Weekly Email: August 10, 2026

Weekly Email

Aug 10

First I just want to say thank you for the outpouring of encouragement and feedback and questions. It's honestly humbling to hear how much so many of you are encouraged by these emails. It really is what keeps me going and thinking about you and praying for you week after week and trying to be just one piece that encourages you along the way. I'm still getting back to replying to many of you so if I haven't replied I apologize. Hopefully I will finish up this week.

This will be a short one this week because I want to give you some additional time to fill out the survey for the giveaway. The survey isn't just some way to get you to enter the giveaway but it is an important way to get feedback from you about your experience in the online program. We take student feedback very seriously and discuss as a team what we're hearing and how to improve. This is both positive and negative feedback.

We're giving away two sets of books from Southern faculty, including Wellum, Allison, Hamilton, Pennington, and Mohler, plus a coffee mug, a polo of your choice, and some other Southern swag. You can see the full list at the end of this email. Here's the survey.

In this email:

Student Tip: Wisdom from Above
Program News: Online Student Experience Survey and Giveaway

Student Tip: Wisdom from Above

I just had a quick reflection on a passage of James that I was reading this week:

The passage is from James 3:13-15, where he's saying that our good conduct is shown by our works and gentleness but then he also talks about what wisdom is and the outpouring of that. He said if you have envy or selfish ambition, if you're boasting or denying the truth, that wisdom doesn't come from God. Just before that at the beginning of chapter three, he talks about us being teachers and receiving stricter judgment for the things that we say.

This passage is such a humbling reminder that while you're in seminary knowledge and wisdom are not two of the same but they're much related. Knowledge can inform your wisdom as you're going through seminary. You're hopefully building wisdom while you're at it but a lot of the nuts and bolts that you're doing is knowledge that informs your wisdom. So often it is a temptation to be prideful, whether we realize it or not. Often times it's just the way we act or the way we correct people or the way we lead meetings or the way we teach. We can come across that I know all the information and in some ways that makes me better or more accomplished or more wise but that's not the case.

God has called you to learn these things in seminary because he has called you to teach, to lead in various capacities. That could be over a whole church. That could be in a small group. That could be in counseling sessions. Knowledge should never be used to puff up. As you are in your second week here, as you're learning more things, I want you to reflect and pray that God would keep you humble. The knowledge that you're learning, the wisdom that you're gaining along the way as your disciple and leader, comes out of a place of love and care for the body of Christ. You see yourself as one piece of the puzzle. Yes this is integral but all the other pieces are integral as well. We lead from a place of confidence that is rooted in Christ rather than rooted in ourselves. We realize that while we're in seminary it is not for selfish ambition but it is to be equipped to prepare the saints for better and more effective ministry for Christ's church.