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God has opened a door of ministry for us in Shelbyville, Tennessee. So we are packing up and preparing to leave Louisville. I have finished 1/3 of the classes necessary for receiving my MDiv at Southern Seminary; the rest of my seminary education will take place online, at the Nashville extension center, and in Louisville for J-Terms during the summer.

Many people today attend seminary from a distance, combining seminary education with full-time ministry. Others experience seminary on-campus, choosing to tough it out for a few years while they finish their degree. It looks like I’m going to experience seminary in both these ways.

Since we’re in this transition, I believe this is a good time to offer some thoughts on the seminary experience so far.

Corina and I moved to Louisville after spending the previous five years doing mission work in Romania. We knew it would be tough to find a paid ministry opportunity in the Louisville area, but we also knew that God wanted us in Louisville. So we moved.

For us (as for most people), going to seminary required a financial sacrifice. The generous scholarships available from Southern helped to ease the stress. Still, living costs were high. Because of this, on-campus seminary education goes hand-in-hand with part-time (or full-time) jobs, and these jobs most likely will not be within local churches.

Going to seminary would be somewhat easier for a married couple without children, where the wife would be able to work full-time and support her husband while in school. In our situation, we determined that Corina would stay home full-time with our son and I would bring home the bacon, no matter how thin.

It is extremely difficult to find paid ministry opportunities in the area surrounding a large seminary. I emphasize “paid,” not because money is the most important factor, but because the responsibilities of family and work serve to virtually eliminate unpaid ministry opportunities from your spectrum of options.

Several opportunities opened up for us in the towns outside the Louisville area, but all were part-time positions that paid very little. I was tempted to accept these part-time opportunities, due to my excitement about getting involved in ministry. Just about anything would have done. But realistically, these opportunities did not pay enough to allow me to give up one of my other three jobs, meaning that it would have been an added burden and would have eaten up all the remaining (little) time that I still had with my family. So, we turned down part-time ministry opportunities, even though our hearts were aching to minister.

Some more thoughts coming tomorrow…

written by Trevin Wax. © 2007 Kingdom People Blog

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