Juggling School and Ministry: The Negatives

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 | Personal, Youth Ministry

I spent tonight writing an essay for the MDiv program at Philadelphia Biblical University. I have been taking classes there for the past year, but have not formally been accepted into the program yet. In the essay, I had to write about how my education would fit into my ministry. I brainstormed all the ways the Grad program affected my life, both good and bad. After a while, I had a good amount on both sides.

How Grad School Affects You Negatively:

-Takes Time from Your Ministry. If your school offers night classes, you might have to reschedule a Bible Study or volunteer meeting night to accommodate. Time for grad school has to come from somewhere, and likely it will come from work. During the winter offseason, I work 3 days per week and take classes on the other 2 days. These classes take time directly from my ministry (as a result, they also take money from my paycheck).

In the past, there were times that I was so pressed for time that I planned a message series to coincide with what I was learning in school. That way, I could combine my studying for class and studying for the messages. Needless to say, this method did not work well (especially this semester with Greek!)

-Takes Time from Your Family. Just like above, one more night you are at school is one more night you are away from the family. Plus the hours working on homework, researching, and working with other students on projects all cut into your family time.

-Workload. This is not a major problem for me, since I have the weekends to work on my assignments. Also, I go to school early most Mondays so I can work in the library. Also, I only take 2 classes per semester, so the workload is smaller still. But I do have some friends that take a full course load each semester. I could not imagine that workload, added to a full time job, ministry, and a family.

After all that, I must state that I am all about higher education and pastors going for more training. But you must make sacrifices. Tomorrow I will explain my thoughts on why Grad school is worth it (at least to me).