“How did you simultaneously go to seminary and work full-time?” I get asked that question a lot, but I think the more important question is, “Why did you go to seminary and work full-time?” This second question bears critical thought. If you find yourself in a similar situation, it will be the question you constantly return to. For me, the answer to “Why?” was theological. Working and going to seminary at the same time was about stewardship.
In the parable of the talents, Jesus describes servants who had been entrusted with five talents, two talents, and one talent (Matthew 25:14-30). When the owner of the property comes back and calls the servants to account, the servant entrusted with the one talent is singled out for his laziness (hiding his one talent) and defamatory stance towards the master, while the other two servants have made a 100% return on their talents. It is a reminder that good gifts from God are to be stewarded. Stewardship is not just good for our neighbor and for our own good, but also brings glory to the Giver of all good gifts.
Going to seminary and working full-time was my way to honor God with my finances and my unique situation at that time. While I was a student at Reformed Theological Seminary, NYC, I was a research and development scientist at a chemical company and later transitioned to working as a quality control chemist at a cosmetics company. There were aspects of both job environments that allowed for me to properly carry out my job duties and attend to my seminary studies, while honoring the most important gift God has given me, my family.
I’ll be laying out the practical aspects of seminary in a process that might be familiar to you from elementary school science class: the scientific method. In each of these sections, I aim to elucidate the aggregation of my thoughts and processes.
Questions | How is it all going to work?
- Finances: How would I pay for seminary? Are scholarships available? Would my own church support me? Does it make sense to even ask other churches?
- Time: Would I be able to honor my existing priorities and commitments: to my family, to my church, to my work, to my community? What would my schedule look like with the addition of homework, studying, and reading? What part would my almost 2.5 hour commute play into this?
- Knowledge and Skill Transfer: What does it look like to bring my industry experience into seminary studies? How would the experience help me learn the languages (one of the hardest parts of a seminary curriculum)?
- Options: I know the names of major seminaries, but where should I enroll? Is there anything local that would allow me to continue to keep my job while pursuing my studies?
Hypothesis: It is possible to go to seminary and work full-time, but it requires intentionality and a community.
Experimentation and Analysis
A good scientist constantly re-evaluates the given experimental methods based on the results acquired, but also with an understanding that the results acquired may sometimes lead to a moving target. What this meant for me was not just a yearly re-evaluation, but a constant re-evaluation, weekly, sometimes even daily, in looking at my schedule, my finances, and even more importantly, my soul. Here are some of my learnings through this process of experimentation and re-evaluation.
Make the Budget Work
I decided to attack the finances piece first. If there was no way for me to pay for seminary, all of these plans would be pointless. I was at a point in my life where I didn’t think taking out loans was financially prudent (Proverbs 22:7, Luke 14:28). My wife and I looked at our savings, what this would mean for our paychecks, and thought about what we would be giving up. In addition to tuition, I had to factor in books, Bible software, and costs of commuting.
I applied for a scholarship towards the end of my time in seminary, but did not get awarded one. I attended two different churches while in seminary and both of them ended up supporting me financially. My encouragement here is to always ask, not with prideful expectation but with grace and freedom. There are many reasons why a church will say no, but if they do say yes, praise God!
Become Friends with Your Calendar
Having a calendar (a shared one if you are married) is a necessary ally in seminary. You need to mark down class dates, deadlines, cohort hangouts, and need to block off time for studying. I understand that this will not be the case for many people, but my work situation was unique. A lot of my work involved letting experiments sit for hours. This provided time to study and do homework. I also made sure that I wasn’t “stealing” from company time by having a discussion with my boss and determining what doing work during company hours would look like. In the early years, very rarely did I have to bring seminary work home, which gave me more time to spend with my wife, family, and friends. I also had to adapt when different family situations arose. This meant taking less classes some semesters. The calendar was crucial in those seasons.
Be Wise
I transitioned jobs while in seminary. When a recruiter approached me about the second job, I made sure to tell him that I was still in seminary and that my studies would be an important part of my time. This was an approach of wisdom. Especially for those working in secular vocations, it may be unwise for you to communicate to your current boss that you’ll be wanting to pursue seminary studies. Or it may actually turn out to be a blessing and a testimony of faith in your workplace. All that being said, use wisdom.
Serve the Church Through Studying
Serving versus Studying. This is a common dilemma. If you’re already serving in the church, do your seminary studies take away from that? Doesn’t that seem contradictory? When Mary decided to sit at the feet of Jesus to listen to what He said, as opposed to Martha who was distracted with much serving, Jesus said that Mary chose the good portion (Luke 10:38-42). To be sure, Jesus is not saying that you shouldn’t serve. But there is something powerful about intentionally listening to Jesus’ teaching. I had to remember that seminary would be a unique time in my life. A significant part of my time was devoted to the study of the Bible, theology, church history, preaching, and more. Charlie Wingard writes, “Resist the temptation to see your studies in competition with service to the Lord. Right now, your time reading, writing, and in the lecture hall is your primary field of service. Should you serve in other ways? Most definitely, but not before you are sure you can meet your academic requirements.”1 That being said, I did not want seminary to disrupt my regular church time and serving at church. If seminary was going to make me a better minister, I couldn’t forsake the gathering of the saints, but I also couldn’t completely stop serving the saints. I learned to go with the flow. There were seasons where I served more and seasons where I served less. I didn’t make these decisions in a vacuum, which leads to my next experimental point.
Develop Relationships
It takes a village to raise a seminary student. I developed relationships with my professors in seminary and gained a mentor in the process. One can never have too many advisers (Proverbs 15:22). I asked every question I had about life, ministry, and family. Their counsel impacts me even today. I also had friends at church who helped proctor my online exams. I made new friends in seminary who are now my lifelong ministry buddies. And of course, I had my most supportive relationship of all: my wife, who, in her first act of declaring, “I’m with you,” wrote out all of my Greek vocabulary flash cards with her impeccable handwriting.
Be Disciplined
Paul describes being strong in Jesus’ grace with the imagery of a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. The one thing tying them all together? Discipline. It takes intentional discipline and habits to get through seminary while also working. For me, this was making the most of the time that I had while waiting for experiments to run. I wrote my Greek and Hebrew paradigms over and over again. This was a habit I picked up from working as a scientist. Repeatability is not just about making sure the results are accurate, but also about making the method second-nature.
I also measured how fast I read to budget out how long it would take to read books. This might sound extreme, but the goal here was intentional stewardship. A wise professor once said, “For some of you, striving to get that A in the class will be sinful. For others of you, not trying to get that A in the class will be sinful. You will need to be self-aware to know which one you are.” As a scientist, gathering data and forming a novel thesis are regular parts of the job. This was especially helpful for writing seminary thesis papers, which require more than just parroting your favorite theologian. It requires careful and creative thinking.
Expect the Unexpected
No one anticipated COVID and the shakeup it would cause to the educational world. In the early years, I didn’t have to bring seminary work home. When COVID hit, all of the classes went online. This created a different dynamic at home, especially because it coincided with us having a child. Holding my infant son while listening to my professor on Zoom and reading Calvin and Bavinck were not things that I anticipated, but adapting is part of the journey. And remember that God is at work in all of the unexpected situations (Proverbs 16:9).
Conclusion
Here is my encouragement to those of you on that white picket fence (metaphorically speaking since those don’t exist in NYC) about going to seminary. Take the time to evaluate your current practices and habits. As with the Christian life and sanctification, it is very difficult to change. Without adopting the right practices with the right heart, you’ll find that seminary can be a struggle. Even so, seminary can be a wonderful blessing. Take the time now to be thoughtful and intentional about what going to seminary will look like. Remember the community you have. May these three principles which guided me also lead you to greater discernment:
- Chief End: Do all things to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).
- Vocation: This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1).
- Christ-Centered: For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).
Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series about seminary written to encourage and provide perspective to those who are curious or are considering seminary to be part of their future. What about all of the practical elements like finances and balancing family life? I haven’t been in school for a while–is it too late for me to think about seminary? We’ll tackle these questions and more through this series with the wisdom our writers offer to us.
Header Photo Credit: Chuttersnap
- Wingard, Charlie. “Wisdom for the New Seminary Student.” byFaith. August 12, 2025. https://byfaithonline.com/get-off-to-a-good-start-in-seminary/