That’s perhaps the role above all roles seminary is designed to play: it teaches a pastor, a professor, a missionary, an evangelist, or a counselor how to teach himself. Seminary can by no means teach a minister everything he needs to know, but it puts strong tools in his box to set him up for a lifetime of matriculating in the school of the Lord. The best professors will teach and inspire you to dig for treasure you will use to make others eternally wealthy.

Myth #1: Seminary is cemetery.

It’s a tired cliché I’ve heard many times, typically by those who fail to see the merits of a sound seminary education, but sometimes by ministers who think the pursuit of theological education means the death of devotional life: “Going to seminary is like going to a cemetery—you will leave school spiritually dead.” Sadly, the landscape of theological education is dotted with examples of seminaries and divinity schools that teach things that would shipwreck an eager young minister’s confidence in the Word of God. However, the presence of the false proves the existence of the true.

But, really, how can parsing Greek nouns, learning about the Council of Nicaea, or gaining a deeper understanding of the hypostatic union make me a better Christian? I learned early that perhaps the better question is how can it not?

During my first few days of seminary, one of my Greek professors challenged me not to bifurcate my devotional life from my academic studies. We should make them one. Never, ever ought we approach the things of God—whether it’s translating Galatians from Greek to English or writing a paper about the First Great Awakening—with anything less than the highest affections. In the same way a minister ought to make sermon prep a key part of his sanctification, so should seminary studies be approached with a warm heart toward the Lord of Galatians or the First Great Awakening. Never, ever should it become a cold, academic exercise.

Myth #2: Seminary will make me into a pastor.

Perhaps one of the most important myths a student must debunk early is the notion that theological knowledge is synonymous with the maturity, patience, and godliness that God uses to build a pastor. Theological learning is certainly a fundamental part of making a pastor, but in the same way basic training doesn’t make soldiers, seminary doesn’t form pastors. Soldiers develop into courageous, strong, competent warriors on the battlefield and pastors get made in the trenches of local church ministry.

This book aims to help young pastors bridge the gap between seminary training and ministry in a local church, offering real-world wisdom from the experience of veteran pastors.

But it would be unconscionable for a soldier to go to war without training. In the same way, being steeped in the fundamentals of the Christian faith—which includes Bible, theology, and related disciplines—is foundational for becoming a faithful and mature in wielding the Sword of the Spirit and shepherding a flock of sheep. Both orthodoxy and orthopraxis are two parts of a whole that make a man of God.

Besides, seminary without practical ministry experience could lead to a minister building a fictional church in his mind—one that is nothing more than a theological and ministerial Rivendell. And when he enters his first church position, armed with unrealistic expectations, he may be tempted to retreat when the bullets fly, the wounds leave scars, and the battle grows long and intense. He will soon learn that pastoral ministry is not for the faint of heart.

Myth #3: Seminary doesn’t focus on real-life, practical issues.

Myth #4: Seminary will teach me everything I need to know about ministry.

Myth #5: Seminary is a luxury, but isn’t necessary.

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