Our Spiritual Leadership class was taught by Dick Angelo, with one session taught by his wife, Vivien. This class covered a variety of topics, some of which, to me, seem more applicable if I was involved in a full-time ministry of some kind (especially camp ministries), and didn't seem very applicable to me today in the here and now. Don't get me wrong, it was still very interesting, but I find it a little hard to apply knowledge of board (operational and policy) structures.
But that definitely was not all we talked about. We talked a lot about what it means to be a servant leader and how it differs from the typical leader of today. A lot of things (e.g. putting others first rather than yourself) are totally opposite of what our culture tries to teach us.
We looked at the example of Nehemiah in his leadership during the time when he and a plethora of Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. He faced several opposing attitudes, and yet he kept a cool head (unusual for many leaders today), and his first response was to pray. He was also confident in God, something else unusual for many leaders today.
So, although there were some parts of the class that didn't seem very applicable for a young college student not looking into getting involved with a board of some kind, there were still several things that were quite applicable.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
MWSB-Feb 8-12: II Timothy
Our class on II Timothy was taught by Joe Jordan, the father of Adam Jordan, one of the staff here (Adam is the EMT, the one who bandaged up my head after I crashed into the dumpster--See my post "MWSB-A Tale of 9 Staples" [posted in January 2010] for the full story about that).
This class was a good one, most of what we talked about was the homework. Joe gave us handouts with several questions about each chapter. These questions required quite a bit of thinking to be able to answer then sufficiently.
Throughout the whole of the class, Joe stressed that this book wasn't one of gloom and doom, rather it was one of encouragement. Paul encouraged Timothy to stand up for the faith, despite all that was going on around him. A lot of what Timothy was encountering as a pastor is similar to what we encounter in the world today. Paul encouraged Timothy to stay strong and not waver in his faith, and we too should take and apply that encouragement to our own lives.
This class was a good one, most of what we talked about was the homework. Joe gave us handouts with several questions about each chapter. These questions required quite a bit of thinking to be able to answer then sufficiently.
Throughout the whole of the class, Joe stressed that this book wasn't one of gloom and doom, rather it was one of encouragement. Paul encouraged Timothy to stand up for the faith, despite all that was going on around him. A lot of what Timothy was encountering as a pastor is similar to what we encounter in the world today. Paul encouraged Timothy to stay strong and not waver in his faith, and we too should take and apply that encouragement to our own lives.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
MWSB-Feb 1-5: Spiritual Warfare
The class on Spiritual Warfare was taught by the same teacher we had last week: Jim Shuman. Most of the class consisted of getting familiar with what we should know even before we really get into spiritual warfare. We talked about things like who we are in Christ, approaches the enemy uses, living how we believe, and different responses to spiritual attacks. Gradually this turned towards ways to actually defend ourselves against the devil's attacks and attack back. A phrase that Jim mentioned a lot was "Be aware of the devil--be impressed with God."
Thursday was a different day than what we were all used to. Instead of eating breakfast and lunch, we spent the mealtimes fasting, praying and praising God. It was an interesting experience. During what would've been breakfast, we sang and prayed for each other. During what would've been lunch, we sang and prayed for the whole world. At dinner time, we sang some more songs, had communion, and then had a dinner of soup and bread. It's a comforting feeling, knowing that there are people praying for me.
Thursday was a different day than what we were all used to. Instead of eating breakfast and lunch, we spent the mealtimes fasting, praying and praising God. It was an interesting experience. During what would've been breakfast, we sang and prayed for each other. During what would've been lunch, we sang and prayed for the whole world. At dinner time, we sang some more songs, had communion, and then had a dinner of soup and bread. It's a comforting feeling, knowing that there are people praying for me.
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