Spiritual Life

Worship is central to our life together as a community of God’s people. Tuesdays are services of worship and word with faculty and administrators preaching; Thursday services are led by student groups and incorporate student preaching. Special services during the year include Día de Los Muertos, Lessons and Carols, the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Service, Ash Wednesday, and the Triduum (the Three Days) of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. Music and song are integral to of our worship. Led by Professor Eric Wall, Gene Alice Sherman Associate Professor of Sacred Music, student leaders design and prepare the worship experiences for the community.

Narrative spiritual formation groups allow you to explore faith within a small cohort of students. Facilitated by faculty, staff, or senior students, you will reflect on each other’s stories. Through these interactions you will begin to build a support system for the journey of ministry.

Every first year student is placed in a cohort of 5-7 students where they explore faith through theological reflection on “slices of life” stories from the students’ lives. These cohorts are facilitated by a faculty or staff member and a senior student.

Trained spiritual directors are available to lead you in theological reflection in a small group setting.

These optional groups allow students to be led in theological reflection by a trained spiritual director. 

Austin Seminary provides referrals for low-cost counseling.

God gives voices to all, and music is a vibrant part of our spiritual life. Austin Seminary is a singing community, and our song at worship crosses boundaries of style, century, and language. Both in worship and in academics, music is a gift and a spiritual practice to which all are invited. Song is an integral part of our worship; the congregation sings from three hymnals and from other sources, and the Seminary Choir and other seminary musicians participate each week. The Seminary Choir is open without audition to all students, either for academic credit or not. Musical gifts in the community find a home in our worship and in other parts of our life together.

The recently established Hal H. and Martha S. Hopson Endowed Church Music Symposium Fund enables the Seminary to host nationally and internationally renowned church music practitioners and to offer special services and events. Recent events have included a Reformation Song Festival, a Jazz Vespers, and a week’s residency by the Iona Community’s John Bell.