SEM is our three-year “seminary for everybody” and with graduation coming up in a few months, we asked Obi, one of our students, to share his SEM story:
I am British-born Nigerian and live in the UK with my wife and three kids, 19, 17 and 14. I run a leadership coaching and training business, and I’ve been walking with Jesus for 31 years this year. I grew up in a Christian household, in and around the church, and actually with different expressions of the church — Church of England, Catholic Church, Pentecostal, non-denominational — so I’ve done the rounds!
Several years ago I read a mind-blowing book called Repenting of Religion by Greg Boyd, and then my friend, Caroline (SEM grad, pictured below), sent me a few links to some Woodland sermons. I was just floored.
At that point, I had been a Christian walking with Jesus for about 25 years. But the way I saw Christianity and Jesus was largely transactional, not transformational. Prior to that, occasionally I’d hear a message speaking about God’s heart, but generally it was, “God is master, he’s up there, yes he loves me, he saved me, but that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily interested in connection.” I was in a faith community that was very legalistic; we prioritized doing for God over being with him. I was getting a very different flavor from the Woodland Hills messages.
There was no question for me about God and Jesus—that wasn’t up for debate. It was more, what kind of God? The Woodland Hills team is really big on saying that “God looks like Jesus.” And if you say that or ask most Christians, they would say, yeah, of course he does. But do we really understand that on a deep, experiential level? Do we understand that he’s a crucified King who traversed an unsurpassable distance, paid an unsurpassable price, to ascribe unsurpassable worth to us?
Because it was so different I felt I needed to process this with someone. I ended up being connected to Paul Eddy and Kevin Callaghan, and then at some point Greg Boyd, and I realized, “Ok, I’m not going crazy. I’m not mad. There are other people thinking like this.” I know some people could hear that and say, “Oh it’s just that you wanted to hear what your itching ears wanted to hear.” No, it was genuinely that I was wrestling and seeking and I was having a paradigm shift.
I think of the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus explaining to the disciples everything from the Old Testament, and it says that Jesus “supernaturally unlocked their understanding.” Like those disciples, it’s possible to be on a journey and be in a faith community and have your understanding limited by certain perspectives and paradigms. The journey God was taking me on unlocked my understanding, I felt as though I was being born again again.
And then I remember listening to one of the SEM promo videos, and Greg said that some people find they have to go on a journey of deconstructing and reconstructing their faith. That struck me. I felt I needed to go on this journey. Sometimes people say, “Hey, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!” But then how do you know what the bath water is and what the baby is? That’s why it takes a journey!
I didn’t say yes to SEM the first year that I found out about it because I knew that it would be a big commitment. But a year later I thought, “I don’t think I’m going to find any other way for me personally to go on this journey of deconstructing and reconstructing.”
SEM is three years—many degrees are three years, the disciples were with Jesus for three years,—and so I knew it wasn’t going to be just a 12-week reflection or four weeks reading a book. I imagined that at the end of three years a lot would have shifted. I wanted to be able to examine and think, reflect, read and listen to other people who are also wrestling.
I liken my time in SEM to Neo in the movie The Matrix. I was feeling stuck in Christendom broadly and then God called me to see more of his Kingdom and break out of The Matrix.
I have appreciated each year, but year three, which has focused on personal heart formation has been my favorite. In my church experience before, we were so focused on apologetics and the Bible and very little on God’s heart or our hearts.
Most seminary experiences are the same way, they tend to major on apologetics, biblical history, church history, all of that. But SEM is holistic, saying, “Hey, we’re going to talk about the Kingdom meta-narrative, we’re going to look at heart formation and we’re going to focus on relational depth and connection.”
The hardest part for me has been being so far away. If I could move Woodland to around the corner, then I would! Even with Zoom, if you’re not able to do life with people day to day, then that’s a tough dynamic. But what’s helped is the smaller cohorts where we meet to check in and share reflections on both class and life.
I’m incredibly grateful for the vision of SEM, and the ability to offer this not only to people at Woodland but also to people like me who are in a different church, practically and weekly. Most churches think, “We’ve got 200 people in our congregation. How do we serve them, how do we bring more people in here?” But SEM says, “Hey, this is a space where we want to serve our brothers and sisters who are here, or in different parts of the world.” And whether or not you come to Woodland on a weekly basis, this is just a great resource that serves you and equips you to be light and love wherever you are. That gesture alone communicates the heart of God for Christians all over the world.
I remember when I first started, I was thinking of Paul’s words where he says, knowledge puffs up, love builds up. And while there’s been a lot of knowledge gained, it’s definitely been more the love that builds up. SEM has remained true to the very heart of what called me here which was the message about the love of Jesus and the love of the Father.
Obi we’re so glad you made the choice to take the SEM journey. It’s been a joy to learn and love alongside you!
If you wonder what it means to experience a God who looks like Jesus, want to be equipped for missional living, or are looking for a holistic discipleship experience, we encourage you to consider SEM, too! Applications for Fall 2026 are open and you can find out more here.
