Yes, after
all these years, I am finally going to do a blog! Until recently, I never saw
the need for my blogging, and I never had anything worth blogging about. But
that all began to change the day Joe Allison came to the School of Theology
and spoke to the faculty about getting published.
Joe is the Editorial
Director at Warner Press (the publishing company of the Church of God,
Anderson). He has invested a lifetime in publishing, and knows more about it
than I ever will. One of many helpful things he said was about promoting and
selling books on the Internet; a helpful (indispensable?) tool is -- you guessed
it -- the Blog! That’s point number one.
Number two
is that I needed something worth blogging about. It had to be something
that I know something about, and something worth writing about! I know a lot
about a lot of things, but most of them aren’t worth taking up valuable
bandwidth.
And so, for weeks and weeks, the
idea of my blogging just sat on the shelf. Like George Will said on Fox News on
April 21, “Don't speak unless you can improve the silence.” So I kept quiet in
the Blogosphere.
But finally it came to me –
I do
have something worth saying about discipling in the 21st century!
First this disclaimer: I am not an expert discipler, I have no track record of
having discipled thousands, hundreds, or even a handful of people. In fact, as a
professor if I were giving myself a grade in “Discipling,” it would be a D- or
F. Yep, that bad.
But here’s the backstory:
1. I’ve been a professor of Christian education at Anderson University School of Theology since 1984.
2. When I interviewed for this job, Dr. Donald Courtney asked me – if I were given the opportunity to rename Christian education, what would I name it? After thinking for a few seconds, I said, “Discipleship.” Because that’s what I believe Christian education is about.
3. After teaching a required Christian education course for 27 years, I decided that my approach was faulty. It wasn’t getting the job done. I scrapped the course and during my Spring 2012 sabbatical I designed a brand new course to take its place, “Discipling in Christian Communities.”
4. This new course included new text books, new material, new approaches, and new ideas. Along with some repurposed ideas from my “old” course: ideas that were good then and are still good now.
5. The first time I taught the new course, it was an unmitigated disaster (BTW, I wonder what a mitigated disaster might be?). My teaching plan didn’t work, a third of my students hated the course, one of them went to the dean to complain about me, the course, my chosen textbooks & etc., and my student evaluations were in the toilet. So I took their criticisms to heart, did some prolonged and deep reflection, and redesigned the course.
6. The second time I taught the course, it was a huge success. The students loved it, I loved it, we learned and grew together, and they wrote some excellent ministry plans for discipling. I am eagerly anticipating my third time to offer this course!
7. In this process, I have collected an enormous amount of discipling material and ideas. Some of the ideas are “my own,” some of them are from other leaders. And I now feel that I actually know something worth sharing with the world about discipling in the 21st century.
So we’re off and running! Thanks
for reading this blog. Look for regular posts.
