My very own Masters of Divinity // August 26, 2007

My desk is a mess. I am working on several projects as I always am. On my right is the stack of unorganized notes about the Brigade that we are about to start training up laying under my beret and keys. On the other side of it is another stack of unorganized notes about the (my first ever) Marriage Enrichment Retreat that I am planning for the Brigade. I'm very excited about it. I believe that its going to be a great help to a good number of soldiers. We are going to take them out to St. Simon's Island off the coast of GA to Epworth By the Sea for a Friday Night through Sunday Lunch Marriage Retreat. David (CH Clark) and I will be doing the teaching. Oh, and under that is the stack of receipts that I need to turn in along with the paperwork so that I can get my travel pay for the training I did up in Wisconsin.

I'm not entirely sure what is under that... I think I see a plastic baggie with some trail mix... not sure... don't really want to know...

Ok, the point of this entry. Deep Sigh. Besides that, (those are my special projects in addition to my daily duties) I need to take my LAST FINAL EXAM!!!

That's right,

I am at the end of my MDiv.

Finally. I could not be more happy about it. Sara made me promise take a few years off before I take on another graduate degree... and I will... if I can avoid it. I am not exactly sure what I'm going to do in the mean time. I have either been in school or teaching school since I was five years old except for the years I spent in Iraq. I tried to go to school while I was there but just could not make it work. Something about priorities, mission essential, and the struggle with caring. It happens. This will be my second Masters Degree and my goal is to eventually have a PhD. We'll see...

Finishing my Masters of Divinity has become a priority for me since returning from Iraq and coming back on Active duty. I believe (and its looking more and more like its true) that since the Army lowered its educational requirements for the chaplaincy (it used to be an MDiv or 90 hours of Graduate work just to become a chaplain) to an MA in ministry with at least 72 hours of graduate work - the MDiv would not just fade away. I believe that with the glut of chaplains that have combat experience now, there has to be something that becomes the discriminator between one chaplain and the next for promotion. This is especially true when the overwhelming majority of the chaplains in the Army are protestants and many of those are evangelical - if you are a "low density faith group" chaplain - i.e. LDS, Catholic, Muslim, Rabi etc - you don't have a large group to compete against. Us evangelical Protestants have a much bigger pool to swim in. Therefore, in order to compete better, having finished my MDiv is going to close the gap a little. I would encourage anyone that has not finished their MDiv to go ahead and make it happen. I know it sounds very self serving and materialistic but at the end of the day, in order to get promoted in the Army, you have to compete. It's a pyramid. The higher you go in rank, the fewer positions are open to you.

That said, the classes I had to take this year were classes I have been putting off since I had no real desire to take them. Now, I'm at the end of my degree program and I have to take them. They are:

Church Growth - this class I was putting off. I really don't like classes like this because I'm not entirely sure that they are a valid study. Its fine if you want to implement some modern marketing skills into your church - but to base an entire class on how to make your church "rise above the masses" and "get people in the doors and keep them" just rubs me the wrong way. I was avoiding the class but it was time to pay the piper. And, yes, it was exactly what I though it would be and more. When your textbooks are: "The Purpose Driven Church," "The Everyday Guide to Church Growth," Biblical Church Growth," and "Spiritual Leadership," you can imagine just what kind of class it was.

Not that such classes don't have their place, I'm just not sure what that place would be.

Biblical Counseling - I had high expectations of this class. Since becoming a chaplain, I have been taking every counseling class I could get my hands on and still be able check the necessary ones off my checksheet. The counseling class I had last semester "Ethical Issues Related to Counseling," was fantastic!! It was extremely helpful in both its scope and application. This class was more of a theology class than an actual counseling class. It was a good class and gave out good information, but it was not the most helpful class I have taken. I am not a counselor that subscribes to the idea that every issue we go through has a verse in Scripture that will get us through it. I believe the Bible has a place in counseling and so do good, practical, responsible methods. I do not really ascribe to one particular method - I view them as tools in my toolbox - I pick the one that is going to be the most helpful in a particular situation. Perhaps in another post I will expand on my philosophy as a counselor. Incidently, every minister that considers the chaplaincy as a ministry needs have a full understanding of his or her personal philosophy of counseling. It is vital since you never know who is going to walk into your door and counseling, for most chaplains, is the largest part of their ministry.

New Testament Intro. (I know, I know - I'm taking a 520 Level class at the end of my MDiv. Here's the deal: I needed one more New Testament course to complete the degree. NT Intro was waived, but I did not get advanced standing for it - I used those credits up on other courses, so I was going to take either Revelation (a 700 level course) or I Corinthians (a 500 Level course). Being that I really don't care much about any of the offerings that I was looking at, I decided that I would take the easy route and do the class on I Corinthians; I figured that I would be able to knock it out fairly easily. I really didn't have the time to do any of the classes, but if I don't do it now, I'll never get it done. So I registered for it.

Then I got the syllabus. Yeah, this was a 500 level class that required, in addition to all the regular reading, quizzes, exams, discussion questions - an online class usually takes me about 2-3 hours a week to get the work done + the paper. However this class required not just all that but also FOUR 20 PAGE PAPERS! Yeah, that was not going to fly. There was now way I could do that class plus two others, plus do my full time chaplain training work! So, I dropped the class and took Introduction to the New Testament. It's a great class and exactly what its title promises - and introduction to the NT. 

All that to say - I'M DONE!!! Thats it! Finished!! 

Hooah....