COMPREHENSIVE ACADEMIC REVIEW, PART 1: CORE COURSES
SPIR550–01C Spiritual Life & Leadership
Spiritual Life and Leadership was my first course at Wesley Seminary in August of 2018. The course explored the role of spiritual disciplines and how those disciplines impact my spiritual life and leadership within the Body of Christ.
This course blessed me, encouraged me, and allowed me to dig deep into the spiritual gifts that would help me cling to God during difficult days. My Mom started Hospice the week I began this course. I will be forever grateful, to the Lord, for allowing me to take this course exactly when I needed it most.
The attached paper, was written during the last week of class, is my response to Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster. The paper was written as my husband and I were preparing to become short-term missionaries to Honduras. We had been traveling to Honduras once a year since 2015, doing two-week missions projects, however the Lord called us to begin serving more consistently from January to March of each year and then again in June and September.
The most significant take-away from this course was the importance of placing myself in a position, through the Spiritual Disciplines, where God can work with my heart and help me grow and serve Him more.
CHST-500–01C Global Christian History
Global Christian History explored Christian history from the beginning to current times. I really enjoyed learning more about the two-thirds majority church in the southern hemisphere. This was a new concept to me.
This was the most difficult course in my entire program. My mother died three days before the course ended. I really struggled to finish the final assignment. My mother’s funeral was the day the course ended.
The Development of Doctrine paper that I included in this portfolio is strong reflection of all that I learned in this course. It is also, in my opinion, a miracle that I was able to finish the paper considering what was happening in my life. I am thankful that the Lord gave me the strength and comfort I needed to carry on.
The strongest take-away for me was a need for spiritual unity among the various denominations of Christianity. As a result of this course, I choose to visit and experience several other denominations. I reached out to pastors and priests in advance explaining that I was in Seminary. I expressed interest in visiting their churches and that I had a desire to promote unity among various denominations in our area.
BIBL-500 Bible as Christian Scripture
Bible as Christian Scripture is an exploration Bible from a theological, historical, and literary contexts. This course allows the student to consider the Word from a personal perspective and a community perspective, always seeking to incorporate the body of Christ into the conversation.
In my ministry of context of Honduras, I had the opportunity to see how to incorporate the concepts above in a unique way. Worship, Discipleship and Bible Study occur 5 nights a week in our village. Most people do not own a Bible. The congregation was asked to write down questions about the Bible and turn them in. The questions were answered during subsequent sermons with the Biblical text displayed for all to see. Some of the questions were profound (for a variety of reasons), such as “The Jews are God’s chosen people, so they go to heaven. What will happen to us Christians when we die?”
The take-away from this class, for me, is that the Community of God needs His Word!
THEO-500 Intro to Christian Theology
Intro to Christian Theology promotes asking questions about God and His Word to learn how to best relate with the Triune God and how to apply the teachings of Scripture to our lives and congregations. While complete understanding of God is not possible, theology allows us to know God to the fullest extent possible, within the finite limitation of our human understanding.
This course touched my heart in a deep way. I began to have a better understanding of God’s attributes, and His revelation of those attributes through Scripture and through the birth, life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. I also began to grasp that Theology is not just for the scholar, or academia, rather Theology is a part of every Christian’s life.
The single most important take-away from this course was that to serve God faithfully, to serve Him well, I need to be a Pastor-Theologian weaving Theology into my everyday life, into the lives of those around me and corporately within the Body of Christ.
MISS500 Cultural Contexts of Ministry
Cultural Contexts of Ministry is a class that pushes students to consider the various denominations within the church, the concepts of unity and diversity. Unity and diversity are impacted socially, culturally, nationally, and globally based on each individuals’ experiences and corporate experiences as the Body of Christ.
As an undergrad professor, I teach students about culture and diversity. One of the first activities in my class is to ask each student to use a 3 X 5 card to write down the name the culture or ethnicity, of anyone they interacted with recently, whose heritage is different than their own. It is a great ‘icebreaker’ to start the conversation on diversity. From my own personal studies, I knew the Bible had a lot to say about diversity. However, I never realized just how specific the instructions are regarding how we are to treat strangers, immigrants, aliens, and anyone else who is different than we are. This course was an eye-opener for me and will allow me to teach about diversity in a much more meaningful way.
The most significant take-away from this class would be the need to engage “the Other” whenever possible to promote unity and inclusion.
