I say no. What do you say? Take the poll.

I’m really curious to see the results.

1. Will this be among the 20% of most valuable classes, to which I should devote my best energy, or will it be one of the 80% that are (comparatively) low-value?

Many things go into this determination. Some classes you will enjoy immensely, but won’t really benefit you practically in ministry down the line. Others will be helpful but not so enjoyable.

If you don’t know the answer to this first question going in, most of the time you should be able to determine it within the first two weeks of class.

2. What do I need to take from this course?

The answer could be information, skill, or exposure. What value will it have for your future ministry? This is a separate question from #3, below.

3. What do you need to get a good grade in this course?

Is the grade based on test, papers, attendance, assignments, or some combination? Which things are you going to really give yourself to and which ones can you afford less attention?

Next week: the real story on grades

Our observations in hindsight about which classes are valuable are all fine, but they’re not helpful BEFORE you take a given class. So how do you extract the best that your classes have to offer and avoid the worst? Here are some ideas.

1. First of all, determine your priorities. Do you want to be proficient in Greek, or do you just not care about languages? It’s best to do this determination after at least a little bit of exposure to the subject. Since you’re new at this, you may be surprised by either your love for or aversion to new subjects. But start with an idea of what you really want to take away from seminary… and feel free to revise it as you go.
2. Second, before it’s time to sign up for classes, look at which ones you are thinking of taking, and interview other students who have taken the same course, same professor. Ask them about the value of the class. Be specific. Ask them about the professor, the lectures, the assigned books. Ask them what were the most valuable and least valuable parts of the class.
3. Ask mentors in your life who have been through seminary which courses are valuable and not valuable.

I encourage you to keep a list of all required courses, and as you take them, assign them a rating to indicate whether they are high-value or not. My M. Div. program was 92 hours, so you can assume roughly that about 18 hours or so are going to give you the most value.

My point in this series of posts is this (mildly controversial) idea: not all of your classes are worthy of your best attention. Remember triage as a metaphor for time management? Here’s where it comes into play. As you weigh out the competing priorities in your life, you may well need to say: this class is less worthy of my attention right now than … fill in the blank: my wife and kids… this other, more valuable class… praying… or going to the gym.

What I want to do is to explode the notion that you must give your best, concentrated effort to every moment in seminary. You don’t. Your time is your own, and you are responsible for managing it. Wise management will mean not wasting it on low value seminary stuff.

Some of you will be offended by this, thinking that I’m encouraging laziness, which I absolutely am not. If we cheat classes, we should do so for good reasons, in order to spend that time on things that are important. If you blow off class to play cards in the student union or get high scores on Rock Band, that’s a problem.

For a more authoritative take on this subject from another angle, see Choosing to Cheat, by Andy Stanley.

You bet I did. Here they are:
Old and New Testament (Four classes, 12 hrs) – Here the culprit was poor instructors. I had dithering graduate students for two of the four classes, and a stuffed shirt bomfogging professor for a third. A good professor for the fourth did not make up for the fact that the content of these classes was just not very helpful or necessary. All the information I needed from these I could get from a good reference book.

Christian Ministry (4 hrs) – Dusty, out-of-touch professor and unhelpful content.

Education Administration (2 hrs) – Terrible books, pointless assignments, irrelevant content and a boring professor. Gack. This was the worst. I should have shown up only for the tests and been satisfied with a C. The value of this class was to teach me endurance.

Now pay attention to WHY these classes were low-value. I’m willing to bet that with better instructors, my Old and New Testament classes could have been quite good. Had I asked around about these instructors, I probably could have set myself up for better experiences.

And at the end of the day, some classes are just going to be boring filler. No way around it. And it’s certainly not the end of the world. Think of it as preparation for pointless meetings you’re bound to have to suffer through in ministry life.

Your turn: Crummiest class so far and why? (And no naming professors, please. Let’s be kind!)

• High-value books as part of assigned reading
• High-value lectures – good information
• High-value assignments which help you learn critical skills
• High-value professors whose teaching, life and/or personal example are impactful

If the 80/20 principle holds true, then the highest value of my 92 hour M. Div would be found in just 18 hours of classes.

For me, those courses were:

Philosophy of Religion 4 hrs
Biblical backgrounds 2 hrs
Church History 6 hrs
Preaching 4 hrs
Preaching lab 2 hrs

Total 18 hrs

For my classes:

Philosophy of Religion – This is the course where I learned how to think. My professor was the reason. I learned from him how to make, analyze and counter arguments. This value came directly from him, in his lectures. The readings and final paper were by comparison not as helpful. Attending class to observe and interact with the professor was all the value of this course.

Biblical Backgrounds – Here the value was not my professor, though he was very capable. The value was in the information he gave, both in lectures and in our assigned readings. Understanding the Bible’s geographical and historical background was of immense value to understanding the message of the Bible.

Church History – The value here was a combination of the professors, who were excellent and energized, and the information they shared. The perspective on the historical development of Christianity helped me sort out my own doctrinal convictions and which ones were most important. This may seem like a strange value of a church history course, and I agree. You’d think doctrinal clarity would come from studying systematic theology; for me, it didn’t. In fact, my systematic theology classes were unfortunately among the weakest I took in my seminary career.

Preaching – Another example of hidden value was my preaching class. The value of this class was in our assignments. In preparing our sermons, we had to write interpretive sentences capturing the main idea of the passage. Writing those sentences (declarative, 18 words or less) was without question the hardest and most valuable skill I learned in my entire seminary career.

Again, this seems strange: you’d think that Biblical Hermeneutics would have been the class for that. For me, it wasn’t. For hermeneutics, I took the same professor I’d had for Philosophy of Religion. Bad idea. He was a terrible hermeneutics professor. I didn’t realize at the time that professors aren’t always good at everything they teach. Value in an instructor depends many times upon the subject.

Preaching Lab – This was another class where the assignments were the key value. We had to preach, but had a 12 minute time limit. Keeping a complete sermon to 12 minutes taught me the skill of deciding what not to say. Let’s be honest: most preachers are criticized for the excessive length of their sermons. In that class, I heard the most lean, focused and powerful sermons, even though we were students. The value was the time limit, which forced us to eliminate all but the most essential material, and focus our preaching like a laser.

So how about you? Of the classes you’ve taken (so far) in seminary, which one or two have had the most value and why?

Next: My Crummiest classes

The 80/20 Principle, also known as Pareto’s Law, is an incredibly powerful tool for time and priority management, with thousands of uses. The reality, for instance, that 80% of the work in a church is done by 20% of the people, lines up perfectly with the 80/20 principle. Or that 80% of the money is given by 20% of the contributors.

The basic idea is that of inequality: a few investments will yield the most dividend. A few salesmen will produce most of the sales. The most productivity on a project will come from a small slice of the total time spent on it. The proportions aren’t always 80/20. Sometimes they are 70/30, other times 90/10, or even 95/5.

Richard Koch wrote the classic book defining the 80/20 principle and illustrating its power and usefulness. The book is worth the read…but if you apply the principle, you can get 80% of the value of the book from reading just 20% of its content. I’ve read the book, and will share the most relevant 20% of it with you here. See? This principle is already saving you hours of time!

So back to planning your study. Having chosen a degree program, you need to ask which courses in your degree program deserve the most attention.

Fair Warning: as we flesh this out, I’m guessing that some of you will take offense to the diligent application of this principle. I probably would have, too, when I was in seminary. Not to worry. Remember that all recommendations here are suggestions, which you are free to adopt or dismiss as it suits you. No claims to divine inspiration here.

My M. Div. program was 92 hours. If we take the 80/20 rule, then on average, 18 hours of the 92 will have proved most helpful.

Next: My high value classes