When I was 11 years old, I recognized that I needed a Savior after hearing a couple of class mates talking about being sure that they would go to Heaven if they died in some type of accident. That week, alone, I read John 3:16, a verse I probably already had memorized, and asked Jesus to come into my heart. I don’t remember all I prayed, but I do remember saying, “Jesus, as much as I know how, I give you my life right now.”
A couple of months later, I made a public profession of faith in the church my parents attended, Mt. Zion Free Will Baptist Church in Thompsonville, IL. Shortly after that, I joined the church.
I attended Rend Lake College and then Southern Illinois University (Go salukis!). During my senior year I became aware of God’s calling on my life and made a commitment to do whatever he wanted me to do. For several months, I was given opportunities to preach in local churches in the area. I graduated with a degree that had a major made up of a combination of thee minors: Chemistry and Zoology formed the equivalent of a major and I also had a minor in speech which I picked up in my senior year, thinking it would be helpful with the call to preach.
My denomination did not have a graduate school, so I attended three different seminaries: Memphis Theological Seminary, Midwestern Baptist Seminary, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I returned to Memphis and graduated there with an M.Div.
After that I attended Luther Rice Seminary (now Luther Rice University) and had my first experience, albeit an extremely valuable one, with individualized and distance education. I graduated with a D.Min.
Along with pastoring, I have a background in writing and Christian Education. I was associated with Accelerated Christian Education in one way or another for fifteen years. I helped start a Christian school, worked as supervisor and principal, served as a consultant, and worked at headquarters as a writer, editor, and professor for their small Bible College.
My apprehensions, at times, are if I indeed will give this effort the time that is needed. More than that, will I be able to devote the steadiness that will perhaps be required. I think, however, that the apprehensions are slight and that the experience will be quite valuable.
My experience with online learning and teaching has to do with some indirect, transferable skills, and some direct skills. The indirect skills have to with the experience with Accelerated Christian Education. That organization was a pioneer in the mid-seventies in the area of individualized instruction. I experienced their process both on the field and from the standpoint of curriculum development, contributing heavily to their Earth Science, Biology, and Physical Science courses. Another indirect influence came through work done for Luther Rice University. Again, LRU was a pioneer in the area of distance education. I found the individual projects to be very demanding, and took advantage of every seminar, and tutorial that I could. Seminars and tutorials are now required. At that time they were optional. A direct experience is that of teaching an online course through Universal Class.com. I see that the format we are using in this course will perhaps be quite different and more interactive. I do look forward to being involved in this online community.
I discovered Rockbridge Seminary through The Ministry Tool Box. I have always been interested in mentoring and encouraging others and see this as a very good, challenging, and interesting supplemental ministry to my current pastorate.
My areas teaching and my ministry expertise include perhaps a somewhat unusual combination. As I said, my undergraduate degree was actually composed of three minors, although the Chemistry/Zoology combination serves as the equivalent of a major. About half of my ministry consisted of serving as “the second man.” I was either an associate pastor or served on a pastoral staff. The other half has been in the area of being the senior pastor. Some of my areas of expertise are science, speech/writing/communications, and pastoral studies.
I am quite excited about being a part of this online community, and can see that many valuable insights will be forthcoming from each of us as we participate.
Now, I've done my part (even if I did just copy and past it from somewhere else). I look forward to seeing your intros. Please feel free to comment on this post. Maybe we have something in common that neither of us were aware of. Since I copied and pasted, this might have been a little "overkill." Yours does not have to be as long, but please do tell us about yourself.
Just scroll down post your introduction in the Week 1 Posts comments section. New participants are welcome.
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