Returning to school in your late 40s is not easy, but it can be enjoyable!

In 1998, I was barely making it to the finish line of a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Ministry at Moody Bible Institute. During my senior year, I co-pastored a new church location plant meeting on campus at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I was preaching every other Friday night, baptizing people at the university pool, and seeing youth from the hood hearing the word at the same level as college students. As a senior, I thought that my college education had equipped me to accurately handle the Word of God and understand the Bible well, but the actual degree was just a “piece of paper.” My only motivation to finish was to honor my single mom, who had to drop out of college at age 19 when she got pregnant with me. With nearly 150 people attending our 9-month-old church, I’m sure I said it several times with a bit of overconfidence, “I will never go back to school!”

After serving in ministry full-time for 27 years, I am back at school full-time to sharpen my skills. While many of the classes in the seminary are identical to those I took in undergrad, I've discovered that I am learning at a whole new level. At first, I thought I wasn't wise to spend money and time on classes in which I was already very knowledgeable. But I have realized I had so much to learn if I was going to “equip the saints for the work of ministry.” I now approach every class with the perspective that I am being trained to be a trainer. Every class has been worth every penny, and while some of the process is painful, every second has been enjoyable.

Whether you are bi-vocational, a lay leader, or in full-time ministry, here are some tips to help you “go back to school.”

Start part-time with one eight-week class. In a traditional school, you are bombarded with information in four to five courses at the same time, spread out over a whole semester. Taking one course over eight weeks was not overwhelming to start with. I knew the parts of the ministry year when I would be extra busy and would take a break when needed. This is a great way to get your feet wet before diving into the pool.
Take an intro to seminary course and glean all that you can. I had already taken 10 courses over three years at one seminary before transferring to another. The new seminary required an intro class on research and writing. I had wrongfully prejudged this class and didn’t expect much. It has been a “game-changer” as I am not strategizing on how to write and develop online courses for a hybrid strategy of discipleship.
Read Surviving and Thriving In Seminary by H. Daniel Zacharias and Benjamin K. Forest. If your local library participates in Hoopla Digital, you can borrow e-book and audiobook versions for free. Here are my top five takeaways:
- Have confidence to ask questions and make the most of the resources a seminary provides. Most people who work at a seminary are there because they genuinely love their work. They want to help you in your educational journey.
- Prepare your family, as your studies will affect everyone in your house. It is a team effort, and you can’t succeed without support. If you are not solo, someone else is sacrificing so you can study.
- Find the tools you need to help you succeed! Grammarly has helped with my grammar when writing. Speechify makes every book an audiobook, and listening while reading from a screen helps me retain more. I have had Logos Bible Software for years, but I am using more features than ever. Being able to search books and articles in a digital library is incredible! Surviving in Seminary gives some great tips on research and writing tools.
- Don’t be shy about getting feedback and treasure it when it comes! Here is some priceless advice from Surviving Seminary: “If you want to become a better writer, you need to seek out feedback.” Lead Like Jesus Revisted hammers home the point: “Feedback is a gift. If somebody gives you a gift, what do you say? ‘Thank you!’”
- Find what you can say “no” to. If you are already serving in ministry, you will have to cut back somewhere. There is just no way around it. Decide how much time you can give to the seminary and what you will have to eliminate in your schedule to make it possible. When you do make cuts in your schedule, don’t cut out what gives you spiritual oxygen in your spiritual lungs.
You will get out of it what you put into it! For online students, read the discussion with student introductions. Review them when reading a discussion post. Research for a few minutes online to find out who your class professors and book authors are. I have even searched YouTube and church websites to hear some of my online professors preach sermons. It has helped me to get to know the people and be connected to the class. For online students, treat the orientations and webinars as if you were at a physical school. They will save you a great deal of time later and make the transition smoother.

For decades, I heard all the jokes about the seminary being a cemetery. At the end of my undergrad, I needed a break from school. But to my surprise, I have discovered years later how much I love learning about ministry and studying the Word of God at an academic level! I am reading books from a perspective of 30 years of ministry experience. It is no longer hypothetical scenarios but real-life situations that I have walked through. Whether it is research on the interpretation of a challenging passage or practical tips on Christian leadership, everything is like adding fresh wood logs to a fire that has already been burning in me since I was a teenager. If God is leading you to “go back to school,” I am sure that with the proper perspective and preparation, it can be an enjoyable experience.