Is Seminary Worth the Cost?

Attending seminary requires a lot of resources. In the first place, it requires significant time resources. Most degrees take multiple years to complete. Students usually must juggle many different commitments—family, work, church, and school—that are all competing for their time and attention. Seminary, in the second place, also requires significant energy resources. Each class will have assigned reading that needs to be completed, papers that need to be written, and tests that need to be studied for and taken. These things come on top of the other demands on a student’s energy, things mentioned above such as family, work, and church. And, in the third place, seminary quite obviously requires significant financial resources. Tuition and books can place additional stress on an already-stressed budget; that’s for sure. How do you know if it will all be worth it? What exactly will seminary do for you? How will it help you in your future ministry?

I can’t pretend to answer these questions definitively for every person out there. But I can share with you what seminary did for me. That will hopefully be enough to help you evaluate whether it is worth your time, energy, and sacrifice. Before I get to that, however, let me first say that I understand just how demanding this journey will be for all who are considering it. When I started in seminary, I was married with one young child and another on the way. We had just moved into an old house that desperately needed to be renovated. I was working full-time at a local church as a ministry intern. And I enrolled as a full-time student taking twelve or more hours every semester. So, I know firsthand that seminary will be a challenging time for everyone who chooses this route. But I can confidently say that it was worth every sacrifice I made. Let me tell you why. Quite simply, seminary prepared me for a lifetime of ministry like nothing else could. It did so by giving me knowledge, growth, well-roundedness, and a network of relationships.

Seminary gave me knowledge and wisdom. One of the things I loved most about the school I attended was that its curriculum focused on English Bible and theology. I got more hours of Bible in my degree (not counting theology, history, languages, etc.) than some schools have in their entire degrees. This means that when I graduated, I knew my Bible better than most seminary graduates. I knew what I believed and why, and I could communicate it simply and plainly. Many students are tempted to cut corners at this point and to choose a seminary that offers the bare minimum. I am thankful that the school I chose offered me more. The knowledge that I received has been invaluable over the years to my preaching, teaching, and writing.

Seminary was also an incredible time of growth for me. I had never received so much Bible teaching in so compressed a period of time in my life. As a result, I grew like wildfire. But I also now had access to students and professors who aided in my Christian growth. Most, if not all, of my professors had served or were serving as pastors. They knew how to come alongside and encourage maturity in their students. And I sought them out for this very reason.

But seminary also gave me well-roundedness. It exposed me to a variety of professors and students who were different than I was. Some of my professors and fellow students had tremendous hearts for the Lord; some were intellectual giants; and some were the godliest people that I have ever known. The variety of these influences helped me not to be lopsided in my Christian experience. Since it is true that we become like what we are around, I am thankful that I was around such well-rounded influences. It has made all the difference in my ministry over the years.

Besides all these things, seminary gave me a network of friends to call whenever I need help or guidance. When the church I was serving needed to do a capital campaign, I relied on this network. When the same church was faced with its first major discipline case, I again relied on this network. The contacts I made during seminary have also provided many writing and speaking opportunities for me over the years, in addition to new ministry opportunities. The three ministry positions I have served in since graduating have all come to me as a result of the network that I established while I was in school.

Seminary education has never been more important than it is today. That is because the Christian worldview, which has long been the dominant worldview in many places around the globe, is no longer dominant. Like never before, the church needs individuals who are better trained for ministry than they ever have been. If there was a time when seminary was not worth the investment, that day has long since passed. Ask any other seminary graduate who is actively serving in ministry, and my guess is that the things that I have shared here would be confirmed.