Seminary is hard. In the midst of classes, internships, and parsing Greek verbs, sometimes it becomes difficult to remember why you are here. Jeff Gill, Dean of Grace Seminary and former pastor, is confident of your place in ministry. He gives wise guidance about how to know your call—and then how to finish school so you can meet it.

I was a pastor for 20 years. I came straight from being a student at the age of 26 and was in a church for 20 years, where I watched six or seven families grow to 600 people. Then in 2002, God brought me to Grace Theological Seminary. Both being a pastor and training pastors is very exciting!

One of the biggest distractions seminary students face today is the difficulty of balancing the stresses of family, job, school, and church ministry. Seminary students live in a world of stress, and the distraction is to succumb to the temptation to feel you are never doing enough—never spending enough time with family, never spending enough time studying.

The second major distraction is finances. Students are not making a lot of money and incurring debt at the same time. The third distraction may be seeing their friends already in ministry without having gone to seminary. Some wonder if seminary is really necessary.

Maintain a healthy pace
The students who seem to most effectively resist these distractions are those who find balance, which includes good time management.

In orientation at Grace, we talk about a student’s personal pace for seminary. Single men in their early twenties can take 16-17 hours a semester, because they have fewer distractions. However, 40-year-olds with three kids under the age of ten who work a full time job, realistically, can take only two or three classes. That is the struggle; it’s not one of intellect or spirituality, but in finding the right pace to do well.

Students don’t seem as hyper about finishing their degrees as my generation was 20 years ago. My generation focused more on getting done with their education and landing in the local church or mission field as quickly as possible. We talked about being a "man of the Word and rightly dividing it." Today, spiritual life and growth are high priorities for our students. Students are taking time to grow spiritually, to find out who they are and how God made them.

Deepen your call
I don’t view the ministry call in the traditional way. Some people view ministers as an elite group that is somehow going to be used by God in an extraordinary way.

But Scripture says, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ” (Col. 3:23-24, NLT). This passage is about the priesthood of all believers. We are not set aside as a unique special group. God has called all Christians to minister.

So, to help students understand their call to a fulltime vocational ministry of preaching or teaching or counseling, I ask these three questions:

1. If you really think God has gifted you, how can your ministry be defined more specifically? What are your spiritual gifts?

2. Is the ministry you are pursuing and preparing for your passion?

3. Do others who observe you confirm you should be pursuing vocational ministry? What do they say about you?

Seminary students must participate in ministry to begin to answer those questions. It's great if you love Greek and exegesis, but there's a whole lot more to vocational ministry than this. Seminary is at best a means to an end. You always have to keep your eye on the goal.

Through exposure to ministry—a short-term missions trip or shadowing a pastor in an urban setting—God will ignite a passion. Define this passion and find out how God wants to use it to his glory.

Perhaps seminary has made you sluggish in your faith. Or maybe it has made you realize you aren’t the leader you need to be when you finish seminary. Possibly it has caused you to compromise your priorities and you don’t know how to get them back in place.

Fortunately, others have been there before you and are willing to help you along—they’re called mentors. While there is no ideal mentoring relationship, mentoring is ideal for reducing leadership failure, providing accountability, and empowerment. J. Robert Clinton, Associate Professor of Leadership at the School of World Mission, Fuller Seminary, and author of Connecting talks about the essentials of mentoring and why it is here to stay

Ministry Mentor: How do you define mentoring?
J. Robert Clinton: Simply, it is a relational experience in which one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources.

MM: What led to your interest in mentoring?
JRC: In the mideighties, I researched case studies of how leaders develop across their lifetime. People's names were popping up along the timelines. They were people who helped these men and women in timely situations along the way to becoming a great leader.

That led me to partner with Paul Stanley, who had been studying mentor relationships, and look at how people are influenced by others. From our studies we identified nine primary mentor types: Discipler, Coach, Spiritual Guide, Counselor, Teacher, Sponsor, Contemporary Model, Historical Model, and Divine Contact.

MM: What type of mentor would best serve a seminarian?
JRC: Many seminarians have not been mentored in discipleship habits, including devotions, Word intake, fellowship with believers, and ministry. A Spiritual Guide would hold the mentoree accountable in these areas while lending insights concerning questions, commitments, and direction affecting spirituality and maturity.

Most seminarians also need a strong Coach. The Coach knows ministry well and imparts skills and application to motivate the mentoree to meet a task or challenge. Ultimately, the mentoree ought to be empowered. A key to good coaching is observation, feedback, and evaluation.

MM: What should a student know before embracing a mentoring relationship?
JRC: What their specific mentoring needs are and how to connect to a mentor to meet those specific needs. There is no such thing as an ideal mentor. Mentors usually have a mentor-mix, and they mentor best in terms of that mentor-mix. So, a seminarian who knows what kind of mentoring is needed can find someone with that mentor-mix.

1. Establish the mentoring.
2. Jointly agree on the purpose of the relationship.
3. Determine the regularity of interaction.
4. Determine the type of accountability.
5. Set up communication mechanisms.
6. Clarify the level of confidentiality.
7. Set the life cycle of the relationship.
8. Evaluate the relationship from time to time.
9. Modify expectations to fit the real-life mentoring situation.
10. Bring closure to the mentoring relationship.

Following these from the outset of a mentoring relationship can save a lot of disappointment and misunderstanding later on. The key is good communication and spelling out the expectations from both sides.

MM: Is mentoring here to stay?
JRC: It is growing in popularity among spiritual leaders. Mentoring will become an important way for mid-level leadership types to be trained. At present there is very little training for folks who move to higher level leadership in parachurch organizations. Almost every student who studies at Fuller wants mentoring because it works.

Sometimes I think I disappeared down Alice’s rabbit hole and landed in a strange world: seminary. Suddenly, I was reading ancient languages, learning to preach, and hoping to dazzle my professors with clever papers—all while trying to grow in my faith. No wonder people call it “cemetery.” In moments of crisis and utter exhaustion you wonder whether you will survive. I know I have.

We all have a story of what led us to seminary, and it usually involves some sense of calling. I sensed the Lord guiding my life since childhood, and in high school I was drawn toward missions. I always thought that meant I should be a medical missionary.

However, during my college years, the Lord changed my interests and desires.

Upon graduation, I worked at a university medical center and waited for the Lord to show me whether to pursue this path. While waiting, I investigated several different graduate programs. I applied and was accepted to seminary. As if to confirm my uncertainty, the Lord provided financially for my tuition. At the close of that year, I participated in a month-long mission project in Guatemala. The experience further confirmed my decision.

I completed a Masters in Theological Studies and was blessed to sit under godly, gifted professors and work with a group of diverse and dedicated students. There, I became interested in pursuing further education to serve the global church in academia. This fall I began work on a Ph.D. in New Testament.

Now I am one of “those people” who spend lots of time reading, writing, and thinking. It can be simultaneously exhausting and exciting. God taught me I must take breaks from my books and enjoy other aspects of life. This is important because it helps me stay connected with people and the real world.

Just as developing Christian character requires discipline and determination, so does surviving seminary. It involves sacrifice, hard work, and prayer. Prayer propels me during difficult days. I have people who pray for me, and I meet weekly with other students to pray for the global Church and the spread of the gospel. This puts life in perspective and spurs me on. It is an awesome privilege to participate in the spread of the kingdom of God through prayer.

Psalms 130 and 131 especially resonate with my spiritual journey: the Lord is merciful and forgiving, and thus feared. I place my hope in his Word and wait for his unfailing love. I recognize my limitations, finitude, and dependence. I am content with quieting my soul with this hope. From this state of heart and mind, I can daily seek his grace and strength to pursue the task to which he has called me. I pray you may find the same joy, strength, and comfort in your journey through seminary.