Dear Concluding Seminarians,
This evening you will receive the official documents of your Call into the Holy Ministry. When you first arrived on campus it was our privilege to welcome you; today we are deeply touched as you go forth to witness to the faith, hope and love that are in Jesus Christ. Strong in my heart this evening is a prayer that you’ll watch against a temptation unique to Seminary graduates.
“Academized Christianity, which is not constantly connected to the heart and puts its hope in knowledge and skill, can actually make students (seminarians) dangerous. It arms them with powerful knowledge and skills that can make the students think that they are more mature and godly than they actually are. It arms students with weapons of spiritual warfare that if not used with humility and grace will harm the people they are meant to help.” (“Dangerous Calling,” Paul David Tripp, 54)
Your Seminary has worked hard to provide you with a holistic view of ministry, not just in the classroom but in congregational settings, mission trips, athletics, social events and much more. Still, parish ministry is different than Seminary life. A veteran pastor recently said, “The Seminary gets you ready to be a pastor. You will become a pastor later.” This evening you will begin to step into that future of service, a future unknown, challenging, but a future that you can experience with the confident joy of faith. Go with head and heart united in devotion to Jesus Christ. He is your own Savior and Leader. Out of your personal discipleship, make the apostles’ conviction your own. “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).
Stay your heart on Jesus. Otherwise, ministry “can finally all degenerate into a Christ-less Christianity that puts its hope in theology and rules and somehow forgets that if theology and rules had the power to transform the heart of idolaters, Jesus would never have had to come, live, die, and rise again” (Tripp, 55).
Blessings upon you!
Opa