The Complete Seminary Survival Guide: Start Smart | Avoid Burnout | Finish Strong

You may have felt God’s call to ministry and followed that call to seminary, only to find it way more difficult than you’d expected. Students are often unprepared for the incessant demands on time, the sheer volume of research & writing, and the struggle to make ends meet with low-pay, part-time work. The pressure and stress can build up quickly.

What a student needs is a straight-talking mentor, someone who has been through the process and survived, who can help them make critical decisions and see them through.

The Complete Seminary Survival Guide speaks with a voice of much-needed wisdom. It will appeal to new and experienced students alike because of its no-nonsense approach, and will explain how to make strategic changes right from the start. From How to Pick a Seminary to How to Read Masters Level Material Quickly, this book will help you succeed and will keep you on track with your relationships and family while you study. For those who wish to graduate seminary ready to serve, with their love for God and people intact, this book is a must-read.

Author Mark Warnock has two seminary degrees, an M.Div. & a Ph.D, and has pastored in Illinois and Florida for over twenty years. He knows the challenges of seminary life firsthand, and has written extensively on the subject for ten years at seminarysurvivalguide.com.

With friendly critiques of the seminary environment and pragmatic advice, Warnock and Wright take a refreshingly honest look at theological education and offer real-world guidance to students wishing to survive seminary.

-- Praise for The Complete Seminary Survival Guide --

Here is a book with practical and spiritual guidance in navigating the seminary years of education. It will answer questions you've wondered about, and it will provide answers to questions you haven't even thought to ask yet! Wisdom for the journey.

- Trevin Wax, Bible and Reference Publisher at LifeWay Christian Resources, author of This Is Our Time, Gospel-Centered Teaching, and Counterfeit Gospels.

I have seen too many students on fire to change the world for Jesus get to seminary and become overwhelmed educationally, relationally, and spiritually. That’s why I’m so excited about this book! It addresses how to survive in all these areas and more! Want to enter and graduate seminary on fire for Jesus? Get this book!

- Jon Akin, Director for Young Leader Engagement North American Mission Board

This guide is a great read, full of “snap, crackle, and pop.” It’s edgy, pushy, and intrusively granular, but unmistakably amiable. And though it is written pointedly for the seminarian, much of it applies across the board to Christ’s disciples in every walk of life. I found myself cheering (e.g., over their insistence on selfless, engaged churchmanship during seminary days and their praise for the bi-vocational approach). But sometimes I had to swallow hard (e.g., at places in the time-management section, as when they “slandered” TV). As I heard one fellow tell a pastor, “I couldn’t ‘Amen’ when you preached, because it’s hard to yell, ‘Sic em,’ when the dog’s got you by the ankle.” It’s such a fine pastoral book, but when I say “pastoral,” don’t hear “sweetly clerical” as much as you hear “prophetically hygienic.”

- Mark T. Coppenger Professor of Christian Philosophy and Ethics The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Seminary students today have it harder than one might think. The Complete Seminary Survival Guide gives uncommon but wise counsel on how to navigate the spiritual, financial and academic challenges of graduate theological study. I gladly recommend this timely and helpful book!

- Art Rainer Author of The Money Challenge VP for Institutional Advancement Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary