A fine balance: How can a pastor fit study into a busy life?
This article first appeared in the Fall/Winter 2007 edition of In Touch Magazine. For reprint permission contact the Director of Public Relations at 1-800-251-6227.
By Megan E. Richard
I remember as a child going to see the original Cirque du Soleil. Under the circus tent on Venice Beach I watched a man balance himself on top a large stack of wooden chairs. Sitting there I felt a mix of excitement and the awe at how a person was able to accomplish such a feat.
Currently fifteen percent of students at MB Biblical Seminary’s three campuses are working on a balancing act of their own. In addition to pursuing a seminary degree they also hold part-time or full-time lead ministry positions. Combined with their roles as husbands, wives, friends and parents—you are looking at a tall stack of chairs.
What exactly does this balancing act look like? Here are stories from three who have taken on such a task.
Terrance Sawatsky was a social worker before answering a persistent fifteen-year call on his life, to attend seminary. He graduated in the spring of 2007 with a Certificate in Christian Ministry from the Winnipeg Centre for Ministry Studies, a campus of MB Biblical Seminary.
In 2006, Terrance took on the role of Associate Pastor at Elmwood MB Church in Winnipeg. During his time of study Sawatsky found encouragement by talking with professors like Pierre Gilbert about everyday aspects of ministry and bringing seminary to those in his church who have not had the opportunity to go themselves. In doing so, he discovered the challenge of taking lessons from seminary and people in the congregation at the same level – for Sawatsky, both are necessary in the learning process.
A husband and father of an eleven year-old daughter, Terrance and his wife decided to stay with one car during his studies. The result was quality time and numerous conversations on the way to work, school, or ballet about many things, including what Terrance was learning at seminary.
God became very personal to Terrance during his studies. He says the challenge he faces now is making time to be with and listen to God – a surprising statement for someone who has balanced so much at once. For Sawatsky ministry is about people; and that means post-seminary, he must learn to balance time with others and time with God when spaces for study are no longer there.
Dave Ellis, in his second year in the Master of Arts in Christian Studies program at the Seminary’s Langley campus, is married, the father of three children (ages ten, eight and five), and Pastor of Connections at Gracepoint Community Church in Surrey, BC.
It was during a leadership conference in the summer of 2006, following fourteen years as a youth pastor, that Ellis felt God directing him to continue on in ministry. It was at the conference that Dave met two MB Biblical Seminary professors who urged him to apply to seminary in the remaining two weeks before the start of the semester. Ellis was accepted on the first day of classes. In his first months of studies Dave added the position at Gracepoint to his balancing act. His ministry role includes, among other duties, overseeing and developing small group ministries and integrating new people into the church.
Since entering seminary Dave has had to learn how to be a student again in a more technologically advanced world. He struggles with not being able to start or finish all the things he would like in his ministry role and continually balances meeting study deadlines with meeting the needs of people.
On the positive end, Ellis is realizing the joy of being able to directly apply what he is learning in the classroom to what he is doing as a pastor. The close proximity to the Langley campus, combined with a flexible seminary program and financial aid, has allowed Dave to spend quality time with his family.
“You put being a dad, husband, pastor and student together and it is only possible with God in the equation,” says Ellis.
Jeff Harrington has been Senior Pastor of Central Community Church (a cross-cultural congregation) in Fresno, California, for over ten years. He began attending the seminary’s Fresno campus four and a half years into planting the church, and completed a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry in 2004.
“I believe seminary offers the best environment when we are in active ministry,” says Harrington. He found that studying while in ministry allowed him to apply, test and discern which teachings fit best in the context of holistic ministry. He was able to help younger students without much ministry experience see how the teachings were not “theoretical pie in the sky or ivory tower idealism, but practical and applicable to ministry.” He says that with the tools he gained in his studies, it was the perfect time to move towards a team approach to ministry and away from his autocratic leadership style.
Early on in his studies, Jeff, a life-long “expert” in time management, balanced his time in percentages that more or less remained the same throughout his three years at seminary. He never missed an event for one of his four children and even did his homework while they did theirs.
Since graduation, Jeff has enrolled in a Doctorate of Ministry program through the Bakke Graduate University of Ministry, a program he says MB Biblical Seminary prepared him for. Professor Jim Westgate and Seminary president Jim Holm’s mentorship of Jeff during seminary has continued through the present, something Harrington credits to the school’s size and his ability to attend courses on campus.
Similar acts
Surprisingly, all three agreed that they would not change a thing about their experience of balancing seminary and ministry life. Perhaps this is due to the fact that all three had strong support from their families and churches, making it possible to balance the multiple demands on their time. For those ministering in small churches with few or no other staff members, this venture might prove more of a challenge.
In hearing these stories I again felt that sense of awe. It is an enormous task to balance ministry with any other major facet of life. The men and women studying at MB Biblical Seminary who have chosen to add seminary studies to the mix, show that it is possible to add one more chair to the stack and stay balanced—a much more important feat than any circus act.
To read more from the interviews used in this article click here.