Type:
The WSC family believes that community and fellowship is an integral and necessary part of seminary. This community brings to heart what is being studied in the classrooms as our students, spouses, families, faculty and staff care, grow, and pray with and for one another as we live Life Together.
by John Kong, 2nd year M.Div. student
Going to a school that is academically rigorous is very daunting for many reasons. The examinations can be unnerving and the vast amounts of reading can be tiring, but my greatest fear was the professors, that I would not be able to understand what they were teaching. I was afraid that I would be embarrassed with my silly questions, or that they would lose patience with me for asking them to reiterate what they had already explained in class. So one can imagine how much comfort and relief I felt when I realized that not only did the professors want to take the time to explain to me the concepts and ideas they were teaching, but that the faculty also took an interest in not just my academic growth but my personal and spiritual development.
My favorite way in which the faculty and students develop relationships at WSC is through our prayer groups. The short prayer group meeting once a week is a huge blessing for me, and knowing that my prayer group professor is praying for me is very encouraging. Especially when I have shared a prayer request, and a week or two later my professor follows up with me on it, seeing that he cares and is continually praying about it is very humbling. In my first semester at school, my professor asked me in November what I was doing for Thanksgiving. I told him that I didn’t have any plans because my family was overseas and I had nowhere to go. He immediately invited me over to his house for Thanksgiving. I was extremely touched that a professor would not only care what I was doing over the holidays, but would actually open his home to me and have me over. Besides having a great Thanksgiving meal, I also got to know more about him and his family. While this might be rare at other institutions, this seems to occur with great frequency at WSC, and I think that is one of the incredible characteristics of the school and the faculty.
“Their love for the students is very evident, and they care how the student is doing outside the classroom.”
That's just one small example of how even though the faculty at our school are always busy working on their numerous responsibilities, they always have time for students. I am always amazed whenever I see professors come and play sports with the students, or sit around campus chatting, or even open up their homes to us. Their love for the students is very evident, and they care how the student is doing outside the classroom. There is a saying around campus that our professors take the gospel very seriously, but they don’t take themselves too seriously. I think one can also say that they take their relationships with the students seriously as well, for which I am extremely grateful.
