These are the ones we get asked most. And they're good questions. I (Matt) thought I'd take a moment and answer them.
Why Seminary?
For a long time, I've thought about whether or not I was called to a life time of vocational ministry wondering if I have the gifts and desire for the task. Within the last year or so, I began to realize through some good but hard conversations with my then supervisor that I was not made to be the overseer, head vision casting leader. I was made to be a faithful lieutenant, creatively, careful, joyfully fulfilling a portion of someone else's good plans for Church ministry. Specifically, I began to realize that I have gifts that can be used to welcome others and usher them in to the body of Christ, to walk alongside them as they meet the LORD and his people, to prepare them to serve. In six years of full time ministry with InterVarsity, I realized that the moments of ministry that felt most natural where when I was involved in those salvation and sanctification moments in others' lives.
But I was also feeling a bit beaten up. And I had an awareness that my answers to the big questions where only one layer deep. I knew enough to give a good answer to someone else, but I didn't have an answer for myself to the follow-up questions I began asking. If I'm going to spend a lifetime serving the LORD and his people, I need to know more of the LORD for myself. And so I made the healthy decision to receive the gift of theological education.
Why Regent?
I've been flirting with Regent for a while actually. My former staff was a distance learning student at Regent and would come back from the summers raving about his time there. I began reading some books by current and past professors that have greatly shaped me personally and in the ways I do ministry, notably Knowing God by J. I. Packer, Christ Plays in 10,000 Places by Eugene Peterson, Beginning Well by Gordon Smith.
As I began to look more closely at Regent, I was drawn to their unique distinctives: transdenominational scholarship, an interdisciplinary approach to theological education, and a commitment to the whole people of God.
Regent also is unique in that it was not started as a seminary; rather Regent's original purpose was for the nurturing and equipping of the laity—the whole people of God—to live and work as servant leaders in vocations within the home, the marketplace, and the church. So their approach to training pastors is unique. From Regent's website: One of the distinctive features of Regent’s MDiv program is our long-held conviction that before students ask the question, What does it mean to be a minister? they must first ask, What does it mean to be a human being in relationship with Jesus Christ in our time? Thus, the MDiv curriculum is shaped so that the formation of the Christian person precedes and underlies the more particular formation of the Christian leader.
Feel free to check out more about Regent here
Why So Far?
This is the question our families were most curious about. When I was looking for schools, Liz and I had several priorities that went beyond the educational and theological factors.
We wanted to live in an entirely new place with ample opportunity for community. We wanted to live in a setting that we probably wouldn't live in later in life. We wanted to live near swimable water with plenty of green space. We wanted to live internationally at some point in our lives.
And while Vancouver is a great location, there are a number of factors that make it a costly choice for us, from the complications of international education to the physical distance from everything and everyone we've known to the substaions cost involved. And we are having to give up a lot to be there, but we are especially grateful for our family and friends who have loved us well and send us with their blessing. We trust that the LORD is going before us and is preparing a place for us in Vancouver.
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