We have some exciting news that we’d like to share with you!  In short, we will be moving in the summer of 2010 from Cleveland to Charlotte, North Carolina so that I can attend school at Reformed Theological Seminary.  We understand that such an announcement leaves many of you with a load of questions, so we’d like to share with you how this all came about and what it all means.  This is an effort for me to explain how I have come to decide to apply to seminary, how I chose the school, what I plan to study, how we hope to pay for it, and what the future might hold for us.

If you prefer, here’s a PDF version of this document…
http://jason.piteo.net/docs/newsletter.pdf

At A Glance…

Seminary name: Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS)
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Degree program: Master of Divinity
Expected graduation: May 2013

My Calling

While there had undoubtedly been signs from God throughout my adult life, only recently have I recognized them as a calling. Dating back to early last year, I recall a point at which the Holy Spirit started to assume control in my life. As I had really begun to recognize the entirety of God’s truth for the first time, it seems that a fire was lit inside of me. I had a burning desire to tell everybody about the wonderful change that had overcome me through Jesus, and that they could potentially have the same joy themselves.

I understand that all Christians are called to serve the Lord in different manners according to their spiritual gifts, and certainly not every calling leads to the pastorate. I am becoming increasingly convinced that God’s path for me falls outside the realm of my current secular profession. While I do presently embrace every opportunity to witness to colleagues and clients, I feel that God has a different plan for me.

I do believe that my calling is specifically to become a pastor, mostly because God has told me so through a series of answered prayers. I have also tried to carefully and honestly evaluate myself, and I asked some of my trusted friends to do the same. We have largely agreed on my strengths and weaknesses, and on what is likely my set of spiritual gifts. These gifts also seem to line up with those required of a pastor, from the best of my understanding. I believe that my spiritual gifts might include leadership, pastor/teacher, wisdom, knowledge, faith, exhortation, administration, and evangelism.

I have made a focused effort this past year to pray for guidance on several matters. As an example, I prayed for guidance to resolve a strain that I was experiencing in my marriage. I also prayed for guidance in sharing the Gospel with my friends and family. At one point, I specifically asked God to show me what he wanted me to do with my life. I even sought out elders to pray for me to receive God’s guidance, although I did not tell them specifically what I felt my needs were. God did indeed answer my prayers, although not in the way I had expected.

Last summer is when I had first given significant attention to what I now recognize as my lifelong calling to become a pastor. I have been very careful and deliberate since then to pray and listen as each new progressive thought about seminary and ministry has crept into my consciousness. God has given me signs along the way to help me realize when I am trying to be logical and rational versus when I am realizing God’s plan. Accordingly, I have had to dismiss or reevaluate many of my original thoughts and plans on the matter. Those ideas were not part of God’s plan, but my own. As God reveals His plan for me in greater and greater detail, His way always seems to make perfect sense.

As I plug in more deeply to the church, I realize what a burning passion I have for ministry. I take great interest in other people, especially with regard to their spirituality. After speaking with several pastor and priest friends of mine and finding out what their typical responsibilities include, I really feel that I could be well equipped as a pastor. I also trust that the Holy Spirit will help me along the way, and that I will enjoy vocational ministry in a profound way.

Why I Chose…

A number of factors led me to choose RTS for my seminary education.  First and foremost, I have learned that my theological beliefs generally lie within the framework of the “Reformed Tradition”.  Some know this as Calvinism, although it essentially means that I believe in the “doctrines of grace”, including election, predestination, total depravity.  It also means that my spiritual beliefs are relatively conservative.  Ephesians 2:4-10 is a significant passage for me:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

After narrowing my seminary options down to a short list of reformed schools, I began to examine attributes such as school reputations, faculty accolades, availability of online courses, and geographic locations.  I should also mention that my senior pastor, Rev. Garnett Slatton, is an alumnus of RTS Charlotte as well, and his sentiments didn’t fall on deaf ears.  I have found that RTS seems like the best fit for me to study to become a pastor, and I feel that this is the path down which I’m being called by the Lord.  Finally, some of you may also know that I have had an affinity for the state of North Carolina since I was a child.  I used to vacation in the Carolinas years ago and my family has since resumed that tradition since we’ve had children.  We’ve always mentioned how we’d love to move to North Carolina, or at least retire there.  I certainly never expected that my passion to live in North Carolina would come to fruition in the form of attending seminary in Charlotte!   Since I’ve enrolled at RTS, I’ve also discovered that a dear cousin of mine lives less than a mile from campus.  We find that to be an unexpected blessing for our family to have some wonderful relatives nearby.

Degree Requirements

Sample curriculum: Master of Divinity – Core Curriculum
My course plan: M.Div. in 4 Years

Courses I might likely take online through the Virtual Campus this upcoming year:

1. History of Christianity I
2. History of Christianity II
3. Christian Apologetics
4. Systematic Theology I
5. Systematic Theology II
6. Systematic Theology III

How Will We Pay For This?

I’ll be honest, here.  I am not sure how we’ll be able to pay for this education and the means for our family to live in the process.  I trust that as the Lord calls us down this path, he’ll arrange for the necessary provisions as well.  This doesn’t mean that I’ll be sitting idly waiting for donations from mystery sources, though.

I plan to apply for every conceivable scholarship that exists, for starters.  RTS also has a Church Partnership Program, where they match donations from my local church.  Bay Presbyterian Church has already agreed to contribute to my education, and the seminary will graciously match those dollars.

As much as humanly possible, I plan to work while attending school, so long as I can maintain healthy relationships with the Lord, my family, and the church in the process.  I expect to continue to work full-time for my company (Expert Networking) this coming year, and I plan to continue in a part-time capacity by providing remote computer support after we move.    Finally, we are hopeful that Jill might be able to find a job as a teacher to help with the bills and tuition.  She is currently taking online classes with the University of Phoenix to become re-certified to teach in Ohio this year.  That license will then transfer to North Carolina next year if everything works out as intended.

Even after all of those sources are exhausted, we will likely still need assistance.  We would like to humbly ask for your financial assistance.  Contributions could be made in a number of ways.  Tuition assistance would be greatly appreciated if you feel so led, and contributions could even be arranged to be sent directly to the school on my behalf.  We could also use help in purchasing my required textbooks.  I have created an Amazon.com Wish List for that purpose.  Any other contributions like clothes for our children would certainly be welcomed and warmly received.

Finally, I ask that you pray for us as we embark on this journey into the unknown.  There are many reasons why we need your prayers, but most of all, please pray for us to always keep sight of God and his divine purpose in our lives.  Let us see Him first in everything that we do.

Future Ambitions

This may be obvious, but the expected outcome of this process is for me to become a pastor in a Presbyterian church.  While I recognize that things may change as my path unfolds, my passion lies in pastoral ministry.  I love to talk to people about Jesus, and I welcome the opportunity to teach people everything I know about Him.  I have found that I have a heart for adult discipleship and spiritual formation, so I would expect my responsibilities to include those disciplines in some manner. Whatever else I might be doing vocationally is entirely up to the Lord, and to a lesser extent, the calling congregation.

This means, of course, that Jill will be a pastor’s wife, and my children will be pastor’s children.  I can see wonderful things happening to Jill, and my only explanation is that she is following the Lord’s call for her as a parallel to my own calling.  Essentially, it has become clear that our calling is a single calling to be a pastoring family, as opposed to me dragging my family on a journey of self-fulfillment.  On a side note, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that Anthony will be the “son of a preacher man“.  I do find that humorous, and yet wonderful!

Some Other Practicalities

We are expecting to move to Charlotte next summer after the school year is over.  In the meantime, I will be taking 10-15 credit hours of courses online over the next year.  By then, Anthony will have finished kindergarten and Jill will presumably be finished with her year of teaching (assuming she finds a job, which is no small challenge).  We expect to put our house up for sale in the coming months, and we’ll leave it up for the Lord to decide when it’s time to move out.  My first on-campus class (Greek I) begins in early August 2010, so we need to move before then.  Ideally, we’d like to have the entire summer to settle in and adjust to our new surroundings.

Since we intend to put our house on the market this year, it is possible that we could sell our house before we intend to move.  If that happens, we’ll find a temporary place to live and move many of our things into storage until next summer.  Some possibilities include moving in with my mom and stepfather for a few months or renting an apartment/house.  Each of those provides some challenges, but we know that the Lord will work out the kinks.  After all, it is the Lord’s calling that we’re following.

Thank You

Thank you all for your support, past, present, and future. May God bless you! My wish for all of you is to see the Lord at work in your lives as He works so profoundly in our lives.

With Love,
Jason