Jonathan Romig's Teaching Archive

Go to this  Amazon.com list  ( aff link ) to see all the books I read my second year as a Master of Divinity student at  Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary . Depending on what order you take your  classes, and what electives you sign up for, this reading list could easily change. However, it should still give you a good idea of the types of books you may read your second year, and some books you could read to better prepare yourself if you haven't yet begun classes. Each class usually has between 1,000-2,000 pages of required reading. Enjoy! Image by: Juhansonin

Mark 8:38 "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.”  It happened again. The moment of truth. I'm no stranger to these types of situations, yet almost every time they arise, I feel  that  cringe. A few weeks ago, a co-worker and I were chatting and I mentioned that I had met an acquaintance of hers recently. She responded "She told me you two had met at a Bible study". THUD.

I spent a good portion of my life trying to figure out what life meant and answering why was I here.  I grew-up Catholic during the powerful charismatic Holy Spirit movement that swept through our town in the mid seventies.  I remember wanting to experience God, waiting for something to happen and desperately hoping that Jesus would show himself to me.

There are a few hazards people don't tell you about when you sign up for seminary. Here, to warn the general public, is my exhaustive but incomplete least of the top 10 dangers. Brace yourself.

Do you believe you are God’s beloved? Do you think God cares about you as an individual? What was your first response? Was it... "No. I am not God's beloved." Well when my teacher asked me this very same question, I had that response, and here is what it taught me about my relationship with God.

My Christian walk started early on in life. Since I was a child I was raised in a Christian household and followed the example of my mother, a devout Christian woman.  Although I knew Christ and attended church regularly it wasn't until age nine that I recited the sinner's prayer and became a true Christian. Danny, a youth pastor in a Baptist church my family was attending at the time, played a major part in my decision.  He was always handing out Christian pamphlets that showed a young cartoon man who lived his life with and without Christ.

Seminarians at reformed seminaries sometimes say bad words. But they do it differently than most people. The following is a list of words that the first year Seminarian will soon learn to blush upon hearing them whispered by the hardened lips of second and third year theologians.