Ten Things I Don’t Like About Southern Seminary
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is the best seminary in the world. I honestly believe that. Teaching here has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.
But after more than a dozen years at Southern, I have enough experience to know that it isn’t perfect. So here are 10 things I don’t like about Southern Seminary
1. I don’t like knowing that day and night, almost every day, there are great lectures going on all over campus and I can’t hear them because of my own teaching responsibilities. I’m missing out on so much great teaching!
2. I don’t like having the best Christian bookstore on the planet less than 100 yards from my office and not being able to read as many of the great books there as I’d like.
3. I don’t like getting to teach with the most incredible colleagues at any seminary in the world and not having all the time I want to pick their brains because they are spending so much time with their students.
4. I don’t like that students can get course credit for classes conducted in connection with great conferences held on our campus and in Louisville (such as “Together for the Gospel”) and that nothing visionary like this was available when I was a seminary student.
5. I don’t like not being able to eat lunch with more of my students after class. I typically eat in the cafeteria with several of my students following my midday class, but many of them have to go to other classes or to work and can’t join us.
6. I don’t like that when some of my favorite preachers are speaking in chapel (which is often), it is frequently difficult to find a place to sit in our 1500-seat chapel.
7. I don’t like knowing that the students at Southern have far more opportunities for personal interactions with their professors than I was privileged to have when I was a seminary student.
8. I don’t like having such a large, well-equipped fitness and recreation center located so conveniently on campus. It all but eliminates my excuses for not working out.
9. I don’t like having to say goodbye to the hundreds of students who graduate every semester. After getting to know them and pouring into their lives, it’s hard to see them go, even though launching them from the seminary into ministry is why we exist.
10. I don’t like knowing that every seminary student in the world can’t have a ministry-preparation experience as good as that made available to the students at Southern Seminary.
If you’d like to confirm these observations, check out the seminary website at www.sbts.edu. Or better yet, contact our Admissions folks at 502-587-4200 or Admissions@sbts.edu and set up a visit to see for yourself.
Photo credit: SBTS
