Saying, "Yes!"

Mathew Poock is a Master of Divinity student who can attest to the importance of scholarship support for seminary students.

For Matthew Poock, it was more than a matter of wanting to be a pastor. "It was more like, 'I'm going to be,'" he says.

Now, as a Master of Divinity senior at Luther Seminary, the 27-year-old is less than a year away from ordination. But just as he has recognized his call to become a pastor, Matt, like many other Luther students, has come to accept the need to take on student debt.

"What am I going to do? This is my call," he says. "This is where I need to be. And this is how I’ve got to get it done."

Originally from Waverly, Iowa, Matt first felt the call to ministry at his confirmation. He had just promised to love and serve the Lord, and to him, that meant becoming a pastor. Even as he realized during his high-school years that there were other ways to love and serve God, the call to ordained ministry stuck.

He attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and graduated in 2002 with majors in vocal music and psychology and a minor in religion. He also graduated with $8,000 of student debt. He recouped more than half that sum while spending the next year in Minneapolis with Lutheran Volunteer Corps, living on a very modest stipend.

Living expenses require Matt to take out student loans.

 After a second year in which he toured with the St. Paul-based ministry Youth Encounter, Matt began at Luther Seminary. He was grateful to receive a presidential scholarship which fully covers his yearly tuition, knowing this level of support is a rarity.

Living expenses still require him to take out student loans. Though he has jobs on and off campus this year, he will graduate with about $27,000 in student debt. Students who do not receive such generous scholarships often struggle with even larger debt loads.

"When I think about what I won’t make in a parish afterward, then I start to think, 'How many years am I going to carry this debt with me?'" he says. "That's when I start getting worried."

Even so, with a year of internship with a young congregation in San Antonio under his belt, Matt is embracing his long-awaited future as a pastor. He feels called to serve a parish in a small city, possibly as a mission developer.

"I also am excited about transformational ministry," he says. "All ministry needs to be transformational, thinking of new ways of being the church. I'm really excited about that."