Welcome to PTS! (Part I)

First week of seminary! It was fantastic (to borrow a word commonly overused by one of my very good friends)! I have learned so much over the past week, it's not even funny. I have read more in the past seven days than I did all summer, and my throat is sore from all of the Hebrew I've been working on. BUT, it has been one of the best weeks on my life, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. This will be the first of a two part blog. This will clear up things I have heard that are simply untrue about seminary, and more specifically, Princeton Theological Seminary. Just a few misconceptions:

Everyone is here to be a pastor. On the contrary. Many of the people here are still working out their vocation. They are still discerning their call. Even more obvious is that not everyone is here to get an M.Div. There are many Duals, MAs, and Th.M students. Furthermore, just because one is pursuing and M.Div does not mean that they wish to go into ordained ministry. Many of the M.Div-ers want to go onto teaching and other endeavors. 

Everyone does and should get along at seminary. False. As the minister of the chapel so nicely put it: "Christian community is not easy." Many people come to seminary with big expectations for how a Christian community should function. Some of the best advice I got this week was from upperclassmen who simply shared their frustrations about other (unnamed) seminarians. During orientation, we called this "bumping icebergs." It's a simple concept. Bringing such a diverse group of people together from all over the country and even all over the world means that not everyone is going to get along. People have different backgrounds, different expectations, and especially differing opinions. Everyone is civil with one another, but not everyone is going to like everyone else. 

Nobody curses, swears, or drinks. This was proven false on my very first day here. People curse. People swear. And Thursday night is karaoke night at the local bar. None of this is done in excess or to the point of offending anyone, so it's a pretty laid back community.

Everyone is oober-religious. Don't get me wrong, seminarians are religious people. We just shouldn't be placed in a negative context. Why do we get a bad wrap for a negative experience some people may have had with other religious groups, people, or movements? We love Jesus, and we think you should too, but we will hardly 'harass' you about it.

PTS's goal is to make money. Now, officially, this actually may be one of their goals, but not from my empirical observations. It seems like this institutions goal is to help their students discern God's call--no matter what the cost. Administrators and Professors truly care about you as a student, a Christian, and a person. It is veeeery different than my undergraduate experience. Everyone here invests themselves in you, and they want you to succeed in the worst way! A great way to describe PTS in one word: hospitable. 

Prestigious people are arrogant. Completely untrue. I would actually argue that the reason why some prestigious people are actually prestigious is because of their humility. There are a number of world-renowned theologians and professors here, and every single one of them that I have met is extremely humble. Case and point: the president of the seminary (the president!) makes it a habit to eat lunch in the dining hall, sit with students, and remember their names. Wow! It's just amazing, and if I may say so myself, no easy task to remember all those names and make time to eat lunch in the dining hall. Many of the professors do the same thing. It's just awesome.

I am sure that there are and will be other things that need clearing about about seminary, and I will be happy to post them as I come across further misconceptions. Hopefully, I'll get to Part II of this blog, which will include more specific narratives of things that have occurred during my first week here (plus orientation), some time very soon.

Incoming class picture (taken by KS, a seminary student):

May God bless you! =)