Tuesday, October 21, 2008

First 4 weeks of Lay Seminary

As I said before, it's not what I expected. Which is a mixed blessing, or curse, depending if you're a half-full or half-empty kind of person!

We had no required reading for 2 of the classes, which means that we really needed to pay attention during class. There were suggested reading lists for further learning on our own.

The first class was Spiritual Formation, which is such a deep subject that 8 hours of class is only enough for an overview. Which is fine, since that can be a very personal subject that we're given a taste and some resources to gain more knowledge.

Next was Christian Ethics, "suggested" reading this time around. It's tough to get back into this learning, and reading for learning, routine after being away from it for 27 years! But anyway, enjoyable class, although some of the reading was VERY BORING!

Last class of the day was Intro to Theology. There's only so much you can do with this one, unless you're a Theology fan.

I'm looking forward to the next 3, Church History, Intro to the Old Testament (I recently heard, and like, the phrase "less recent Testament"), and Christian Missions. At first blush, I'm thinking Christian Missions will be my favorite, but we'll see.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Get to work, you lazy bum!

Ok, enough screwing around, time to get serious about this! No, really!

I've had two days of classes so far in Lay Seminary. It's not exactly what I expected, but I'm not disappointed, at all, with the structure. I had anticipated lots of reading and writing. But so far, it's been discussing and listening to "lectures" on the various subjects. One of this term's instructors is expecting us to do some reading in our text, but not a huge amount. We've heard from one of our instructors for next term, and he does have a fair amount of reading for us, but he's also given us the syllabus for each week.

We had an enjoyable week of vacation last week. (Except for the drive down and back, Chincoteague, Virginia) It rained the first few days we were there, so no beach time until Thursday. But I took the opportunity to make some long-needed changes to several websites. Not that they look great, or even good, but I set them up using Wordpress blogging software. Hopefully, this will make it easier for others to make changes and updates. AND, hopefully, "others" will be willing to do so!

Due to some spectacularly unimpressive promoting, I've decided to cancel the Financial Peace University class that was to have started last night. I need to look at starting it after the first of the new year, AND forcing myself to promote, promote, promote. (or hire a new promoter, I'd be willing to double what I made) But anyway, that frees up another evening during the week for homework reading, home chores, etc.

Speaking of homework, I need to finish my reading for Saturday, and work on a sermon for Sunday. And, repair a drain leak in the house. (Can't say, "I'll take care of that Saturday" during class, bummer!)