We’re coming up on the three year mark of announcing that I was going back to school.  This is my sixth semester at Dallas Christian College, and I have roughly three more after this one. By the time I’m done with DCC, I’ll have received my B.A. in Ministry in Leadership in a span of  5 years while maintaining a full time corporate job. I’m only missing graduating in the standard “four years” by one semester, and I will only have to take 2 (projected) classes in that last semester. I’ve had to sacrifice some things, and there certainly are times when my daughters probably want to punch me in the stomach, but for the most part I’ve maintained a balanced life. When I started this journey back in May ’07, I had no clue where it was leading. It took me two years (going back to ’05) of wrestling with the idea of school before I finally released myself to jump in. I felt like God was leading me to equip myself for His ministry and I realized that all I had ever done is try to do things my own way and it wasn’t working out. …

When I originally met with the admissions councilor I admitted that I wasn’t sure where I was heading, but I had some ideas based on previous ministry experience… Music ministry? Youth ministry? or even head up a church plant? “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Most students come in with one ministry in mind but end up in a completely different area. It’s not that they were wrong, God just has a funny way of showing us things bits and pieces at a time. You’ll figure it out while you’re here.”

For the first three semesters I prayed and discussed future ministry constantly. As early as my first semester I had a fleeting thought about a possibility… fleeting in the sense that I threw it out my mind pretty quickly. But with almost every biblical studies class (and even some basic classes such as World History 2), the thought reappeared. Soon I was connecting dots between past experiences, current passions, newfound interests, and scholastic feedback. This past August, I finally owned up to it.

Suddenly, though, I wasn’t the one asking the question. For 2 years I had somehow avoided answering the question that now seems to be on everyone’s lips “What are you going to school for?” Sure, I had to deal with the occasional inquiry, but up until then a simple answer stating my major seemed to suffice. As soon as I came to grips with where I think this journey is leading, everyone started wanting details…

… and so, here we are…

There are two places we’re going with this:

1) I hope to serve at a church as a role of a “Spiritual Formation Pastor.” Like most things in our faith, labels have multiple meanings and carry different connotations for everyone. In a nutshell I explain it as an upgraded Christian Education Pastor that focuses on all aspects of discipleship, not just “educating” people. I could unpack this at a much deeper level, and probably will as things move forward. But, for now, take it however you want…

2) I hope to serve as an Adjunct* professor at a undergrad program similar to what I am in now. I would love to serve at DCC, but I haven’t even approached that yet. Yes, this means at minimum I need to continue on and receive my Masters. I’m still not huge on sheets of paper that supposedly confirm my status in this world (i.e. – degrees), but if “Prof-ing” is part of what I want to do, then a grad degree is necessary. I stress Adjunct* because I do not (currently) care about being tenured. The goal is two fold: Primarily, it is to enable others in my situation (corporate world adults) who realize they want more out of life and ministry. Secondly, I hope to supplement my “church” salary so I am not tempted to chase the dollar in ministry.

If this was simply about church ministry, I don’t know that this is the path I’d be on. I am convinced that everything I am learning here I could technically learn on my own. If I have the honor of serving you in the future, you will not see degrees hanging on my office wall and I won’t ask anyone to call me Master… It’s just how this world turns, it’s a means to an ends… but it’s one that is well worth it. I’ve loved *almost* every minute, ever class, every discussion, and especially ever essay I’ve written to this point. I don’t expect that to change.

Maybe God is still only revealing pieces, but I feel pretty strongly about the direction this thing is going, and it’s so far beyond anything I would’ve tried on my own I can’t help but trust in the vision that God is working in me…

So… now that you know… what do you think?

T-Minus 5 Days until my 6th semester at Dallas Christian College takes off. Last semester had its highs and lows, with Life Science owning the lowest of low spots in the entire 2.5 years I’ve been at this. I am done with basics, only Major courses, Biblical Core, and Electives left. Here’s the lineup and commentary for the semester:

Greek I: Jan 11 – April 12 (Campus) - Major Requirement: Getting my Greek on! Here’s the problem with ministers who learn the languages: Unless you become a true scholar of the language, you only learn enough to sound smart in your sermons/lessons. Despite our familiarity with the phrase we hear uttered from the pulpit “the original Greek manuscript actually says…”, how many of us can remember any of those words or the point of the speaker. Let’s see… “agape” and maybe the other Greek words for love (eros, phileo)… I know a few more like “ekklesia” (church/gathering) and “kononia” (community), but that’s it. For me, I just want to know enough for my personal studies to where I can see subtleties in the language that may cause me to pause and say “alright, lets turn to the experts and see what they have to say.” I have a really good example of this, but it’d take a whole post to explain… maybe later.

Synoptic Gospels: Jan 15 – March 4 (Online) - Biblical Core: I was actually thinking last night about how much I want to go through the Gospels and dig into the actions of Christ in a deeper manner. He is my Rabbi, and I want his dust to cover me. I am still going to do this on my own, but having a class like the Synoptic Gospels will also give me an avenue to bring my personal study to a discussion setting. I haven’t seen the syllabus yet so this class may focus more on the three synoptic Gospels from a comparison/contrast point of view. In any case, more Jesus=good times.

Group Leadership: March 5 – April 29 (Online) - Major Requirement: No idea what I’m getting into here, but should be helpful for my long term ministry vision and life at work even. Good times…

Interpretation of the Old Testament: April 30 – June  17 (Online) - Biblical Core: Again, not sure what depth we’re going to get into this. It should be interesting because these are the types of things that can ruin a guy. In “bible school” and seminary, our championed approach to the Bible is very mechanical and scholarly. As such, we tend to downplay the experiential side of our faith. We have to be careful to find a balance. The scholarly approach is helpful, but if I live and die by it, my faith (which is hopefully vibrant and alive) may follow suit and become mechanical. That said, I know I miss tons of OT references when I read the NT, so I’d like to learn how to recognize those things more readily. I think this class will help.

Evangelism: April 30 – June 17 (Online) - Major Requirement: This is a timely class. I just finished one book on evangelism and one of the main focuses of 2010 for our church is going to be effective evangelism… -Of course that should always be in the scope of focus of a church, but hey, we need to reevaluate our approach this year-… One of the key elements about evangelism is understanding the purpose: to further the Kingdom by making disciples… not converts. I’ll be interested to see how this class handles our ever changing culture. Handing out tracts hasn’t worked for 35 years, but people still do it…

So there ya go. Send money…

*******************************
STATS:
General Core Semester Credits: 0
Major/Bible Core Semester Credits: 15
Elective Semester Credits: 0
Total Semester Credits: 15

General Core Credits Complete: 39 of 39 (100%) – W007! W007!
Major/Bible Core Credits Complete: 21 of 66 (32%)
Elective Credits Complete: 8 of 24 (33%)
Total Credits: 68 of 129 (53%)

If you recall, in my World Religions class we have to watch a movie every week that depicts a certain aspect of the Religion we’re studying. Last week was 1971′s Fiddler on the Roof (yes, i’ve been trying to write this post for a week… work has been insane). Let’s count the things this movie immediately has working against it before I even popped it in the old DVD player: it is a nearly 40 year old (1) adaptation of a stage-play musical (2) about a Jewish community (3) and their struggles with the changing times in pre-revolutionary Russia (4) that clocks in just under three hours (5, 6, and 7; one for each hour).

The opening monologue by Tevye (pictured above) was well written, but I had too many doubts to give it any credit… then they sang the first bar of the theme song (Tradition) and me, my wife, and daughter all looked at each other like “what the heck was that??” Even my ten year old recognized that we were in for a long night! After the “set up” scene (a prologue if you will) the credits rolled in typical 1960/70s fashion… all at once… with no story related action taking place…  just a silhouette of a fiddler on a roof … playing his song… for about 10 minutes it seemed… _sigh_… seriously?

Then we got to hear the whole “Tradition” song, and while I still wasn’t sure what to expect, i noticed some very clever and successful attempts at humor, but mostly we laughed at how ridiculous the song itself sounded. The song ended, Teyve said a couple of other things, followed by the first full on comedic scene of the movie… and it dawned on me… We were watching in the wrong frame of mind… this was a Comedy Drama.

What followed was three hours of some of the most brilliant writing I have ever experienced. Three hours flew by. Most of the songs were great (some famous songs include “Matchmaker” (genius song) and “Do You Love Me”); the comedic elements were classic and well placed; the story was fantastic and the character development was top notch.  As I thought through the movie over the next couple of days, I can honestly say from a personal favorites stand point –and it blows my mind to say this– Fiddler cracked my top five:

1) Gladiator
2) Shawshank Redemption
3) Fight Club
4) Fiddler on the Roof
5) Bourne Movies (we’ll group them)

I laugh just thinking about some of the scenes… That is what comedy is supposed to be… not this slap-stick / stupid crap we put out these days. The best lines come from Tevye, the father figure and central character, who often “quotes” the good book. Most of his quotes are suspect at best and flat out wrong at worst. But there are plenty of likable characters and good lines to go around. I can’t promise every guy will like it. Some guys are too tough to sit through a musical no matter how brilliant the writing… But man, what a shocker… find three hours to spare and test me on this… it’s worth it (and someone buy it for me on DVD since it was just a rental).

oh, and remember…

As the good book says, if you spit in the air, it lands in your face.

I’ve been fairly quiet this summer, but it was actually a pretty eventful season for me this year.  No major vacations or trips for me, but..

* sent my two eldest off to California for 10 days,
* lots of changes at church, many of which have direct implications on my family and the ministries that we’re involved in (more to come eventually),
* and of course, an ever-growing newborn

School starts back in 10 Days… 10!  Here’s the schedule and some thoughts about each class:

World Religions: Aug 10 – Sept 17 (online) - Open Elective: What?? An OPEN Elective! This is it, this means I have FINALLY arrived into the meat of my program! I’m estatic to have finally finished my basic classes (almost…). I’m excited about broadening my understanding of the various world religions out there. But not only that, we get to watch 6 movies and two CSI episodes. Should be challenging and fun.

Small Group Ministry: Aug 14 – Oct 01 (online) - Major Requirement: Two books that look pretty decent. Considering some of the direction our church is going, this could be a timely course. Also, one seller sent me the wrong book, gave me a refund and told me keep the book. The book is “Organic Community” which looks pretty good. Here’s to people sending wrong books!

Life Science: Sept 24 – Oct 29 (on Campus) - General Core: BLAH. May be a good class, but this is THE last of the “basic” classes I have to take. What the heck is life science anyway? I’m 28 years old, have three kids, a wife of a decade, work in corporate America for a Fortune 20 company… I think I get the science behind living. The bright side is, this is my only on campus class this semester.

Missions: Sept 28 – Nov 15 (online) - Open Elective: I’m not a huge short term mission fan, but I’m grateful for those who take on our great commission through mission work of all kinds: short term, long term, or permanent. Looking forward to the class.

Paul’s Letters: Oct 2 – Nov 19 (online) – Biblical Core: I hear this is an intense and heady class. Heavy theology, lots of exegesis, massive papers and reports to write… In otherwords, right up my alley . The letters are where we get most of our theology from… coming from a non-denominational background, we didn’t put much emphasis on specific theology. Don’t get me wrong, we were big into dicsipleship, but I would like to round out some of my thoughts and this class should at least help. We’ll see…

So that’s that. I have more to say in general, but I’m just trying to get back into the mode of saying SOMETHING… anything… anywhere… I used to talk too much, now I stay silent too often…

I’m going to play a game with myself. I start a sentence one way, then complete it many ways. Like this:

Sentence 1: I am way behind…
… on my schoolwork for both classes.
… on my corporate USA work.
… on my personal goals for this week.
… on my ministerial/churchy/spiritual goals for this week (or month maybe).

Sentence 2: This weekend will…
… be full of homework.
… have a few distractions that I really don’t want to deal with.
… be over before I know it.
… not be spent with the Seabourns, Bartulas, Fryes, Thompsons, Furmans, or anyone else probably.
… be pretty much like any other weekend so far this year.

Sentence 3: Sentence section 2 was…
… very passive.

Sentence 4: I can’t believe…
… I bought myself a Blackberry.
… you’re still reading this far.
… I haven’t played my 360 in over a week.
… it’s only 6 weeks until #3 arrives.
… it’s not butter.

All of you who have a blog, facebook, myspace, or text messaging are tagged!

Back to the very exciting John, Logos, and Postmodernism discussion later this week. But today is a light day. In T-minus 8 hours (probably more like 7), I will have finished my 3rd semester working towards my Ministry and Leadership degree (i.e. – generic Christian degree similar to the generic ‘business’ degree at normal colleges). I finished up my final paper on Jude last night, and have a presentation on Jude (go figure) this evening and then it’s free reign for about… oh… 3 weeks or so.

Unfortunately the holidays and finishing up this class … okay and general slacking have got me a bit behind on my reading plan. But the good news is I have a couple of books in the wings for these three weeks, one of which aided in sparking the previously mentioned Logos discussion. I’m certain you are all looking forward to more of that (:wide eyed:)

Next semester looks like this:

PSYC-1320 General Psychology – Jan 5th – Feb 16 (online)
HIST-3311 History of Christianity – Jan 19 – March 8 (campus)
MINL-2310 Biblical Communication Seminar I – March 13 – May 7 (campus)
PHIL-3320 Introduction to Philosophy - April 13 – May 18 (online)
HIST-3320 American Christianity – May 4 – June 21 (campus)

So in general, i guess that means i’ll be able to communicate the philopshy, psychology, and history of Christianity to you or some such… but more importantly it means come June, i’m done with 99% of my basics, leaving only “Life Science” … which I’m a bit confused on the topic covered in that class. Also, this is my first time over 12 hours… time to start kickin’ as quick as possible.

I used to be anti-christian “higher education” … maybe I should explain that one day, but my wife still wants the fatherhood post. And before I start rambling, i’ll sign off for the day.

Work is freaking insane right now, so I don’t have time to say much lately. I’ll be rolling here soon though, as we’re canceling cable and I’ve gotta get focused for school, which means less extra-curricular stuff and generally helps my blog activity … yes, you heard right:

The journey to higher education so I can be smarter than all you fools continues tomorrow: World Civ II, with assignment one due at beginning of class. As of now, I am ahead. Call me in a week though, i’ll be behind probably.

Business Math starts in two weeks (online). The first chapter of the book is entitled “whole numbers” … excuse my sweaty palms, i’m not sure i can handle whole numbers. /sarcasm … I’ve gotta believe we’ll be well past whole numbers by the end of the first week. I’m actually looking forward to some of the later content which could help with several financial things we need to get under control. I’m a closet math fan. Ask my wife, I actually create spreadsheets for some of my online games that helps me determine the efficiency of… oh geeze, never mind. If you ask me, i’ll just say “math sucks!”

On the Blog Docket for this week:
* Church Search Update
* New family pics
* Summer Review
* The effective use of asterisks and bold lettering on a blog entry

Well, i know it’s a little early considering I haven’t finished Spring 08 yet, but I had to register and get it all rolling. It’s only been two semesters, but I’m pretty pleased at the pace of things. I am still hoping to find a way to wedge in a few additional classes in the coming summers (2009/2010), and maybe take up to 15 hours in a few semesters so as to finish in three+ years rather than four+ years (especially if I go on to get a masters). Thats all dependent on finances. Either way, it’s going quicker in my mind than I expected. It’s great to look at “general core” and see i’ll soon be over halfway done. So this is what Fall ’08 will look like:

Tues Aug 5 – Sept 16: HIST-1321 World Civilizations II (on campus) – World Civ I was better than I expected. I’m pretty sure I’ll have the same prof, so I know what to expect… a good deal of reading mixed with good in-class discussion and learning. He’s more interested in teaching us to think historically rather than memorizing dates or exact geographical locations. If you thought I already took this, its because I planned to this semester but I over booked my financial aide and chose this as the one to drop.

Sun Aug 17 – Sept 28: Business Math (online) – The ONLY math class I have to take for my degree. Math isn’t that difficult, but I don’t enjoy it. Thankfully I am married to a math tutor. I doubt I’ll need her… Since this is online, I came up with this awesome plan of having Dionna do all the work, but she wouldn’t go for that. I guess I’ll need to refresh some math skills.

Mon Sept 22 – Oct 27: Literature Survey (on campus) – This is my last required English class, but I may take on more for my electives if they have any sort of Christian Literature class (I haven’t checked). I like reading and I like writing, so this class should fit my personality well. It’s just a matter of how much reading I have to do. This is my first on campus Eng. class, though, so I’m curious how different it will be. The first two comp classes worked well online.

Mon Nov 3 – Dec 15: New Testament Survey (on campus) – If I can get through the OT is 6 weeks, I should have no problem getting through the NT is 6 weeks. This is the only Biblical Core I’m taking Fall of ’08 so I better enjoy it!

STATS*:
General Core Semester Credits: 9
Major/Bible Core Semester Credits: 3
Elective Semester Credits: 0
Total Semester Credits: 12
General Core Credits Complete: 23 of 42 (55%)
Major/Bible Core Credits Complete: 12 of 66 (18%)
Elective Credits Complete: 2 of 21 (10%)
Total Credits: 28 of 129 (29%)

(*: if you look at the “spring lineup” post, some of these numbers have changed when it appears they shouldn’t have. That is because they finally figured out a clean way to show us what we have taken, what we haven’t, what’s required, whats not, etc, based specifically on our individual degree plan. In January, I was still using a generic degree plan to try and determine what was needed. This is much more accurate.)

… no fun for Jeremy?

Monday, Old Testament Survey kicks off. I’ve known about it for three weeks and had a twelve day break between Foundations of Leadership and OTS… Why, then, did I wait until last night to get prepared? By Monday, I have to have read most of the Pentateuch (Gen-Duet), over 100 pages in our OT companion (and… 30 Pages in, i can tell you it looks cool thumbing through, but its a bit of a beating so far), and study and locate several pertinent Historical and Biblical locations on ancient maps… plus all the actual work/essays beyond the reading. … Thank God I dropped World Civ II early in the semester for financial reasons. Otherwise, I’d have double the reading and work.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to diving in. I like history and I see great value in understanding our heritage as Christ followers, found in the tradition of the Jews. Thus, I believe the Old Testament helps enhance our view and relationship with our Creator and Savior. But one problem with accelerated adult learning classes is the pace required for some of the more work and reading intensive studies. While a traditional student has roughly 18 weeks to complete the course, I have 6. So the whole OT along with the textbook, essays, homework, and so forth are crammed into a short amount of time.

Can I get it done? Sure… Will it be exciting? Not really… Will I learn as much as I should? probably not… but, then again, thats why I have at least 3 years left.

(btw, the fact that I dropped world civ II means I will remain a freshman until the end of Fall 2008. Technically after one class I’ll jump to sophomore, but it won’t show officially until end of the semester… so I’ll be a 27 year old freshman ).

So, as you may remember, I decided to try out Speech online rather than on-campus. We’re about halfway through, and there is no doubt I would consider this a mistake. In my closing comments I will definitely let our school know why this class should not be offered online…

1 – you have to find your own audiences, which may work for some people, but is a difficulty that a student shouldn’t have to worry about…

2 – Speaking to video camera is totally different than speaking to a group of people. I watched my recent informative speech and it is nothing like what how I am when I speak in church or whatever. I guess that’s my fault, but in class or in church, if i slip up, i just fix it and move on… doesn’t bother me a bit. While filming, I try to fight through it, but the temptation to start over is too strong… oh well, i didn’t look as natural as I would normally.

3 – One of the main things they are trying to teach us is how to speak extemporaneously. In other words, reacting and moving with audience… knowing your material enough to have the freedom to recognize when your audience needs you to clarify or wants you to expand… how can i do this with a video camera and no audience?

So, anyway, the most recent speech I did was an informative discussing Josh and Lindsey Parks and their preparation for becoming localized missionaries in Ukraine. Feel free to read it… it’s only 1500 words … this transcript was the original and much more casual than how I’d write this same information in an essay… i had to cut a lot on the fly because of time restraints, but wanted to post the “full” version…

parks-mission-speech.pdf

i’d probably post the speech after the class is up (can’t until then), but i don’t think its a good representation of me… i dunno, i guess i’m just more comfortable talking to real people rather than a silver piece of equipment mounted on a stolen tripod.