Is it normal to feel overwhelmed already?

Well, my graduate degree has officially begun as of 11:00am this morning. It’s been good so far. I feel welcomed in my classes, and I sat with people I knew, which was nice. I was worried that I was gonna be walking into the class with a worried look on my face and see everyone all sitting with their buddy that they had already made and I was left out of the buddy selection process. So then I was going to have to sit all by my self in either the back corner or the front and middle and shed a small tear as I looked around the classroom at everyone being all buddy-buddy. But alas, and thank the Lord, that didn’t happen. I sat with some people I knew already and some I had met during orientation last week during my first class and then some people in that class were in the second class I went to. Now, I am pondering life on the 3rd floor of the library where I have a great view of Old Town Pasadena and praise the Lord, there is a breeze!

So – I decided to make this blog for a few reasons: a) it is a suggestion for one of my classes so that we aren’t constantly having to turn in our class reviews that are due every class on paper…and b) because I want you to be involved. I am learning, even on the first day, that I am the Church, we are the Church and the Church needs community. So I want you to be involved in what I am learning. I want to be able to hear your thoughts and dialogue with you and process with you, if you live in G-town with me, or in Missouri, or Michigan, or South Africa even. It’s a new way for you to partner with me in being the church in my little Fuller adventure. So climb on Board! Here goes:

Monday’s are officially the longest day. I go to all 3 classes today and span the time from 11am to 10pm. My first class today is called Biblical Foundation of Missions. It is taught by Charles Van Engen. You may recognize his name as a very well known Christian author. He wrote books like “God’s Missionary People” and “Evangelism in a Changing World”. Let’s just say that pages 117 to 125 of his 125 page syllabus are all about works he has published. Anyway, in that class, we spent the majority of the time learning about him (he is REALLY fascinating) and learning about each other. Then we spent the rest of the time reading over the first like 20 pages of the mountain of a syllabus. I think it is going to be a good class though. The basic learning outcomes of the class, as stated in his syllabus are to:

1. Develop a missiological hermeneutic which will be applied to Scripture

2. Re-read the Bible in order to understand the nature of God’s mission in Scripture

3. Allow biblical understanding and mission practice to influence one another

4. Develop practical mission applications based on biblical theology of mission

So – in layman’s terms, getting a foundation of missions and their applications from scripture and learn how to put them into practice. It seems like a good class, and I think it will be a nice introduction to get me back into school, or the “world of academia” as we Masters students call it 🙂 I do already have homework for the class, which I should probably be doing, but technically, I guess this is homework for another class too.

My second class I went to is called Church in Mission in a Global Context. It is taught by Ryan Bolger, who has also written quite a bit, mostly on the emergent church. Basically, this class is to serve as a pretty broad intro to the Church and churches in historical and contemporary context. The learning outcomes for this are as follows:

1. Examine the global church through the study of local churches in their particular historical and cultural contexts

2. Cite their own relationship to churches outside their ecclesiastical tradition, examining their own assumptions in the process

3. Develop an understanding of the nature and mission of the Church and churches, both theologically and sociologically.

We spent the majority of the time doing the same thing as in the first class, learning about Bolger, and then going over a portion of our syllabus. In telling us about himself though, we talked about a lot of interesting things. He gave some good info in emergent churches, which was nice to have some relatively concrete info on, since it seems to be such a buzz word in the Christian culture today. Everyone’s trying to work on being an emergent church, but I am not sure that they know what they are working toward. I think this class should be an interesting one. It’s been a while since I’ve had church history, especially modern church history. It’s also been a while since I’ve had church history, especially modern church history taught from a more global perspective, not a Western mind-set.

This is also the class that I have to blog about. We are asked to write a quick 50 word (or so) blog on our ideas and review of the class that day. So, I will be forced to update this on Monday’s and Wednesday’s, if you wanna check then 🙂 I will usually try to keep in in a separate post entitled “My thoughts on class today (date)” so that it’s easier for the Prof and TA to read

I do have one more class, but I can’t tell you much about it yet, because I am going to it at 6:20pm tonight, but I will keep you updated on it for sure.

I don’t want to get too heady on you, right off the bat, but if you are interested in more about what we are learning, post a comment, give me a call, shoot me an email. It is MORE than helpful for me to be dialoguing the things I am learning in class and how to put them into a practical setting. Also – if you want to read some of the books I am reading let me know! I’ve got about 6 books from EACH class I can give you a recommendation on!

I wish you the best and thanks for supporting me in my journeys!