Sarah Pounds Hazelrig for Asbury Theological Seminary Student Testimonies

Speaker: Sarah Pounds Hazelrig

Sarah Pounds Hazelrig: Hi there. My name is Sarah Pounds Hazelrig and I am an M.Div. student at Asbury and I do most of my classes online and then come in person for hybrids once a semester.

Sarah Pounds Hazelrig: When it came to me deciding what degree program to pursue at Asbury, for me, I really was just interested in the M.Div. I um I didn't really see a lot of other options for some reason. Like I think I, in some ways the Lord gave me blinders. Um but I wanted to study the ancient languages. I wanted to do exegesis. I wanted to really dig into the theological foundation of a lot of just what I believe and also why I believe it. Um and I wanted to understand better how to apply that to different situations. Um So for me, I work in a campus ministry context as well as a local church context. And so for me, I didn't have theological training before that point. And so I really wanted to have a better understanding, a better foundation of just all kinds of things. And so for me, the M.Div. really provided that robust um education system that I was looking for.

Sarah Pounds Hazelrig: And the question of why asked Barry, um I didn't grow up in a tradition where women teach, preach, et cetera. Um But when I told my parents that I was considering going to seminary and I mentioned Asbury was on that list. So like, oh, we've had preachers from Asbury. They're great. Um And my parents don't come from a Wesleyan tradition, but they spoke so highly about the preachers that came out of Asbury Theological Seminary. So I was like, that's interesting. Um But then for me, a lot of the people that I know in ministry and have connected with in ministry over the past couple of years um have gone through Asbury and have just pointed to how it worked with their schedule. Um It was very flexible around the ministry that they were doing in their local context. So they didn't have to fully step out of their context out of their local season of working in the church in order to do seminary. And so that for me was really compelling because I love the work that I do. Um And I really want to keep doing it. I don't want to have to leave that to be able to do seminary. And so that was one of the main reasons that Asbury was pretty high on my list. But also just from people that I talked to, um people at Asbury go into seminary, loving the Lord, and most of them came out that I've spoken to come out loving the Lord even more. Um And so I know that there are other seminaries and other programs that really reshape the way that you think about God and think about religion, think about the church. Um And I think that those can be good and deeply important. But I know that for me in my own journey with the Lord, I didn't need that in the season. That wasn't what God was calling me to God was calling me to deeper love, deeper understanding um and deeper relationship with him. And I thought that Asbury was going to be the best place for me to go on that journey for seminary.

Sarah Pounds Hazelrig: So in one of my roles uh in ministry, I am a part time associate director of a Wesley Foundation, which means that I get to spend time with college kids. And I think that there's so many assumptions and impressions about young adults in our current day and age that they are just addicted to their phones, that they are not social, they don't want human connection. Like all of these different biases that people can have against young adults. And what I'm here to tell you is that I see young adults every day, every week who love the Lord who are striving to follow God, who are just so different and weird and they aren't afraid of embracing the fact that they're unique and they're made in the image of God, but they're still kind of weird and strange and funny sometimes. Um But I feel like I see the the Kingdom of God so clearly in them because they are in a season of just rapid transformation. They're making choices about their lives, they're making choices about who they're gonna be. They're making choices about integrity and about vision and about calling and like determining, OK, Lord, who are you calling me to be? Are you calling me into me medicine? Are you calling me into ministry? Are you calling me into research? Like, what are you, what are you inviting me into? And so I feel like I get such a great and humbling front row seat to the beginning of so many people's journey with God. And I'm just so deeply grateful. Like I think that if you just write off young adults and young people as like, oh, they're shallow, they're vain or they're just focused on themselves. No, like these people love their neighbors, they love their communities, they're actually investing their communities. Um And I'm just really in awe of all that God is doing in young people, in our country and around the world, but I see them here in Macon, Georgia. Um And I see it and I give thanks to God.