What Can You Do with Your Bible Training?: Traditional and Nontraditional Vocational Paths

By Charlie Trimm and Brittany Kim

Employment in the field of biblical studies has changed significantly in recent years, and the coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated the resulting challenges. The purpose of this anthology is to inform and inspire evangelical students and graduates of biblical studies programs about the wide variety of training-related vocational paths they can pursue, both conventional and unconventional. The book does this by listing and categorizing twenty-five relevant pathways, sharing the stories and insights of insiders within each pathway, and calling for further creativity in putting one's biblical training to work. Each contributor shares (1) how they settled into their represented occupation, (2) the ways in which they have used their biblical training in that occupation, (3) the "joys" and "trials" of their work, and (4) advice for those who would like to follow in their footsteps. The volume stands in the tradition of several nuts-and-bolts-like resources within the guild (e.g., Nijay Gupta's Prepare, Succeed, Advance and Ben Witherington's Is There a Doctor in the House?), and it seeks to develop that tradition considerably.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Jun 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781666743333

Charlie Trimm

Charlie Trimm (PhD, Wheaton College) is associate professor of biblical and theological studies at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. He is the author of Fighting for the King and the Gods: A Survey of Warfare in the Ancient Near East (Society of Biblical Literature) and “YHWH Fights for Them!”: The Divine Warrior in the Exodus Narrative (Gorgias).

Book preview

What Can You Do with Your Bible Training?

Traditional and Nontraditional Vocational Paths

edited by Brandon C. Benziger

and Adam W. Day

Afterword by Charlie Trimm and Brittany Kim

What Can You Do with Your Bible Training?

Traditional and Nontraditional Vocational Paths

Copyright ©

2023

Wipf and Stock Publishers. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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paperback isbn: 978-1-6667-4331-9

hardcover isbn: 978-1-6667-4332-6

ebook isbn: 978-1-6667-4333-3

09/09/21

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), ©

2001

by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright ©

2021

by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 

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publishing.com.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright ©

1960

,

1971

,

1977

,

1995

,

2020

by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. ©

1973

,

1978

,

1984

,

2011

by Biblica, Inc.tm Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.tm

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright ©

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National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Quotations from The Maze are taken from Is There a Doctor in the House? by Ben Witherington III Copyright ©

2011

by Ben Witherington III. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com

Table of Contents

Title Page

Contributors

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1: Academia

Postsecondary Teaching

Adjunct Teaching

Secondary Teaching

Administration

Librarian Work

Archaeology

Study-Tour Leading

Part 2: Publishing and Media

In-House Editing

Freelance Editing

Curriculum Development

Data Curation

Digital Work

Design and Illustration

Part 3: Congregational Ministry

Pastoral Ministry (as a Senior Pastor)

Pastoral Ministry (as an Associate Pastor)

Educational Ministry

Worship Ministry

Youth Ministry

Counseling

Part 4: Parachurch Ministry, Missions, and Public Service

Campus Ministry

Bible Translation

Cross-Cultural Teaching

Cross-Cultural Missions

Interreligious Engagement

Chaplaincy

Afterword

Bibliography

In this book, students and graduates will find creative ideas and testimonies of gifted individuals who are now serving in a variety of contexts, including the academy, the publishing and media industries, congregational ministry, missions, parachurch ministry, and public service. The contributors present the joys and challenges of their journeys with humor, creativity, and candidness. Every chapter shows how anyone with training in biblical and related studies can find a place to share their gifts, talents, and expertise. Highly recommended reading for all.

—

Hélène M. Dallaire,

professor of Old Testament and Semitic languages, Denver Seminary

I wish this book was published earlier! After a decade serving on the mission field, I found myself searching for the path that God had for me in using my biblical studies training. The experiences shared by individuals in this book would have been immensely helpful during that time. Their stories shed light on the joys and challenges of various ministries. Prayerfully reading through this book would have provided invaluable guidance.

—

Peter H. W. Lau,

adjunct lecturer, Seminari Theoloji Malaysia

This book is testimony to the facts that life rarely goes as planned and that that can actually be a good thing. The book’s contributors offer plenty of practical help, an expansive range of possibilities, and—maybe best of all—profound hope for the future of biblical studies students. I wish I had this book when I started down my postgraduate career path.

—

Wendy Widder,

author of Every Road Goes Somewhere

Unfortunately, few American students who do a PhD these days also do an MDiv degree or become ordained clergy. This leaves many of them thinking their only option is to teach, often at a level well below their training. But is there any practical guide to help them find alternative employment after years of education? Thankfully, that question can now be answered yes—Benziger and Day provide copious descriptions of opportunities that most students (master’s and bachelor’s students included) will not have thought about as they pursue their calling. I’m very glad indeed to see this book now available.

—

Ben Witherington III,

professor of New Testament for doctoral studies, Asbury Theological Seminary

Dedicated to Dr. David L. Mathewson,

professor, supervisor, mentor, and friend,

whose advice to "be open to the way you can use

your academic gifts for God’s service"

planted the seeds for this book

—Brandon C. Benziger

And dedicated to Dr. David Talley,

who, more than anyone else, helped me find

my current place in God’s kingdom

—Adam W. Day

Contributors

S. T. Antonio (pseudonym) (BA, biblical and theological studies, Biola University; MDiv, ThM, missions and evangelism, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), church planter in the Middle East and editor in chief for Seedbed, Pioneer.

Michael Aubrey (BA, biblical languages, Moody Bible Institute; certificate, linguistics, Dallas International University; MA, linguistics and biblical exegesis, Canada Institute of Linguistics, Trinity Western University), linguist and researcher, Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL International.

Rachel Aubrey (BA, classical languages and English literature, Calvin University; certificate, linguistics, Dallas International University; MA, linguistics and translation, Canada Institute of Linguistics, Trinity Western University), linguist and researcher, Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL International.

Jordan P. Barrett (BA, biblical studies, Biola University; MA, historical and systematic theology, PhD, systematic theology, Wheaton College), religion teacher, South Christian High School, Byron Center, Michigan.

Brandon C. Benziger (BA, biblical and religious studies, Fresno Pacific University; MDiv, biblical studies, ThM, Old Testament, Denver Seminary), PhD resident and research assistant, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; freelance editor, Baker Academic, etc.; associated faculty, Old Testament Department, Denver Seminary.

Greg W. Cook (BS, biology, Emporia State University; MA, biblical studies, Dallas Theological Seminary; MA, counseling, Amberton University; DMin, pastoral counseling, Westminster Theological Seminary), associate pastor, Christ Chapel Bible Church, Fort Worth, Texas; founder and director, Soul Care; adjunct instructor, Arlington Baptist University and the Bible Institute of South Africa.

Adam W. Day (BA, biblical studies, Biola University; MDiv, pastoral care and counseling, ThM, Old Testament, Talbot School of Theology; PhD, New Testament, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), missionary, WorldVenture; associate professor of New Testament language and literature, Tyndale Theological Seminary, the Netherlands.

Clayton B. Diltz (BS, human resources, California State University, Long Beach; MDiv, pastoral care and counseling, ThM, biblical studies, Talbot School of Theology; ThD, systematic theology, Trinity Graduate School of Theology; MMOAS, Air Command and Staff College), wing chaplain, 144th Fighter Wing, Fresno Air National Guard Base; adjunct professor, Biblical Studies Department, Fresno Pacific University.

Curtis Dupree (BA, religious studies, Missouri Baptist University; MDiv, biblical studies, PhD, Old Testament, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary), pastor, Brassfield Baptist Church, Creedmoor, North Carolina; former youth pastor, Union Hope Baptist Church, Zebulon, North Carolina.

Nancy L. Erickson (BA, biblical studies, Azusa Pacific University; MA, biblical studies, Asbury Theological Seminary; MPhil, Hebrew and cognate studies, PhD, Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion), executive editor of biblical languages, textbooks, reference tools, and Seedbed resources, Zondervan Academic.

Ida Glaser (BS, physics, MPhil, physics, Imperial College London; PGCE, physical sciences, Institute of Education; PhD, comparative theology, Durham University), founding fellow and director emerita, Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies, Oxford, UK; director, Center for Muslim and Christian Studies, Houston, Texas.

John K. Goodrich (BA, Bible and theology, Moody Bible Institute; MDiv, ThM, New Testament, Talbot School of Theology; PhD, New Testament, Durham University), professor of Bible, Moody Bible Institute; faculty, Compass Bible Institute.

Zhenya Gurina-Rodriquez (BA, cross-cultural communication, Voronezh State University; MDiv, ThM, New Testament, PhD, New Testament and early Christianity, Brite Divinity School), associate pastor of discipleship, First United Methodist Church, Fort Worth, Texas.

Jeffrey Jou (BA, chemistry, Johns Hopkins University; MS, chemistry, Stony Brook University; MA, biblical studies, Reformed Theological Seminary), campus minister, Reformed University Fellowship, Queens College.

Joanne J. Jung (BS, home economics, California State University, Los Angeles; MA, Bible exposition, Talbot School of Theology; PhD, theology, Fuller Theological Seminary), associate dean, online education and faculty development, Talbot School of Theology; professor, biblical and theological studies, Biola University.

Brittany Kim (BA, religious studies and philosophy, Westmont College; MA, biblical exegesis, PhD, Old Testament, Wheaton College), adjunct professor, North Park Theological Seminary; director, Every Voice: A Center for Kingdom Diversity in Christian Theological Education.

Edward W. Klink III (BA, biblical studies, Trinity International University; MDiv, ThM, New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; PhD, New Testament, University of St. Andrews), senior pastor, Hope Evangelical Free Church, Roscoe, Illinois; adjunct professor, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Ryan Landes (BA, biblical studies and philosophy, Biola University; MA, New Testament, MA, Old Testament, ThM, systematic theology, Talbot School of Theology), associate to the rector, theologian in residence, and catechist, Prince George Winyah Parish Church, Georgetown, South Carolina.

Joshua L. Mann (BA, advanced biblical studies, Calvary University; MA, biblical languages, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; PhD, New Testament, University of Edinburgh), president and CEO, Expositus; managing editor, Herzog Foundation.

Dougald W. McLaurin III (BA, biblical studies, The College at Southeastern; MDiv, biblical studies, ThM, Old Testament, PhD, Old Testament, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary), research and outreach coordinator, The Library at Southeastern; adjunct professor of Hebrew and Old Testament, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; teaching fellow, BibleMesh Institute.

Russell L. Meek (BA, history and Spanish, Henderson State University; MA, biblical languages, PhD, Old Testament, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), visiting professor of Old Testament, William Tennent School of Theology; adjunct instructor, California Baptist University, Louisiana State University Online, Moody Bible Institute, and Spurgeon College.

Steven M. Ortiz (BA, anthropology and sociology, California State University, Los Angeles; MA, Bible history, Jerusalem University College; MA, Near Eastern archaeology and biblical studies, PhD, Near Eastern archaeology, University of Arizona), director, Lanier Center for Archaeology, professor of archaeology and biblical studies, Lipscomb University.

Carl Park (BA, sociology, Yale University; MDiv, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; ThM, New Testament, Princeton Theological Seminary; PhD, New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), pastor, Great Commission Community Church, Arlington, Virginia; faculty, Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies.

Jimmy Parks (BA, Christian leadership, College of Biblical Studies, Houston; MA, biblical languages, Houston Christian University), data curator, Faithlife.

Leen Ritmeyer (MA, conservation studies, Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, University of York; PhD, faculty of arts, University of Manchester), cofounder and designer, Ritmeyer Archaeological Design; independent researcher.

Charlie Trimm (BS, chemistry, Western Washington University; MDiv, ThM, New Testament, Northwest Baptist Seminary; PhD, Old Testament, Wheaton College), associate professor and chair of the undergraduate Old Testament Department, Biola University and Talbot School of Theology; director, Every Voice: A Center for Kingdom Diversity in Christian Theological Education.

Mark L. Ward (BA, Bible, MA, Bible, Bob Jones University; PhD, New Testament interpretation, BJU Seminary), senior editor, digital content, Logos Bible Software; president, Bible Faculty Summit; former secondary Bible writer, BJU Press.

Mark Wilson (BA, biblical studies, Trinity Bible College; MA, biblical studies, Regent University; DLitt et Phil, New Testament, University of South Africa, Pretoria), founder and director, Asia Minor Research Center, Antalya, Turkey; research fellow, University of South Africa, Pretoria; professor extraordinary of New Testament, Stellenbosch University.

Acknowledgments

In October 2017, eight months before graduating with a ThM in Old Testament from Denver Seminary, I (Brandon) began to apply for as many academic and publishing jobs as I could. Despite applying to about a hundred positions by graduation, the only job I could land was one in curriculum development with a highly conservative, secondary-level Christian course provider. Already disenchanted by the job market, my new job with this small company left much to be desired, so much so that within months of starting, I began to experience a profound sense of emptiness and restlessness. On the verge of depression, I confided in a mentor of mine, Dr. David L. Mathewson (associate professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary), and he not only assured me that I was not alone in my struggle but also encouraged me to explore other outlets for my training, whether remunerated or not. In doing so, he provided a number of helpful vignettes of biblically and theologically minded academics using their training in unconventional and fulfilling ways—a brother working as a theologian in residence for a local church, a recent Cambridge PhD serving as a pastor in New England, a former seminary professor speaking, writing, and producing videos as part of a parachurch ministry, and so on. Not only did I find this really encouraging; it also inspired months of further research and exploration, eventually even planting the seeds for this book. So I have Dave to thank first and foremost in these acknowledgments, both for his personal encouragement during a trying time and especially for his inspiration of the present anthology. If only all students had such thoughtful mentors as Dave!

I’d also like to extend a hearty thanks to my coeditor, Adam Day, whom I first met online while exploring missions work in November 2017. Not only did he answer all my missions-related questions at that time (and in quite some helpful detail); he eventually, in August 2020, graciously accepted my invitation to coedit this book. And his input, labor, encouragement, and camaraderie these past three years have been invaluable—from the shaping of the book’s contents and our solicitation of publishers to communicating with contributors and editing each essay. In gratitude for his partnership (and in support of his important gospel work overseas), I gladly dedicate all proceeds of this book to him.

I (Adam) have also wrestled with my own sense of direction, especially as an undergraduate biblical studies major at Biola University. I attended Biola with the intent to enter pastoral ministry after finishing my bachelor’s and master’s degrees. But during my time there, I realized that I really enjoyed academics and biblical studies, so I wondered what that might mean for my future after graduation. At one point, I served as Dr. Dave Talley’s teaching assistant as he was beginning to get more involved in overseas ministry, traveling to teach and train missionaries and national pastors. He helped me see that my interest and passion in teaching could be used to serve overseas, where there was (and is) a notable dearth of qualified biblical studies professors. Dave’s countless hours of intentional conversation, guidance, and mentoring were invaluable in helping me find my place in God’s kingdom. Without his investment, I would never have ended up where I am now. I will also be forever grateful for others who have fanned the flame of these passions during my studies—Drs. Ken Berding, Jon Lunde, and Matt Williams.

Collectively, thanks also go to each of our contributors for their thoughtful and gratuitous commitment to this project: S. T. Antonio (a pseudonym), Mike and Rachel Aubrey, Jordan Barrett, Greg Cook, Clayton Diltz, Curtis Dupree, Nancy Erickson, Ida Glaser, John Goodrich, Zhenya Gurina-Rodriquez, Jeff Jou, Joanne Jung, Mickey Klink, Ryan Landes, Josh Mann, Dougald McLaurin, Russ Meek, Steve Ortiz, Carl Park, Jimmy Parks, Leen Ritmeyer, Mark Ward, and Mark Wilson. Thanks go, too, to Brittany Kim and Charlie Trimm for their fitting afterword, to Steven Runge for his helpful feedback about media- and publishing-related careers, and to Wipf and Stock’s dedicated staff—for instance, Emily Callihan, George Callihan, E. J. Davila, Savanah N. Landerholm, and Matthew Wimer—for helping this book see the light of day. Finally, as with all of our writing projects, we would like to thank our wives and children—Anna, Luke, Caleb, and Kara (Adam’s family), as well as Stephanie, Evelyn, Oliver, Theodore, and Jasper (Brandon’s family)—both for providing us the time and space required to work on this book and for loving us so well despite the time apart. We couldn’t ask for more supportive families!

Introduction

Brandon C. Benziger and Adam W. Day

Did you take the trouble / To think the path through, / Before you even started, / Before you turned blue? . . . Are you going round in circles, / Retracing your selections, / Has it occurred to you, / To ask for directions?

—Ben Witherington III, The Maze¹

Job searches and vocational pursuits are often likened to a complex maze.² And for good reason. Just as mazes consist of paths zigzagging or meandering from entrances to exits, with multiple junctions, blind alleys, dead ends, and perhaps even shifting walls along the way, so job searches and the like usually comprise a complicated process of networking, researching, applying, and interviewing, almost all of which dead ends and only very little of which, if any, leads to the goal of a desired job offer. Both can be long and complex, both can befuddle and disorient, and even if both are enjoyable and arresting at first, they can sometimes vex so badly that the most ambitious of people despair (or turn blue, to quote Witherington’s poem above). That is especially the case with the world’s largest mazes, such as Dafeng Dream Maze in Yancheng, Jiangsu, China—which has a pathway network of 5.87 miles—and it’s most certainly the case with job searches in highly specialized and crowded fields, such as the fields of religion, theology, and biblical studies.

To illustrate the point with just one documented example, consider the experience of Tyler R. Yoder, a recent graduate of Ohio State University’s PhD program in Hebrew Bible and ancient Near Eastern studies. In a recent autobiographical article published by the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), Yoder shares that he once thought he had his academic career mapped out:

1.Follow a BA with an MA.

2.Present at academic conferences and publish in top-tier journals.

3.Complete a PhD and land a tenure-track professorship at a four-year college or university.³

Convinced that this was the way forward, Yoder followed the map assiduously. Though he doesn’t appear to have ended up with an MA, he did present papers at conferences, publish journal articles, complete his PhD, discuss his research with peers and professors, and even secure interviews before graduation. But reality set in as months—eventually a year—went by without a desired job offer. In his own words, he began to realize that with every passing year, as the SBL jobs report honestly informed me, the pickings grew slimmer, and the competition grew more competitive as the surplus of starving Ph.D.’s duked it out for a few golden tickets.⁴ To be frank, Yoder encountered so many dead ends in his search that he eventually had an existential crisis of sorts:

Questions that cut to the core of who I am bubbled up in me. If my definition of success was being a professor . . .

. . . have I wasted the last decade of my life?

. . . how do I explain this to my family? Can I even provide for them?

. . . what does this say about me as a person, not to mention as a scholar?

. . . is there any way to salvage or, dare I say, redeem this closed door?⁵

Though Yoder has yet to arrive at the tenure-track goal of his dreams, he was able to find alternative employment as a high school humanities instructor. That was a deeply humbling process, he admits, but it was also an opportunity to reflect on his nontraditional vocational journey and to redefine what it means to be successful in the field.

For most recent PhD graduates (and even master’s-level graduates who have braved the academic job market), Yoder’s story is all too familiar. In fact, claims such as there are no jobs, the job market is ridiculously over-flooded, and US seminaries and Christian colleges [are] oversupplied with teachers and undersupplied with students are ubiquitous today.⁶ In reality, the field of biblical studies has likely always been crowded. Old Testament scholar Pete Enns tells us that when he graduated with his PhD in 1994, there were about 325 newly minted PhD graduates in biblical and related studies (e.g., early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism), but only 30 or so relevant positions were advertised.⁷ The situation seemed to improve after the turn of the millennium, especially as the events of September 11, 2001, sparked a surge of academic growth in religion and theology departments.⁸ But as Carl Raschke and others have pointed out, the brutal recession that befell America in the fall of 2008 had a negative impact on this growth trajectory (as it did for the majority of other specialties in the arts and humanities).⁹ It’s probably no coincidence that within five or six years of the recession, we began to see a smattering of blog posts and articles with titles like The Changing Face of Employment in Biblical Studies, Are PhD Programs in Biblical Studies Ethical?, and The American Evangelical Academy and the World: A Challenge to Practice More Globally.¹⁰

The SBL jobs reports, already mentioned above and readily accessible on SBL’s website, not only lend credence to this brief historical description but also suggest, not surprisingly, that the situation has worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. Before crunching the numbers, it’s important to point out that the reports cover more than just faculty openings; they also cover fellowships and postdocs, administrative posts, other higher education positions, and jobs in other industries (e.g., K–12, publishing, and the nonprofit sector). That stated, SBL and its sister organization, the American Academy of Religion (AAR), reported the following numbers of annually advertised job openings between 2002 (the year of the report’s inception) and 2020:

•536 in 2002

•538 in 2003

•519 in 2004

•520 in 2005

•598 in 2006

•577 in 2007

•652 in 2008

•574 in 2009

•412 in 2010

•523 in 2011

•501 in 2012

•548 in 2013

•452 in 2014

•450 in 2015

•404 in 2016

•420 in 2017

•403 in 2018

•403 in 2019

•331 in 2020¹¹

At the risk of oversimplifying, we can see four broad trends in this data: (1) a general increase from 2002 to 2008; (2) a sharp decline from 2008 to 2010; (3) a recovery of lower prerecession numbers during the period 2010 to 2013; and (4) a steady decrease from 2013 to 2020—with 2020 marking a twenty-year low (see fig. 1). Of course, the full effects of the pandemic have yet to be determined (and SBL has yet to release a report since June 2020, unfortunately), but the odds certainly don’t seem to be in one’s favor.¹² Indeed, Enns’s prediction, recorded in 2012, may be greatly aided by the pandemic:

The era of the tenure-track position may grind down to a crawl. Do not assume that the cushy conventional position your professors have, one that will pay the mortgage and put your children through school, will be a realistic goal in the coming years. You may find yourself supplementing your income some other way, or your spouse [if you have one] might have to be the main income provider. PhDs are going to have to think out of the box more and more.¹³

Figure

1

. Number of SBL and AAR Job Openings,

2002

–

2020

In truth, PhD graduates—and especially master’s and bachelor’s graduates, for that matter—have had to think outside of the box for some time now. That’s true whether they ever intended to pursue a traditional teaching career or not. The simple reality is this: finding meaningful, training-relevant employment—whether full or part time; in academia, publishing, ministry, or missions; and regardless of one’s work ethic, professional experience, and academic credentials—is almost always a significant challenge.¹⁴ In keeping with the primary metaphor of this introduction, what is often needed in this challenge—this lingering, incommodious maze—is an opportunity to ask for directions, to look over the labyrinth’s walls, or to climb a bastion or a lookout tower to see the puzzle in its entirety. That would allow the solver to discover which paths exist, which ones dead end, and which ones lead to that oh, so glorious finish line. In brief, it would help them map—and hopefully navigate and solve—the employment maze.

Of course, there are a few good resources on the market and the internet today that do exactly that kind of thing, even if they don’t all employ the same metaphor. One thinks, for example, of Ben Witherington III’s Is There a Doctor in the House? An Insider’s Story and Advice on Becoming a Bible Scholar; Nijay Gupta’s Prepare, Succeed, Advance: A Guidebook for Getting a PhD in Biblical Studies and Beyond; Michael Kibbe’s From Research to Teaching: A Guide to Beginning Your Classroom Career; and Charlie Trimm and Brittany Kim’s A PhD in Biblical and Theological Studies: What Is It Good For?¹⁵ But as helpful as these resources are—and we affirm that they are very helpful in achieving what they set out to do—all four of them focus on postdoctoral employment. In addition, only one (i.e., Trimm and Kim’s blog series) surveys a spectrum of career possibilities, whereas the other three (i.e., Witherington’s, Gupta’s, and Kibbe’s books) concentrate much more narrowly on traditional academic teaching and scholarship. If readers aren’t careful (as Tyler Yoder wasn’t), resources like these can tacitly communicate (1) that the only or primary litmus test for success is a traditional PhD-to-professorship track (in the case of Witherington’s, Gupta’s, and Kibbe’s books) and (2) that good guild-relevant jobs can only be obtained with a PhD in hand (in the case of all four resources). Both notions are dubious, though, as Witherington and company would no doubt affirm as well.

Born out of our own vocational struggles, What Can You Do with Your Bible Training? seeks to round out the picture we see in Witherington’s, Gupta’s, Kibbe’s, and Trimm and Kim’s works. It does so by informing and hopefully inspiring students and graduates of biblical studies programs—not only at the doctoral level but especially at the master’s and bachelor’s levels—about the wide variety of training-related vocational paths they can pursue, both conventional and particularly unconventional. It certainly affirms the ongoing value and limited prospect of traditional career paths (i.e., full-time professorships), but it also emphasizes the potential of a broad swath of nontraditional occupations (and not just as a contingency plan). A brief scan of our table of contents, for instance, shows twenty-five roles or occupations represented among four vocational domains. Our Academia section, by way of example, includes traditional academic teaching, adjunct work, secondary teaching, administration, librarian work, archaeology, and tour guiding. Under Publishing and Media, we add in-house editing, freelance editing, curriculum development, data curation, digital work, and design and illustration. And under Congregational Ministry, we incorporate senior and associate pastorates, educational ministry, worship ministry, youth ministry, and counseling. Finally, a variety of other unconventional occupations are represented in our Parachurch Ministry, Missions, and Public Service section.

Readers should note several things about our book from the outset. The first is that our list of training-related occupations and vocational domains is by no means exhaustive; instead, it is only intended to represent the current vocational landscape in a broad or comprehensive way.¹⁶ In fact, as editors of the volume, we found ourselves multiple times wanting to add entries here and there (e.g., on curatorial work, the executive pastorate, and employment as a media-based scholar in residence), but a number of theoretical and practical concerns tempered the impulse (e.g., keeping costs down, avoiding largely unviable occupations, failing to find interested or committed contributors, and eschewing too much overlap between entries).¹⁷ The result is an unavoidably subjective selection, to be sure, but one that is still more comprehensive, as far as we’re aware, than any other resource currently available on the market or internet today.

A second and closely related item is that rather than writing each entry on our own, we decided to assemble a fairly diverse team of qualified contributors to do so. That wasn’t a ploy on our part to avoid the hard work of research and writing; rather, we thought it more effective from the outset that our readers learn directly from active (or recently active) practitioners of the represented occupations. In that vein, we attempted to select contributors who (1) hold at least one accredited degree in biblical studies or a closely related field (whether at the undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral level); (2) are passionate about the field (as demonstrated, for example, by guild-relevant publications or adjunct work); and (3) consciously integrate their biblical training with their work. While the majority of contributors have doctorates (often in biblical studies), that was actually more coincidental than intentional on our part. In fact, we deliberately selected contributors who don’t currently have doctorates, simply to reinforce the notion that meaningful training-related employment can indeed be found without a PhD (even if a PhD is required in many cases and can help in others). We invite our readers to examine our contributors’ credentials