Seminary Archives - Canon Fodder

5 Reasons to Come to @RTSCharlotte Preview Day on Sept 29th!

September 15, 2021

If you are considering seminary, you will not want to miss the RTS Charlotte preview day on Sept 29th. Here are a five things you’ll get to do if you come join us:

1. Take a tour of our beautiful 20-acre campus. We are blessed with a wonderful property nestled in the heart of south Charlotte. You will not only see our many buildings, but also our wide open lawns for picnics, sports, or just catching up on your reading outdoors. And North Carolina is especially beautiful in the fall!

2. Sit in on a class with our top-notch faculty. The Charlotte campus has 12 residential faculty members, and the morning of Sept 29th you can catch Systematic Theology with Dr. Kevin DeYoung, Pastoral and Social Ethics with Dr. James Anderson, or Methods of Biblical Change with Dr. Nate Brooks. [Read more…]

@RTSCharlotte 2019 Year in Review

December 31, 2019

Well, it’s New Year’s Eve. It’s the time of the year to be inundated with “Best of” stories and “Year in Review” segments, dutifully cataloging everything that happened in pop culture or politics.

But, what if a “Year in Review” was about more than Donald Trump or Kim Kardashian? What if we did a year in review about what God had done in the prior year? Or, more to the point, about how God has been at work in our ministries this year?

Of course, God has been at work in countless ways around the globe this year, most of which I could never know about. But, I can speak to how he has blessed RTS Charlotte. So, here’s a quick recap of what I am thankful for in 2019:

1. New Students. It may sound strange, but every year I am genuinely surprised that anyone comes to seminary. Let’s be honest, ministry is tough. Those in ministry are often underappreciated, unthanked, heavily criticized, underpaid, and unrespected by our modern culture. Don’t get me wrong, there are many wonderful things too. But, I stand amazed that men and women still show up every year to take on this calling.

And this fall, 2019, RTS Charlotte was blessed to have our largest enrollment in over a decade. So thankful the Lord has brought us these students. Our goal is to be good stewards of them until they are sent out from us. [Read more…]

7 Tips on How to Survive an Ordination Exam

June 10, 2019

It’s that time of year. Most seminaries, by now, have had their graduations. Celebrations and congratulations have been passed around, and rightly so. Graduating is a big accomplishment.

And although seminary itself is quite the challenge, something more formidable (at least in terms of stress) awaits most students. The dreaded ordination exam.

This is the time when a candidate stands up in front of the presbytery (perhaps with 50 -75 elders in attendance) and is publicly examined, probed, prodded, and picked at for several hours on a variety of topics ranging from church history to sacraments to eschatology to the famed Book of Church Order.

And from candidate’s perspective, it is easy to feel like you are looking into the eyes of a hungry cat. And you are the mouse.

So, needless to say, I have often been asked about whether I have any pieces of advice for students entering into this process. Although this is by no means exhaustive, here are a few thoughts that I hope are helpful: [Read more…]

@RTSCharlotte Launches Women in Ministry Scholarship

May 22, 2019

One of the most exciting developments over the last few years at RTS Charlotte is the increasing number of female students in our various degree programs. There is a vibrant community of women on campus led by our Community Life Coordinator, Mallie Taylor.

And these women are some of our best and brightest. Every semester we give awards for the best student papers, and this past year a large percentage of the winners were female students.

And this is good news for the church. Women contribute to and enrich so many different ministries in the church. Examples include: missions, counseling, evangelism, discipleship, women’s ministry, mercy ministry, youth ministry, children’s ministry, administration, college ministry, and more. For more, see my article, “Five Reasons to Include Women on Your Church Staff.”

But, here is the challenge. There tends to be fewer scholarship opportunities available for female seminary students. It’s hard to come to seminary if there are not the resources to pay for it.

For these reasons, I am pleased to announce that RTS Charlotte is launching a new scholarship just for female seminary students. Starting in Fall, 2019, the Charlotte campus will offer the Women in Ministry Scholarship, providing at least a 50% tuition discount to female students.

Nancy Guthrie, speaker and best-selling author of the Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament series, commented on the new scholarship: [Read more…]

Is It a Waste of Time for Seminary Students (and Pastors) to Learn the Biblical Languages?

August 21, 2017

Note: I post the article below every year as seminary students arrive. I hope it will prove helpful for a new group of readers (or maybe even prior ones!)

A few weeks ago, a new crop of seminary students began the grueling month-long experience of Summer Greek. And, like all seminary students before them, they will begin to ask the question of why studying these ancient languages even matters. After all, a few years after graduation all will be forgotten. In the midst of a busy pastoral life, who could possibly maintain proficiency in the languages?

As a result of these questions, some students decide (very early on) that the biblical languages are just something to be endured. They are like a hazing ritual at a college fraternity. No one likes it, but you have to go through it to be in the club. And then it will be over.

Behind this “take your medicine” approach to the biblical languages are a couple of assumptions that need to be challenged. First, the characterization of pastoral ministry as somehow incompatible with the languages (due to busyness, or other causes), is an unfortunate misunderstanding of what a pastorate is all about. No doubt, pastors should be busy shepherding their flock, meeting with ministry leaders, and running the church. But, the core of the calling is to be a “minister of the word.”

And if the pastoral call is to be a minister of the Word, then there is a significant component of pastoral life that should be devoted to serious study of the biblical text—beyond just the preparation for that week’s sermon. Put differently, pastors should continue to be students. They need to be readers, thinkers, and theologians.

[Read more…]