Going to Seminary

As a volunteer leader attending seminary online I sometimes feel out of place. I don’t have the experience or skills of many of my classmates. But as an ex-professor and someone with a PhD in Chemical Engineering, there is one thing I do fairly well… I love learning! God made me a learner, so I want to share some of the top things I’ve found helpful in my studies. The professor in my very first class at Rockbridge said something I still remember with a smile: “You really maximized your learning experience!”

Top 10 Ways to Maximize Your Learning Experience

10) Your professor is your friend! Don’t be afraid to ask your prof for help. Get to know him or her. In grad school they’re no longer parent figures, they’re your peers. Nothing gets them more fired up than seeing a student develop a passion for what they’re learning. What breaks their heart is to see a student struggle in silence or just plain give up. They’re there to make a difference in someone’s live.

9) Read the “optional” recommended books in the syllabus. Bright minds with tremendous experience and wisdom have hand picked a cream-of-the-crop list of resources to help you learn. Don’t be dissuaded by the few extra hours or dollars it will cost you. It’s a great investment of time and money, small in comparison to your years at school.

Choose electives that will stretch you. Don’t pick all the ones in major or the easy ones. Choose several to hone existing strengths and but also pick a few way outside your main area, one that you think will be fun or just offer a different perspective.

7) Constantly ask “so what?” The goal of your education is not to cram your head with knowledge, it’s to seek wisdom and to be transformed as a discipleship. Don’t complain something doesn’t seem relevant, dig deeper until you find a principle or practice you can apply. Get something on your calendar or to-do list. Application of what you’re studying will either cement learning of truth or reveal your understanding to be false when you try to put it into practice.

6) Share what you’re learning with your team or some other outsider. Talk about it with a friend over lunch, discuss things within your small group, or teach a class. Blog about what you’re learning if you don’t have the opportunity to do this! Nothing helps you learn better than having to teach someone else. This also fosters a learning culture in your own church and within your team that will pay dividends in the long run.

5) Read your textbooks in multiple passes. First pass, skim it fairly quickly, even if you just read headings and call-outs. Do this before your class starts or in first week for a high-level overview of the book. Second, read it in full, taking notes and/or highlighting according to the syllabus/assignment schedule. Third time, when the class is done with that book, write summary notes by reviewing headings, your notes and highlights. As you do this, look once more for concrete items to add to your to-do list, someday list, or calendar.

4) Have an open mind when you read. You do not have to agree with everything you read, but you should definitely be humble enough to learn all you can any book or person. Do not dismiss an author or classmate just because you feel they’re wrong about something or don’t like them. You’re going to have to serve and get along with people who disagree strongly with you on some issues for the rest of your life, why not get some practice handling that well now?!

3) Interact often with your classmates. Ask them tons of questions, challenge and encourage them. Give them permission to ask you tough questions and push you. Especially in seminary, talk about things not in the curriculum, share dreams, pray for one another. Seminary should not be a place where ministry is put on pause – seminary is a place where you continue to minister as you learn.

2) Start your homework assignments early. I know, I know, there’s no way you can do this. You can, and here’s why you should: i) it will take the same amount of time to do a good job whether you do it now or later; ii) you’ll thank yourself profusely when things hit the fan on the eve of a huge assignment, that you finished a few days early; iii) good study and work habits developed out of a sense of discipline now will serve you well naturally later; iv) this is THE best way to reduce stress about school and homework. It takes effort, and you need to be committed to this approach from day one of classes, but it really pays off.

1) Find a good mentor who has the time and interest to meet with you. This is really a big deal where I’m now going to school. It’s a fully online seminary which requires students to find such a mentor before the end of the first week of each class. Make sure they know it’s for a limited duration. When you can discuss what you’re learning – whether things that are exciting or confusing – you’ll learn so much more from your class. When it’s someone who cares about you and has experience related to the class, that’s pure gold!

I know some of these may sound challenging or idealistic, but trust me, these are not pie-in-the-sky ideal things to ponder, they’re very practical tips that will truly help you maximize your learning experience – whether online or in the classroom, seminary or grad school. Got other tips? Share them in the comments!

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.

Jack was frustrated as he stared at his laptop screen. He was on an annual personal retreat planning his twelfth year as senior pastor at Christ Community Church.

The screen showed all his learning activities from the year before – the conferences, seminars, and classes he had attended; the books he had read; the sermons he had studied; and the leadership groups he had joined. He was passionate about learning and kept himself accountable by compiling and checking this list each year during his retreat.

But this year he was not satisfied just having a list – he wanted to know if it was the right list. God was stirring his heart about fresh ministry horizons, and he knew he wasn’t prepared. Shouldn’t he be matching his learning to his future journey? All the items on the list had been helpful to him, but had they been strategic?

For instance, the books he read were chosen more by accident than by planning – he overheard someone talking about one and happened to see another advertised online. Could other books have been more helpful? And one of the conferences he attended was more out of habit than for ministry development.

Jack thought to himself, “I need to get a better handle on my learning choices.”

Can you relate to Jack? If you are reading this article, you are probably a leader with a long list of completed seminars, conferences, books, and courses. The continuing education possibilities for leaders today are endless – and that is the problem. A busy leader may be tempted to choose learning based on opportunity, schedule, and cost rather than according to personal development needs.

I call this “shotgun learning.” It may have worked well a generation ago when you could choose a seminary program, seminar, or conference simply because it fit your schedule or your pocketbook. You could always count on stumbling across information somewhere that was helpful to you. Today, your choices are too many and your time is too valuable to make “shotgun learning” decisions. A better way is to develop a learning focus based on your ministry development needs.

But how do you do that?

A “Personal Learning Plan” can guide you to make strategic learning choices and serve as a tool to evaluate their usefulness later. The effectiveness of your plan depends on how well you tie your learning to your calling. Here are four steps to help you get started:

Step 1: Rediscover your ministry horizon
How is God stretching you? What do you see on the horizon of your journey with God? How is your call unfolding? What is the direction of the faith steps God is asking you to take?

No matter how long you have been in ministry, God has a ministry horizon for you – future ways he wants to stretch you and use you. Sometimes leaders make the mistake of connecting all of their strategic planning to their current ministry position, causing them to lose touch with their personal calling. They forget that their calling is a journey of experiencing God that is greater and lasts longer than any ministry position.

Step 2: Conduct a personal assessment
Assessing the gap between where you are now and the future ministry horizon you envision is important. Yet it may be the most difficult step, since personal assessment can be so easily influenced by denial and self-deception.

Daniel Goleman defines “emotional intelligence” as “the ability to know yourself.” Spiritual leaders develop emotional intelligence through the discipline of personal and spiritual reflection, through the practice of journaling, and through relational channels of accountability and feedback.

Honest personal assessment is most difficult for the leader not yet free to be that unique person God designed and shaped. Trying to be someone you are not, even after years in ministry, can keep you in denial about the “real you” God wants to develop. Rediscover your personal ministry horizon and honestly assess how prepared you are for the challenge. Then think about the ministry competencies that need further development.

Step 3: Identify priority learning pathways
Once you rediscover your ministry horizon and honestly assess your starting point, you are ready to identify priority learning pathways. These learning pathways will guide your personal ministry development in the direction of your calling.

Keeping the number of pathways to three of four at a time will help you focus your learning. Once you are pleased with your development in one area, you can replace that pathway with another.

For instance, Jack saw on his ministry horizon a greater emphasis on mentoring future leaders. Yet his tendency to be emotionally distant made close, authentic relationships difficult. One of three priority learning pathways he chose was “to learn how to authentically express my feelings in community.”

Step 4: Consider the resources available to support you
With his learning pathways identified, Jack saw with “new eyes” the learning resources available to him. He immediately thought of books, conferences, study programs, and learning clusters with other leaders that could help him develop. Choosing resources became much easier with his learning pathways identified first. Now he could get a better handle on his learning choices!

Jack opened a new file on his laptop and smiled as he typed at the top “Personal Learning Plan.”

This article is adapted from the Rockbridge Seminary course “Developing the Focused Life.”

Today’s guest post is by Dr. Sam Simmons. Dr. Simmons is co-founder and vice president for learning design at Rockbridge Seminary. ©Copyright 2010. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

We’ve heard hundreds of horror stories of students losing their paper. Whether it is computer theft or a hard drive crashing, we are all vulnerable to loss of intellectual property. Days, even months of work can disappear in an instant. Each term we exhort students to back up their data frequently, but faculty members are just as guilty of not taking the necessary precautions to preserve data.

Thankfully, there are some free or inexpensive solutions to this problem. You can rest easy at night knowing that your documents, email, contact, calendar, and all other data are safely backed up; not just once, but four different ways.

Items to keep in mind regarding Backups.

The first thing you must remember when selecting a backup system is that it must be a “Set it and forget it” system. Anything that relies on a human to start the backup each time will never work. We get distracted and forget. The second thing to remember about backing up is to have more than one system in place in case one has a hiccup. Lastly, have at least one back up in the same location as your machine, and at least one in a completely different geographical location as the machine you are backing up.

The Hardware & Software of backing up

In the old days we used to use tapes to back up and we would rotate them out to a safe deposit box once a week. Was that ever a pain? Working for a digital seminary like Rockbridge brought new challenges since all our staff work in separate locations. We have used MozyPro for about three years and it has worked well. It’s Mac and Windows compatible and centrally managed through their website. It also fulfills our need for an offsite backup.

Alongside Mozy, we each use Drop Box to store all our documents. Drop box not only stores your documents, but also automatically syncs them across any computer you wish. It also allows you to share files with family, friends, or coworkers. Let’s say you are traveling without your personal computer, but you need to access a document. If you can borrow the use of a computer get on the Internet, you can access your account containing all of your documents. Any changes to the document will be sync with all of the computers that are storing your data. You can use the free version of Drop Box (2 gigs) or purchase additional space (50 gigs costs about $10 a month).

You may also want to use NAS (network attached storage) device to back up all the computers in your house. This device is simply an enclosure that has both wireless and wired network access and houses a hard drive. Mine has two hard drives that mirror, or automatically copy each other, in case one of them decides to stop working. However, if you are just concerned with one computer, a USB connected external hard drive? works just as well. Nearly all of these come with backup software. Apple provides Time Machine for Macs that creates automatic backups and works wonderfully.

Archiving the most important files

If you have files that need archived and are critical must haves, such as tax filings or a movie of baby’s first steps, it’s always a good idea to burn a CD or DVD and label it with as many descriptors as you can. In a year when you are flipping through the disk on your desk and can’t remember what’s on a specific disk, you’ll thank yourself for being so detailed. There is also some new technology that we have yet to try, but it’s on our to do list. DVDs that can be burned by personal computers last around 5 years before becoming corrupt so don’t count on them to work in 10 years. Cranberry 1,000 year DVDs are for the documents, images, or database files that must be safe.

What do you use for backing up? What have you used? What didn’t you like, or worse, didn’t work when it needed to? Sing praises or vent in the comments.

Cyber Monday, or everyday: The good folks over at Logos Bible Software are offering the GtS readers 25% [update 7/1/10] they now offer 15% off the latest Logos software. Either click here or use coupon code GTS1 when checking out.

iPhone users should check out their recently launched iPhone app.

We were fortunate enough to get a Google Wave invite yesterday. And, we have so few friends that were interested in Wave we didn’t give all our “nominations” (read invites) away yet.

If you would like to get nominated for a Google Wave account post your crazy idea for how it could be used in ministry. Then be sure to vote on the ideas you like the best by replying to that person’s comment. The winner will be nominated for a Wave account.

If you’re asking what Wave is:

Going to seminary involves books… LOTS of books. Half way through my first semester I saw a guy in class open one of his books and proceed to place it on the small metal stand… BRILLIANT I thought. Right there, next to his laptop sat his book, wide open and propped up to reduce having to bend over.

The next day I went to my local Barnes and Nobel and picked one up for $4. It was an AMAZING investment.

Everyone reads in different places. Personally, I am a desk reader. That typically means I have the book on the desk and I’m hunched over it reading. This is a horrible position in which to spend long amounts of time. Now that I have my book stand I simply prop up the book (I usually set the stand on a couple of my bigger books to get it to eye level) and presto, the text is in front of my face and I can sit back and read.

Now, by far, the greatest use of the book stand comes into play during paper time. Being able to prop open a book I’m quoting from or referencing and not having to bend over to read the words then back up to type… priceless! I set the book I’m using right next to my screen and go to town.

Now, there are tons of Book Stand options. For me, the cheap, lightweight book stand is where its at. I can throw it in my bag and take it where ever I go. It makes for a great lunch companion when your hand are full of food and you need to read.

Any other book stand nerds out there?

Ok, we’re seminarians and we love books. I don’t often recommend books here as I’m sure you already have a backlog of books on your “to be purchased” list. However, I came across this amazing resource that is at an amazing price and thought it was worth sharing.

Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament is edited by D.A. Carson and G.K. Beale and is a comprehensive commentary of EVERY old testament reference in the new testament. For every reference there is a detailed explanation of the context from which the verse appears in the Old Testament, as well as its use and implication on the New Testament text. It is a truly amazing resource.

Now, the really sweet deal is that I found it at BUY.com for $31 (List is $54)… but wait, it gets better… if you use google check-out and it is the first time you’ve ever used it then you save another $10! That means you can get this amazing resource for $21. Worth every penny and then some if you ask me.

So, if you’re interested, check it out:

Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old TestamentLeading evangelical scholars provide comprehensive commentary on every quotation, allusion, and echo of the Old Testament that appears in Matthew through Revelation.

So, one of the books that helped me the most in finally making the decision to attend seminary was Bruce K. Waltke’s book, Finding the Will of God: A Pagan Notion? In his book Waltke masterfully addresses an issue that is all too common in the church, namely divination.

Somewhere along the lines we have come to the conclusion that God is some con-man trying to pull a slide-of-hand trick with us and keeping his will from us. So, with that in mind we try all kinds of cooky ways to try and find out what God’s will is (anyone else played bible roulette before?).

Waltke points out that what most Christians try to pass off as “finding God’s will” is really nothing different from pagan divination. To remedy the situation Waltke offers (the last half of the book) practical suggestions on how a believer can “know God’s will.”

Now, I’m not typically the kind of guy who like “step” books… 12 steps to a better prayer life, 101 ways to evangelize the lost… But Waltke’s recommendations are so simple, practical, and pastoral, that I couldn’t help myself from saying, “Duh… I knew that… maybe I should remember that next time.”

Now, pretty much, if I know someone who is trying to make a big life changing decission, I recommend this book… So, to you trying to decide if God is calling you to seminary… check it out.