Week One in Review

Well, I made it to the end of week one and i am not running for the hills yet.  I sat down to figure out exactly how much work I have to do, and it is a little overwhelming.  For the 17 semester hours that I am taking (the recommended number for someone who wants to finish the degree program in 3 years) I have 13 books to read, 29 papers to write [17 of them are 5 pages or less, but still..,] and 11 examinations to pass before December 15.  That along with coming up with meaningful lessons for Sunday school and Wednesday evening services at my church, and trying to keep my marriage together (which one class will actually give me credit for going on dates with my wife) and seeing my kids.  I guess the one thing that I am not going to do is have a life.  Oh well.

On Thursday's I have Principles of Spiritual formation, a class designed to make sure that all the Bible study in seminary doesn't become just head knowledge, and that we have an outlet to make it practical and applicable.  I was skeptical at first, like thinking that it will be a waste of time, but after the class, I was stoked.  As I alluded to before, this class requires married students to spend 3 hours a week "dating" their spouse.  It is called the Marriage Enrichment portion and it is 20% of our grades.  Other things that we have to do for the class include a 4 hour and 8 hour retreat of solitude to "be with" God.  I am not sure exactly what that means, but the instructor was adamant that we could not take anything with us, and we were to go somewhere that we wouldn't be distracted, and do nothing but sit, or stand, in the presence of God.

My longest class of the week is a 4 hour Old Testament Survey.  I was dreading this one too, but it turned out to be really cool.  It is another one of the ROBO-classroom classes where people from all over the country are joining in.  The professor, Dr. Josberger is really excited about the subject and her excitement makes what could be a very long, very boring class actually very interesting.  I am looking forward to diving into the word in that class.

One thing that I find interesting about Seminary is that while each class has required texts and the professors refer to the occasionally, most of them say that you don't even need to bring the text to class, just read, and in most cases write a paper proving that you have digested the information.  In only one class this whole week did a Professor say "Okay, now take out the book and turn to page......" and of course, that was the one book I was still waiting to get from Amazon.

I have so much work ahead of me, but I feel like this blog is an important way to decompress and share with others what I am learning.  I have written a lot this week, and I probably won't be able to keep up the pace, but I will make sure to check in regularly and I would covet the prayers of all of you while we are on this journey.

DAB 8-31-2012


I want to thank my wife Emily for all the support and hard work she is putting in.  Not only did she buy all my books for me online (not because I am incapable, but because she is great at finding deals online.)  She is also working part time, working hard to get our new apartment in order, and take care of the kids.  She is a real Proverbs 31 woman.  I love you!!!

Day 2 or 3, I can't remember

Well, today was day 3 of the semester, but I didn't have class Tuesday, so really it was day 2 of classes for me.  On Tuesday, there was a convocation chapel in which the whole student body (college, graduate school, and seminary) all got together to dedicate the year.  Dr. Dan Lockwood, who is the president of Multnomah and also a PCHS graduate, gave a great speech about finding and being a mentor.  He used the example of Barnabas in the book of Acts to encourage every student to find someone who could be an encouraging friend.  It got me thinking of all the people who were mentors to me in the past.  I can think of Jim Budlong, Don Ebel, and Evan Irwin who encouraged me to foster my musical talents at a young age, and use them to glorify the Lord.  Bob Barber and Nancy Parker who inspired my love of music, Choral music in particular.  Dr. Scott Tuomi and Dr. Bruce Browne who were instrumental in my studies at Portland State.  Tamara Anderson really came alongside me as I began by teaching career at PCHS.  Jon Stuber and more recently Paul Quarino as partners in music ministry.  But like Dr. Lockwood, I would have to agree that the people who were my biggest mentors and encouragers were also my parents.  Andrew and Diane, thank you for always supporting me.  Being there, and being an inspiration to me.  I know that you may not feel like it all the time, but I am who I am because of you.  The sacrifices you make and the blood sweat and tears that you both poured out.  THANK YOU.

Today, in class I was beginning to notice a couple themes that were prevailing in almost all of my classes thus far.  The first one is the idea of  Sola and Prima Scriptura.  Only Scripture, and First Scripture.  Multnomah has had the slogan for many year "If it's Bible you want, you want Multnomah" or something along those lines, but it really is true that we use the scripture as the basis for everything that we study.  In Theology we talked about the Wesleyan Quadrilateral which is seen here:

No it isn't the Wesley from ST:TNG, and it isn't even a real quadrilateral.  (even I know that and I am horrible at math and geometry.)  What it is are the 4 areas to be considered when studying Systematic Theology.  Reason, Tradition, and Experience; all wrapped in a large tortilla shell of the scriptures.

In both theology and Biblical Interpretation we discussed the concept of Presuppositionless Exegesis.  That concept says that you cannot study the scriptures (or anything else for that matter) without bringing your own "Baggage" for lack of a better term.  Our experiences and upbringing will always effect the way we look at the Bible.

Another thing that came up in both classes was the story of the rich young man who wanted to become a disciple, but wasn't willing to give up everything he had to follow Christ.  This story really hit home for me, even though I was by no means "rich," I did live a comfortable life.  We owned a home. Had some nice things, and now it seems like we have given most of it up to follow the call of Christ.

There is a pretty adequate workout facility here on campus, and we are free to bring one guest with us, so if anyone wants to work our for free, let me know.

I have my First "Bible Class" on Friday, the assignment on the class website is to come to class having read all of Genesis. It took three days, but I finished tonight.  Now, I was pretty familiar with most of the stories and characters from Sunday school, and bible class at PC, but there were some ones that I don't ever remember talking about like the raping and inscest stories.  I wonder how that discussion is going to go?

DAB-8-29-12  

Day 1

I know that I said I wouldn't write every day, but I thought that I would share some impressions from my first day.
1)  8:00 AM is really early for your brain to comprehend systematic theology.  Not impossible, but difficult.  My professor is Dr. Metzger, who is considered "The Hard One," out of all the people who teach the introductory class.  I found him passionate, and fascinating.  I won't bore you with all the class notes, but I will share 2 quotes from class that I thought were interesting.

1) "Because iron sharpens iron doesn't me cream-puffs sharpen cream-puffs

and more seriously

2) Theology, or the study of God, is not divorced from practical application. Just because we study "God" and the scriptures, it doesn't excuse us from not applying what we learn and know.

I am finding a common trend here that we had at Portland Christian, and that is Biblical Integration.  Seeing every subject with God at the center of it.

I found my Foundations of Christian Counseling and Practicum rather droll,  but maybe that was because it was the first day.  We watched a Chuck Colson video, and that was pretty interesting, but it had nothing to do with counseling, so I am not sure why we wasted the 40 minutes on that.

I enjoyed my last class of the day.  It is called Foundations.  It is taught by Dr. Redman, the Academic Dean of the Seminary.  I find him approachable and knowledgeable. (Emily and I were guests in his home last Friday evening. He told me today during a break that after we left, because the baby needed to get to bed, that several people were playing his piano and singing.  He said that they even broke out the Schubert Lieder books, and that I would have been a good edition to that part of the party.  He invited us to come over again and sing some with them.)  The class is a Multnomah Live class, which means that students in Portland, Reno, Anchorage, and Seattle all interact with a pretty amazing teleconferencing system, as well as students can stream the lectures live anywhere in the world (without the interaction.)   The camera follows the prof around the room because he wears this lanyard with a transponder in it, and when we ask a question in class, we push this button on our table, and the camera focuses on us, so everyone can see it.  ROBO-CLASSROOM!!

I am glad that I have no classes tomorrow.  I have a hefty chunk of reading to do.  I need to read all of Genesis by Friday, plus a lot of other readings from my texts.  Emily and I also hope to go grocery shopping and keep unpacking from the move.

SIDE NOTE:  I looked around for the guy who gave us the money and he was no where to be found.  I asked a guy who lives 2 houses over and he said he didn't know of anyone named Jason in our complex.  There are 31 Jason's in the Multnomah Directory, but I am not going to go through each one to try to find the guy.

DANIEL-8-27-2012

GOD MONEY

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

Tomorrow starts another chapter in our family's journey.  I will begin my divinity studies at Multnomah Seminary.  I though it might be interesting to document our journey on this blog.  I won't promise to write every day, but maybe once a week so follow us on this great path.

It is Sunday evening before the first day of class.  Today was a long day.  We had service this morning, and I just felt off because the worship team was forced to stop rehearsal before we were finished.  I felt disrespected, but I was able to let it go.  After church we had to take our family dog Rocco to the Oregon Humane Society, because we are not allowed to have pets in campus housing, and we were not able to find a home for him on our own.  The nice thing to know is that the OHS is a "no kill" shelter, and if they accept your pet, they will care for it until they find a family.  Rocco was like our first child, and it was very hard to see him go.  

When we got back to our new place (after drowning our sorrows in Yo-Cream) I was sitting outside doing some work for my church job when I was reminded by one of our neighbors that there was a free dinner for all the Family Housing residents.  FREE FOOD!!!!!  We were able to meet some of our neighbors, and Aurelia got to play with a lot of the kids.  

When we got back to our apartment Emily was sitting outside watching the kids while I unpacked some of the boxes inside.  The door was open and I could hear one of the other residents introducing himself to Emily.  I went out to say hello, and just as I reached the door I heard the neighbor say "I don't know why, but I feel like God is telling me to give you this." He handed Emily some money (a lot of money actually) and walked away.  I was stunned.  I had been on the other side of this situation, feeling the prompting of the Holy Spirit to do something, or say something to someone, but I could not remember a time that I was on the receiving end of it.  I pondered why God would want a total stranger to give us $100, and I thought about it through several boxes of fragile china I was putting into the cabinet, and I think I came up with an answer.

In the bible, when Jesus did a miracle, it wasn't because the person needed to be healed, or the people needed to be fed or so on.  Jesus did miraculous signs and wonders for one reason; to prove that he was the Son of God.  Period.  That is also why this guy gave us the money.  It was God speaking to me, telling me "Daniel, This is God, I am going to provide for you."  

Even though I have been amazed at the doors that have flung wide open to get us to where we are right now, I have continued to doubt whether or not this is really what I should be doing, especially because of the financial factor.  I don't really want to take out $60,000 in loans over the next 3 years, but I believe that by that stranger handing us money, God has assured me that He is Jehovah Jireh, my provider, and that I only need to cast my cares on Him, and allow God to do "Godlike" things for us.

Daniel A. Burnett-8/26-2012