Going to Seminary

Instead of beginning with how we judged I’ll just tell you who won.

Congrats To:

• Nancy Wilson – Pregnant With Purpose
• Larry Baxter – Seminary? Who, Me?
• Gregory Hartnett – Developing a Reading Plan for Seminary
• Michael Eubanks – I Didn’t Know What I Didn’t Know

All submissions were blindly ‘graded’ by three seminary professors and myself. Just like seminary:) All four scores were totaled and the top four were deemed our winners. (Blindly= all names and references were removed before grading.)

If you’re a real seminary geek and want to know the score curve post in the comments and I’ll oblige.

Thanks to all who entered. We feel this was a great success and will be holding another contest, open to all previous entrants and winners, in June.

Have you thought about sharing your seminary journey with the world? Perhaps you are interested in pontificating about how seminary could be better, or have questions that you’re not finding answers to regarding your seminary journey. Maybe you already have a blog, but not the readership you’d like to have.

Now is your chance to build readership, pontificate about seminary to your heart’s desire, or give blogging your first go around. AND, we’re going to give you your choice of an e-reader to do it.

Submit your 500 to 750 word article on whatever topic you like as long as it has to do with seminary. You must currently be a seminary student and the articles must be original work not previously posted or submitted to another website.

Out of the entries we’ll select the four winners. Those winners will then submit three more articles, one per month, over the next three months. At the end of those three months they will get their choice of the e-readers. A Kindle, a Sony e-reader, or a Nook. All four writers will have their choice! Or if a new ereader is on the market around the $259 price tag we’ll gladly substitute it instead.

To submit your article email it to justaguy[at]goingtoseminary.com. We’ll announce the four winners on April 1^st. And this is most certainly not an April Fool’s joke.

————Update 3/9/10———–

Submission deadline is 3/30/10

————Update 3/30/10———-
Thank you to all who entered. We’ll announce the winners on Thursday April 1. We had several entries in the last few days so it will likely be Thursday afternoon before we announce.

Thanks to a 2008 California law the Open Educational Resources Center for California now provides over 400 open textbooks to the public.

The site was intended for California’s community-college faulty and staff members, but it is open for anyone to use. As the number of visitors to the site grows to a significant level they will begin adding forums.

Four hundred is a relatively small number when we’re talking about textbooks, but this is only the beginning of a large push to make education available and affordable to larger audiences.

Want a free copy of Bible Study Magazine?  Logos is giving away a free copy to everyone who is willing to review it on their blog, church newsletter, email list, or just about anywhere.

Having kids can be expensive… especially when “fun” is involved. Being an Orlando resident affords us many fun activities, however many of them cost a LOT of money. A trip to Disney with the kids would cost almost $200. So, needless to say we haven’t visited the oversize mouse just yet.

So, what do we do on our tight budget for family fun? Well, here are a few things but feel free to add your own in the comment section:

• Public Library – With younger kids this is a real winner. Most libraries have a kids section and numerous events just for kids throughout the week. Currently my wife takes the kids to story time once a week and the kids love it. Even when there isn’t a story time the library offers lots of fun stuff for the kids.
• Barnes and Noble – Typically once a week we go to B&N after dinner. It is a good way to blow those couple hours between dinner and bed time when you want to get out of the house but the weather isn’t cooperating. The kids section is great and, of course, there is the Thomas the Train toys to play with.
• The Park – If you’re a parent then odds are you know where every playground is within 20 miles of your house. This is a great option because it affords the kids a chance to play with other kids their age. Also, it is a great way for you to meet new people. Now, if you’re like me, you live in Florida and you only go to the park in the winter when it is 78 degrees. The summer heat is typically a bit too much for the park on a regular basis.
• Mall Playground – Sadly, the malls in Orlando have crummy playgrounds. When we lived in Richmond the mall was a weekly destination for the play area.
• Family Walk - Again, with the heat, these have become less popular with the family, however, when the temprature was right we often took an evening stroll together.

Now, I’m sure there are lots of other ideas out there, so lets hear’em…

With the advances of technology these days it is truly amazing the education one can get just by hoping online. Which raises a question, “How important is getting the actual seminary degree?”

Now, as I mentioned in my “which degree is for me” post, if you want to be a pastor in a denominational church, then the answer to this question is pretty obvious… very important. But, say you’re just wanting to expand your education, or you simply want to gain some deeper understanding in a few areas, but the actual degree isn’t something you need… or maybe the finance just aren’t there…or maybe you just want to test the waters.

Well, there is an option. Many seminaries are starting to make their class lectures available for FREE! That’s right, you can sit in on literally hundreds of hours of seminary teaching and never leave the comfort of your iPod.

Here is a list of some of the seminaries I know who are giving away their lectures. If you know of anymore, please post a comment and share the goodness.

SEMINARY COURSES AVAILABLE FOR FREE:

• Reformed Theological Seminary (iTunes Required)
• Fuller Theological Seminary (iTunes Required)
  
• Covenant Theological Seminary
• Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Registration Required)

Because of the “unique” scholarship/referral system at Rockbridge Seminary you could theoretically get all your degree for free. Check out their referral system here.