“The most awesome learning feat on the planet - a child’s acquisition of spoken language - occurs in the absence of any formal instruction.” -- George Leonard
“You don’t know what you don’t know. That’s why continuing education is good.” – Bill Day
"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way." -- Mark Twain
“When [the Sanhedrin] saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” – Luke, commenting after the “educated men” quizzed the two disciples
“You could possibly consider that Peter’s and John’s ‘graduate school’ was their 3 years of walking with Jesus.” – Jeff Walling
“I never let my schooling interfere with my education.” -- Mark Twain
“[In graduate school] we all seek to integrate the best biblical scholarship with real ministry challenges because it takes more than good intentions to transform lives to the glory of God.” – Evertt Huffard
I’ve been putting off typing these thoughts…perhaps mostly due to fear that I am not objective about the subject (which I fully acknowledge that I am not)…but I desire to be known in this area and have the rich feedback that I oftentimes get from you.
I’m going to begin graduate school in the not-to-distant future. It’s an awesome privilege and opportunity to stretch and grow. But I am still struggling with the idea that it is the best use of my time. It’s definitely good use of my time, but I’m wondering if it is the best use of it.
Let me start with my fears…
I’m afraid of the demand it will be on my time (Evertt Huffard said to plan on 1 full day a week).
I’m afraid of it taking me away even more than I already am from ‘people work’.
I’m afraid of really loving it and wanting to dive into it more than into people.
I’m afraid of the new relationships I would forge through it replacing the ones I need to continue to invest in locally.
I’m afraid of the discipline it would take.
I’m afraid of losing my status as “unqualified, but chosen” in the eyes of man (see Luke’s quote above).
I’m afraid of being seen as a typical preacher-type.
I’m afraid of disappointing people due to my increasing inaccessibility.
I’m afraid of the frustration that will come inside the inevitable tension between “needing to study” and “needing to be with people”.
Let me go on to my excitement…
I’m excited about the demand on my time, giving me a more tangible, explainable excuse for why I’m inaccessible to people.
I’m excited about learning more, and learning more about how to learn more.
I’m excited about the new relationships I would forge through it.
I’m excited about the discipline it would demand of me.
I’m excited about how it would help me be a better preacher.
I’m excited about learning what I don’t know about it that I should be excited about.
As I re-read this, noticeably missing from my list above is any fear or excitement concerning my family. It’s because I’m just totally clear about the priority of my family above all else. I’m willing to live and die for my family, so of course I’m willing to fail graduate classes for my family, as well as lose my ‘job’ for my family. As long as I stay true to that, graduate school does not benefit or hurt my family in any significant way. So I have no fear, nor excitement, in this decision concerning them. This struggle, for me, only affects my “working hours,” so to speak.
Ultimately, all my fears and excitement aside, I guess the question that I’m looking to answer is this:
Will there be a significant improvement in my effectively winning the lost to Christ by going to graduate school?
Tough question to answer. I’m open to suggestions (even guesses) on how to attempt an answer.
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4 comments:
I am in Graduate school now. I have often struggled with the thought, "Am I wasting my time learning and studying instead of spending my time with people...instead of making disciples?" Sometimes I think I am wasting my time. But there are the other times when I go to a public place (e.g. Starbucks) to study and doors are opened because people are interested in what I'm studying. I go to places like this regularly to the point where the people that work there know me. Even more doors are opened to start eternal conversations. My suggestion is to not view it as a hinderance to ministry, but as an opportunity to minister to new and different people.
--The Graduate
My question to The Graduate would be-- what are you studying that you could not be studying without the educational institution and their heavy duty requirements which may or may not enhance your ministry?
Would not any material you might be studying in a public place open doors for ministry to new and different people.
My opinion is that higher education can be accomplished with our faith and trust in the leading of His Spirit, and that the student will be able to go even farther and be more pliable in His hands than students enrolled in a curriculum decided as necessary by man and requirements created by man.
Institutionalized higher education is a man-pleaser; not a God pleaser. Jesus will satisfy the hungry and thirsty heart, and then make it hungrier and thirstier for the next filling of the Holy Spirit.
One missions sudy revealed that masters level missionaries were more effective missionaries than were bachelors level missionaries. However, doctoral level missionaries were no more effective than were masters level.
I know this study does not necessarily cover your area, nor is it specific to you, however, there is some merit in grad school and it can open some doors intellectually, spiritually and ministerially that might not be open.
Education is an open system, too. It is not merely a place to go and be influenced. It is a place to get and influence. The relationships built in the context of education are going to be important for the future.
The same objections to grad school could have been made of undergrad.
Anyway, if God leads you to grad school, He's get a perfectly good reason for it.
To Brian Mashburn--
Of course all that you said in your response to mine went through my mind as I wrote what I said. I think my response was more about being required (as I have often been) to take specific steps to learn more and often finding it was repetitious to what I had already learned; and, doing it to please others rather than being the one who was deciding for myself what I was still needing. I also was responding in light of your list of fears, which would be mine as a person in your position of preacher with a family. Your list of excitements are fewer and are already in place except for the settings in which they might happen.
I also find myself in agreement with the thoughts from Fajita about all the thoughts I wrote could be said about undergrad also; and that there is little benefit to the student going beyond the masters level.
I think evaluating how well the goals of yourself and your leadership will still be met must be carefully studied before adding such a weighty activity to your life.
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