Day One

I just finished my first day of classes of the two weeks of classes that I will have while I am down in Boston at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary working on my Doctor of Ministry Program. We had a short chapel this morning and then went on to reconnect with one another. It was interesting that of the ten students that started this cohort last year only six remain - and of those six all of us seriously considered not coming back for the rest of the program. However we all agreed to stick it out and to try and graduate together.

We also lost one of our professors (Dr. Steven Kang) who was replaced with Dr. Gordon Isaac. Dr. Isaac is teaching on the spiritual renewal portion of the course (revivals and renewal movements focusing on the Reformation and Great Awakening this term) and Dr. Ray Pendleton is teaching on the "systems" part of the course (how a family, congregation and church operate as a system and how you effect change in those systems).

The rest of the day was spent looking over the time period we will be studying (Reformation 1500's, Pietism 16-1700's and the Great Awakenings in the 1700's and 1800's). It actually is quite fascinating and I'm finding a lot of parallels with our current cultural and church situation. If we don't know or understand our history we will be destined to repeat it. Who was it who said that? Any guesses?

I'll try to post most days as I'm down here and maybe even provide a few pictures. You can see the campus by looking on the website. You can also see where we are staying by looking at the website for the Marriott Residence Inn.