Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids

One problem I had going to Calvin Seminary was that some of the professors thought they knew me because they knew of me , bcuz my dad and my grandfather were both CRC pastors , and then one of the professors, Sid Greidanus, his son was a pastor at the church we attended in Grand Rapids , so they probably talked about our family at Christmas or Thanksgiving... traded gossip ...in fact I did profession of Faith at our church - the pastor , this professor's son , forgot or neglected to even sign the certificate ...but back to the Seminary Greidanus is from Canada originally,... you might be surprised how many Canadians there are at the Calvin Seminary and then some of them remain in the USA as pastors or professors. I don't know if they ever get their citizenship here or if they remain Canadians working in the USA. But Canadians sometimes do have a superciliousness problem which is not the right kind of attitude to have as a professor or pastor. This was all several years ago I think that this Professor has retired by now... but there are others with attitude issues as well ...I think that's why they become Seminary professors bcuz they want to be the "boss" over future pastors.. it's kind of ridiculous. We should be brothers in Christ, not enemies.

I attended Cal Sem , in part, on my way to an M.Div. And I actually come from a lineage of CRC pastors, so they "knew" who was coming, but yet, they really did not know me..., yes, I have "legacy" but I'm not a "bootlicker" either so I never really fit in.. that was back in the day when Bob DeVries was still there (also Van Reken, Zwaanstra, Greenway, Becker, Greidanus, Bolt, et al ) . I actually was NOT a "rebel" BUT they misunderstood my silence and turned against me in general (especially Van Reken for some unknown reason, maybe Greenway too; while DeVries was nebulous), plus, even though I grew up mostly in West Michigan, they thought of me as "from California" (and probably 90% or more of the faculty has a bit of a midwest or eastern prejudice) and associated me with my dad's position at a well-known church (well-known & prosperous at the time, and part of the reformed tradition, but not CRC) . So many assumptions & generalizations without every asking me MY STORY. I couldn't stay there given the environment at the time (even though I was also a Calvin College grad, BA/BA) . Plus I had unfinished business back west, so I transferred to Fuller Seminary, and completed my M.Div there, and am now an independent Christian evangelist.

Go to Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary instead.

If I could give this 0 stars I would. CTS has completely left the moorings of basic Biblical Christianity.

Briefly, I would suggest getting involved with another seminary and taking classes there. It is very important to investigate the professors at any place of higher learning. And one professor is to be quite plain a source of stress and trouble to students and the institution. He has been mean to students for decades and is still on faculty. He has yelled at students in the class room and has made it quite clear that his opinion in the matter of education is the only one. Calvin Seminary does allow for taking classes at another seminary and then doing EPMC, I would highly advise this route for those who have learning disabilities and who are students of color, because it can be very traumatic for students otherwise. Calvin Seminary, also has an excellent online learning option. I took several courses online and it was a great experience compared to the first Greek class. Thus, the two stars.