Class of 2014
What work or ministries have you been involved with since graduation?
I’ve been the pastor at Chehalem Valley Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Newberg, Oregon since 2022. Prior to coming here, I served as associate and assistant pastor in a couple other PCA churches in California.
How has your seminary education been valuable in your current vocation (or any vocation since graduation)? Has it been valuable in ways you weren’t expecting?
As a minister charged with preaching the Word every week and a shepherd entrusted with caring for the sheep in my congregation, I can’t overstate how valuable my education at WSC has been. It has only continued to bear fruit as it gave me a framework for studying the Scriptures, deepened my love for Jesus and his church, and gave me skills to communicate the truth, goodness, and beauty of the gospel for real people. I came from a background where the gospel didn’t make it into every sermon. But a fruitful preaching ministry doesn’t leave people with the law; people need the person and work of Jesus given to them over and over. At WSC, I learned how to faithfully proclaim Christ from the entire Scriptures. My theological education has continued to pay dividends working through complicated scenarios that inevitably arise during pastoral ministry. WSC helped set a theological foundation that I’ve been able to build upon and apply to practical (and sometimes difficult) situations arising in the life of the church and my congregants.
What would you say to someone who is currently considering seminary education at WSC?
Go and check it out! It may be easier these days to do seminary online, but you miss out on the in-person seminary experience. Lectures in the classroom are only one part of learning in seminary. Talking with your professors around campus, working through theological concepts with your peers, having access to a good library, and praying with faculty and fellow students all help to make seminary a spiritually and intellectually formative time.
