Ministry

Paradox: Wedge Concept

“The wedge with the narrowest angle drives the deepest. A focused life has a greater chance for success.”

Quality Questions Principle

As a student of the ministry there is a strong desire to find the answers to many questions. Paul Samuelson said, “The best questions outrank easy answers.” This is part of the quality questions principle. Nearly anyone can give an answer… but part of the quandary is finding answers that satisfy and are lasting. Asking precise and intentional questions of pastors, lay-people, team-members, your supervisor and other interns is an artful process that can lead to lasting answers.

Quality Questions Exercise

Develop a list of questions right here that you specifically want to ask your supervisor, for instance. If you can think of an easy answer for that question, re-write it.

“You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions."

And Then Some Principle

Many students of the ministry also spend time along the way as ministerial students (note the distinction). Ministerial students are used to handing in papers or taking tests and being graded on their work. An intern, staff pastor, or any other minister learning about the ministry doesn’t get graded anywhere near the same way. Lay people, senior pastors, your supervisor, and peers all make mental notes in one of three ways when you deliver something: it’s either thumbs up, so-so, or thumbs down. It can be brutal for many people to endure, in fact, and some never make the transition well.

When asked something from your supervisor or another individual who has clearance to involve you in a project or ministry experience… don’t “shoot for a B.” There is no “getting by” for a student of the ministry. A student who wants to truly learn and advance in the ministry will deliver on that request, AND THEN SOME. The last part means going the extra mile (without getting ridiculous) to make it exceptional. This gets you a mental and sometimes literal “thumbs up” from others. Any church and staff that is really happening expects this thumbs up delivery all the time from everybody.

Quotables:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” Calvin Coolidge

“You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do.” Henry Ford

“Act the way you'd like to be and soon you'll be the way you act.“

George W. Crane

“The difference between good and great is a little extra effort.”

Holistic Alignment Principle

Part of being a student of the ministry is finding those ideas, books, movements and most importantly, the people, with whom you will align yourself. Alignment, as with the tires on your car, has to do with getting things aiming in the same direction. You can sense this in the tone and “feel” of the things you read, hear about, and those people you talk with or hear speak. Some align with where God is leading you—others do not. While broadly sampling from nearly everything and everyone, you can begin to more narrowly invest your relationships, spiritual life, and professional aims with the “right things” during your internship.

There are three key areas of alignment we can discuss (other areas exist, but these are fundamental to a student of the ministry):

Relational Alignment

Spiritual Alignment

Professional Alignment

Images:

SIFT & FILE Principle

Part of any experience at a conference, in hearing a message, even in one-on-one mentoring is that at time you feel like you’re trying to take a drink from a fire-hydrant. It’s just too much to take in. This will be true of your internship experience and it is important to learn the SIFT and FILE method in principle and process:

The S.I.F.T. Method:

When you have an intense experience where it is hard to “take it all in” it is important to have a time of sifting out the jewels of wisdom and refined ideas after you are done. S.I.F.T. stands for: Scheduled, Intentional, Focused, Time. You use this time to look over your scattered pages of notes, lists in margins of books or printed materials in binders or folders. Once you get the hang of it you learn to schedule these times (from 1-3 hours) after a major conference, camp, seminar or retreat since you can see those coming. You then intentionally pull out the key principles, quotes, lists and ideas from your “pile” of info. The idea is to try to focus what you’ve gathered into a core set of the most applicable and valuable things from the experience. All of this takes time and unless you devote a similar amount of time to this that you would a book report in High School then you won’t get anything out of it. It helps to print up this SIFT sheet so that you have it on file for later use.

The F.I.L.E. Questions:

Will I… Find it? Implement it?

Like it? Elevate it?

Article Appendix

“Motivation File” Leadership Principle

By Keith Drury

Motivation File: Unless redirected, creativity leads to habitual criticism and eventual de-motivation

It's an irony of leadership. Leaders are often highly creative people but this very trait can ultimately reduce a leader's motivation. How?

A creative person sees what isn't there -- they sit in a service and see a dozen things that should have been done -- things overlooked by ordinary people, things done poorly. The pastor took too long giving announcements. The song leader scolded the people for not singing loud enough. The ushers weren't ready. The sound technicians kept playing catch-upon on the mics. Creative people see a dozen mistakes for every one an ordinary person sees.

A creative leader goes to the same conferences as ordinary people, but in the first hour sees twenty ways the registration could have been done better, the speaker could have presented more effectively, or the doughnuts could have been distributed more efficiently. This trait can even eventually produce a professional cynic -- a expert criticizer who knows what everyone else is doing wrong, but does little personally. Such a person may be smart and right, but they are no longer a leader.

But even low-grade criticism reduces personal motivation. You don't feel more motivated after you've chewed up another leader. You might feel superior, or appear more arrogant, but not more motivated. Criticism is de-motivating. A habit of criticism will create a leak in a leader's motivation reservoir. Eventually a motivated creative leader no longer even has the motivation for doing their own work -- all they can do is pass judgment on others. Their personal motivation has all leaked away.

So, how can you correct the creativity-criticism-demotivation cycle? Suppress your creativity? Certainly not. Suppressed creativity will shut off future creativity. Dismiss or ignore the errors and omissions of others and refuse to see a "better way?" Not smart -- it will close off creative energies you need for your own work. So, what to do?

The answer: create a "Motivation File." It's the secret for preserving personal motivation and redirecting creativity. Here's how: Each time you see another person -- a pastor, denominational leader, educator, missionary, anyone -- doing something dumb or omitting something important write it down starting with "I would..."

That's it! It's that simple. Just scribble out what you would do if you were running this service, conference, class, denomination, or institution. Then stick that scrap of paper in your pocket and forget it. Presto! You redirected negative energy into a positive force. Shifted from outward-directed criticism about things you can't change, to inward-directed ideas where you might do something some day. You have shifted the "tense" of your thought pattern from the "negative present" to the "positive future." It is the great secret of motivated-creative people -- especially those required sit under the leadership, teaching, or ministry of less qualified people. You stay motivated as your "motivation file" grows.

Though writing down your criticism as an "I would..." statement solves the motivation leak, there is still another step which can multiply your future effectiveness for the Kingdom even more. It is this: actually make a literal physical "motivation file." Some lazy afternoon after you've already yawned twice, gather all those scraps of paper you've been tossing in a drawer and organize them into literal file folders -- one for "pastor" another for "conference leader" still others for "denominational leader" "educator" or whatever titles fits your collection. Then watch what happens. I'll bet you a Hershey bar that in the next twelve months you'll see one of the following happen:

1) You actually get a job for which you have a "Motivation file."
After all, every time you wrote down "I would..." you were advertising your platform to God. You told Him, "This is what I'd do if you let me have that role." Perhaps He will take you up on your offer. If he does, pull out your motivation File and you can start doing what you said you'd do.

2) Your friend gets one of your "Motivation File" jobs.
Your friend comes to you asking for your ideas and input. You scan your file, tuck it away and give organized, lucid, thought-through advice to your friend. Your friend succeeds partially because of your discipline to actually collect your criticisms and turn them into positive ideas.

3) You get to hire a new staff member.
You have the opportunity to hire a worship leader or youth pastor. You pull out the "motivation file" for that category and use it to prepare for a frank discussion about expectations and standards. It saves you both plenty of grief.

4) Someone else comes to "Pick your brain” and get your advice.
You just happened to have a "Motivation File" for their work. You read it over, file it away, and speak with such articulate advice they are amazed at your perception. They probably come back. People are more likely to ask advice from those who've have advice to give.

A Motivation File turns negative criticism into a positive reservoir of future ideas. And of course, it keeps you from becoming de-motivated.

But, of course, most people who've heard this idea never actually do it. Perhaps maybe they do it mentally -- assigning their criticisms to a mental motivation file. But they never make an actual file. Sure, they save themselves from de-motivation. But they rob the Kingdom of future great ideas they could have offered if they'd just written them down and stored their criticism as "I would..." statements.

An idea is a terrible thing to waste. And the best ideas often arrive disguised as criticism.

Fulfillment Factors: Getting the Most Out of Work and Ministry

By Steve Moore

Take this job and…I ain’t workin’ here no more.” Even if you are “country music challenged,” you can probably fill in the missing words in that lyric. While few employees would actually say anything like this to their boss, plenty of people at work today are thinking it. It is a rare experience to find someone who would suggest, “love it” as an alternative to, well, you know what rhymes with love it in that song. Yes, there are people who find tremendous personal satisfaction in the midst of the daily grind. Do you?

Our national economy has as part of its foundation a Protestant work ethic that suggests God places value on human labor and reminds us of the biblical admonition that “whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…for in the grave there is neither working or planning.”[i] Over time this moral underpinning has caused some to believe that it is noble to have a job you don’t really like, as long as it pays the bills. We are led to believe that since plodding through a dismal daily grind builds character and cultivates perseverance we should embrace such roles over the long haul. No wonder we have invented a culture that “lives for the weekend” and created a work place mantra of “TGIF.” Is this really what God intended?

The Gallop Organization surveyed over 1.7 million employees in 101 companies and 63 countries, asking them if they had the opportunity to do what they do best at work every day.[ii] Only 1 out of 5 said yes. While churches and corporations give lip service to the fact that their people are their number one organizational asset, very little has been done to tap into existing human resources. And the results are not surprising. Too many people feel unfulfilled in their job. We would all like to believe that working for a Christian owned company, local church or religious non-profit would in itself solve this problem. It doesn’t.

Leaders concern themselves with this issue on two important levels. First, leaders ask themselves, how can I evaluate opportunities that come my way in order to determine the level of fulfillment I will have in pursuing them? Second, leaders want to know how they can proactively create an environment for others who serve along side them that will maximize the sense of fulfillment team members receive from doing their job.

Do you understand the factors that affect your level of fulfillment in the workplace? Do you know how to empower others to reshape their perspective so they can seize today, and not just the weekend?

Ten Fulfillment Factors

For some time now I’ve been asking myself what makes for a fulfilling work or ministry environment. While I admit at the outset this is a complex question that has a measure of uniqueness to each individual posing it, I have come to believe the following ten issues are in play across the board.

1. Value-added Cause. People find fulfillment in serving with an organization that has a clearly identifiable, value-added cause behind its vision and mission[iii]. We want to be part of something that benefits others, measurably increases their quality of life, improves the community, expands the kingdom or otherwise “makes a difference.” Nobel Laureate and student mission mobilizer John R. Mott, often challenged students to link up their life with a great cause. He understood that effective organizational leaders define their vision in value-added terms and keep it in front of their team.

2. P-G-R Convergence. If you were to draw three circles, one representing your passions (P), one representing your giftedness (G – talents, skills, spiritual gifts), and one representing your role (R – formal job or position description), the area in which the three circles overlap would represent what I describe as P-G-R convergence. The aspects of your job that fall in this area of P-G-R convergence would identify the most fulfilling and rewarding part of what you do. It stands to reason that the higher the percentage of overlap you experience in these three areas, the more fulfillment you will receive from your job.

3. Task- Cause Connection. Even the noblest value-added cause is accomplished through a myriad of incremental steps that only when put together assemble a meaningful whole. If you work back far enough from a great cause you will almost always find people doing repetitive tasks that in themselves do not seem all that world changing. People feel fulfilled when they are able to connect the dots between their daily to do list and the “finished product” or ultimate cause. Most of the time this is a matter of perspective. Leaders need to be prepared to help other members of the team see how what they do fits together with the service of others to get the value-added job done. They need to see how without their part the process is incomplete. It comes back to the age old question, “Are you laying bricks or are you building a cathedral?”

4. Developmental Culture. People want to know that what they do is important to the organizational agenda. But even more than that, they want to be part of a culture that places who people are above what they do. Leaders who build a culture that emphasizes its people are more important than the tasks they perform will consistently tap into the desire of individuals to keep growing toward their full potential. This journey energizes the team and creates a deeper level of fulfillment in the hearts of employees. Some leaders resist actively developing their staff for fear they will invest in people who in turn will move on to another organization. The question that needs to be asked is which is worse, developing your team and seeing them move on, or not developing your team and having them stay?

5. Relational Synergy. A professional work environment that emphasizes the importance of excellence and results can still be friendly, supportive and relationally healthy. People work better and are more fulfilled in a work place that is stable enough to generate meaningful friendships and caring relationships. This may at times seem to blur the lines between personal and professional. But effective organizational leaders realize the importance of emotional intelligence for themselves and their team. A “strictly business” approach to team building undercuts the bottom line. When employees really care about each other—as well as the cause—they will be much more likely to go the extra mile, beyond the scope of their formal duties, to support a co-worker or serve a customer.

6. Measurable Results. The feeling of productivity at the end of a day is often traced back to how much was accomplished and how the fruits of our labor contributed to a meaningful over-arching goal. No matter how clearly I can see the connection between my daily tasks and the overall cause, I still want to see progress in order to be fulfilled. Nothing breeds success quite like success. Effective leaders recognize how important it is to highlight the victories, how ever incremental they may be, and keep pointing to the connection between every member of the team and the finished product.

7. Responsibility-Accountability Balance. It is frustrating for employees to be held accountable for tasks or goals for which they do not have a corresponding level of responsibility or control. Real empowerment comes when there is a release of appropriate decision-making authority over how something will get done after there is agreement on what we plan to do. This is a give and take process where team members understandably earn the trust of their supervisors. But fulfillment in the work place can be correlated to this dynamic tension between responsibility and accountability, increasingly so for higher-level positions.

8. Functional Systems. The systems of an organization are intended to serve as connecting points or conduits that increase effectiveness and enhance communication. Over time, organizational systems can become more like a maze than a road map. Fulfillment levels plummet when employees feel like they are swimming against the current of productivity while negotiating the labyrinth of organizational systems. One clear sign of dysfunctional systems is a widening gap between stated policies/procedures and the actual practices of employees. This gap marks the difference between, “Here’s how you are supposed to do it” and “Here’s how we actually do it.” Effective leaders are ruthless in their insistence that systems function as the servants rather than the masters of the organization.

9. Supportive Feedback. Employees who know where to turn when they need help and are not afraid of failure are much more inclined to take appropriate risks. When evaluations or performance reviews include practical helps on how to grow they break down adversarial attitudes between “labor” and “management.” There is an implicit expectation of accountability in the work place. When that accountability is enveloped by positive communication the level of employee fulfillment increases.

10. Bottom-up Communication. One of the most tangible ways to communicate how much you value others is to listen to what they have to say. When employees feel their ideas are welcomed and embraced a powerful reservoir of innovation can be tapped. There is very little fulfillment in an environment where everyone knows the suggestion box and the trash can are one in the same.

Who is Responsible for What?

Most leaders reading an article of this nature will intuitively ask themselves what is missing from my list and whether they agree with what is on it. I’d like to push you beyond that to a third question. Who is responsible for what? Or put another way, for which of these so-called fulfillment factors are employees responsible and for which are their organizational leaders responsible? I would suggest that organizational leaders are responsible to some degree for all of them. (Yes, that’s another reason why you get paid the big bucks.) But employees are not powerless victims in this process. They have a meaningful role to play as well. The chart below illustrates one way to view the distribution of responsibility for these ten fulfillment factors.

Organizational Responsibility	Employee Responsibility
Value-added Cause	P-G-R Convergence
Developmental Culture	Task-Cause Connection
Functional Systems	Measurable Results
Responsibility-Accountability Balance	Relational Synergy
Bottom-Up Communication	Supportive Feedback

Since the organizational responsibility column is pretty straight forward, let’s look for a minute at how employees can accept responsibility for one-half of the factors affecting their fulfillment on the job.

P-G-R Convergence starts with you understanding your passions and giftedness to the degree that you are able to communicate them clearly to those under whom you serve. If you commit to a process of discovery and development in these areas you will make it increasingly difficult for people in your organization to ignore how your passions and giftedness could be harnessed more intentionally in the context of your job description.

Task-Cause Connection is really an issue of perspective. You need to take responsibility for tracing the relationship between each part of your job and the overall mission of the organization. Ask yourself, how is this part of my job going to help us fulfill our mission? If the answer isn’t clear to you, pose the question to your supervisor in the context of your desire to see your role against the organizational big picture so as to increase your value for each task and fulfillment level on the job.

The headwaters so to speak of Measurable Results are your personal productivity on a day-to-day basis. Focus on being efficient and working hard so you will have something to feel good about when the day is done. If you can connect the dots between what you did and the overall cause you will have gone a long way toward seeing the measurable results you long for on your own.

Relational Synergy is just as much your responsibility as anyone else’s. If you want a friend at work, show yourself friendly. Start sowing seeds of interest and concern in the lives of others and you will be surprised how at how soon they bear fruit.

Supportive Feedback will come more quickly if you go to your supervisor emphasizing how much you want to grow and invite him or her to participate with you in making your work more effective. Create an environment that welcomes positive feedback and proactively seeks out help when appropriate.

1. Create a scale of 1-10 for each of the fulfillment factors, with 1 being low and 10 high. Then rate yourself or your organization (as appropriate for the question) in each factor against that scale. Total your score out of 100. How does this relate to your overall sense of fulfillment? Does it validate or undermine the assumptions in this article?

2. Write out your personal mission and compare it with the mission of the organization with whom you serve. How well matched are these two causes? If you can’t meaningfully articulate your personal mission, what does that say about your ability to be proactive in managing this fulfillment factor?

3. Make a Venn Diagram of your passion, giftedness and role. What is your estimate of your P-G-R convergence right now and how does this relate to your sense of fulfillment? If you can’t specifically identify your giftedness (talents, skills and spiritual gifts), what does that say about your ability to proactively manage this fulfillment factor?

4. Consider giving this article to your supervisor and solicit his/her feedback. Ask for permission to discuss it in a staff meeting or other appropriate setting as a means of increasing the level of fulfillment among the team.

5. If you are an organizational leader, consider giving this to your team members to read and suggest they do question 1 above. Then meet with each person individually or as a team to discuss his or her score.

Two Sides of the Seminary Coin

By David Drury

I've been thinking about the so-called “pros and cons” of getting a theological education. What’s the big deal about reading Augustine or parsing Greek verbs? What is good about setting aside several more years for theological training at seminary or graduate school? What’s bad about it? As I move this year toward finishing my seminary education here in Boston I’ve got ten reasons each:

Ten reasons NOT to go to seminary or grad school.

1) It can make you depend on your own intelligence. This is basically because of the environment of academia, not necessarily just theological institutions. It is a spill over from the Modern Age that crowned Reason as its king. This self-centered-side inherent in education causes even students of Theology to flip the Wesleyan Quadrilateral upside down. When you spend your days thinking about thinking itself, you can easily give too much credit to your own brain.

2) It may cause you to develop false values. It is easy to value grades, impressions, skill, and vocabulary more than the weightier matters at seminary. It is possible to put more emphasis on the comments of the professor and the letter marked in red than the discovery of a new truth and the impact it has on your life and call.

3) It causes stress. A degree can be lot of work, and if it isn't then it should be. Yet, sometimes you find yourself spending four hours a day in class, two hours a day researching Greek, three hours a day reading old books, and one hour a day talking to your wife, if you're lucky (or one hour a day playing video games, for you singles out there.) Soon you arrive at a breaking point. This can be a hindrance not only to your studies but also your psychological health.

4) It will likely challenge your beliefs. Your beliefs can be challenged by a convincing person long before you are far enough along in wisdom and understanding to defend your own beliefs and answer tough questions. You may interact with many professors with "far out" ideas and doctrine that convince many young students in their belief before they even finish their first year of school.

5) It can cause you to think of your religion as a class. In seminary, it is easy to see your religion in terms of class work, papers, and tests. But the Bible is not "collateral reading." It becomes easier to treat your studies as the beginning and end of your religion because they take up so much of the day. And you can start to see Church and devotions and worship as drudgeries that take your “studies” into the double-digit hours for the day.

6) It can make you lose touch with real world. While cloistered away at seminary you might sink into the Atlantis Syndrome. You are at a school which has its own little world and illusionary existence that never rises to the surface of actual reality. It is easy during a theological education to remove oneself from the world like a monk translating scripture in a monastery with no discussion concerning what exists outside the walls or how you should engage that world.

7) It costs lots of money. This truth increases for those that have prior education debt. After tens of thousands of dollars getting loans for an undergrad degree should you then add on more expense, and likely more debt? You will sometimes wonder how you could have used this twelve grand or so if you were starting a new church, or pastor of a quaint church in the country, or working on staff somewhere. You think about how this year’s tuition money could have been an entire down payment on a house, would buy a new car, or would easily help you start a family. Seminary costs (more) money. And many of us have spouses or even kids to care for this go-around.

8) You can lose sight of ministry. It seems ironic that the very institutions that train one to do ministry sometimes neglect the very core of the calling. It can be much like going to a truck driving school and learning all the details about trucks—how their engines work, what tire pressure to set them at, how early to signal for a turn, how many feet you need to clear another car during a turn—yet you never actually get into a truck and drive it. You just learn all about it in books and on the screens. You can lose a grasp of your calling and your ministry while nose deep in books at seminary. Particularly since ministry is all about people.

9) It can cause you to see the Bible as a textbook. This can happen at the undergraduate level, but happens all the more at the graduate level. The Word of the Lord often loses its potency when seen only under the microscope. Sometimes we treat the Bible as though we were performing an autopsy on a living human being. Of course one doesn’t do an autopsy on a breathing person! You do surgery on a living person, then you stitch them back up, and the person walks away. All too often the Bible spends all of its time on the operating table and never back home in the dorm or apartment or house you live in during seminary.

10) It can make you lose your focus. Primarily, you can lose your focus on Christ and His work in your life. It is easy to spend all your time thinking of theology in the abstract, and never apply it to your own life. And often, you can lose sight of the things that matter, namely, your salvation, your holiness, your call, your family and your ministry.

Ten reasons TO GO to seminary or grad school.

1) It makes you think. Perhaps you’d say we all "think" regardless of whether we contemplate the interrelation behind Supralapsarianism and Infralapsarianism on a daily basis. This is true, we do all "think", but the question is the degree to which thinking is taking place. If you are to adequately appreciate and propagate the Gospel for the rest of your natural life you must in some way have a grasp upon its deep meaning. You might not sense it now—but 10 years from now you may realize you need some deeper training. You’ve got to dive deep seeking oysters if you ever want to make a pearl necklace.

2) It makes you read. You have to read a lot during seminary. You read Church History, classic Theologians, contemporary apologists, Biblical commentaries, etc. These all give you a grand breadth of tradition behind your beliefs and ministry practice. No other subject than Religion has had so much written and so much preached throughout the history of the world, and it seems like you are forced to about 51% of it. This gives you a love for reading that you will never lose, and often time your undergraduate education does not provide or require this at all.

3) It makes you write. The papers and essays and projects never seem to end during seminary or Grad school. But it teaches you how to write. You learn how to articulate your thoughts instead of just idly thinking them or speaking them imprecisely. Seminary teaches you to express yourself in written words—particularly since your entire grade is usually based on one or two papers per class, and almost never on a test or quiz.

4) It answers a lot of the tough questions. Everyone who ever took a shower has questions about Theology. And a lot of those questions are genuinely tough ones. It is hard to get those questions adequately answered anywhere but at a theological institution. At nearly any seminary the professors have spent decades researching and writing at the highest scholarly levels on the very subjects they teach and they are indispensable sounding boards to help you better answer the tough questions you have. You leave your Theological education a bit more confident and diverse in experience about these areas of common question.

5) It helps you understand and appreciate diversity. While studying Theology, you have to take a look at numerous views on one subject—often times interacting with someone from a completely different Christian (or not so Christian) tradition. This forces you to gain a deeper understanding of the diversity within the Christian community on issues. It also causes you to appreciate the good parts of different perspectives, for many that you don't share still add to the collage that is the total picture of Christian belief. It is sometimes wearisome to debate over these points of discrepancy, but in time a seminary education simply makes you love all of God's people more regardless of the less essential points of debate.

6) It forces you to form foundations. A seminary education constantly tests the foundations behind your beliefs and doctrine. You come to a point when you realize that where one settles on his/her foundations is of primary concern for life and ministry. This not only helps you understand your fellow students, professors and people in the world, but it helps you understand yourself.

7) It helps your own spirituality. This is true if, and only if, you meld seminary education with your own spiritual life. You cannot divide the two, for they may both disintegrate. You need to see all studies (and all work for that matter) as an outgrowth of your relationship to God. If this is the case, then you cannot leave seminary without growing much closer to Him.

8) It forces you to know the Bible. At a good seminary you can’t walk into a class and give your opinions without some scriptural basis for them. You must ground them in scripture or at least refer to the Bible in all your assertions. This forces you to know the Bible, read it, and hopefully even apply it.

9) It makes you more knowledgeable. It doesn’t come automatically, but comes from years of study. You can't fake being knowledgeable very long, and people can see through it immediately if you do. But seminary will help you know more than ever.

10) It probably pleases God. (II Corinthians 5:9) "So we make it our goal to please him..." What could be more pleasing to God then spending a few years studying about Him and getting to know His Words. And seminary years help grow the Kingdom of God too. It may seem at times that you are not impacting the world at large but you are in fact are doing so much more than most. When you leave seminary, you will be far ahead of those less prepared and your impact will be multiplied. Even Jesus and Paul took a few years for preparation before changing the world. We are not better than they.

David E. Drury wrote this in 1997 while studying for a M.A. Theology in Boston and now lives in Spring Lake, Michigan. You can reach him at [email protected]

DEBRIEFING MY EXPERIENCE

C List out main Events, Experiences, and Activities of the Conference

C Write down ABig Lessons@ learned from those main events, experiences and activities

C Identify a Dominant Theme from the big lessons

C Action Steps and Accountability

What must I do in response to this big lesson when I get back?

Who will I ask to hold me accountable to following through (often best if another member of the team that went)?

C Communicate that theme

Q: I heard you went to a conference, How was it?

A: It was life-changing! God really taught me . . .

*Original Form by Dennis Jackson

Back to David’s Writer’s Attic

Principle 1

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