Author Archive

  • 3
    Picking a Seminary
    I am a second year student at Campbell University Divinity School. Campbell is embedded deep within the Baptist denomination. It is affiliated with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, the Baptist World Alliance, and is also a partnering institution with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). Too bad I’m not Baptist. “Why then are you going to...
    by Joel M. Usina at September 29th, 2009 at 09:09 pm
  • 3
    Ponderings About Preaching
    I’ve been reflecting upon an experience that my wife, Abbie, and I had not too long ago. I serve as a Youth Pastor at a church in Dunn, NC, called Stoney Run, which is a part of the Pentecostal Free Will Baptist (PFWB) denomination. Every summer, the denomination holds a week-long Camp Meeting where members of various PFWB churches attend to hear a speaker preach....
    by Joel M. Usina at September 4th, 2009 at 04:09 am
  • 5
    Fall, In Line
    It’s hard to imagine that I’m already buying books for the fall semester. Don’t get me wrong, I have come to thoroughly enjoy, and, even get excited about, buying books (endless thanks to God for the opportunity and the means!). What is hard to fathom, however, is that I am about to start my second year in seminary. I concur with James that we “are...
    by Joel M. Usina at July 27th, 2009 at 06:07 am
  • 6
    Summer Stunner
    Over the course of the seventeen years that I have been in school, I have never taken any summer classes. Well, my streak is over. Not only am I taking classes right now, I’m taking 9 hours worth. That’s a hefty load to carry during the summer. I started my seminary career with the goal of finishing my M. Div. in three years. In order to do that, I have to...
    by Joel M. Usina at July 14th, 2009 at 06:07 am
  • 3
    Am I in Limbo
    Do any other seminarians ever feel as if your time in seminary is (or was) a sort of limbo (not “limbo” as in the Roman Catholic doctrine)? An in between stage? Or, perhaps a combination of the two? Well, if you do (or did), then hopefully you will find comfort knowing that you are not alone. No doubt the circumstances surrounding each student’s time...
    by Joel M. Usina at June 19th, 2009 at 03:06 am
  • 2
    Tradition as Tutor
    “…[A]ll understanding, whether of history, art, or the Bible, is attainable only within a tradition.  A tradition imbues its sons with a conceptual framework and interpretive horizons.  A tradition provides its adherents with the questions to be asked of a text, which in turn allows the text to answer those questions within the framework of the tradition.”1 Unless...
    by Joel M. Usina at June 8th, 2009 at 03:06 am