Boston - Day Four

Success! They said (well, … I thought) it couldn’t be done. All the lights were with me on Hwy 114. I made it to the interstate in well under seven minutes. Traffic was flowing at a quick page on 128. I made it to Exit 17 (Grapevine Road) right at the fourteen minute mark. I had a chance and I did it - I pulled to a stop in the seminary parking lot at the 19:54 mark. What a thrill! I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers during this difficult endeavor. But together - we did it!!!

I've also realized that when you’re away from your family and living alone in a hotel room for several days, it is the small things that make your day.

I know I am alone for another reason – I found myself talking out loud to myself in the car this morning. A regular conversation and no one else was in the Taurus. And I was using some silly half-hillbilly/half-Elvis voice. I stopped as soon as I realized what was going on.

Class began today with another devotion – this time led by Dr. Sid Buzzell, the co-teacher these two weeks and a reader/mentor for our upcoming thesis. He read from Judges 9:7ff about the fable of the trees. It’s an interested story I don’t believe I have every read. It deals with being chosen king and the lesson of the fable is (according to Dr. Buzzell), “if able aren’t willing to lead, the willing who aren’t able will lead.”

A LONG time of discussion ensued regarding the pressure to perform the professional/CEO role of pastors. Dr. Robinson noted that there has been a shift in jargon that reveals the shift in pastoral roles: it used to be called a pastor’s study but now it is called the pastor’s office.

This devotional and introspective time lasted until 1015, at which time we took a long break. Tough, huh?

When we returned from break, Dr. Robinson had us go around room and discuss our individual thesis ideas and where we are and the problems we have and the questions we want to ask. There are some very interesting subjects being pursued:

1) Marvin – Preaching first-century parables in 21^st century world

2) Marshall – Effective preaching to African-american female

3) Christine – Testimony of preaching

4) Kurt – Preaching Christ in all of Scripture to postmodern

5) Jeff G – Speaking so mind sees it

6) Burt – Preaching to denominationally diverse congregation

7) Seahawk – sermon application, but want to narrow it down

8) Bill – Develop house church in ???

9) Omar – Role of preaching in Latino church in Massachusetts

10) John W – Internship for preaching majors at college – field-based education

11) Steve – Preaching in Mormon Context

12) Ken Z – Preaching in poverty areas (working class communities)

13) Ed J – Preaching that builds multi-cultural congregation (gotta narrow to specific cultures)

14) Mike R – How to use movie illustrations effectively

15) Bryan G – How D. Bonhoeffer can impact 21^st century preachers

16) Mike F – Preaching in Exilic mode with primary focus on needs of Caribbean people (secondary focus on probing thesis that if not Caribbean person, as a Christian you can be considered in Diaspora) Haddon said focus only on Caribbean aspect

17) Lorna G – Homosexuality is Sexual Immorality: Let the Church say so!

18) Paul B – Teaching Teens to Lead spirit-filled life in secular world

19) Davin W – Preaching to multi-generational congregations (differences in generations) in Owenton, KY

20) Brent S – Preaching Christ with our eyes open: Apologetic of suffering

21) Jeremy M – Defining core content of gospel for British Evangelicals (attack of substitutionary atonement).

22) Duane B – Develop teaching module for Nazarene preachers for preaching holiness with biblical authority

23) Jeff S – Expository Doctrinal Preaching

24) Rick M – I can’t remember. He’s writing another book.

25) Darryl D – Theocentric preaching as opposed to anthropocentric preaching

We then broke for lunch (cheeseburger). When we returned to class, we finished discussing the thesis ideas and got into our teaching groups to discuss next week’s assignment. John, Steve and I decided we’d rather meet at the hotel so we left seminary and met for about 40 minutes in the Idaho room. We all feel pretty confident that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. We teach our lesson first thing Tuesday morning.

After a quick trip to Barnes&Noble and Border’s Books for some material on Mormonism (for Steve), we ate dinner at Johnny Rockets. I enjoyed a chili dog but the joy has left me at this point in the evening.

I returned to the hotel room at 6:30 and worked until 10:20 on chapter one of my thesis. It came in at eight pages (Dr. Robinson said between five and eight). I will turn it in to him tomorrow and hopefully get it back before the end of class. That will give me all weekend to review it and revise it before next week’s one-on-one interviews.