An M.Div program is not only designed to give you accurate, faithful, and biblical truth and knowledge of that truth; it is really designed to shape your heart. One of the great challenges that a minister must be prepared for is to have your heart broken over and over again. You are going to share the gospel with people that never respond. You are going to see people, that you shared the gospel with and you thought were Christians, fall away. You are going to see marriages of the people that you love and respect fall apart. You are going to bury people who have been dear friends to you. You are going to have your heart broken a thousand times in a thousand ways.
We want to prepare a minister’s heart for the long haul. I want that minister to cross the finish line.One of the things we want to do in seminary is prepare a minister’s heart for the long haul. I want that minister to cross the finish line. I do not want him just to be effective and faithful for five years or ten years, but for the whole time that God has him on this planet. I want him to cross the finish line. We prepare people for pastoral ministry, looking at the long haul.
I want them to be faithful to God’s word and to teach its truth. I want them to be faithful to the Great Commission. I want them to endure over a lifetime of ministry. We are as concerned about the heart as we are about the mind. That is one reason we say, “A mind for truth and a heart for God” at Reformed Theological Seminary.
We understand that, in the Bible, mind and heart are two different ways of talking about the same spiritual reality that is the seat at the soul. Both of those things are important for endurance in ministry. So, at RTS, we are trying to equip people with a mind for truth and a heart for God.
