Mid-America Reformed Seminary: Why I’m Going There

November 12, 2008

Last week I visited Mid-America Reformed Seminary, in Dyer, Indiana. Most people haven’t heard of it. It’s basically the denominational seminary for the United Reformed Church. Most Presbyterian reformed denominations would condone it because of its similarity to the Westminsters, for example; and most continental reformed denominations would condone it because of its heritage. I am attracted to it for a number of reasons, which in good confessional-blog-style I will enumerate for you. Least important to most important:

1. It’s cheap. Get this: tuition for a year is just $2000. Plus they have excellent financial aid options. For a poor dude like me, they’re an ideal financial possibility. I put this at the bottom of my considerations, because I firmly believe in the lifestyle of going where you’re called regardless of apparent difficulties (having taken such difficulties into consideration as they relate to the discernment of one’s calling). The cheapness of MARS is just a nice side show.

2. It’s small. The student body is extremely tiny. But this means that classrooms are incredibly intimate, and a student who was seeking to study hard, and tended to be full of questions for a teacher (like myself) could thrive on the intimacy of the interaction.

3. It has a big view of history. I honestly got the impression while I was there that students are encouraged to view themselves as inheritors of the riches of all the reformed confessional standards. I heard the Heidelberg catechism, the Westminster standards, the Canons of Dort, etc., praised for their distinctive merits, and quoted as familiar documents. I like that very much. Especially after my stint here at Dordt, I have come to appreciate the more continental reformed emphases, and am excited about a seminary that combines them with a healthy respect for the confessional standards that I originally made my own.

4. It has an incredible focus on the word of God as preached. It is the quintessential preacher’s seminary, I believe. While it focuses on developing the whole man for a robust pastoral ministry, it clearly aims primarily to develop powerful preachers of the truth. In just the two classes I sat through, I noticed frequent pastoral asides about the implications of Old Testament History and Systematic Ecclesiology for the preacher. Very stimulating.

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