The Tentative P-Lan: What does Scott want to do after college?

Without a doubt, he wants to go to seminary and get a Master of Divinity (M.Div.), God willing.

Right now I am only a sophomore in college, so even thinking about grad. school seems a little silly to me, but you can never plan too far ahead, as long as your plans are tentative.

As of now, Asbury Seminary is top on my list of candidates, but that is because it is the only seminary I have visited, and one of the few seminaries endorsed by the Wesleyan denomination (to which I belong). If I go to a seminary not endorsed by my denomination, I don’t get any scholarships from them, and they may brand me a liberal wanderer. We’ll see.

I am also very interested in getting an M.A. or two; perhaps two is foolish, but I’m not sure. Asbury Seminary is located in Wilmore, KY. Right next door in Lexington, KY, lies the University of Kentucky, which has a highly respected department of Classical Languages, and one of the best Latin programs in the country. They have an official ‘Institute for Latin Studies’ whose classes are conducted entirely in Latin. The professors teach in Latin, and the students respond in Latin, and everything is written Latine. It sounds like a blast to me. I might consider getting a M.A in Classics there. If I did it all at once, it would only take me a year, in theory; or I might be able to get it while I go to seminary, if I choose to go to Asbury.

I also wouldn’t mind getting another M.A. in either Biblical Literature or Theology. This I could do at seminary, before, after or while I get an M.Div. I would also like to get a Ph.D. in I don’t know what yet; maybe Church History, Bib. Lit., Theology, or even maybe a D.Min. Who knows? Maybe God doesn’t want me to get a Ph.D. or a D.Min.

Why do I say that? Because I am called to be a minister, and not a Professor. That’s right: I want to master Latin, Hebrew, and Greek, with the end goal of working in a church. In other words, I’m a geek. I’m hoping that’s pleasing to God. It makes sense to me on some level to be well educated for the purpose of teaching and preaching in the church.

Why else do I want all that education? Because I love to learn. I want to be able to say that I have studied the Bible, Theology and Church history very well. I want to master something. But I don’t want to get a Ph.D. just to get one. So I hope within the next eight years I can come up with a good reason.

I also want to get a lot of ministry experience during school, whether or not that involves taking a part-time position somewhere. However, I do not want to take a very long break in between degrees for a couple of reasons. It doesn’t make sense to take a full-time ministry position with the intention of leaving in a few years to go back to school. Also, I have been told to get my education all at once while I can, because after you start a family it’s hard. I would rather get my graduate education while I can still take classes in semesters, and not in one-week spurts while doing ministry.

So after graduate education—full-time ministry. I’ve heard that it’s nice to have a senior pastor to work under for at first, so that you have someone to show you the ropes. However, I would not be frightened to be a solo pastor of a small parish after that.

I don’t want to be too picky with any of this though. It all deserves a lot of prayer, since God’s plan is best. So like I said before, this is the tentative p-lan.