Four Lessons I Learned In Seminary

This past weekend, I graduated with two master’s degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) - my second and third master’s degrees, since I already have a master’s degree in Political Management from the George Washington University. I graduated from seminary with a 3.80 GPA after nearly 7 years of persevering and almost quitting twice. There are so many reflections that I could share but I’ll keep it to this for now:

1. Don’t be afraid of growth. Embrace it. I came into DTS 7 years ago as a non-denominational megachurch evangelical living in Washington, DC. I applied to seminary on a whim two days after speaking to a recruiter at a Christian conference I was volunteering at. My Pastor then was the most gifted Bible teacher I knew and I wanted to know the Scriptures like him. A week later, I started my first class at the DTS DC campus - Church History in America with a highly reputed prof who insisted on defending slaveholding Confederate generals like Stonewall Jackson in class for being “good slave masters who preached the Gospel to their slaves”.

25 year old Joash in his first day of seminary classes; ironically also my Student ID photo throughout my 7 years in seminary.

Working in the anti-human trafficking space, this obviously weirded me out and was perhaps the beginning of my villain (or prophet, depending on who you ask) origin story in the western church. Moving to Atlanta for work later that year, I found myself yearning for a church community that wasn’t a megachurch while also wanting to explore a pastoral internship. This led me to sync up with a Southern Baptist church plant for a few months where I served as a pastoral intern until the church plant closed doors because of COVID and families leaving the church when the pastor boldly talked about racial justice after George Floyd was killed.

Then, in 2021, I moved to Canada for work and found a church home in a vibrant, majority Filipino & Caribbean Pentecostal Church. Some major (and quite honestly, liberating) shifts happened in my life and theology over the next 2 years as developed a Pentecostal theology of liberation through the Holy Spirit. Then, in 2023, I finally caved to the sacramental pull I’d been feeling for a few years and started pursuing confirmation and ordination in the episcopal tradition where I cultivated new personal ways of experiencing Jesus in line with how my St. Thomas Indian Christian ancestors worshiped Jesus. I don’t know if you’re still tracking but I started off as a megachurch evangelical but am leaving seminary as an egalitarian, charismatic, sacramental, ecumenical, ordained episcopal deacon. Since DTS is an inter-denominational seminary, I think this ecclesial journey is quite appropriate.

32 year old Joash graduating from DTS while wearing his clergy collar!

2. Don’t be afraid of relationships with people who are very different from you. Yes, this can be uncomfortable at times but it helps build empathy for people completely different from ourselves - while also keeping us humble and curious. I had to make a conscious choice to remain at DTS after much of my theology on secondary and tertiary doctrines shifted. But it was important for me to model an ecumenical and transcendental counter-narrative to the Colonizer’s Gospel of ‘Divide and Conquer’. And I think I was able to persevere in this.

The posture I try to embody is this posture embodied by Jesus of Nazareth in the gospels: What you believe, where you come from, and who you love is important. But I frankly don’t give a hoot about what you believe, where you come from, and who you love as long as you’re committed to mutual respect and love. And I will call you a brother, sister, or sibling until and unless you intentionally opt out of it.

Healthy ecumenical relationships centered on Jesus are no doubt, awkward. But they *will* transform us before bringing transformation into our world.

3. Be intellectually curious and intellectually serious. Even though people are shocked that someone like me has stayed and persevered at DTS, there’s something about DTS that has kept me here - intellectual seriousness. I’ve turned in papers with secondary and tertiary theology very different from the institution and my professors. As long as I could defend my stances with Scripture, the ancient creeds of the Global Church, and Christian tradition, my professors treated me with kindness and grace - even when I sometimes challenging their initial grades like the time I refused to take dualistic stances on issues that are fundamentally American evangelical questions and not Global Church theological ones.

It’s at DTS that I was first exposed to reading liberation theology and Catholic social teaching. It’s at DTS that I was challenged to read primary sources instead of assuming the worst about your theological opponents. It’s my Systematic Theology 101 professor at DTS (Dr. Glen Kreider) who invited me to speak on his Evangelical Theological Society Christianity & Culture panel - not just once, but twice. This is despite me calling for us to reject the slaveholder-shaped theology of Jonathan Edwards during that first speaking invitation. And this is despite Dr. Kreider himself being a Jonathan Edwards scholar. Someday, I’ll share more about how that talk got me reported to my employer (despite being the world’s largest anti-slavery organization) by a senior leader at a leading US evangelical bible college but today is not that day.

4. Finally, the one who has called us will sustain us in our callings. I entered DTS 6.5 years ago vowing to not go into further student loan debt - a near impossible task for an immigrant with zero generational wealth or wealthy personal networks. I somehow crowdfunded $4k / year for my first 5 years through incredibly generous family and friends while receiving some regular scholarship support from DTS. Many of you reading this have been a part of that journey - especially as paid subscribers.

Then, for my final 1.5 years, I received generous, surprise, full ride scholarships. I never thought I’d graduate from DTS after 6.5 years with 2 master’s degrees without taking a single dollar in student loans but thanks to your generosity, here we are!

So thankful for each of you who journeyed alongside me on this wild adventure of life and ministry over the past 7 years.

With my parents, Praveen & Susan Thomas, who have been such a huge part of my journey. I’ll always be grateful for them teaching me how to love Jesus and neighbour years before my first seminary class.

PS: For those of you wanting to jump in or continue as paid Substack subscribers - your generosity is needed now more than ever. Long story short - I’m already discerning through PhD programs that might require some life transitions. For my PhD focus, I’m particularly interested in historically and theologically exploring how colonization shaped the interactions of the western church with my St. Thomas Indian Christian ancestors; and what possible lessons we could learn from that historical encounter as the western church today.

If you’ve been blessed by my work and ministry, I’d be so grateful for your continued support as a paid subscriber!

Grace & Peace,

JT