to the PB. Nice to have you.

__________________
~Jay~
Husband of ENS, father of J II. | Indian Trail, NC
Teacher Aide, Union County Public Schools, NC
Communicant Member, Precentor | Presbyterian Reformed Church of Charlotte, NC | Presbyterian Reformed Church

Mid-America Reformed Seminary Dyer, IN

at: www.midamerica.edu/

__________________
Sterling Harmon
Coventry, CT
PCA
Deacon
________________

"Whatever is laudable in our works proceeds from the grace of God."
-- John Calvin, Institutes III:xv.3.

"Our Lord God must be a good man, to be fond of worthless fellows. I cannot like them, and yet I, myself, am one."
-- Martin Luther, Table Talk

Does MARS plan on a Th.M anytime soon?

__________________
Benjamin P. Glaser
Pittsburgh, PA
Fairmount ARP Church

Student of Theology
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary
My Blog

Follow the link in the previous post to their site. I think you could probably make your inquiry there somewhere.

Berny,

I don't speak as anyone with experience, but I would pursue a call as a pastor and then move into writing as something else you could do. As the other guys have said, there ain't no money in that thar book writin'.

__________________
Andrew DeShazo, Deacon, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN
"All of us stumble in many ways, but if anyone is never at fault in what he says, then he is mature, able to control his whole body."(James 3:2)

Berny -

If confessionalism is not that big a deal to you... and it seems that you would actually PREFER a more "broad" perspective... Have you considered TEDS or Gordon-Conwell? Both are good - if not GREAT - in terms of academics.

In fact, I think that given your stated goals, either of these - particularly TEDS - would be a near perfect fit for you.

Take care,
Ben

__________________
Ben
Sanford, NC
TE Ohio Valley Presbytery, PCA

Ben,

Thank you for your suggestions. They are valuable.

I'm actually currently enrolled at Trinity at their extension campus in south Florida. I'm finishing up my BA there and should have it done by December. I realize that their Divinity school in Deerfield is doubtless different from my experience with their undergrad university here in Florida, but I get a taste of what Trinity offers even now. And yeah, both TEDS and GCTS were on my shortlist a while back.

But it came down to two things that made me elevate RTS Orlando to the top slot. 1) They are Reformed and I am definitely interested in learning from Reformed professors, and 2) Orlando is a manageable distance from where both my wife's family and my family live (Miami). If we have a baby anytime soon, it'll be near-impossible to continue with seminary if I'm at South Hamilton, MA, for example.

What I meant to communicate by stating that adherence to confessionalism not being my primary concern is not that I prefer a broad perspective to a Reformed perspective. No, I definitely prefer a Reformed perspective. But take Dr. Frame for example, I fit in with someone like him quite well and he's not exactly the confessional poster boy. I reject the RPW, for example. I'm also not a strict cessationist, but more of a modified cessationist (or restricted continuationist, if you like). You get my drift.

__________________
Berny
Kendall Presbyterian Church, PCA
Miami, FL

The Perichoresis

"For how can the thought of God penetrate your mind without your realizing immediately that, since you are his handiwork...you owe your life to him?" - John Calvin

Yes, I suspect this might be the path to take indeed.

Thanks Zenas.

You are certainly to be commended for a love of studying theology. Just remember that the best scholars are those who can explain deep theological truths to the high-school dropout.

__________________
Richard
CofE
UK

This would be foolish if one is not called. I suggest talking to one's pastor/session about this decision.

__________________
Andrew
Husband to Dena
Candidate of the MVP in the PCA
MDiv graduate from Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, MS
Pastor (elect) of Tchula Presbyterian Church, Tchula, MS

"What do you think about when you are not thinking about anything else? This is what you worship!"

My thoughts FWTW.
Unless you know, repeat, know that God is calling you into a ministry of teaching, RUN repeat RUN as fast and as far away from it as you can. James 3:1 is in the Bible for a reason. The only reason I recently engaged in some theological writing was that I knew that a particular job needed to be done and nobody else was doing it.

__________________
In Christ's love and service

Mr. Tim Cunningham, Dip. CS (Regent College)
Member, First Baptist Church
Vancouver, BC

------------
"The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar of 1500-year-old, 200 proof grace—a bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the gospel—after all these centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your own bootstraps—suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home-free before they started. Grace was to be drunk neat: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale." – Robert Farrar Capon

Berny,

Most confessional guys are not going to hit you real hard for being a CJ Mahaney type on either worship or the gifts.

The big hot button issues for our progressives, I think, concern the issues of inerrancy, gender roles, the doctrines of grace themselves, and the nature of the gospel.

That's why I think you want a confessionally square guy, not for TR reasons, if you will.

__________________
Kenneth A. Pierce
Senior Minister
Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA)
5301 Old Canton Rd.
Jackson, MS 39211
(601)977-0774
www.trinitychurchpca.com

why?

__________________
Dena
wife of Andrew (Romans922)
Redeemer Church, PCA
Jackson, MS

HEY!

Because my wife and I agree that once we have kids she won't work a job any longer. And if this happens while at seminary in Orlando, we can simply move back down to Miami and I can make the drive to and from Orlando for a couple of days each week. This is how my pastor did it. And in this situation my wife could potentially work one or two days at the family business while either of our parents take care of the baby. That way we gain some additional income and the baby gets a chance to spend some quality time with his/her grandparents.

BTW Dena, I clicked through to your church and found you and Andrew on their staff page. I'm from Overland Park too!

Oh, no. It's really bad when a candidate's wife has to take up for him!!!

I can see it on the floor of presbytery now:

Questioner: Mr. Barnes, are you the head of your household?

BArnes: Yes, why.

Questioner: well, your wife was on the Puritan board, and she said....



Seriously kidding.

She cares about me, that's all. She doesn't run the house or anything. She just loves me.

If you allow me in, I will work to get you defrocked my good sir, for these words you have said here on the PB. I can see it now...

UMMMM....jk. I heard you preached a real humdinger last night!

No offense intended to those have been dissing RTS-O, but I wonder how many of those completely opposed to it have actually attended classes here.

Yes, RTS-O is not as confessionally reformed as some others. However, professors here do not fudge on Calvinism as some have suggested. Some would take exceptions to the Confession, yes, but they do not denigrate the past as some have suggested. It's a good place. Not a perfect one for sure, but a good place. It is more diverse than other Reformed seminaries, but there is some strength to that as well. Just my two cents as one who is actually here.

__________________
Joel S.
St. Paul's Presbyterian Church (Orlando, FL)
M.Div. Student, RTS Orlando, Oviedo, FL

Yes, we have REAL preaching over here at Trinity.

I probably need to be defrocked because, unlike some in MVP, I actually believe that you can be non-cessationist, credo-baptist, and less than 7-24 and 0 nanoseconds, and still enter the kingdom!!!!

JOel,

Glad you like your seminary.

But, the issue is the public statements of professors and their wives.

Carolyn James: Many are very concerned about Ms. CUSTIS James and her trajectory.

John Frame: Read Machen's Warrior Children, and you'll see why many are concerned about him. He is not himself, FV or NPP, but he is, in classic psychological terms, an enabler to those that are.

Reggie Kidd: Kidd started a firestorm when he started trumpeting female ordination on his blog, in public.

Add to that a professor who was hired WHILE he was under ecclesiastical discipline in California, and I think you can see why many of us might be concerned.

If questions are asked about any seminary, I would be honest in my assessment of them. They are all mixed bags, some more than others, and people need to know what they are getting before they go.
Those positions are incompatible with anything resembling the Reformed faith, and there is nothing wrong with pointing that out to prospective seminarians.

Regarding Mrs. James, I must confess ignorance. I'm not sure why you're upset with her. Dr. James himself is an amazing prof.

Frame: I realize that many in the "confessionally Reformed" crowd are really ticked off at him for "Machen's Warrior Children" and his views on the RPW, etc. I guess I just have a lot of sympathy with what he's saying. As someone who grew up in an intensely "warrior" confessionally Reformed church, I have to be more than a little broken by the incessant warring in the Reformed camp. (Note: I am not saying that issues of FV/NPP are not important, etc, just that it seems to me that in the Reformed camp, perhaps we have warred too much and in the wrong areas, so that when it comes to really important things, some of us are written off as people looking for a fight, and others of us are just fed up with it all).

Kidd: Could y