Is Theological College for me?

Dr Greg Goswell, Biblical Studies Lecturer

Perhaps you are considering college for yourself or for someone else, here are some issues to weigh up in the process of deciding. Let me try to answer the question, Is theological college for me? by describing four types or categories of people. First, there are those who do not need college training. At the top of the list of course is the Lord Jesus himself, and this was something that greatly offended the Jewish leaders (John 7.15). Though he had never studied in the rabbinic schools, he knew the Scriptures better than they did and won every argument with them. So too the apostles were “uneducated , common men” (Acts 4.13), though they had received the intensive training provided by Jesus in the forty days between his resurrection and ascension (Luke 24). In Christian history we could name C.H. Spurgeon and Campbell Morgan as men without formal training yet who were greatly used of God. Now before you rush to emulate this, do you have delusions of grandeur? Would you put yourself in this select company?

For most people serious years of preparation are the foundation for later usefulness in ministry. A second group are those who enrol in a college but are too eager to get out! They do not make the most of the unique opportunity of the 3-4 years of college training. This is a form of immaturity, wanting to be further on than you actually are, like children who want to dress like adolescents. They underestimate how equipped one needs to be (in knowledge, shills and godliness) for effective ministry. This is the reason colleges need big libraries, so the students can see how little they know! (Samuel Miller).

A third group are those who take college too seriously, or at least seriously in the wrong way. Hard work and fun are not mutually exclusive. They go ‘all theological' and lose their humanity and good humour, and end up preaching sermons full of theological jargon. That is not the effect intended by their educators! A final group are those who think that college is all about essays, exams and degrees. Now, to be honest, at PTC we have all these, but they are not the essence of the college experience. It's all about developing lifelong habits of learning, gaining the tools to study the Bible, to think theologically and to be creative in ministry, so that one grows deeper and deeper as the years go on. Only you can answer the question, however, Is theological college for me?

Dr Greg Goswell (Biblical Studies Lecturer)