Journal Liora's Journal: Reflections 3
...So Shimmin and I are getting married in 16 short days. That isn't very long at all. I'm already at the point that I think about it about once every 3 minutes, I think, and I'm having a hard time doing anything else... reading... working... driving... driving...
...So I ran into the car in front of me when I was parking in the office lot today. It was a tight fit because the car on my right had parked about an inch from the line, and I was nervous about pulling in and missing their mirror with my mirror (same make and model of car to my right, interestingly enough, theirs was gold, however, and mine is green, so if I had been too close our mirrors WOULD have hit)... and I wasn't paying too close of attention to the car in front of me. It was a big big truck, and they had not pulled through all the way and their truckbed was jutting about a foot into my space. This would have been fine, and I wouldn't have hit their car, except that their trailer hitch was sticking yet another foot into my space. I didn't notice this when I was parking though, and hit the trailer hitch. I wasn't going very fast, so their big strong steel trailer hitch is fine. My flimsy plastic bumper and sheet thin license plate, however, are not. The license plate got put into the car. The funniest part about this is that I knew when I sort of encountered resistance, so I visually checked where their car was in front of me, saw I was good, and so took my foot off the brake, and allowed my car to idle into the car further, which is what caused most of the damage. Idling into their hitch! Surely a plastic bumper would be stronger than that! But it wasn't....
...So I'm in the 2nd year of a two year advanced leadership training program at my church. The goal of these classes is to train leaders to be better layleaders, pastors, and church-planters. Shimmin and I intend to plant a church when we get married, with him being the principal bread-winner and me being the principal church-planter. Last year I went to all but one of the classes (missed the class the week of Thanksgiving), and still I didn't feel I learned much. But about the time this semester was starting in September I realized that it was all my fault, that there were things to learn there, and I was really being a dork about it all. At our church they have a lot of classes you can take on weekends and stuff, and I take most of those, so when they start a topic and then go more indepth into it at VALT (the name of the program), I have about 50% review, and 50% new stuff. But like turning my brain off for the first 50% is the wrong attitude. You can always use refresher courses on Bible basics. It's not like you get saved, pray the sinners prayer, and then go on to better things... you have to revisit the Gospel time and time again if you're going to grow in your faith. Paul and David and Solomon and Jesus all say to meditate on the scriptures repeatedly. So now that I have the right attitude I'm thirsting for more stuff.
...So now there's a girl who works for me that's taking VLI, a different set of classes, that our church just started offering this year, remotely, because they're taught by all sorts of renowned theological scholars and stuff, and I am not doing VLI because I am already one year into VALT, and you don't stop a program to start another. But VLI is more challenging. It's harder to understand, the concepts are more challenging, it essentially is a distance learning seminary. So the girl that works for me gets CD's of every lecture, and I have been listening to them while I clean up maps at work. They're good. They're REALLY good. The professors that teach them teach on the topics for which they are experts, and boy do they know their stuff.
...So the main question is, should I keep just listening to the VLI stuff and learning from it not quite as much as I would if I were sitting in class listening to it and taking notes, and then go get an M.Div. or at the very least an M.A.R. from Trinity next year when I'm done with VALT, or do I quit listening to the VLI CD's and really do VLI next year? I'm leaning toward the M.A.R. b/c I don't really want an M.Div. (well mostly I don't want to do quite that much work while working full-time... I'm sort of scared of learning Greek & Hebrew, but the OT & NT Surveys & Hermeneutics & Homeletics & Christian Counselling courses are right up my alley (and besides if you get an M.Div. you don't have much time to devote to Christian Counselling which I think prepares you a lot more to be a pastor)). But VLI is at my church, with my friends, taught by Vineyard pastors with doctorates, and Trinity, well, isn't. And VLI is a lot cheaper (of course I'm getting VLI for free now, minus the service requirements, although I think that VALT service requirements are actually more stringent...). Right now I'm also planning to take all of the intensives, 10 hour weekend courses for VLI that cover various stuff. The first one is the Synoptic Gospels.
...So Shimmin and I have been thinking about where to plant a church. Right now it looks like when he's done with his PhD. we'll just go where he gets a job, which could be anywhere b/c his program is the best of its kind in the country... he could be a teacher, professor, or researcher just about anywhere. The Ivy League schools that I've looked at don't have our church's denomination represented are Brown University, in Providence, RI, Dartmouth, in Hanover, NH, Penn, in Philadelphia, PA, and Princeton, in Princeton, NJ. The National Labs are National Renewable Energy Lab, in Golden, CA, and Oak Ridge, in Oak Ridge, TN. Anyway... we don't know where we'll end up. Does anyone who happens to read this know of a good church that preaches Kingdom Theology in any of these cities? I really want to go somewhere where they don't have a comparable church, and I think Shimmin does too.
...So I'm going to go do some reading for VALT.
What is it? (Score:2)
I'm curious. What is Kingdom Theology and how does it differ from Catholic, Orthodox, and the other major Protestant groups?
Thanks,
Mike
Re:What is it? (Score:2)
A fellow named George Eldon Ladd wrote a book called The Gospel of the Kingdom:_ Scriptural studies in the kingdom of God, The Paternoster Press, London, 1959, and Eerdmans Pub. Co. Grand Rapids, MI. 1959, ISBN: 0802812805. George Ladd's theological writings on the kingdom of God convinced John Wimber intellectually that the all the biblical gifts of the Holy Spirit should be active in the church. A site where you can read some things about George Ladd is located here [tripod.com]. I would really say that reading tha
Accident right before wedding... (Score:1)
With your wedding soon, just relax. Stressing over things is really not worth it.