Everyone Needs a Safe Place: Why I Chose Biblical Seminary

Everybody needs a safe place. While I was attending Lancaster Bible College, that place came in the form of a man named Glenn Hennon. In his office, I was safe to articulate my greatest fears, anxieties, and doubts without the concern of judgment or rejection. My safe place became my wife when we were married in January of 2008. Though it took some hard work on both our parts, we’ve come to a place where we can communicate things; even some difficult things about each other, without being so hurt that we punish each other with hurtful words. Amanda is a safe place of love, encouragement, and acceptance for me.

I think that it’s important to have a safe place to do theology as well. For this reason, I chose Biblical Theological Seminary. I’ll begin my story with a personal encounter I had with a BTS alumnus. This man taught a class my senior year of Lancaster Bible College called “Church in the emerging culture”. Many people in that class, myself included, exhausted a lot of energy seeking to do battle with this professor in order to confirm that his understanding of the material he was covering was bupkis. There was something unique about this man however, something that intrigued me, drew me in, yet also caused my defenses to go up in full force.

Rather than getting caught up in demonstrating to us just how intelligent he was (which was the game we were playing with him), he challenged us as siblings in Christ to communicate to one another with respect. I was probably his greatest opponent. Rather than quitting the class like many others did, I stayed to do battle with this man, which was one of my favorite past times. I can remember even at one point proof texting my way through some of my classmate’s interactions with him and concluding my statement with “that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” 

This man said to me after class “Ryan, I bet you have an interesting story. I’d like to hear it. Next week before class could I take you out to Starbucks?” That’s exactly what we did, followed by many times after class going to “Five Guys Burgers and Fries.”

This man listened and cared. It turns out he had one of the sharpest intellects of anyone I know. I saw that his compassion was uniquely tied to his convictions produced by his theology. For this reason, I conclude now that his theology was far superior to my own. The fruit of my theology was like the witches apple in “Sleeping Beauty.” It was polished, but it was poison.

I could say a lot about the history of doing theology in the combative fashion that I did, but I’ve wasted enough ink in my other posts on that subject, and will continue to do so in the future. I’ll simply state that it was the compassion, the Christ-likeness of this individual that caused me to check out Biblical Seminary.

This was a big deal for me. Initially, I had wanted to attend Dallas Theological Seminary, and later had my eye on Westminster. It was a personal gamble in my mind, but there is no doubt now that I made the right decision. Here’s why:

When I came to Biblical, what I found in my professors was a humility unlike anything else I had experienced in my academic life as a Christian (though I had desperately longed for it). Many of these professors taught at the schools which I had long admired (though they are opposite ends of Evangelicalism – which was even more appealing to me). Many of them, through being people with integrity, could not stay in those schools because of the convictions they were wrestling with. Many of them have complicated stories, but what seems to be a common thread is that these professors were uncomfortable with a theological construct whereby if one tenant is to fall or be challenged, the entire structure falls with it.

I am familiar with this type of theology. Challenge something at one point and you’re likely to hear, “if he cannot be trusted with this point of doctrine, he cannot be trusted with any point of doctrine.” 

Biblical Seminary is a place where these professors, all across the spectrum of Evangelicalism, find comradely and fellowship in their task. It is a safe place where the truths of historic Christianity are affirmed and the differences are vigorously but graciously explored. It is a place where I am learning that the purpose of a theological education is not to equip people with quarrelsome ammunition but rather to learn to manifest and convey the love of God.

I have always loved the classroom and academia. The way in which Biblical Seminary has shown me to do theology, my studies have become for me an act of worship as well as communion with my brothers and sisters in Christ. Biblical Theological Seminary is my safe place, and the bond of peace that should unite Christians, I feel, is greatly at work in this school.