Weekly Email: October 13, 2025
In this week’s email:
Student Tip: When Things Go Over Your Head
Program News: Bevin Center Mission Trips
If you missed the email about the new Southern Seminary Community app you can create your account by using this linkand find more information about it here.
Experiential Modulars for the Spring semester will be announced this week. Be on the lookout for an email about them. The on-campus meeting dates will be February 9–11 (Spring 1) and April 20–22 (Spring 2).
Student Tip: When Things Go Over Your Head
My wife recently sent me a short stand-up comedy skit called Silent Letter Day (watch here). The comedian, Michael McIntyre, goes on about all the English words that make no sense in how they are spelled, words like knuckles, knight, school, or hour. It is five minutes of clever fun. At one point he even imagines a world where we celebrate a national “Silent Letter Day,” complete with knives, gnomes, and buffet-style buffets.
We watched it with my seven-year-old, and he laughed hard at parts of it. But a lot of it went right over his head. The skit is only funny if you know how to spell the words. After watching it again, we showed him how a few of those words were spelled, and suddenly the jokes started landing. You could almost see the lightbulb turn on. Watching him move from confusion to laughter reminded me of what seminary often feels like.
This past week at least one student emailed me saying things just were not clicking, that certain concepts felt over their heads or they were not sure if seminary was even for them. Another student, working full time, wondered if he would ever remember everything he is learning.
My response to all of them was simple. Yes, seminary is for you. If God has called you to ministry, this season of preparation is part of that calling. You are not expected to understand everything right away. Some things will not make sense until months or even years later when another class or ministry experience suddenly makes the earlier lesson click.
When I was in seminary, I remember that feeling well. There were moments I would think, now I get what that professor was talking about back then. It just took time and context.
Seminary is not about memorizing every fact. It is about learning how to think, how to read, and how to grow. The things you are learning now will resurface later, often right when you need them.
Just like my son watching that skit, you do not have to replay every lecture or reread every textbook for things to start making sense. Over time, the pieces fit together. God uses both your study and your ministry experience to bring clarity, depth, and understanding.
So if you are in a spot where things feel confusing or heavy, keep pressing on. Keep showing up, stay curious, and trust that God delights to turn confusion into clarity in his own timing. The lightbulbs will come.
Program News: Bevin Center Mission Trips are for Online Students Too
Mission Trips are available to you and your spouse. Every year, our Bevin Center for Missions Mobilization develops domestic and international missions trips for the Southern Seminary and Boyce College community. This academic year, we will send teams to North Africa, Boston, Indonesia, France, Australia, and Poland. Do you want a place on one of our teams? For more information about our teams and to sign up, click here or go to https://missions.sbts.edu/missions/.
