This semester is one of capstone projects:

• Writing a research paper that requires an advanced level of research and scholarship
• Teaching a class for 10 weeks on the topic of Small Group Leadership
• Taking a class that discusses the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament, translating both Hebrew and Greek
• Preaching topically: working through the analysis multiple passages to speak to key topics, and then crafting and delivering a compelling message.

It’s been a long couple of months so far, and a few more are yet to come…but I am glad to be able to put the small pieces of my training together to make a coherent set of skills that will help me as a minister.

These days, it seems that the greatest challenge is simply dealing with the stress: wanting to do anything but more schoolwork, and yet being unwilling to balance my time between important non-school things, because the demands of the semester are so heavy upon me.

Oh how I hope that next summer really feels like freedom. People often think of me as a great student, but the truth is, I would much rather have a 40-hour a week job than be here. I am only here because God called me to DTS, and because He has put a passion on my heart to invest in and assist Him in the work of changing lives, 40+ hours a week. Ph.D? Not on your life, and only if God demands it of me!

Anyway, I needed to vent a bit, so there it is.

Pray for me. It’s not easy being a seminary student.