Seminary Education on the Cheap

One the exciting privileges I have in life is to be able to go to seminary for formal pastoral education. I have been attending the DC campus of Reformed Theological Seminary for about four semesters now. And although I don’t believe that a seminary education is all it takes to be a pastor, it has certainly equipped me in areas in which my breadth and depth of knowledge was deficient.

Two of the major challenges I have faced in going to seminary are the cost and time. With a family to provide for and a full-time job, neither time nor money are in huge abundance. I think this is probably true for most people with a family and a job. So the question is, “how do I get equipped for ministry with so much limited time and money?”

Getting Equipped without Going Broke

The first thing I would say is to check with your church. Our church leaders have a strong burden to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry” as Paul puts it in Ephesians. It is likely that your pastoral staff feels the same way. So find out what educational and discipleship opportunities your church provides.

The second thing I would say is that the internet is a wealth of information. You can find information on nearly any topic. That includes seminary-level educational material. In particular, there are many podcasts and videocasts offered through Apple’s iTunes U. Here are a few that I would recommend.

• RTS on iTunes U – RTS offers one of the best online educational programs. They offer an Masters of Arts in Religion, entirely through their virtual campus.
• Westminster Seminary on iTunes U [opens iTunes] – WTS is an excellent school that has produced some amazing theological minds.
• Covenant Theological Seminary on iTunes U [opens iTunes] – Covenant is another great seminary that offers many of their lecture online.
• BiblicalTraining.org – BiblicalTraining.org is a website that exists “to help make new and fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ.” It has resources geared toward discipleship for new believers all the way to graduate seminarians.

Listening to podcasts can be a productive way to redeem wasted time. If you are stuck on a metro or in stop and go traffic, you can listen to a podcast on theology (and despair less about the commute). There are other great resources listed in my “Links” section that are not associated with a particular seminary, such as the Desiring God Resource Library and the Resurgence.

As one of my pastors has said, we often confuse information with education. The amount of information that is available to us is amazing. Hopefully, these resources can help equip you, not just for knowing stuff, but so that you can serve and do the work of ministry in your spheres of influence.