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Saturday, May 31, 2008

Graduation Day

Well today is the day. After 5 years I am graduating seminary. I was on the fast track. (I know sarcasm doesn't express well though written word, so to let you know, that was sarcasm). I am receiving the Masters of Arts in Educational Leadership from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.

So the question of the day is, why the MAEL? Why not the Masters of Divinity (MDiv, the big dog)? There are 3 answers, but one I really want to focus in on. I know you are wondering about the other two, which are that I don't want to be lead pastor and I love education. The main one is that I think the MAEL should be the degree of choice for everyone. Ok, at least an MDiv with an Ed emphasis. Here is why. The basic bare bones definition of education is knowledge or stimulus that causes a change in behavior. Touch a hot stove, you won't do it again, you've learned. That is why the Bible teaches us to spank our children if we love them. Learning to obey because of a negative stimulus now is easier than having to learn from the negative stimulus later, like unemployment, divorce or prison. It will be interesting to see Mass. in a few decades now that they've banned spanking.

The purpose of education is to change behavior. The purpose of Christianity is to change behavior. It's not a coincidence, Christianity is the best form of "learning" in existence. Discipleship, evangelism, preaching, they are all forms of education. If we are really focused on transformational change in the lives of people, we need to focus on education.

When you combined education and preaching, you can touch every person the way they learn and understand. You combined education with evangelism, you present the gospel in a way that is personally meaningful to each person. (I wrote a book on that, if you want a copy, let me know). Discipleship is education, if you take ed out, you have nothing.

So if you are in ministry, learn your educational principles. Sure, Greek and Hebrew is important, but if you can't teach anyone anything that you learn from Greek and Hebrew, what good is it?

1 comment:

  1. Great blog. Thanks for the question at the end...it's something that we should ask ourselves each day as we look to live a Christ-centered life.

    I look forward to reading your books!

    ReplyDelete