Spring weather means graduation is coming, ushering in a season of new beginnings for students finishing high school, college, and graduate school. After three years of seminary, I'm a master of divinity. At least that's what the diploma will say. Supposedly I'm now prepared to enter full-time pastoral ministry. If anything, I'm increasingly aware of how much I don't yet know about God, his Word, and shepherding his flock. Maybe that's a healthy place to be.

That said, seminary has been an invaluable time of study and reflection. God has laid a foundation of learning that will support me through what I hope will be decades of faithful ministry, if he tarries. At the outset of this adventure, I benefited from the advice of wise pastors and seminarians who counseled me in how to make the most of this time of preparation. I heeded their charge to settle in a local church and invest myself in congregational ministry, immediately applying what I learned. I grew attached to a few professors who ...