Tomorrow’s classes mark the 20% finished mark of my first quarter of grad school. That thought excites me and simultaneously scares the poop out of me. When your quarters are only 10 weeks long, you have to start the class and get your butt in gear. I think this week (so far) has really started that process.
In Focused Lives (I’ll start with this one since the first real post didn’t really cover it) the whole premise of the class is to eventually come up with your Personal Life Mandate…meaning, things like, “where are you gifted?”, “what happened in your life to cause you to believe what you believe?”, “What do you want to do in your future?”, etc. My professor, Clinton, believes that a focused life is one that has a Life Purpose, Effective Methodologies, Major Role, and Ultimate Contribution. Overall, I think at the end of this class, it will turn out to be the most useful, but right now, its the most thorn-in-my-side-esque. We are reading the professors own books during the duration of the class, which is difficult, because I don’t really respond to well to his style of teaching, and that style is carried over into his book. I am finding that in the world of academics, I am more of a linear thinker. I like information presented to me in a logical and straight to the point way…and that is so not what happens in this class. But I do think the fact that I will come up with a way to gauge the productivity of my life and a litmus test for where I want to go, will provide useful in the end. Who knows, maybe I’ll love it so much, I will get you all to make one too 🙂
In Biblical Foundations of Missions, I turned in my first assignments yesterday. Our professor is asking us to go back through the books of the bible in their groupings (pentatuch, major prophets, minor prophets, etc) and read 5 chapters out of any book and read them with your missionary lenses on. It’s been interesting. I really never thought about how missional the ENTIRE bible is, including the Old Testament. I think this has been the point he is trying to enforce, because we are also reading a book called “Mission in the Old Testament” and our “textbook” for the class has been focused on the Old Testament in the required reading portion. It’s put a new twist on things that I think I already knew. Discussing it with a classmate yesterday, I was able to break it down a little better. I think those of us that are missions minded already know that the cause of mission comes from a place deep within us that we cannot explain. Its a blessing and a curse. But it would make sense that it stems from our most basic element of who we are; our humanity. It also would make sense then, that it goes back to the start of creation, where humanity really began. Most of the readings are saying that the call to missions did not come when Jesus sent out the disciples but it came in Genesis 12 when God says to Abram that all peoples will be blessed through him. So the call for Israel (Abrams descendants) to be a blessing to other nations was part of an innate call to spread the Good News of the Lord. Hence, the call to missions. Another interesting thing I read in Walter Kaiser’s book, Mission in the Old Testament is that God was actually using the plagues as a way to reach the Egyptians; a chance to give them a change. Moses says over and over that the Lord is causing the plagues so that they will “know Him”. To know God is to change from the live you were living to live a life centered on him. The plagues were a missional technique from God to get the Egyptians…interesting reading, huh?
In my Church and Missions class, we’ve started getting into the material. Yesterday (as you can see from my blog posts below) we started learning about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. The teacher posed an interesting thought to us. He asked if we thought Jesus had the intention of starting a new church during his first coming. It makes sense to say no, because in all honesty, he came to save a wayward one. However, in his coming, he opened up the chance to reform the old one. He gave the people of God a new way to interpret their church. He was challenging the “Temple” faith that they had and tried to make it an everyday faith. For me, I always enjoy learning new things about how Jesus was so counter-cultural to the Jews (and Gentiles alike) of his day. A new thing I learned, or had expounded upon, was just how outrageous it was for him to go and forgive people all willy-nilly! See, forgiveness at that time, could only be granted by the priests working in the Temple. Because of this, they had ALL the power. They could decide at the drop of a hat who was worthy and who wasn’t. This (along with many others) is one of the reasons he was eventually arrested. The priests had lost their corner market on forgiveness, and that pissed them right off. But in doing this, Jesus put forgiveness in the hands of the people. He said, “Look guys, you don’t need the Temple, you need ME”. Once again…interesting to think. Now, I don’t think this gives people a right to say, “well, I don’t need the church, because I have Jesus”, or “I am spiritual, I am just not religious”. We need to remember that the church has a VERY important role to play in each one of our lives, but the ultimate authority of the church is under Jesus, not under a pastor or leadership team.
Also, for my Church in Mission class, I just finished a book and posted my book review right below. Take a look. I think it would be an interesting read for those of you who consider yourself Pentecostal…or at least somewhat Pentecostal. Or, if you are interested in learning more about what Pentecostalism is, especially more progressive Pentecostals. Plus there are lots of good stories about what sorts of things churches around the world are accomplishing.
Well, there you have it..my 20% recap on Grad school thus far! Hope you enjoyed learning about what’s going on as much as I am!!