Seminary update
It’s been a little over eight weeks since I started this seminary journey. We’re now in the sixth week of our first round of online courses, and I think things are going as well as can be expected. The two courses that I’m taking right now are called “Missional Church” and “Change and Transformation,” and I wanted to take a moment this morning to briefly share some of the things I’m learning along the way.
The operative words for seminary are “read” and “write.” And just in case you grow tired of those two activities, there is probably more reading and writing to do. Considering that these are two of my favorite things to do, though, I’m having a blast! I am, however, realizing that I need to learn to read faster.
Juggling everything is a bit more challenging than I expected. At any given time, I have a number of balls in the air. Last night, as I was headed for a very late night, I was keenly aware that I’m not quite into the groove yet. It has become clear that procrastination is not an option, lest I want to pay for it with a very late night, and planning is crucial if I am going to accomplish everything that needs to be done. However, I feel as though I am getting closer.
Our church is due for something big. In our Missional Church class, we spent a week studying the history of our churches and plotting their positions in the lifecycle of a congregation. The turn which our church has made in the last fourteen years has been nothing short of dramatic. Simply put, we were headed for oblivion, but we successfully turned to a plateau. Now, we are due for another turn which will take us into a growth cycle.
This week, we finished reading the book Spiritual Pathways by Gary Thomas. This book explores the ways in which different people draw closer to God. I cannot fully express just how provocative this book is. It offers some tremendous observations and extremely practical tips. I am going to be contemplating how we can implement some things in our typical worship service to better address different people.
And with that, I have to run. There is a lot of stuff to do today!