Ep. 48 - Two Practices to THRIVE SPIRITUALLY in Seminary and Bible College
Paradoxically, seminary and Bible college can be places where your spiritual life can grow cold. But it doesn’t have to be this way. JC Schroeder shares two practices to thrive spiritually while in school.
⏰ Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
1:11 Practice #1
5:36 Practice #2
9:37 Conclusion
📚 Resources
Mathis and Parnell, How to Stay Christian in Seminary
Zacharias and Forrest, Surviving and Thriving in Seminary
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Two Practices to THRIVE SPIRITUALLY in Seminary and Bible College
There are two statements that have saved and shaped my spiritual life while in college and seminary. Let me explain. A lot of people think that seminary equals cemetery, or in other words, seminary, or even Bible college, can be detrimental to your spiritual life, which, if you think about it, it sounds paradoxical because you're there to study about God in the Bible. But it can be true. It can be at times detrimental to your spiritual health. But it doesn't have to be this way and it shouldn't be this way. There are actions and attitudes that need to be cultivated in order for us to maintain our walk with the Lord. Being a student has its challenges, and I want to offer some advice from someone who has been on that journey and is still on that journey. I've seen some of these things in my own life and in my students' lives as well. I want to offer two simple statements that have been super beneficial to my spiritual life and I hope they may be to you as well. I'm JC Schroeder and this is Bite Size Seminary. The first piece of advice is don't make your homework your quiet time. The paradox of seminary is that you're there to study God's Word so you can be transformed and can share it with others. But your heart can grow cold as you learn big, fancy theological terms and memorize Greek paradigms. There's so much for you to learn and it's all great, wonderful, amazing stuff. But there can be a strong temptation, or even a realization or belief that since I've been thinking about spiritual content, then my spiritual life is doing fine. Let me give an example. A typical day might be something like you get up early because you've got lots to do and you start by reading for a couple of hours on the hypostatic union of Christ or the fact that he's both divine and human. I just had to throw in a fancy theological word there. Then you go to class. You're working through the Greek text of the New Testament. With what kind of genitive is this? What kind of participle is this? Then you go to the library and you start work on a paper about effective church planting strategies. Then you go home and it's time to be with your family, or it's off to work and by the end of the day you're just beat tired and you're ready for bed. Now here's where the temptation sets in, or at least where it sets in in the silly example. The temptation sets in to count all of that studying of amazing, wonderful, beautiful information that you just covered. Spend all that time studying and you count that as spiritual time because it's spiritual content. You don't spend time with the Lord in prayer, reading scripture and meditation, but as wonderful as all those assignments and work is, it's no substitute for your own personal time and engagement with the Lord. You still need to pray, you still need to read scripture, and you're reading with a view towards hearing God speak into your life. Don't use your knowledge or your homework as a substitute for your time with the Lord. Think about this too. The Pharisees knew so much about scripture like probably way more than I know or the average Bible student knows Yet they were repeatedly rebuked by Jesus for not knowing the heart of scripture and they weren't transformed by it. I think there's a lot that could be said of us theology Bible students that we fall into that mold of the Pharisees. Knowledge isn't everything, but our submission to God is Our relationship with God is. I want to make one other note here. Now, there are exceptions to this, and this is not a legalistic rule. Hopefully it's wise advice, but if you are consistently choosing your homework over your spiritual life or over your other responsibilities as a spouse or a parent, then you need to think real hard about your priorities, because you may have short-term success in your life and your academics, but you're setting yourself up for long-term spiritual and relational failure. One of my professors, dr Mike Whitmer, said something in one of his classes that I'll hope I never forget. He said this it might be a sin for you to get an A in this class. In other words, if you prioritize your work and grade above all else, like your spiritual life, your family life, your health, etc. Then the A becomes a sin. It's only become an idol. If you have to choose between health, family, your spiritual life and choose between that and all that in good grades, then choose bad grades and choose your spiritual life, choose your family, choose your health, choose your relationship with the Lord. So all that to say. Don't make your homework your quiet time. Now the second piece of advice is make your homework your quiet time. Okay, you caught me. I am trying to be kind of like cheeky here. It's like Proverbs 26, 4 through 5. Answer not a fool according to his folly and answer a fool according to his folly Right. Remember that verse, the fact that these two verses and Proverbs are back-to-back and are Proverbs or general truths. They highlight that we need wisdom in answering Sometimes yes, sometimes no, and the same here in JC's attempt at being clever, don't make your homework your quiet time for all the reasons we just talked about, but also do make your homework, your quiet time, right. So don't for those other reasons and do for these reasons. We don't want to separate our academic, intellectual life from our spiritual lives. We are whole people and we should live as our whole selves. So, yes, our theology reading or Greek exegesis should aid and encourage our spiritual health, not crush it. Think of it this way as students, we get to not have to or are forced to but we get to spend dedicated and concentrated time about the Lord, his Word and how to administer. Those things should naturally feed into our worship and service. So if you're reading about the hypostatic union of Christ, there's that word again about how he's both divine and human. Take a break and worship the Lord in prayer, or maybe song for the fact that he took on a human nature, became like us to save us from our sins and to continue to minister to us. Isn't that like just incredible about who our God is that he would do that for me, for you. So don't get all hung up and dried out with these fancy theological terms. Drink in the theological truth. When I was taking my third semester of Hebrew, we were reading Jonah, and it was a tough semester because Hebrew is tough Also because my daughter was just a few months old and we weren't getting much sleep. But the Lord used that little prophetic book to help me to see the beauty and grace of God and how much my heart was like Jonah's. Reading Jonah in Hebrew didn't stifle my spiritual life. It enlivened it. And this is what it should do If we look to our academic work to still hear the voice of God as we are thinking about theology and as we are thinking about this beautiful text. Like Jonah, it helped me. Reading Jonah in Hebrew helped me to see the intention of the text to transform the listener, me and many others, away from stubbornness and tribalism toward the fear of the Lord and embodying his heart towards others. So I would strongly encourage you to make a concerted effort to integrate what you're learning in seminary or Bible college into your walk with the Lord and your daily life. In addition to this, this is not just a privatized my own relationship with the Lord, but your relationship with others. So take all of that information that you're gaining and using and spread that to others. Be a part of a church community where you can share what you're learning. Be a part of a small group or something like that. Be it an area where you can serve and minister towards others not always in a upfront, I'm the guy, sort of way, but you're just there with others and you're serving in any way that you can. I know there's a whole host of other issues that we could talk about that are involved with seminary, but these two have been such a grace in my own life and I hope that these two silly attempts at a pithy proverbial sayings will be a blessing to your spiritual life as well. I also want to recommend two books for you and if you're in seminary or Bible college, you probably like books, like me. I want to recommend two books that for you to consider that I have found helpful on this topic and have been beneficial to me. The first is how to Stay Christian in Seminary by Mathis and Parnell, and the second is Surviving and Thriving in Seminary by Zacharias and Forrest. These are two excellent resources for both spiritual and some practical concerns as well. I hope that helps in some way to you. I hope that's a blessing. Thank you so much for your time, and may the Lord continue to bless you. Also one other thing I'm going to go get some ice cream, and you should too. That's your permission, okay, bye.