I am 7 weeks into my 14 - weeks semester. Thank God for a caring and prayerful community that consists of faculty that are intentional about building relationships and an amazingly diverse group of friends who are inclusive, giving, and forgiving.
My workload is surprisingly moderate even though I am taking an extra 3 credit hours than the norm. The combination of courses works really well to my advantage. e.g. Some questions I have when studying in one course would be answered by my studies in another. I could not have plan it to this detail. God is good.
Here are the 4 courses I am taking this semester:
History of Christianity II (Reformation to Present Day)
Did you know that many great leaders (both political and religious) have absentee fathers? They become great leaders almost as result of compensating for the lack of one in their personal lives. John Calvin, William Wilberforce, Lord Shaftesbury, John Stott, just to name a few. I can think of one I personally know.
Soul of Ministry (Introduction to Pastoral Ministry)
As part of the course requirement, we meet in small groups weekly to talk about what we learn, investigate our own areas of growth, and to pray. It quickly become plain we are not called to be ministers from a place of perfection. The broken Church will be cared for by ministers who are acquainted with brokenness, for it is Christ that will heal us all.
The Christian Imagination (Theology of the Arts)
TS Elliot's first poem after his conversion to faith was one of "Ash Wednesday". Ironically, this modernist artist whose past work was all doom and gloom, and full of hopeless wandering with no where to go and no purpose to be, now writes a modernistic poem with a seemingly gloomy theme of Ash Wednesday, yet speaks of brokenness with hope, the centrality of Christ, and our purpose to be.
Introduction to Christian Counselling
Sigmund Freud, Carl Rogers, the Bible. (Da da daaaaaa...) I shall leave it at that.
Image: Regent College on a snow day.