Class review

     Season's greetings in the name of our King to be born, Christ Jesus the Lord.  Time is definitely not on my side for the next week or two.  This quarter is either going to kill me or break me of some bad habits of procrastination and poor time management.  I am already behind and it has only been a week.  But I regress and know everything will get done.
      I preach this Sunday and have some pretty cool ideas floating through my mind, so I will hopefully be posting a good sermon on here next week.  I also wanted to let you know about my classes this quarter.  Two required ones that some times feel like they are not as beneficial as others are my World Religion and Religious Bodies of America classes.  Now, I am not saying these topics are not necessary, but the classes are structured in a way that I was not expecting and does not seem like the most efficient way in my mind.  My other classes though, I am actually really enjoying.  My Biblical Theology class is actually quite fascinating. Other than the fact that I have to read for every class session, I like the structure of it.  We read a portion of some book and then come to class and discuss it.  We have had some awesome discussions so far.  We have read sections of the book titled, Jesus and Israel, One Covenant or Two?.  This book has some great insights into how Jesus is truly the center of both the New Testament and the Old Testament.  If you are even slightly interested, I recommend reading it.
      Then in my Pastoral Theology class we have a similar set up.  We doing the reading, write questions on note cards, and then he uses those questions in the class discussion.  We again have had some really awesome discussions on some very practical issues of the pastoral office.  The coolest thing about this class though in my mind is Fridays.  On Fridays, we set up class as if it were a Circuit meeting, or Winkle.  One student leads the discussion on a topic that has happened to him on vicarage or at field work church.  We then discuss it as if he were going through the situation right now and begin to see how we as fellow pastors can best help and learn from our brothers in the ministry.  I wish more classes were this practical and realistic to what happens in the real world.
      My Creative Homiletics class has also been really good.  We are focusing on how the use of stories and analogies can help us be better preachers.  This has sparked some of the cool ideas for my sermon this coming Sunday.
     Finally, my independent study class of Christ in Film is pretty amazing too.   Here we have 8 guys who get together and watch movies or parts of movies and then discuss how it relates to and can be used to teach a Christological idea.  For the first couple weeks we are focusing on "Jesus" movies where Jesus is an actual character in the movie.  However, after break we get into "Christ" movies where it is simply a Christ character or plot in a secular movie.  Some examples that the professor really likes are The Big Lebowski, Gran Torino, and western movies.  It is just a nice break from books and I love movies.
       I will try to keep putting some smaller posts up as time allows, but for now wanted to include you in the busyness of my class schedule.  Christ is Lord of all, even time, and we simply use the time we have in front of us to strive to serve Him.  In His most powerful name, Jesus, Amen.