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| Lake Michigan |
It's
been a while. At least you can be reassured that the reason that I
haven't written for a while is because I have had my head in the books!
My dear wife has very rightly been on my case, so here is an update of
my studies so far.
The Semester began with an intensive on Church
planting. This was an interesting course that looked at the ins and out
of church planting. This course was taken by Rev Danny Hyde. For the
course we had to read a text that he had written "Planting, Watering,
Growing: Planting Confessionally Reformed Churches in the 21st Century."
(No I was not paid to endorse the book!)
While Church Planting is something that I support fully, I would
like to begin my pastoral career in an established church, at least in
the first instance (Much to the relief of Hanneke).
I
am taking a full load this Semester, which means lots of work to
complete. For New Testament we are looking at the Pauline Epistles.
Rather than taking a book by book approach we are looking at the overall
themes through his epistles. We are required to read through all of the
epistles as part of our required reading, as well as having completed
an isagogics exam. We have been looking at the two age concept that
undergirds his writings, and we are currently learning about Christ's
eschatological accomplishment. (Big words I know, I had to Google them
myself as well!)
For Old Testament we are look at Revelation in the
Period of the Monarchy. We have flown through 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2
Kings, and are just beginning to get our feet wet in Isaiah. I am
looking at Isaiah 52 and 53 for an exegetical paper, and will be writing
a sermon on 1 Kings 6:8-23. We have to preach the sermon in class,
which is always a daunting task, a tough audience. I have a Hebrew Exam
on 1 Kings 20-22 this Friday.
In Doctrinal Studies we studying Pneumatology, the
Work of the Holy Spirit. We have looked at the person of the Holy
Spirit, and are now working our way through the ordo salutis, the order
of salvation. Lot's to learn, and a mid-term exam on Thursday.
In Church History we have just passed through
Medieval Church, and are beginning to look at the Reformers. Last week
was Zwingli. An exam for this subject last week went pretty well,
although there was a lot of material to cover.
That's all the subjects, but for each of them are papers to write, as well as sermons for the Old and New Testament classes.
I
have completed all my preaching requirements for this year, and will
probably not do many more. Having said that I am beginning Spring Break
at the end of this week, with a trip to Calgary to preach at the same
church where I was last year. Combine that with taking Chapel on
Wednesday it is a busy week.
I also had the opportunity to spend a day in prison
last week Monday. Danville Prison in Illinois has a Reformed Seminary.
But I'll write a separate blog post on that sometime in the next couple
of weeks.
For now it is back to Hebrew translation and vocabulary review.
Hopefully the next update will be a little sooner than the next one…
Albert
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