Gloria Diehl, First-Year Student 2024–25, MA-Theology - Theological Integration
Introducing Gloria Diehl
I was born and raised in Nashville, Tenn., and was blessed to grow up in a family deeply committed to serving the church both vocationally and voluntarily. Spirituality has been a crucial part of my life, and the church a place that fostered it. I owe much of my faith to the people of my church who walked with me through childhood and adolescence. As a teenager, I found emotional, mental, and spiritual healing through therapy, and I began to grow a deep passion for mental health care.
When I began my undergraduate degree here at SPU, I knew I wanted to become a marriage and family therapist to work with adolescents and trauma survivors. I see therapy as a path through which I can join God’s healing ministry on earth by providing people avenues through which they can connect with their authentic selves and better love others.
How did you come to Seattle Pacific Seminary?
During my college experience, I found myself taking theology classes out of pure interest. I have always found theology as an important part of living an informed faithful life and enjoy taking time to understand how God has and is revealing God’s self to us through wisdom and Scripture. Our theology professors encouraged and fostered my interest in theology.
During this time, Dr. Rick Steele, who’s now retired, asked me to consider the MA in Theology/MS-MFT degree. I considered it as something I could do to pursue two topics I deeply enjoyed and was passionate about. I did not want to make a quick decision, however. After reflecting on a pattern of God using me in worship ministries, I eventually declared a theology minor in worship arts leadership. Spring quarter of my senior year, I was planning to attend an MFT program in a different state but got one of the clearest calls of my life to go to Seattle Pacific Seminary. God worked a lot of things together quickly to make that happen.
What has your first-year experience been like?
I am now in my first year of Seminary, and I am still discerning where God is leading me with this calling. Ministry has always been a part of my life, and I anticipate being involved throughout my life in whatever capacity I am called to. I feel that it is my duty to be as informed as I can in anticipation of that.
In lieu of a more defined calling to vocational ministry in the church, I am content to learn more about what it means to be a spiritually informed counselor. Having been through the process of deconstructing and reconstructing my faith, I recognize how important finding honest expressions of spirituality and healthy religion is to a holistic understanding of health. The approach that SPS faculty and my peers take to teaching and learning is a communal process of questions, conversation, and mutual encouragement. I have been thrilled to see God use class space as a way to reveal God’s self to us and to unite us as we learn what it means to bring Heaven to Earth.