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The Complete Seminary Survival Guide: Start Smart | Avoid Burnout | Finish Strong
You may have felt God’s call to ministry and followed that call to seminary, only to find it way more difficult than you’d expected. Students are often unprepared for the incessant demands on time, the sheer volume of research & writing, and the struggle to make ends meet with low-pay, part-time work. The pressure and stress can build up quickly.
What a student needs is a straight-talking mentor, someone who has been through the process and survived, who can help them make critical decisions and see them through.
The Complete Seminary Survival Guide speaks with a voice of much-needed wisdom. It will appeal to new and experienced students alike because of its no-nonsense approach, and will explain how to make strategic changes right from the start. From How to Pick a Seminary to How to Read Masters Level Material Quickly, this book will help you succeed and will keep you on track with your relationships and family while you study. For those who wish to graduate seminary ready to serve, with their love for God and people intact, this book is a must-read.
Author Mark Warnock has two seminary degrees, an M.Div. & a Ph.D, and has pastored in Illinois and Florida for over twenty years. He knows the challenges of seminary life firsthand, and has written extensively on the subject for ten years at seminarysurvivalguide.com.
With friendly critiques of the seminary environment and pragmatic advice, Warnock takes a refreshingly honest look at theological education and offer real-world guidance to students wishing to survive seminary.
-- Praise for The Complete Seminary Survival Guide --
Here is a book with practical and spiritual guidance in navigating the seminary years of education. It will answer questions you've wondered about, and it will provide answers to questions you haven't even thought to ask yet! Wisdom for the journey.
- Trevin Wax, Bible and Reference Publisher at LifeWay Christian Resources, author of This Is Our Time, Gospel-Centered Teaching, and Counterfeit Gospels.
I have seen too many students on fire to change the world for Jesus get to seminary and become overwhelmed educationally, relationally, and spiritually. That’s why I’m so excited about this book! It addresses how to survive in all these areas and more! Want to enter and graduate seminary on fire for Jesus? Get this book!
- Jon Akin, Director for Young Leader Engagement
North American Mission Board
This guide is a great read, full of “snap, crackle, and pop.” It’s edgy, pushy, and intrusively granular, but unmistakably amiable. And though it is written pointedly for the seminarian, much of it applies across the board to Christ’s disciples in every walk of life. I found myself cheering (e.g., over their insistence on selfless, engaged churchmanship during seminary days and their praise for the bi-vocational approach). But sometimes I had to swallow hard (e.g., at places in the time-management section, as when they “slandered” TV). As I heard one fellow tell a pastor, “I couldn’t ‘Amen’ when you preached, because it’s hard to yell, ‘Sic em,’ when the dog’s got you by the ankle.” It’s such a fine pastoral book, but when I say “pastoral,” don’t hear “sweetly clerical” as much as you hear “prophetically hygienic.”
- Mark T. Coppenger
Professor of Christian Philosophy and Ethics
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Seminary students today have it harder than one might think. The Complete Seminary Survival Guide gives uncommon but wise counsel on how to navigate the spiritual, financial and academic challenges of graduate theological study. I gladly recommend this timely and helpful book!
- Art Rainer
Author of The Money Challenge
VP for Institutional Advancement
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
What a student needs is a straight-talking mentor, someone who has been through the process and survived, who can help them make critical decisions and see them through.
The Complete Seminary Survival Guide speaks with a voice of much-needed wisdom. It will appeal to new and experienced students alike because of its no-nonsense approach, and will explain how to make strategic changes right from the start. From How to Pick a Seminary to How to Read Masters Level Material Quickly, this book will help you succeed and will keep you on track with your relationships and family while you study. For those who wish to graduate seminary ready to serve, with their love for God and people intact, this book is a must-read.
Author Mark Warnock has two seminary degrees, an M.Div. & a Ph.D, and has pastored in Illinois and Florida for over twenty years. He knows the challenges of seminary life firsthand, and has written extensively on the subject for ten years at seminarysurvivalguide.com.
With friendly critiques of the seminary environment and pragmatic advice, Warnock takes a refreshingly honest look at theological education and offer real-world guidance to students wishing to survive seminary.
-- Praise for The Complete Seminary Survival Guide --
Here is a book with practical and spiritual guidance in navigating the seminary years of education. It will answer questions you've wondered about, and it will provide answers to questions you haven't even thought to ask yet! Wisdom for the journey.
- Trevin Wax, Bible and Reference Publisher at LifeWay Christian Resources, author of This Is Our Time, Gospel-Centered Teaching, and Counterfeit Gospels.
I have seen too many students on fire to change the world for Jesus get to seminary and become overwhelmed educationally, relationally, and spiritually. That’s why I’m so excited about this book! It addresses how to survive in all these areas and more! Want to enter and graduate seminary on fire for Jesus? Get this book!
- Jon Akin, Director for Young Leader Engagement
North American Mission Board
This guide is a great read, full of “snap, crackle, and pop.” It’s edgy, pushy, and intrusively granular, but unmistakably amiable. And though it is written pointedly for the seminarian, much of it applies across the board to Christ’s disciples in every walk of life. I found myself cheering (e.g., over their insistence on selfless, engaged churchmanship during seminary days and their praise for the bi-vocational approach). But sometimes I had to swallow hard (e.g., at places in the time-management section, as when they “slandered” TV). As I heard one fellow tell a pastor, “I couldn’t ‘Amen’ when you preached, because it’s hard to yell, ‘Sic em,’ when the dog’s got you by the ankle.” It’s such a fine pastoral book, but when I say “pastoral,” don’t hear “sweetly clerical” as much as you hear “prophetically hygienic.”
- Mark T. Coppenger
Professor of Christian Philosophy and Ethics
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Seminary students today have it harder than one might think. The Complete Seminary Survival Guide gives uncommon but wise counsel on how to navigate the spiritual, financial and academic challenges of graduate theological study. I gladly recommend this timely and helpful book!
- Art Rainer
Author of The Money Challenge
VP for Institutional Advancement
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
- GenresChristian
208 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 18, 2017
5 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 27, 2017
Mark Warnock. The Complete Seminary Survival Guide. West Palm Beach, FL: Seminary Survival Strategies, 2017. 147 pp. $16.70.
Kindle Edition
Considering seminary? Already a student? How do you navigate the waters of the seminary environment? How do you manage schedule, family, spiritual life, ministry preparation, finances, and so much more? Answering questions like these with practical, simple, but not always obvious solutions is the point of The Complete Seminary Survival Guide.
Mark Warnock is a seminary graduate with both an MDIV and PhD. He has been a student on campus and a student from a distance. Even more importantly, He has served in a variety of ministry settings and has a solid grasp of concepts to help students make things work.
What you should love about this book is the practical approach that Warnock offers his readers for seminary survival. The author is not foolish enough to think that he can offer a one-size-fits-all approach to how you should handle your own personal navigation through seminary. Instead, he offers multiple, practical, and useful bits of counsel. Often he will offer several options, and then simply tell students to pick one and see if it works. This practical and personalizable approach makes this book a help to students from a variety of backgrounds and in a variety of life situations.
Another beauty of this work is the author’s sometimes unconventional approach to seminary. While encouraging students to get all they can from their classes and to take advantage of the glorious opportunity afforded them, Warnock knows that not all classes will be of equal value and equal weight to every student. Thus, he can tell students—perish the thought—that settling for a B in a less important class is worth it in order to succeed in a more important class, in ministry, or in marriage. One would think that such counsel would be obvious, but as a seminary graduate myself, I can say that this simple principle is often overlooked by eager students who are slaves to their GPA.
One final positive that I will mention is Warnock’s focus on real ministry. The book contains some incredibly valuable advice to students about doing real ministry while in seminary. The author suggests to students that they should take advantage of the opportunities around them to serve in churches, to do real ministry, to learn from experienced pastors, and to simply not waste their time in seminary sitting in Sunday School classes full of other seminary students. The author points out that seminary students need to learn to love people, and this is not going to happen in the classroom. That piece of counsel alone would make the book worth far more than its purchase price for any student who would take it to heart.
No, as a student, you will not always agree with the advice Warnock offers in his book. He suggests that you avoid living on campus in order to relate to people outside of the seminary bubble. This is good counsel for many, but it will not work for all. Warnock understands that even as he will prod students to consider things from a fresh perspective.
I would happily and strongly recommend The Complete Seminary Survival Guide to any students presently in or presently considering seminary. Beyond that, however, I would also recommend this book to simply any student. The priorities that Warnock sets forth for seminary students should ring true for students in any degree program. His counsel on time-management and life priorities is invaluable. This would be a great book to pick up for someone you know headed to seminary or perhaps even for someone starting another type of graduate program. Many of the chapters on academics would even be a great help to high-school students. If you are a student, give this book a try. If you are a parent or pastor of a student, do not hesitate to make this a valuable gift.
Kindle Edition
Considering seminary? Already a student? How do you navigate the waters of the seminary environment? How do you manage schedule, family, spiritual life, ministry preparation, finances, and so much more? Answering questions like these with practical, simple, but not always obvious solutions is the point of The Complete Seminary Survival Guide.
Mark Warnock is a seminary graduate with both an MDIV and PhD. He has been a student on campus and a student from a distance. Even more importantly, He has served in a variety of ministry settings and has a solid grasp of concepts to help students make things work.
What you should love about this book is the practical approach that Warnock offers his readers for seminary survival. The author is not foolish enough to think that he can offer a one-size-fits-all approach to how you should handle your own personal navigation through seminary. Instead, he offers multiple, practical, and useful bits of counsel. Often he will offer several options, and then simply tell students to pick one and see if it works. This practical and personalizable approach makes this book a help to students from a variety of backgrounds and in a variety of life situations.
Another beauty of this work is the author’s sometimes unconventional approach to seminary. While encouraging students to get all they can from their classes and to take advantage of the glorious opportunity afforded them, Warnock knows that not all classes will be of equal value and equal weight to every student. Thus, he can tell students—perish the thought—that settling for a B in a less important class is worth it in order to succeed in a more important class, in ministry, or in marriage. One would think that such counsel would be obvious, but as a seminary graduate myself, I can say that this simple principle is often overlooked by eager students who are slaves to their GPA.
One final positive that I will mention is Warnock’s focus on real ministry. The book contains some incredibly valuable advice to students about doing real ministry while in seminary. The author suggests to students that they should take advantage of the opportunities around them to serve in churches, to do real ministry, to learn from experienced pastors, and to simply not waste their time in seminary sitting in Sunday School classes full of other seminary students. The author points out that seminary students need to learn to love people, and this is not going to happen in the classroom. That piece of counsel alone would make the book worth far more than its purchase price for any student who would take it to heart.
No, as a student, you will not always agree with the advice Warnock offers in his book. He suggests that you avoid living on campus in order to relate to people outside of the seminary bubble. This is good counsel for many, but it will not work for all. Warnock understands that even as he will prod students to consider things from a fresh perspective.
I would happily and strongly recommend The Complete Seminary Survival Guide to any students presently in or presently considering seminary. Beyond that, however, I would also recommend this book to simply any student. The priorities that Warnock sets forth for seminary students should ring true for students in any degree program. His counsel on time-management and life priorities is invaluable. This would be a great book to pick up for someone you know headed to seminary or perhaps even for someone starting another type of graduate program. Many of the chapters on academics would even be a great help to high-school students. If you are a student, give this book a try. If you are a parent or pastor of a student, do not hesitate to make this a valuable gift.
February 26, 2019
You are not going to find a more concise, practical, guide to surviving Seminary. Dr. Warnock is too the point, and he's not afraid to challenge you or the way you think about school. I will recommend this to any person who is interested in or about to go to Seminary.
January 24, 2024
Wow! I loved this book.
Super practical, informative, and entertaining! I’ve only been in seminary for two weeks but you can find me recommending this book to every person I meet in seminary!
Invaluable Resource,
Only regret: I wish I would’ve bought the physical copy so I could mark it all up/give it away!
Super practical, informative, and entertaining! I’ve only been in seminary for two weeks but you can find me recommending this book to every person I meet in seminary!
Invaluable Resource,
Only regret: I wish I would’ve bought the physical copy so I could mark it all up/give it away!
May 5, 2021
This is a nice primer in almost a checklist form of what to prepare for and expect. The real value comes from the additional resources that are provided – they are practical (how to time manage, research resources, etc.)
April 10, 2021
Great practical read to prepare for seminary. I appreciated the encouragement to skip over irrelevant chapters. I highly recommend this work to anyone before they start this education journey.
January 9, 2023
I attended FSU with Mark, a gifted and very creative and insightful author. This tool is must reading for future ministers who are just starting out their seminary journey. Highly recommend it.
June 13, 2018
As one who is preparing to begin seminary in the near future, this book addressed the questions I had and the ones I didn’t know I had. This book is full of practical wisdom for those thinking about seminary and for those already in seminary. I am excited to read this book again when I begin seminary and highly suggest anyone thinking about higher Christian education to pick up this book.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews