Well, That Was Fast
I love this country. You can wake up in the morning, decide you want to go to seminary, and be registered by 3:00pm for a course that begins that same day.
But I oversimplify. Maybe I should fill in some details.
Ten years ago this week I was enjoying the newfound freedom to sleep at night and looking forward to the birth of our first child. I had just graduated from college not three weeks earlier, and was still getting rested up from four years of sleep-deprived, full-time work and school. I was working as a software engineer for a VSAT startup called Intelesys. I was enjoying my work in software well enough, but if you asked me what I was going to do with my life, I’d have told you I was enrolling in Nazarene Theological Seminary in the fall of 1995 and entering the pastorate upon graduation. As it turned out, this was not to be.
It is a dicey proposition for Christians to discern “calls” from God. Absolute denials of the possibility of private, personal, even linguistic communication from God to the believer are not the majority report in evangelicalism today, nor have they been in historic Christianity. Still, it’s easy to blame God for our own fool thoughts, and Christian faith streams which invest very much capital in this kind of private revelation normally end up embracing theological or practical aberrations of varying levels of severity. As Luther famously said, the voice of the Holy Spirit might possibly be confused with indigestion. Ignoring this dictum rarely takes us to good places.
So it was with my “call” to pastoral ministry eleven years ago. In the end I decided I didn’t know what to make of what I had experienced (which itself is no dramatic narrative to recount), but I did know that the consensus was that I was no pastor. My theological commitment to Wesleyanism was also waning quickly, so the planned course of action of Nazarene-seminary-then-pastorate was shelved. I told myself I would just raise a family, work as a software engineer, and be a regular old church layman. And so I did.
Most of the intervening time has been busy enough to keep my thoughts away from school, and most of the intervening experience as a church layman has been sufficient to keep my thoughts away from vocational ministry. Three kids, four paid-off student loans, and a certain amount of spiritual and professional growth later, though, the seminary condition flared up again. The symptoms have been particularly severe in the last six months. With the advice of some friends (including some without web presences) and after a meeting with a helpful professor, I decided to do it. The application process for degree-seeking students at Denver Seminary is appropriately complex, requiring various references, a church endorsement, a signed doctrinal statement, an account of how I came to faith in Christ, and a doting, approving statement from my wife. I obtained the right forms and set about obtaining references, writing testimonies, and cajoling my wife into going along with the whole scheme. (Note to non-insiders: it would have been she who did the cajoling, if cajoling was ever done.)
Some time on Sunday it came to my attention that there was an online section of a good introductory class starting the next day: Monday, May 24. With my application all but complete and a $50 check in an envelope in the outgoing mail, I called the school at about 9:30am on Monday to inquire about the online class. By 3:00pm I was registered. By 5:05pm I was logged in to the seminary’s courseware application. As a seminary student.
This is all moving somewhat quickly, but I think not foolishly. I’ve been giving this question serious prayer, consideration, and discussion for several months. I am only a “Special Student” for now, and I lose nothing if I stop at the end of the summer or any other semester. Where is this going? Will it result in a Master’s Degree for me? Will it even result in continued enrollment in the fall? I wish I could say. I could finish a degree program or cut and run at the end of August. Further speculation will not shed additional light on the question.
It is certainly scary to think of the loss of spare time and money that even the ten-year plan entails. (Taking one class per semester with summers off, I would earn a degree just before my forty-second birthday. My son will be 19.) It’s scary to think of educating myself to be something other than an engineer. I mean, an M.A.? Aren’t those for people who can’t do math? I write software! I read science books! This is not me!
But it is me. And for the next 12 weeks at least, I’m going to give it a go.
P.S. Responding to my amazement at how quickly you could register for a class at Denver, Adeodatus said, “Welcome to the 21st century. God moves fast now.” Indeed.
P.P.S. What does all of this mean for this blog? I can say for sure it means posting will be less frequent for the duration of the summer, and subject matter may tend to gravitate suspiciously towards what I’m studying. Don’t quit visiting or blogrolling me, though. I’ll make it quite plain if I ever throw in the towel, and I’m not throwing anything yet.
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- Posted by Tim on Wednesday, May 26, 2004 at 11:29:45 pm PDT
- Category: Miscellany
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11 Responses to “Well, That Was Fast”
It’s just a little bit difficult to read, in an appropriately serious frame of mind, any post that starts out:
“I was enjoying the newfound freedom to sleep at night and looking forward to the birth of our first child.”
I hope the disappointment at not being able to sleep at night was not too earth-shattering?
Seriously, I hope you’ll give us frequent glimpses at this process. I’m looking forward to it, and though my presence in your life has only ever been online, based on my limited information, I’d say you’re headed in a good direction.
Comment Permalink | Posted on May 27th, 2004 at 8:35 am |Yes, and a commenter named pentamom would be qualified to make this observation. As it turned out, Zach was really a good sleeper, even without the application of Ezzo Technology. (Advanced scientific methods of baby care were little known in 1994. And, I might add, little used in 1996 and 1999, at least around my house.)
Besides that, even a poorly sleeping infant would have been restful compared to that last semester of college. Death, I tell you.
Comment Permalink | Posted on May 27th, 2004 at 8:42 am |Tim,
Best wishes on your seminary “adventures!” I just finished my MDiv last December after four years. I can’t speak for everyone, but I loved the experience (although the weeks when you have 3 term papers due I might have answered differently).
As for the blog, I started mine during my final year of seminary, and I found that the practice of blogging helped me in writing papers more quickly and coherently. It didn’t help me with any of those irregular Hebrew stems, but it did train me to write faster.
Anyway, best wishes and may God reveal much to you in your studies.
Comment Permalink | Posted on May 27th, 2004 at 10:35 am |Tim, I applaud your decision to return more formally to an area of study which is so obviously of interest and import to you. Best of luck to you in the continuation of your studies.
I daresay that your initial choice of course would be of interest to me as well, although after reading their criteria for acceptance, they wouldn’t accept me as a student. I can still remember (a little anyway) a couple of my professors in high school pointing out little bits of mistranslation, and other linguistic tidbits, mostly from the OT. It all starts in Gen. 1:1, where (in the King James) the Hebrew Elohim (a plural), is translated as God (singular), but paired with a singular verb form. Many, acting in concert as a single entity?
Perhaps this is RMBB fodder?
Comment Permalink | Posted on May 27th, 2004 at 6:22 pm |That’s great news Tim! God’s speed.
Comment Permalink | Posted on May 27th, 2004 at 7:26 pm |Yippee!! I knew this day would come, man. I haven’t talked to you much the past several years, but every time I have I could sense your interest in pursuing a former theological education. I just pray that doing this online thing will whet your appetite for the “real” thing, the in-class experience of sitting under great men of God whose minds have been so sharpened on the rock-solid truth of God’s Word. Problem is, you’ll want to start taking more than one course per semester and then you’ll be back to where you started…..no sleep. See ya, little bro. By the way…what is a blog? Blogrolling?
Comment Permalink | Posted on May 27th, 2004 at 8:24 pm |Mike:
What’s a blog? You’re soaking in it! The date links over on the right (May 2004, April 2004, etc.) are the archives of this blog. Click on some of the links under Blogroll at the left, and you can get some examples of other blogs. “Instapundit” is kind of the granddaddy of them all, but you’ll see there are many kinds of blogs dedicated to topics other than political news.
And as far as the “real thing” goes, if it turns out I can actually hack this, you’d better believe that’s what I’m after. After three days of the online thing, I can tell it is a poor substitute for the incarnational discipleship you describe. I need that.
And you’re right, we have not talked enough in the past couple of years. Remember how suitable Colorado is as a vacation destination. (Remember further that Kari will have us down there again soon enough.)
Barb:
Thanks! May God enable me to stick with it.
Jed:
Thanks, man. And durn that statement of faith, eh? Denver is actually pretty loose when it comes to admission criteria–not really in terms of doctrine, but in terms of other nonessentials that occasionally clutter Evangelical seminary admissions departments.
I’m not a big OT guy, but we can sure talk about Genesis 1 tomorrow night. Adeodatus, who is actually [a little bit] wise in the ways of Hebrew, will be there, so that might be a fun topic. Of course, if we get talking about Genesis 1, I might accidentally let slip that I’m not a Darwinist, then get the tar beat out of me. Oops! Too late!
Jared:
Ah, four years…so you did it the real way. Hopefully my one-class-at-a-time strategy will keep life and work manageable.
Did you happen to know a student with a last name of Blanks? I’m not sure of his first name, but I know a guy with that name goes to Southern (his brother works for me). I think this would be his second year.
Comment Permalink | Posted on May 27th, 2004 at 10:01 pm |Well, I’m sure that when it comes to Hebrew (err, colloquial Aramaic?), I’ll be no match for anyone who’s actually studied it.
Re. You’re soaking in it! (Barb): ROTFL!
I recall staying out of a discussion betwitxt Zombyboy and Andy about whether God exists, at the last RMBB. Oh, theology will always bring about significant discussion — with the right people, that is, and we are them, eh?
I’ll try to find some really twisty Tibetan Buddhist stuff to warp things around a bit.
Comment Permalink | Posted on May 27th, 2004 at 10:15 pm |Wow! Excellent news!
Comment Permalink | Posted on May 28th, 2004 at 11:53 pm |Your name was mentioned here.
Comment Permalink | Posted on May 29th, 2004 at 6:52 am |You go, boy!
And make no mistake about it, you’ll always be a “special student” to us, Tim! ;^)
Comment Permalink | Posted on May 30th, 2004 at 3:18 pm |