Author Archive: Mark
Mark Warnock is the founder and General Editor of Seminary Survival Guide.com. He serves as Associate Pastor of First Baptist Church of Columbia, Illinois, and is a Ph.D student in Christian Philosophy at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is working with Ed Eubanks on a book on how to survive seminary.
Free Seminary Survival Guide T-shirts!
Editor’s Update: Please note, we are out of shirts at present! Thanks for coming by! A few weeks back, I had some Seminary Survival Guide T-shirts made up to help promote the site. I’ve been giving them to friends and offering them to active commenters. So now it’s your turn! If you are a current [...]
Category: General
Is “Calling” a Biblical Idea?
A few days ago, I got a great question in the comments on a post I’d written on calling to ministry. It’s a topic on which I have well-formed opinions. Here’s the question: Where does this concept of a “call” come from in Scripture? I mean, some of the great men of the faith were [...]
45 Ways to Waste Your Seminary Education
Last week, while I was vacationing in the Keys, Derek Brown posted a devastating list every seminary student should read, entitled “How to Waste Your Theological Education.” Here’s a sample: 1. Cultivate pride by writing only to impress your professors instead of writing to better understand and more clearly communicate truth. 2. Perfect the fine [...]
Category: Links, Spiritual life
Teaching Your Kids to Love the Church
Since so many seminary students have young children, I thought Dustin Benge’s recent post was definitely worth passing along. From the time they are born a pastors’ child is the center of attention in the church and cannot escape scrutiny by members. When dad doesn’t come home when he said he would, when dad misses [...]
Category: Links, Marriage/Family
Seminary Time Waster #6: Saying “Yes” to Every Request
Seminary students who can’t say no give permission to others to waste their time. We’re nice people. We like to say yes. Jesus knew this. He advised us, “Ask and it shall be given to you.” (This verse is not primarily about prayer; it is about human interaction.) He knew that people’s default response to [...]
Category: Featured, Time Management
End of Another Semester at Seminary
I suspect many of you are finishing up papers and exams (or have already) and are looking forward to breathing that awesome sigh of relief when your final project is done. Pretty sweet feeling, isn’t it? So before you get started with another round of classes, I want to suggest that you take a little [...]
Category: Links
Traveling
I’ll be traveling for the next couple of weeks. I’m very excited to report that Daryl Eldridge, the President and co-founder of Rockbridge Seminary has written a few posts for Seminary Survival Guide about online education and the learning process. These are scheduled over the next couple of weeks to help cover my absence. Before [...]
Category: General
Seminary Time Waster #5: Disorganization
A common frustration about seminary is all the balls you have to keep in the air at once. Seminary coursework alone can have you managing several multi-step projects with their own timelines and deadlines. Add to that your job, family commitments, and whatever ministry you’re serving in. It’s a lot to keep coordinated. In the [...]
Category: Featured, Time Management
New Logo is Up!
The new Seminary Survival Guide.com logo is now proudly displayed at the top of the header. (RSS readers might want to visit the site to see for themselves!) I want to thank my friend Stephanie, a great graphic designer who helped me cook up the logo, and refused to let me pay her. Gotta love [...]
Category: General
The Church-Seminary Connection
A few different bloggers have chimed in on the disconnect between seminary and the local church. Timmy Brister highlighted a Pastor-In-Training program at Third Avenue Baptist in Louisville. In summary, it seems that this church is actually taking responsibility for the development of new ministers, and not delegating that responsibility to the seminaries. Way to [...]
Category: Links
