Donald Miller’s Prayer at the DNC

I’m beginning to think I should just have a mini feed to this section coming from Justin Taylor’s blog… none the less, he has Miller’s prayer transcript posted.

Time with Family

Stumbled upon this today.  Good advice for seminarians and pastors.

Free Book on Missions

And it is autographed!  The guys over at Said at Southern are giving away a free book entitle The Missionary Call by Dr. M. David Sills.  They have posted a review of the book as well as a two part interview with the author.  Currently, Part 1 is posted.  All you have to do to be entered into the drawing is to ask a question that the author may answer.

Saddleback Civil Forum

Godtube.com has a helpful breakdown of the Saddleback Civic Forum

How Much Should You Read?

There is an interesting conversation taking place over at Said at Southern.  Tony Kummer has asked us how we go about reading books for seminary classes.  Mark Warnock of Seminary Survival Guide fame has added some great insight.  Check out the article and add your two cents.

When Ministry and Seminary Collide…

The family seems to always lose!

This week, the first week of classes, has been an extraordinarily busy week. For many seminary students, I am sure this is a true statement. For seminary students who either work in a secular job or a ministry at a local church, this is even more of a true statement.

This week, my church hosted a mission-intensive week we called “My Jerusalem Week.” We worked on our own facilities as well as worked around the community. We had something going on from 8 am to 9 pm each night from Monday through Friday. In addition to this, I had to continue to focus on my own area of ministry with the forthcoming church “school” year fast approaching.

As I stated earlier, this was also the first week of classes at Southern Seminary as well. I am taking Baby Greek which meets four days a week. I now have homework every night which has not happened in over 14 years! Plus, the class is at 7 am which is far too early to be learning a foreign language if you want my opinion.

I remember I wrote a post here at GtS back in March about how to avoid losing time with your family. Well, I must confess that I have failed miserably since June when Krista lost her job…again. This week it was made abundantly clear to me that my family must take priority over ministry and school. However, there is a season in both ministry and school where your time is demanded over your time with family. The problem is when both of these occur in the same week. Perhaps Paul was talking about just this situation when he wrote 1 Corinthians 7:25-40.

My challenge, to myself and to you, is to maintain a proper balance in life. Devote your precious, fleeting time to your family whenever you can. Yes, your relationship with God is of the utmost importance, but your time at the office or in the classroom should not affect your relationship with God. If you fail with your family, then I believe you will not have much of a ministry.

My question is how do you strike a balance? I know how I sometimes strike a balance, but I also know I fail regularly. Please, I would love to drink from your well of knowledge and experience in this area.

Starting Seminary Year 4 of ?

For the last couple years I’ve been blessed to be a teaching assistant for first-year Theology at Multnomah (actually co-TA, as Kari does most of the paper-grading). Once or twice a semester I get to fill-in for our prof and teach (preach!) on Soteriology, Ecclesiology or some other section in our unit of systematic theology.

Inevitably, my intro includes a reminder to proofread their papers (Please, I beg you!), mentioning that my aim in life is for the Gospel and being a faithful husband and loving father, and the little caveat is that while I am an MDiv student teaching you today it is likely that some in the room may graduate before me. I am totally serious.

This week marks the start of our fourth year in seminary, out of only-God-knows-how-many. It is formally known as the first term of Fall classes at Multnomah. On Tuesdays I have Preaching in the morning, Greek in the afternoon. The Hermeneutics/Bible Study Methods class on Friday will include most of those same students that I’ll be grading papers for in Theology. That’s technically a first-year (first semester) course, but I’m just getting around to taking it in my fourth year. Yeah, the Registrar knows me by name, always taking classes out of sequence.

Detour: When the Journey Twists and Turns

Ryan has chronicled his 6-7 year journey to arriving at seminary here and here, and first day in class about seven months ago — back when we all knew him as “Just a Guy.” He is especially encouraging as he (and family) can empathize with enduring trials and disappointments.

Come what may, one thing you can bet on is that things will not go as planned. Since you’re in seminary it’s probably unwise to bet ( = gambling), but perhaps we can all relate to the setbacks to flying through our graduate training in the Word. When we look on page whatever of the course catalog we normally don’t notice SF 101 The Triune God Rocks Your World. Spiritual Formation (seminary-speak for ‘growing like Christ’) comes in all shapes and forms, and God the Spirit will use any means necessary to form us into the image of the Son (Romans 8:28-30; Colossians 3:10).

Yet these trials are minor and brief and certainly not strange (1 Peter 1:6-9). Christ suffered and endured in infinitely more ways that we ever will, and we get to taste a bit of His love in the midst of following in His steps. (And let’s never forget that suffering comes before glory — Romans 8:14-19.) For the Apostle Paul, sharing in the sufferings of our Savior was the height of all Christian experience, knowing Christ (Phil. 3:7-11).

Pausing and Restarting

So, I better wrap this up. Actually, for me this is more like year 3.2 of seminary. After our first year, we were had our first big surprise: first baby on the way! So I continued working full-time in a construction management/engineering career, but dropped my classes for the year — seminary was on pause. Had to forfeit my scholarship for the year (which I later found out was given to my best friend; God knew He needed it more.) That was 2006-07, perhaps my best year of ’school.’ During that year as ‘not-enrolled’ I was able to devour a stack of books waiting to be read, reflect on the Word more devotionally, take a summer course, and began to see my job as a mission field and not just a means-to-an-end. When our son was born, Kari took a full year off in there too.

This Fall is her last in-class course, and I’m gearing up to grade papers of students who may yet still graduate before me. As we embark as a family on “year 4″ — pregnant with baby #2 — so grateful for Christ’s sustaining power, the fact remains that the Object and chief end of our journey is HIM, not us. That is why the process is so vital.

Oh, that the life and character of Jesus would be formed in us!

What will you do when you turn 100?

If God grants me 100 years on this earth, there is nothing I’d rather do on my birthday than preaching!  Check this out! I’m totally pumped!

Rick Warren Interview

Interview of Rick Warren on the recent presidential debate he hosted.

Finding That Productive Study Environment

Another semester is approching quickly, and that means it won’t be long before books will have to be read, papers written, and tests will have to be taken.  If you are like me, you cannot just study anytime, anywhere.  You need the atmosphere and the environment to be right.  To be sure, every environment will not work for everyone.  You need to find your own.  But it is important that you do, because that is key to being productive.  And if you’re one of those who can study anywhere, anytime, you are lucky and I am jealous of you.  Nonetheless, here is what I need.

First, I don’t work well in silence.  I need music.  But not just any music.  I can’t study with Van Halen crankin’ in the background.  Classical music is my choice for studying.  I have quite a bit of classical on my iPod, but it got to the point where I had heard the same stuff over and over again and I would begin to notice that.  So after some searching, I finally came across Radio Swiss Classic, which is a radio station broadcasting from Bern, Switzerland with an internet stream available for free.  The station is fantastic.  It plays a great variety of stuff, and only occasionally has a brief verbal interjection to mention the title and composer of a piece (in German and French).  I highly recommend it to you.  Set the volume low, and let it play all day.

Second, location is important to me.  When I still lived in Ontario, I had a very specific spot in the Mills Library at McMaster University that I loved to be at.  I also liked the library at Redeemer University College, where I got my degree from.  But I do not like the library at here at RTS at all.  I find it far too small and confining.  One of the best places I work here is at the local Panera Bread.  It’s relatively comfortable, plays classical music, and has free refills on their coffee.

Finally, I work much better on a cloudy, rainy, and cool day.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen much in Florida, and I can’t control the weather.

But the point of this post is not to tell you what I need.  It’s to encourage you to find an environment where you study well.  This is important because seminary comes with a lot of work, and you need to be able to put yourself in a situation where you can work, concentrate, and be productive.  Find the place that works for you, and find it soon.  If you have already got something that works well for you, let us know.   What are your ideal study environments?

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