Wow, expensive. I just met with an admissions counselor yesterday, and $505 a credit hour!!! Jesus doesn't want me to go into debt, I am pretty sure about that. I talked with my pastor and he told me not to put myself into debt. He said that it isn't worth going into debt. So how did you guys pay to go to seminary? Is racking up alot of student loan debt just to go to seminary worth it? I know there is a lot of guys on the PB that are in seminary or have gone to seminary and maybe you guys can share some insight into this.

thanks

__________________
Scott Shahan
Member of First Evangelical Free Church, EFCA
firstfreesf.org
Sioux Falls, SD

Better is the sin which humbles me, than that duty which makes me proud.
Thomas Watson

There's always The North American Reformed Seminary, which is completely free...

The North American Reformed Seminary

__________________
Larry Bray
Training for Elder - Reformed Presbyterian Church of Boothwyn, PCA
Boothwyn, PA - http://www.rpcb.org/

Free Online Reformed Seminary - http://www.tnars.net

-----------------------------------------------------
"The best Christian is still a poor Christian" - R.B. Kuiper

What seminary are you looking at going to?

Does your denomination have a seminary? Have you considered talking to your church about helping pay the tuition?

Also...you may want to check out Student Ministries, Inc. - its a good way to work as a volunteer intern at a church and get paid through contributions for your part time work, so you would have more time for family and studies!

Student Ministries, Inc.

__________________
Bradley Conway
Flowery Branch, GA
Member of Chalcedon Presbyterian Church in Cumming, GA
Under care of Covenant Presbytery as a candidate for the gospel ministry

"You may as well quit reading and hearing the Word of God, and give it to the devil, if you do not desire to live according to it."
- Martin Luther

I found a little bit more information for you...

Military chaplain candidate program:

Chaplains > Student Candidate Program > Student Candidate Program

Puritan Reformed is $150 per credit hour and has a lot of scholarships available.

I went for free on scholarship from work and had another scholarship for living expenses.

GO PRTS!

__________________
Nathan Eshelman
Grand Rapids, MI
First Reformed Presbyterian Church

PRESBYTERIAN THOUGHTS

First Reformed Presbyterian Church

I had some scholarship help, church support, and worked almost full time during seminary. I also saved up a good chunk before we went to seminary. The Lord provides in various ways.

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Patrick
OPC
MDiv, RTS Jackson.

"He does well, that discourses of Christ; but he does infinitely better, that by experimental knowledge, feeds and lives on Christ." Thomas Brooks.

In the Free Reformed Churches, once you are accepted as a student by the Theological Ed Committee, all expenses are paid by the denomination's education fund. Our seminary is PRTS.

__________________
Pastor Jerrold H. Lewis. (Dipl. IT; Assc. A; B.Th; M.Th Candidate, PRTS)
Lacombe Free Reformed Church
"A hot iron, though blunt, will pierce sooner than a cold one, though sharper."

JOHN FLAVEL

My Blog - Click HERE
Our Church site - Click HERE

What seminary is charging this amount?

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John J.
Member Christ Prebyterian Church (OPC)
Salt Lake City, Utah
www.christpres.net

And if you go Free Reformed, there are pulpits that will be open when you graduate!

Savings and student loans got me through.

If the seminary is accredited you may qualify for student aid. I received about 3400 a year while attending TMS. They also have a matching grant for support coming directly from your church. The tuition there isn't too bad, but the cost of living is tough.

Southern's tuition is about the same if you're a member of a SBC. The cost of living there is pretty reasonable too. They have student aid as well, but I'm not familiar with it.

If you can avoid debt, do so. Our current level of debt (not too much, but still a factor) is making it more difficult to survive on the little pay we receive. I could get a part-time job, but we'd rather tough it out and try not to divide my attention, if we can. But it's still a consideration.

One close friend managed to work full-time while attending seminary and did it in three years. But his family didn't get his time as they should have. Even though I didn't work, my family didn't get my time like they should have either. Take all of this into consideration. More than one marriage has self-destructed because a man transferred his love for Christ to a love of studies and academics. Idolatry has many forms, even to the point of studying about God.

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For the Glory of our King,
Joe Johnson
Married up in 1988 and blessed with two wonderful sons
TMS graduate
Preacherboy at Cornerstone Community Church, Escanaba, MI
http://www.SoundLife.org

Being EV Free, the primary school would be Trinity in Deerfield, IL. I'm sure you have investigated that. I've been to their bookstore years ago and that's all I really know about them. D.A. Carson is there, right?

Being a Southern Baptist, I went to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1978. It was just about the only conservative seminary we had left at the time, with the possible exception of New Orleans. If I were to go to seminary today it would be Southern in Louisville. For sure.

In 1978 I was 26 years old, had been married for five years with no children. As best I can remember the total bill for the whole semester was something over $200. That's not per hour, but for the whole semester, full-time. Of course we had living expenses and that was taken care of by me working essentially full-time at the seminary's AV Learning Center and my wife working full-time in accounts receivable at TCU.

The cost for non-Southern Baptists was much, much more. I don't remember what it was but it was lots of money. For Southern Baptists students most of the expenses were paid by the Cooperative Program. Bottom line: that means the good folks sitting in the pews Sunday after Sunday were footing the bill. God bless them.

So when I left Southwestern in 1981 I left with a seminary degree, a baby daughter, a new car and no debt. In fact, we left with much more money than we came with. By the Grace of God.

__________________
Ivan Schoen, Pastor
Maranatha Baptist Church
Poplar Grove, Illinois USA
http://maranatha-sbc.org/
"When a denomination begins to consider doctrine divisive, theology troublesome, and convictions inconvenient, consider that denomination on its way to a well-deserved death." Dr. Albert Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

If I were not Southern Baptist I'd consider Beeke's seminary. I do respect the man.

Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary has a tuition waiver program. Contact the seminary for details (ask for Mrs. Kathleen Curto, Registrar).

GPTS is a confessional seminary (Westminster Standards) and they provide a solid affordable Reformed education in an area of the country where you can buy a house for less than $100K (rent is also cheap) and live on a single income very easily. There are no professors teaching deviant or questionable theologies here. A clear faculty statement exists on 6 day creation, justification and the federal vision. These men are serious and sober about the Gospel and very gracious despite what you may hear or read on the internet.

I would also mention that MCTS for those Reformed Baptists (or even Presbyterians) is also very affordable and solidly confesssional (1689) with very good men like Sam Waldron, Rich Barcellos, Tom Nettles, Tom Ascol and others. It is a more unique seminary in that it is provided in the context of a local church. In this way there is a combination of solid scholarship (read Dr. Waldron on anything) and practical spiritual apprenticeship.

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~Pastor Chris Powell~
Covenant Baptist Church, Toronto
www.covenantbaptistchurch.com

Excellent suggestions, CB.

I did it the old fashioned way; I worked my way through college and seminary.

DTK

__________________
Sola Scriptura est norma normans non normata
David T. King, pastor
Christ Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Elkton, Maryland
Augustine (354-430): Therefore what He [i.e., Christ] has deigned to speak to us, we ought to believe that He meant us to understand. But if we do not understand He, being asked, gives understanding, who gave His Word unasked. NPNF1: Vol. VII, Tractates on John, Tractate XXII, §1.

Me too. Glad I did.

Student loans, bursaries, family help, and my wife and I worked.

__________________
Wes Bredenhof
Co-pastor, Langley Canadian Reformed Church
Langley, British Columbia
www.bredenhof.ca

Amen!

I attend PRTS on scholarship and I have a very part-time job. I will have no debt after graduation.

__________________
Jeff Wyman
Seminarian
Little Farms Chapel OPC, Coopersville, MI
Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, MI

"May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence." 1 Peter 1:2-3 (ESV)

We have Baptists at the Sem. Just let them know if you subscribe to the 1689 LBC. We have a number of Baptist profs as well (Haykin, Thomas, etc)

Wise thinking to not go into debt. In 2003 when we wanted to go to seminary we originally decided that we would pay off any debts we had already incurred. Then, some friends of ours told us that we weren't living by faith, and that we needed to move across country and just trust God to provide. We took this advice and survived for a few months before things got really bad. It was an unwise decision and we had to move back to IL to regroup. (And we are still in regroup mode) Paul still wants to finish his seminary studies but we refuse to go with any debt at all (including car payments).

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Bethany W.
SBC
Girard, IL

My Blog

And I believe Haykin teaches at Southern Seminary too.

I went into the military and used savings to pay for schooling. Did the army ROTC program to pay for bachelors and used savings to pay for seminary.

__________________
Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone