Detailed Course Report

After my first four classes, I feel an urge to explain what the classes are about and my expectations. This is more for my own good and record than for your enjoyment, so skip this post if you please.

Foundations of Spiritual Development
Let me start by mentioning that at the beginning of this class we stood up for a worship song and then prayed before class. A lovely shocker!!

I expect this class to be one of the most difficult for me. I have a strong sense that the academic workload will be lighter than other classes, but the heart workload will be heavy. This professor desires for us to develop spiritually (hence the name of the course) and this is done only by dealing with the most difficult parts of our lives and facing them openly and honestly. On the first day, we did an exercise where we put down people, places and circumstances of any kind on sticky notes. If it was a positive, then it went on yellow. If it was a painful experience (with that person, place or circumstance) then it went on pink. We then categorized them under the phase of our spiritual walk in which it or he or she occurred. And we did this in small groups. All other members of the group could see my positives and painfuls. Talk about being honest from day one! That's why this class will be difficult. Dealing with the heart is much harder for me than to deal with the intellect. Which is why I LOOOVE my second class. See below, but before I go there, I must describe a bit of the grades of this course.

10% is for going on a retreat, 10% on memory verses and 10% is on 2 reports in which we describe our experience intentionally sharing the gospel with someone else while we are here at CIU. There are other parts of the grade, but I just love these 3 things! I get to share the gospel as a part of my grade. Wow.

Systematic Theology 1
Now this class, I left SO excited! I talked to friends later that day and asked them what they thought. Their responses were roughly, "I almost fell asleep" or "That class is gonna be hard for me. Ugh." What did I think? I can't wait to get back into that class! There's just something about theology that I just love. In this class, I get to write down my theological beliefs on each section of study from Grudem's book. We will also be studying cross-cultural theologies to understand "how theology is developed, understood or taught in another culture." Sa-weeet!

Also, we have a project where we get to decide what we do. One option is to participate in a debate on either 1) How effective you can be if you believe in errancy of Scripture, 2) Sovereignty vs Free Will or 3) Amillennialism vs Premillennialism. I doubt I will do a presentation of this sort because either others have taken the spots already or I fear the 2nd & 3rd year students who have well developed arguments already. Other options for this project include, but are not limited to: *Creating a sermon or tract that involves "careful exegetical undergirding." *Lesson plans about the units in the course for "lay" people. *Video presentation on the Gospel of Christ. *Website with the Gospel presentation. *Refutation of a major sect.

So, I look forward to this course because it's just my niche. Also, the prof's a funny southern guy. He says "raht quick" often (that's "right quick" if you didn't catch it). I love it.

This course has been dropped.

Genesis to Song of Solomon
My adviser teaches this course and Hebrew courses. Every few years he takes CIU students on trips to Israel. I've heard it's awesome and that he's a great tour guide. So, with that in mind, we started class by singing "This is the day" in English, then Hebrew, then Aramaic. Yup, never did THAT in my undergrad!

I expect this class to be a daunting task as I know how difficult it will be to read Genesis to Song of Solomon alone. Now, I have to read supplementary textbook style material on said reading and furthermore, I need to understand all of the reading and put that knowledge into written form for summary, some exegetical analysis, and personal application. Whew, it's going to be quite the ride. However, even so I look forward to the reward of having studied the OT. How privileged am I to study under such a professor that can write a survey textbook on the entire OT? And oh, the reward of finally understanding more of the OT. I simply just don't get it all when I read on my own. Not only that, but I have a wonderful resource for future use!

Lastly, I'm looking forward to reading the book "Mission in the Old Testament." I began learning on this subject in Perspectives, and I look forward to seeing God's mission even more throughout the OT.

The Mission of God
This is a new course for CIU and so the prof is sort of making things up as he goes. Coming right from my first year of teaching, I understand his position fully. In fact, I think he's quite a bit more prepared for this course than I have ever been for any class! He asked if anyone has taken the Perspectives course for credit. I have, but only for undergrad credit. He said, "This is like Perspectives for credit, but five times more." My jaw dropped. Um, Perspectives was a lot of work. If this is five times more than Perspectives, I may as well not be taking anything else!

We'll see exactly how much work it's going to be (I think he's way over exaggerating). I look forward to the work because it's all good stuff. Also, I think it helps to have taken Perspectives because I've heard some of the information already, if only on an introductory level. Also, in this class 20% of our grade is "cross-cultural evang. practice report." Again, sharing the gospel is a part of my grade!

At the end of this class, we break into small groups (the same ones each week) for accountability. The class was concerned a bit about girl-guy groups, but he said they're missions & prayer accountability groups, not know-your-deepest-darkest-sin type of accountability groups. This week was an introduction to one another, so he had us each describe our own rooms growing up. There's really quite a lot you can learn about someone from the room they grew up in! One lady in my group is a Japanese elderly lady. I look forward to hearing her perspective.

Gospels
I begin this class tonight (6-9pm) and tomorrow (8am-5pm) and it only runs four weekends in the school year.



With all of these classes explained, I am quite concerned about my course load. Many seminary and grad students take 3-4 classes, not 5. So, please pray for me as I decide if I should drop a class, and Tuesday is the last day to drop with a full refund.

Courses & Books

I thought I'd write a non-personal post on my classes and the textbooks for the classes. I'll let you know my favs at the end of the semester. Also, let me know if you have any opinions or questions about the texts below!

Foundations of Spiritual Development:

• "The Making of a Leader" by Robert Clinton
• "Devotional Classics"" by Richard Foster
• "Truefaced" by Bruce McNichol & Bill Thrall
• "Out of the Saltshaker and into the World" by Rebecca Pippert
• "The Green Letters" by Miles Stanford

Systematic Theology 1:

• "Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine" by Wayne Grudem
• "A Survey of Bible Prophecy" by Ray Ludwigson
• 3 other Systematic Theology books are recommended based off of personal faith:

1. "Systematic Theology" by Louis Berkhof [Reformed perspective]
   
2. "Christian Theology" by Millard Erickson [Baptistic perspective]
   
3. "The Quest for Truth: Answering Life's Inescapable Questions" by F. Leroy Forlines [Non-Wesleyan Arminian perspective of the Free Will Baptist Church]
   

I might consider getting the Arminian perspective one since my professor seems to be a Calvinist. Also, I just can't comprehend the Arminian perspective and I have many Reformed influence around me.

I dropped this class, so while I have the books, I won't be blogging on them.

Genesis to Song of Solomon:

• "Encountering the Old Testament" by Bill Arnold and Bryan Beyer (my professor)
• "Mission in the Old Testament" by Walter Kaiser
• 3 other recommended books. I'll tell ya if you request to know.

The Mission of God

• "Discovering the Mission of God" by Mike Barnett (my professor)
• "The Changing Face of World Missions" by Michael Pocock
• "Called to Reach: Characteristics of Cross-Cultural Disciplers" by William Yount and Mike Barnett (my professor)
• "Who is My Neighbor?: Reaching Internationals in North America" by Phillip & Kandace Connor
• "And the Word Came with Power" by Joanne Shetler

Gospels

• "The Passion of the Servant: A Journey to the Cross" by Don Howell (my professor)
• "The NIV Harmony of the Gospels with Explanations and Essays" by Robert Thomas and Stanley Gundry
• "The Jesus I never Knew" by Philip Yancey
• 1 very recommended text: "Servants of the Servant" by Don Howell (my professor)

Sorry if you like pictures. It would take a while to upload and I have to go!

Quick Update (I'm here!)

Looking back on my last two posts, I feel it's necessary for me to make a comment on my summer school teaching experience. Somewhere along the way, I started to like going to work. It's not that love got a whole lot easier (it didn't), but there seemed to be a change of attitude in my life. I am humbled to say that I can't take credit for it. Many times I'd like to, but in this case there's no way I can. One day on the way to work, I almost turned around and went home, and many days I truly did not want to interact with students at all. Christ's gracious (and patient) work in my life is the only way my attitude changed. Praise God that He did this work because I learned in a small way how to love when love is not easy. I wouldn't do the story justice unless I also mentioned that the most disrupted students were suspended by the last week. So, there were less students to be workin my nerves. I'm very thankful that the five weeks ended so nicely and that I was indeed sad to leave these students as I have been sad to leave all of my former students.

Now, onto my experience thus far at CIU. Yesterday, I traveled a little over 14 hours to get down here. The ride was not wonderfully exciting; nor was it boring. I have found that I can entertain myself for hours. When I arrived, the RA on duty showed me around campus briefly as we went to get my key. Since I arrived so late in the evening, I unpacked my food, bedding and overnight clothes and slept.

This morning as I unloaded my car a very nice security guard came over to help me. I was quite grateful as there was absolutely no one else around. As the day went on, I found everyone to be as nice and generous as this man. A friend I just met tonight went with me to the airport so I could drop off my rental car. She even drove me to the Walmart and back too! Today, I learned that everyone on campus knows everyone else by name and everyone is friendly from day one. Secondly, I learned that taking 15 seminary credits is extremely hard and that there's no time for anything else (spoken by a second year seminary student). Lastly, I found out this morning that no one else is listed to be in my room =D. The one roommate I was supposed to have, opted to not live in with grad students since she is an undergrad. This is particularly nice because I only have one outlet in my room. Also, I wouldn't mind having another desk just for sewing!

More updates to come with more depth.