Archive for Mark

author photo

post thumbnail

Stumbling at Seminary: Cheating

(From the archives. ) In an interview with the dean of students at a leading evangelical seminary, I asked about the most common reasons people did not complete seminary.  One of his answers was a shock to me: students get caught cheating. Seminary students have ample opportunity to cheat. You can plagiarize—representing the academic work [...]

May 4th, 2010 | Mark | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Dating At Seminary

So what’s it like to date at seminary? Ed and I are working on the relationships section of the book and realized we needed to hear from more perspectives than just ours. So how about it?  Have any thoughts or perspectives on seminary dating life you think would be valuable for other seminary students? You [...]

May 4th, 2010 | Mark | 1 comment | Continued
post thumbnail

Quick Update

Seminary Survival Guide.com has been fairly inactive, as you may have noticed. I’ve been busy with lots of good things going at church: we’re attempting to relocate, and lots of people are coming to faith. The challenges are many and they are good. Next week, however, I’ll be taking a couple of days away to [...]

April 24th, 2010 | Mark | 2 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Reflections on Graduating Seminary

by Britt Treece A week before Christmas, after six long years of study, I graduated from seminary.  Looking back, I’ve had a lot of thoughts, questions, comments, and recommendations, so I thought that organizing some of them would be helpful both for me and for past, present, and future seminarians.  (Since it took me six [...]

January 8th, 2010 | Mark | 1 comment | Continued
post thumbnail

Attending Seminary Means Living In a Foreign Land

When I went to seminary, it entailed a move from Florida to Texas. There was a shift in geography, but there was also a shift in culture-a pretty dramatic shift, as anyone who’s moved to Texas will probably tell you. I grew up in South Florida. I was a native Floridian, which was pretty unusual. [...]

September 28th, 2009 | Mark | 6 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

My First Semester Shock, or Seminarians Without Chests

I approached seminary with many of the common illusions seminary students have. I thought it would be a spiritually vibrant and intense time, full of people who were overflowing with passion for Christ. Boy was I surprised. My first semester, I enrolled in Hebrew class, like many beginning M.Div.-ers. I made friends with some other [...]

September 21st, 2009 | Mark | 14 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Seminary Syllabus Strategy #4: A Study Plan for Each Major Exam

Similar to creating a writing plan for papers, you should block out dedicated study time for major exams. If you do this now, at the beginning of the semester (and stick to your schedule), then you won’t be pinched to find time to study. It’s pretty simple: Reserve study blocks beginning about a week before [...]

September 14th, 2009 | Mark | 1 comment | Continued
post thumbnail

Seminary Syllabus Strategy #3: A Writing Plan for Every Major Paper

Seminary will give you plenty of practice writing papers. By the time I graduated with my M.Div, I could easily write ten pages about nothing. (Some would allege that my sermons are exactly that…but I digress.) Writing papers on the scale that seminary requires can be daunting if you haven’t done it before. Ten page [...]

September 6th, 2009 | Mark | 3 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Seminary Syllabus Strategy #2: Start Reading Now

Seminary involves a LOT of reading. At the beginning of the semester, you typically have more open time. Seize it! Use it to read ahead now, and then when the first wave of papers is due, you won’t be so rushed. There may be some classes you can read ahead in more easily. Look over [...]

August 31st, 2009 | Mark | 3 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Seminary Syllabus Strategy #1: Get It In Your Calendar

The first week of seminary is over, and looming ahead are due dates for reading, papers and tests. You know this because you should have a syllabus for each class, which contains all the assignments you’ll need to complete this semester and their due dates. This is awesome. It’s a time management bonanza. If you [...]

August 24th, 2009 | Mark | 2 comments | Continued