At RTS Jackson, we recognize that how you learn will determine how you lead. And community is God’s prescribed environment for both the learning and the spiritual formation which you will model and establish wherever you serve the Church. Surrounded by other believers, you can process out loud what you’ve learned. You can discuss what you hear in classroom lectures at a break, on the soccer field, or over lunch or dinner with classmates or with professors. The context of community fosters meditation on God’s Word and protects you from the temptation to lean solely on your own understanding.

The structure of the community at RTS is designed to keep the head and the heart in line. Once a week students and professors come together to worship the triune God in Chapel, singing and praising the one who has graciously revealed the mystery of his gospel. Students meet with their faculty advisor weekly to pray together in a mentoring-like environment. Outside of this community, accountability to apply what you have learned and encouragement towards thankful obedience is hard to find. What you learn in the classroom will not return empty when the Spirit uses these means of grace for God's glory.

Why, then, should you leave your home, your city, your job, and come to seminary? The true knowledge of God is not to be found in isolation, like an eremite or a Buddhist monk. That’s Eastern religion, not Christianity. Instead we are to find it by searching the Scriptures as we are in union with Christ and the Church. On-campus learning and living will place you in the midst of a "greenhouse" environment which you-and, if married, your family-may never have again for the rest of your lives. I hope you will join us.