Adventures In More Than Teaching

My heartbeat is empowering a new generation of Christian leaders who are willing to follow Jesus Christ daily, radically, and totally in life. I’ve been teaching at Tabor College in the areas of youth, church and culture since 1997 and I’ve been involved in youth ministry, at various levels for more than 20 years.

If you’ve read my bio, you know that my title reads Associate Professor of Youth, Church and Culture and that I recently received a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. The D.Min., which is more of a professional degree, represents a couple of things. First, it reflects my role in our Bible, Religion & Philosophy Department. My area of specialty is practical theology – which is an odd term because all theology is practical in that we express our faith (practice) based on what we believe and know about God (theology). Second it reflects my role in the church. I want to walk the bridge between the church and the academy – comfortable in both worlds and bringing them together in conversation.

With that as background and given my areas of interest, this blog will dive into a variety of topics – my reflections on teaching, youth culture, youth ministry and the church. But I want you to understand that these thoughts reflect where I am currently on my journey of life and learning. Over the years, ten as a professor and more than 23 as a student, I’ve come to realize I now know a lot about less. In other words I have an increasing depth of knowledge of a narrow slice of our world. As I’ve studied and taught, I’ve discovered that there’s so much more out there to know – that I don’t know.

The big news for me is that my new book Beyond Me was published.  It’s a youth ministry book that contrasts the adolescent story and God’s story.  You’ll hear a lot more about it from me in the future.

I’m on a journey of learning. And I want my students to understand – learning never ends.

Coming Alive in the Middle of Somewhere

Not long ago a good friend asked me, “Why are you still teaching at Tabor College – in the middle of nowhere?” Truth is, I’ve asked myself that question too. I could’ve answered my friend in numerous ways. I could have said that Shelly and I love the Hillsboro community. We’ve developed a lot of rich friendships over our ten years here. I could’ve told my friend that our family feels rooted in Hillsboro. For the most part, our kids have spent all of their growing up years here. They’re happy. Or, I could’ve said that I love what I do. I’m energized by teaching and engaging my students. I still love going to work everyday.

While all these answers are true, there’s a bigger truth.

I’ve discovered that Tabor is a place – a somewhere – in which students have the unique opportunity to come alive – intellectually, relationally, and spiritually. I see students come alive when they finally move beyond knowing “what” to think, to knowing “how” to think – carefully and critically in our whirlwind culture. I see them come alive as freshman acquaintances become lifelong friends on the journey of life together. I see students come alive when they begin to integrate their passion to follow Jesus with their chosen occupation.

But along the way, I’ve been able to come alive too. I’ll never forget the 30 minute Bible department meeting in which we discussed, among other things, Modernist epistemology, plate-tectonics, biblical archeology, hermeneutics and the NBA. We then closed the meeting with prayer – for each other and our students. You might be surprised, but I’ve grown tremendously in the course of a decade. My faculty colleagues and my students have taught me so much.

Coming alive, together with my students. That’s why I teach at Tabor – in the middle of somewhere.