Tag Archive - seminary

Jack of All Trades: Interview with Ryan Burns

May 29, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 2 Comments

ryanI’ve recently come to know Ryan Burns (through Twitter of course). Ryan is a great guy, and really hooked me up with Logos which is whom he works for. As I’ve gotten to know him a little more online, I’ve come to realize just how gifted he is, and how many things he has his hands in. I’ve also come to appreciate the things he has to say on boundaries, priorities, family time, and his advice to “kill your feed reader.” If you don’t know Ryan through his evangelism of Logos, you might know him through the site he founded, Going to Seminary.

So check out this interview with him, and if you have questions about Logos (it’s an awesome software, which I will be blogging more about as I get more proficient at it), then he is your man. Or if you need some wordpress customization, check out Design Simple.

Before leaving for seminary you had spent 8 years as a college campus pastor, and I’m wondering what the best part about working with college students was?  What do you miss about college ministry?

Pizza. I miss pizza.

When I worked on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University there was a pizza joint near campus called Piccolas. I’ve probably had several hundred slices of pizza there, talking with students about life, faith, the gospel, the future… that is the thing I loved the most about campus ministry, student on the cusp of the rest of their lives.  They are at college searching for a degree, a spouse, and a future.  In the midst of that I had the opportunity to point them to the gospel as the thing that defines, drives, and makes sense of all the questions, concerns, and struggles they faced.

The best part of working with college students has to be their zeal.  There is simply nothing like seeing a college student who really gets the gospel. There is a driving passion in their eyes and nothing is impossible.  They pray fervently, they believe deeply, and they fearlessly seek to engage their campus with truth of Jesus Christ.

I could probably go on for a long time about how great campus ministry is, but I’ll simply say what I’ve always believed about campus ministry, “change the campus, change the world.”

I love that the impetus for starting the Going to Seminary website is because you didn’t find the necessary resources needed when you Googled about families going to seminary.  Do you find that a lot of your ideas for projects and ventures come out of looking for something, finding it’s not that, then coming in to fill that need?

I wish all my ventures were so noble.  Most of the time I’m just trying to find ways to pay the bills. When I started GTS it really was because there was nothing out there about families going to seminary.  We were in a place of transition and I thought God was leading us to go to seminary, but I really just wanted to hear what it was like from someone like me… a wife, two kids, and in his 30′s… How hard was it? What was I getting my family into? But I couldn’t find anything.

Over time GTS has grown and changed.  I was blessed to have a great group of folks who started out as regular readers and commenters who ended up contributing to the blog and offering a variety of experiences and points of view.  Now that I’m not in seminary I don’t have the time to devote to the site, but is encouraging to see that it is still very well trafficked and I still get thank you notes from people who have found answers to the tough questions about life in seminary.

As for other projects and ventures that come up… I don’t know… I’m just always looking around at stuff.  I think I have an entrepreneurial spirit and like to start things. Continue Reading…

First Kindle…And now Logos!

March 10, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 13 Comments

3694Moving from Hardcopy to Digital
I first shared with you my excitement after getting the Kindle after Father’s Day of 2008. For someone who loves books, lots of them, it was a huge step. Leading up to that I had been weaning my library down (from about 3-4 thousand books down to a few hundred–about a 6 year process which picked up intensity in the last year or so).

Why did I do that?
Ego & Identity: My books were sort of like an ego boost and homage to my graduate school degrees, as if my books made me smart.  And my identity started getting wrapped up in them.  They had become too important. They were taking over my life basically.

  • Cost: Books are expensive to buy, shelve, move, etc.
  • Space: Just didn’t have room and we didn’t want them all over the house.
  • Amazon Kindle: I could take as many books with me as I wanted, and they were cheaper than hardcopy/paperback books.

    • Continue Reading…

    The Changing Seminary–The Changing Pastor

    June 10, 2008 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 4 Comments

    Scott McClellan of Collide Magazine has an excerpt of an interview/article with Craig Detweiler on the the state of seminary, Culture and Seminary. In what I read so far, Craig brings up some interesting points.

    COLLIDE: It seems to me that the majority of seminaries spend the majority of their students’ time focusing on 1st-century culture. Is there going to be a shift toward incorporating 21st-century culture as well? Or is that ahead of its time?

    Detweiler: No, that’s the right question. Seminaries were created in an era where ministers were prepared to have the most information. The ministers were supposed to be the most educated and the most informed about the Scriptures.

    COLLIDE: The most literate maybe?

    Detweiler: The most literate. And none of that has necessarily changed, but we’re now dealing with an age of too much information. And so, the job is to help people sort through all of the inputs to find out what matters amongst the avalanche of information. It’s about pointing people to reliable sources, pointing people to credible interpretations, inviting people into ongoing dialogue with their friends, neighbors, and coworkers around the pop cultural expressions. So, it’s moving the seminary education from pastor as most informed to pastor as most insightful because people no longer have an information problem. It’s not about lack of information. It’s about lack of discernment. Information is available to all. Wisdom and discernment remain rarer than ever.

    COLLIDE: So, is that change going happen at seminaries anytime soon?

    Detweiler: The best seminaries for the 21st century will be born in the 21st century.

    Question: Will pastors be threatened, or are they threatened by the available information to the laity, information that was once privy to them through all their education and study?