About the Seminary

When I finished college after re-entering as a father of two sons and as a husband of my beloved wife, my plan was to go to Westminster Theological Seminary to become a missionary. However, I was not able to pursue this dream because I had to face the reality of finding a job to support my family and waiting for the right timing. For the past ten years, I have worked for the Social Security Administration.

Praise our faithful Lord for allowing me to be in this program, which is still the same school that I wanted to attend but closer to home. I am eager still to go out as a missionary somewhere. Until last fall, I was not sure of God's will for me and my family, but I have confidence in Him that He will be my provider as long as I make myself prepared and available. I believe that He wants me to understand what my community is here first and to have compassion toward the people in this community.

Over the past year, I have realized how important it is to understand the city I am living in and to be engaged in urban ministry through my church before looking forward to being a missionary in another country. Having understanding more of this from the Urban Mission program, and getting more hands-on experiences through various classes and seminars, I am confident that I will be able to serve my community effectively, rather than just finish a degree. I have to admit that coming this far has not been easy but I thank the Lord for it. I continually seek His daily guidance for He is my wonderful counselor.

I would like to first give honor to God who is the head of my life and I will continue to pray that he would order my steps in my life. My name is Latonja Serling and I'm a member of 1st Corinthian Baptist Church under Pastor Michael A. Walrond Jr., located on 116th Street on Adam Clayton Powell Blvd in Manhattan, New York. I'm currently a 41-year-old single mother of three. My son is 22 years old, and my daughters are 14 and 9 years old. At 1st Corinthian, I'm involved in several ministries. I'm the secretary for the Prison Ministry and Music Ministry as well as a singer in two choirs. Last but not least, I'm a teacher and mentor for the New Life Ministry, which is a class that is given to new members that join the church.

For years, despite my involvement in various church activities and schooling, I have felt there has been something missing in my training for ministry. Now, here I am, a student in the Westminster Theological Seminary Urban Mission M.A. program and so many doors have opened. My teaching ability is the perfect example. I should say that through this program, the Holy Spirit has given me the courage to be used by God in my ministry. I do not know where the Lord may lead me. I do know that I'm His vessel to be used wherever He sees fit. "Order my Steps, Lord". Following Him, I've found the missing link in my life.

My name is Roger Clarke. I have a multiplicity of interests that include creative arts, human rights issues and, unfortunately, the New York Knicks. I came to City Seminary because I had questions concerning how to live out the implications of the Gospel in New York City. I was actually considering other seminaries, but I realized that City Seminary and the Westminster’s Urban Mission program in New York allowed me the opportunity to continue to keep, as it were, my eyes and ears attuned to the rhythms of the city, and still allow time for reflection. Sometimes going away to seminary can cause one to lose touch with the surrounding community.

The Urban Mission program hasn't answered all my questions, but has enabled me to continue to think through urban issues facing New York and the global community at large. I have learned a great deal from my fellow students as we pray and theologize together in community. My plans are not set in stone, though I am considering working in the area of reconciliation and inter-faith dialogue. I am certain that the foundation that my time at City Seminary is building will have a positive impact on my future.

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. My mother is Puerto Rican and my father is half Filipino, part Cherokee, and part Jewish Palestinian. This combination of cultures and ethnicities has had a strong impact on my life. I was not raised in a religious home but was always aware of a creator. I dedicated my life to God during my junior year of high school and have since been committed to make a difference in this world. City Seminary has provided the exposure and has raised the questions that have helped me along this path.

City Seminary has opened my eyes to the power and the beauty of God. As believers, in this great city, we have been given a great blessing and opportunity. The “Nations” are here and the impact that we can have is immense. The opportunity to be exposed to different ideas, beliefs, and traditions has taught me that God is greater than I had expected—than I realized. City Seminary has allowed me to struggle through many questions that pertain to ministering in this city. It has also showed me the significance of loving New York, understanding the city, and respecting its history.

The opportunity to take classes with a small cohort of individuals provided the space to not only learn intellectually but also to learn in community. Our group of students comes from different churches, denominations, socio-economic situations, and racial/ethnic backgrounds. This is a glimpse of the Kingdom. City Seminary has changed my life. I pray for the wisdom and the strength to take all that I am learning and to apply it to the advancement of God’s Kingdom in this great city!

After graduating from college in Westchester County, NY, my life was focused on education and climbing the corporate ladder as quickly as possible. When my career was not advancing fast enough, I pursued a MBA in Finance. Now I thought I had all the materials I needed to accelerate my status in Corporate America! While traveling around the world and learning about international business, I finally gained the business success I so longed for. However, I realized that the result of these achievements failed to continue to offer its thrills such as had always been the case in the past.

I started to feel a shift in the level of contentment with my life. God was tugging on me to dive deeper into the Word of God. This is what brought me to pursue a Masters in Theology, focusing on Urban Ministry at Westminster Theology Seminary. What a unique community of spiritual learning! We are taught from the brightest professors to help us examine and understand the application of those fine points of theological concepts. As an integral part of a highly diverse population of adult students, being a part of this program that consists of such diverse, interracial and interdenominational students of women and men, we have learned to synthesize our life experience with the academic study of the Word of God in order to gain and enhance skills needed for relevant of urban ministry. One student explained it the best, "With all the diversity we have in this class, I feel like I have been around the world without even stepping out of our classroom."

It is amazing to me to see how my work within the community, knowledge of different cultures, and business experience is for the first time now being woven together equipping me to best serve in my urban missions.

Born in New York City and raised in Chinatown, I grew up during a period of turf wars and gang recruitment. Fortunately for me, basketball became an outlet, keeping me out of trouble. As a college student at SUNY Buffalo, I rediscovered God in a new way. After going on a few short-term missions trips to China and Macau, I realized my inadequacies in fostering person-to-person relations. Even more so, I realized how impractical life was without community and relationships.

After a few years of graduate studies in the field of social work and working a few years in direct practice with adolescents, I made the move to focus on a community/systems approach. I am currently working as an implementation manager with the Children's Aid Society. As I have always found the inner city full of opportunities, my outlook was always shaped by my inner city "hoop it up" perspective or my social service "save the world” approach. Both perspectives were mediums through which I sought to minister, but what was absent was a strong theological foundation. Having heard and read about City Seminary and Westminster Theological Seminary’s Urban Mission Master of Arts program in New York, and great things about this guy Mark Gornik, my wife and I decided to invest in learning more about what God intended for the city, seeking biblical truth as our guiding foundation.

I have not only begun to see my work differently, seeking shalom in my work place, but I am also becoming more cognizant of the opportunities God reveals to me. I have felt that God has given my wife and I three to four years to refine our world vision. It is through City Seminary and the Urban Mission program that we have this purposeful opportunity to dialogue, pray and grow through community. City Seminary provides a richness of student body involvement and experiences that constantly push my limits to think outside my normal sphere. I am excited to be a part of this process and would recommend anyone interested in living or working in the city to equip themselves through City Seminary and the Urban Mission program.