Graduate Profile: Chris Siegenthaler (MTS)

I’d like to express my gratitude to the Lord for his sustaining hand over the last several years of study at Reformed Baptist Seminary. It is only by his grace that I have been able to complete the necessary coursework to graduate with a Masters in Theological Studies with a Marrow in Systematic Theology.

I have lived my entire life in rural upstate New York. By God’s grace, I was raised in a Christian home and a gospel-preaching church. At a young age I was convicted of my sins and looked in faith to Jesus Christ as my Savior. However, now that I look back at those years, I see that, though I had a sensitive conscience, my faith was in my prayer and in my works of self-righteousness and not in the person and righteousness of Christ. In the years that followed, I struggled with assurance of my salvation especially when confronted with the reality of remaining sin. It was when the Lord exposed me to the doctrines of grace in my late teens that I saw that salvation rests not in the earnestness of my prayers, but fully in the person of Christ and by the grace of God. Praise God that “salvation belongs to the Lord” (Ps 3:8).

As a young adult, the Lord provided two of the greatest blessings of my life within a month: my wife and our church. God brought both blessings to me unlooked for, and he has used them both to draw me closer to himself over the last 16 years.

I was drawn to RBS, in part because they adhered to the biblical principle that ministerial training is to be under the purview of the local church. My studies at RBS have allowed me to learn from exemplary teachers and pastors from around the world, while being able to remain under the ministry and council of my home church. My years of study at RBS have benefited me much, but without a doubt I have found that my greatest joys have come from being able to use my training in service to my brothers and sisters at Albany Baptist Church.

Remote studies have had their challenges, particularly the feeling of studying in isolation and the challenge of balancing my studies with family and work commitments. My wife, Kate, has remained my most stalwart source of encouragement throughout it all. She has read countless papers, provided hours of quiet study in a house with four children, and has never faltered in her support of my decisions to take on these studies.

I’m grateful for the wisdom and council of the three elders of my church, particularly my mentor, Pastor William Hill, who has been a constant source of encouragement to use what measure of gifts God has given to me to serve Christ and his church. Even as my formal studies come to a close, I look to the future blessing of remaining a humble learner from my elders and following their “pattern of the sounds words” (2 Tim 1:13). I pray that God will bless the training I have received as he provides opportunity to minister in various capacities in my church.

Chris Siegenthaler