sources for additional reflection
- Swinton, John. Changing into Buddies of Time: Incapacity, Timefullness, and Light Discipleship. Research in Faith, Theology, and Incapacity. Baylor College Press, 2016.
- Newport, Cal. Deep Work: Guidelines for Centered Success in a Distracted World. Little Brown, 2013.
The Good Information of Our Limits: Discover Higher Peace, Pleasure, and Effectiveness by way of God’s Reward of Inadequacy
Further books for succeeding in seminary
Associated content material
It was my first B in a very long time.
After I began taking Hebrew in seminary, I knew it could be troublesome. I had heard sufficient warnings, and a part of me needed to rise to the problem exactly due to that. I’m aggressive by nature. I needed to do properly. I needed to show one thing.
If I’m trustworthy, I additionally needed to impress individuals. Not simply my classmates, however my household and mentors. Someplace alongside the best way, I had picked up a quiet concern that if I didn’t excel, others may assume I wasn’t a tough employee or that I wouldn’t achieve success. That strain mattered extra to me than I initially realized.
Robust grades in different courses had come pretty simply—both as a result of the programs weren’t particularly demanding or as a result of they aligned with my pure strengths. Hebrew was completely different. I’ve at all times been okay at languages, however they’ve by no means come simply to me. It was gradual, grinding work. It required a number of time, repetition, and targeted effort.
Because the hours piled up, I started to see the associated fee. My endurance thinned. My time with my spouse and kids suffered. Ministry commitments felt squeezed fairly than built-in. My mindset shifted: I spotted it wasn’t value all of that simply to get an A, which at first felt like failure. But incomes a B allowed the whole lot else to be higher.
This realization, hard-earned and uncomfortable, turned an early lesson that reshaped how I understood success in seminary: Seminary exposes our limits in order that we will embrace them earlier than ministry raises the stakes.
3 misguided standards
Many seminary college students really feel strain not as a result of they lack self-discipline or want, however as a result of they’ve quietly absorbed unhelpful narratives about what success is meant to seem like. These standards, or measures, are hardly ever taught explicitly, but they form expectations, habits, and anxieties in highly effective methods.
1. Chasing grades
GPA issues far lower than college students usually assume—particularly for ministry. Seminary grades are designed to evaluate studying in a selected course, throughout a selected semester. They aren’t verdicts on value, calling, or long-term faithfulness. Accrediting our bodies such because the Affiliation of Theological Colleges explicitly distinguish between tutorial evaluation and broader formation, recognizing that non secular, pastoral, and vocational competencies resist easy measurement. In different phrases, grades have an actual however restricted goal.
A part of the confusion comes from a misunderstanding of stewardship. Scripture affirms the worth of mental effort. We learn in Proverbs 22:29: “Do you see somebody expert of their work? They are going to serve earlier than kings” (NIV). However mind shouldn’t be the one present entrusted to us. Time, well being, household, and relationships are additionally a part of what God has given us to steward. Analysis from initiatives just like the Duke Clergy Well being Initiative persistently exhibits that long-term ministry resilience is formed by practices that promote well-being, relationships, and sustainable rhythms—elements which might be invisible on a transcript.
Mind shouldn’t be the one present entrusted to us. Time, well being, household, and relationships are additionally a part of what God has given us to steward.
The actual rigidity for college students shouldn’t be between excellence and irresponsibility, however between trustworthy effort and fixation. GPA is sensible throughout the slender body of a semester. It fails as a measure of formation exactly as a result of formation unfolds over years, not grading intervals.
2. Evaluating ourselves
One other highly effective narrative of success is comparability. College students examine skills, solutions at school, ministry alternatives, and connections with admired professors. These comparisons are sometimes delicate, however they quietly recalibrate expectations. As a substitute of asking what faithfulness seems like for this particular person, on this season, college students start navigating their lives by another person’s presents and timeline.
Comparability distorts vocation as a result of it ignores the fundamental Christian fact that presents, callings, and seasons differ (1 Cor 12:4–7, 18; Rom 12:6; Eccl 3:1). Visibility and GPA can simply change into proxies for calling, value, or future effectiveness, particularly in environments the place affirmation feels scarce. Perfectionism usually follows not as an indication of excessive requirements however as a response to compressed expectations: Every little thing feels prefer it should rely now. Comparability guarantees readability, however it normally delivers nervousness.
3. Crossing the end line
Commencement issues—however it isn’t a end line. A seminary diploma is finest understood as one chapter, one device, and one season inside a for much longer technique of formation. I usually ask potential seminary college students this query: Should you graduated along with your seminary diploma yesterday, what would you be doing at this time? Issues come up when seminary is handled as the decisive step fairly than as preparatory coaching.
Misunderstanding this carries apparent dangers: burnout, well being pressure, household stress, or unneeded monetary expense or debt. However there are subtler risks, as properly:
- failing to be taught ministry triage,
- unrealistic expectations, and
- low resilience when life and ministry inevitably exceed one’s coaching.
Seminary graduates have informed me that an important classes they discovered for ministry whereas in seminary had been by no means graded.
You will need to say this clearly: Seminaries already care deeply about formation. The problem shouldn’t be intent, however scope. No establishment, nevertheless trustworthy, can full the formation of a minister in a couple of brief years. A profitable seminary expertise is outlined not by completion of the work however by a proper orientation to the work itself.
3 wiser options
If the above narratives distort formation, what ought to exchange them? I need to recommend three wiser methods of fascinated about success in seminary; three corrections that honor the truth that seminary is a formative season, not a last verdict.
1. Connecting with others
The primary and highest precedence in seminary is reference to God. Jesus doesn’t body faithfulness by way of productiveness or mastery, however by way of abiding: “Abide in me as I abide in you … other than me you are able to do nothing” (John 15:4–5 NRSV). Seminary can simply prepare college students to handle texts, arguments, and schedules whereas slowly neglecting the habits that maintain a dwelling relationship with God.
Close to the tip of my MDiv, I used to be requested in a survey from the Affiliation of Theological Colleges what e-book had most formed my non secular progress throughout seminary. My trustworthy reply stunned even me. It wasn’t a required textual content. It was my very own follow of studying the Bible yearly throughout these years. That behavior did extra to type me than any single course. It sustained a protracted obedience fairly than brief bursts of educational depth.
Connection additionally contains relationships with others: household, classmates, ministry leaders, and congregations. A lot of the true formation in seminary occurs between courses—over meals, shared frustrations, and occasional ministry collaborations. In my expertise serving on ministry hiring boards, demonstrated ministry expertise and relational knowledge matter way over specific tutorial distinctions.
Seminary is a relational ecosystem, not merely a tutorial one. Even assigned studying connects us with a “nice cloud of witnesses” (theologians, biblical students, missionaries, and ministers previous and current), permitting us to be taught from mentors past the classroom.
2. Cultivating contentment
A second wiser lens is contentment, studying to reside faithfully inside limits. In John 17:4, Jesus can say to the Father, “I’ve introduced you glory on earth by ending the work you gave me to do” (NIV), regardless that a lot remained undone. Faithfulness, it seems, shouldn’t be the identical as exhaustiveness.
Faithfulness, it seems, shouldn’t be the identical as exhaustiveness.
Contentment rejects each entitlement and exhaustion. It refuses the idea that we deserve ease, but in addition the idea that faithfulness requires fixed depletion. Contentment frees college students to be taught truthfully, say no properly, and settle for “adequate” with out guilt. Seminary is without doubt one of the first locations the place this lesson could be discovered with relative security.
3. Clarifying our path
Lastly, success in seminary requires readability: about who you’re, what this season can and can’t do, and what faithfulness seems like now. Readability restores proportion, and proportion reduces nervousness.
That is particularly necessary when distinguishing diploma paths. The MDiv or DMin is a sensible diploma, oriented towards individuals, presence, and pastoral knowledge. A PhD is a tutorial diploma, oriented towards analysis, educating, and scholarly contribution. Complicated these objectives inevitably produces misplaced strain. Seminary serves college students finest when it helps them to see their path clearly—not as a totalizing id, however as one trustworthy step in a for much longer journey.
Embracing your limits
One of many quiet assumptions many seminarians carry is that human limits are issues to beat, fairly than realities to obtain. We assume that faithfulness seems like ever-expanding capability: doing extra, understanding extra, managing completely. However Scripture persistently tells a distinct story. Many times, God chooses to work not by way of unbroken energy, however by way of acknowledged weak point. Divine energy shouldn’t be displayed by bypassing human limits, however by assembly us inside them (2 Cor 12:9–10; John 15:5). Limits should not obstacles to faithfulness, however the circumstances beneath which it turns into doable.
As I discover extra totally in The Good Information of Our Limits (Zondervan, 2022), limits should not proof of failure or disqualification. They’re a part of God’s design for human life. Limits gradual formation to a human tempo. They interrupt the phantasm that progress is linear, controllable, or purely self-generated. In that sense, failure usually turns into a present—not as a result of it’s nice, however as a result of it exposes the place now we have quietly come to depend on ourselves fairly than on God.
Seminary can expose these limits, making them unmistakably seen. Mental pressure, emotional fatigue, and competing duties press collectively in ways in which reveal how finite we really are. This isn’t a flaw in theological training. It’s one in all its ignored graces. Seminary is a safer place to come across limits than ministry usually is, exactly as a result of the stakes are decrease and the constructions extra supportive. Seminary generally is a present exactly as a result of it reveals our limits earlier than ministry makes them unavoidable. Studying to call and settle for limits early can forestall way more painful classes later.
Pastoral ministry will repeatedly place us on the fringe of our capability the place knowledge runs skinny, time runs out, and options are unclear. Those that have discovered to belief God in these locations should not much less ready. They’re extra so. Formation that makes peace with finitude doesn’t decrease the bar for ministry. It prepares us to serve faithfully throughout the limits we can not escape, and to obtain these limits not as obstacles however as websites of grace.
Development, not GPA, is the truest measure of success in seminary as a result of it varieties ministers who embrace their limits and serve faithfully over the lengthy haul. When seminary is known as one season amongst many, college students are freed to be taught truthfully, and establishments are honored with out being overburdened.
Grades describe a second. Formation shapes a lifetime.
Sean McGever’s prompt sources for additional reflection
- Swinton, John. Changing into Buddies of Time: Incapacity, Timefullness, and Light Discipleship. Research in Faith, Theology, and Incapacity. Baylor College Press, 2016.
- Newport, Cal. Deep Work: Guidelines for Centered Success in a Distracted World. Little Brown, 2013.
The Good Information of Our Limits: Discover Higher Peace, Pleasure, and Effectiveness by way of God’s Reward of Inadequacy
Further books for succeeding in seminary
Associated content material
