One of my latest antics in life happens to be pursuing another degree in biomedical diagnostics. Now, as a pastor, it’s obvious that there’s really no purpose for me to do so, but I’ve been finding this program quite unique and challenging, maybe not necessarily in content but in my personal walk with the Lord.
To give a little bit more context, my undergraduate studies were in biomedical engineering. Then after some industry experience, the Lord led me to Talbot School of Theology for pastoral training. At the same time, I had the privilege to serve at Biola University as an adjunct instructor for a few side courses. On top of that, I began interning at my home church. To tie it all up, this all started in January of 2011—what a transition!
For the next six years, I invested most of my time maintaining the balance between these opportunities. While it seems like everything would lead towards the pastorate, there has always been an itch that I couldn’t get rid of. As a Master of Divinity student, you take a lot of courses that focus on equipping yourself for pastoral ministry. While many of these courses were beneficial, I rarely found myself actually doing the things that were taught. In fact, part of the itch was getting involved in many of the areas that seminaries don’t teach you: finances, administration, legal issues, facility management, sound engineering, and web development.
To be clear, I am NOT devaluing seminary training. Personally, I think it’s essential for pastors to have some sort of theological training. One day, someone on the blog team can go through a proper hermeneutic, but being a pastor seems more like being a professional Christian. As shallow as that may sound, it’s necessary for someone to be in a pastoral position to be guiding the congregation towards Christ-centered transformation. Let’s be real, sometimes I wish people had that strong urge to dive deep into theological training. But as we all know, part of the pastoral role is to help guide the flock (more on this some other time).
What does this have to do with pursuing another degree that has nothing to do with pastoral ministry? It all comes back around to that itch. I’m not sure how spiritually healthy it is for me to be chasing itch after itch, because there comes a point where you and your family may want some form of stability. But the desire in pursuing this additional degree stems from a recent course discussion post I titled, “Putting the Patient and Process before the Profit.” Without going into the details of the post, I primarily suggested that people and companies should focus more on creating a medical product that is desired by patients more so than making a quick profit out of it. Studies have shown that some companies will cut corners, resulting in a poorly manufactured product. A faulty product leads to recalls and potentially death to a user.
After posting on our class discussion board, we were then able to read others students’ posts and, as expected from a non-Christian institution, many of the responses focused on the growth of companies, increasing profit margins, or trying to release the next big thing. Yes, companies operate as a business, but more than that, I was personally impacted by the types of responses from fellow classmates. Some may push controversial topics, while others would focus more on what Christians would consider the “worldly things of life.” I began to realize where God has been leading me to become a witness.
I realized that being a pastor is not the calling, but the calling first begins with our identity in Christ. We are used by God to build and expand His kingdom in areas that He desires us to be. For me, it seems to be focused on the things that seminary did not train me for or even in an industry that I’ve been out of for several years. For the last six years, I’ve been bogged down with things for the church, I sometimes forget what it’s like to encounter nonbelievers. Maybe the Lord has been pushing me back into the field to be a digital witness or maybe He has some other plan in the near future.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.