The Blessings of a Learnng Community

I love the fact that for the past forty-three years, I’ve been privileged to be a part of a university community – maybe best described as a learning community. Despite my age and the inevitable reality that I won’t have this privilege forever – I’m determined to take advantage of learning.

One of the intriguing books I’m reading at the moment is Learning to Speak God from Scratch by Jonathan Merritt. Teaching a full load at Point with other important responsibilities doesn’t leave tons of time for reading for pleasure, but I’m working my way through this book – it speaks to what I do every day and what I need to help Point students do as well.

I constantly start my semester classes out with the idea that in order to be a good interpreter of Scripture one must [a] believe that Scripture is the trustworthy word of God; [b] Jesus is who the Bible says He is; and [c] language is a reliable means of communication. It isn’t unusual to get some pushback on [c]! It doesn’t sound quite as theological as [a] and [b]. But it really is – what other creatures did God create who have our language gifts? And didn’t God “speak the world into existence” and declare through Isaiah that because we don’t behave and think like He does, He gave us “His Word” which has power? And Paul reminds us to “let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly” and the writer of Hebrews declares that Word to be “living and active . . .” I can’t forget that the Word “that was God” ultimately “became flesh and made its dwelling among us.”

All of those texts have some relationship to the idea of language – the gift uniquely given to humans.

I say all of that to get to the point that Merritt talks about “a child’s language acquisition window.” That led me to some Google searches where I read all sorts of interesting things about how humans learn language.

It was fascinating. I thought – there are people in this learning community who know more about this than I do. Before long I was involved in a conversation with Dr. Susan Ryan, a colleague at Point. Next thing I knew my daughter Sarah (who teaches communication at Point) and Dr. Jenn Craft, one of our biblical studies professors. For me, it was an amazing conversation.

Later in the afternoon some of the biblical studies faculty, Dr. Holly Carey, Dr. Jenn Craft and I met with Point’s admission counselors talking to them about the biblical studies department and what one can do with a biblical studies degree from Point. That too was a fascinating conversation. We have some incredibly gifted faculty members in biblical studies at Point. One of the things I pointed out was that at Point, a preaching major doesn’t just learn from one faculty member. Dr. Jim Donovan, Dr. Jim Street, and I all teach preaching classes.  Unlike my own experience both in college and in graduate school where there was only one professor to learn from, a Point student gets a much broader opportunity to learn. That reality is true in a variety of areas in our department as well.

We also talked about Point’s biblical studies minor. Every Point student – no matter his or her major – must take a minor in biblical studies of fifteen hours. Those courses are The Drama of Scripture; Jesus: the Focus of Scripture; Scripture: How to Use It; Christ, Culture, and Career; and any other course from the biblical studies faculty. Those courses are taught by qualified faculty who believe that the heart of what we do at Point is centered in Scripture, the trustworthy Word of God. It’s hard to imagine a better investment parents could make in the education of their children than this gift!

Frequently my day at Point begins around the Keurig getting a cup of coffee. It isn’t unusual to engage in a conversation with colleagues Dr. Darryl Harrison and Dr. Dennis Glenn. It is so refreshing to have a conversation with bright people who are interested in a wide range of topics.

On a regular basis, I hang out with Dr. Greg Moffatt – a brilliant man of many abilities. He says I work on his theology. I say I get free therapy. What I know for sure is that my life is better because of his friendship. Another colleague, Dr. DJ Dycus often stops by my office. Those are always intriguing conversations – often about books and literature.

I get to hang out with science professors like Dr. Dedra Woolfolk and Donnie Cook. Social scientists like Andrea Pope-Smith, Simone Cox, and Trish Stuart. This list could go on and on. Who isn’t blessed with a conversation with Dr. Kim Macenczak who has forgotten more history than most people will ever know?

I haven’t even mentioned the fact that this learning community is populated by some great staff members – many of whom provide opportunities for learning. And what about students? Just the past Wednesday I spent an hour with six great young men in my Adventure Group. That was after teaching three classes that morning, populated by young men and women who will change the world as we know it. Frequently I teach for CGPS and right now I have 19 wonderful adults learning how to better interpret Scripture. Lots of colleagues there as well that are great sources of learning! Dr. Chris Davis, Dr. Joshua Rice, and Dr. Lee Reese are great resources for me.

And to think, I get paid every two weeks for doing what I would pay for the privilege of doing if I could make the mortgage payment without a salary!

God is doing some amazing things at Point. We aren’t perfect. Sometimes we mess up. But when all is said and done, I can’t help but thank God for the privilege of going to work (not the right word, really) every day and hang out in a learning community where God is so obviously at work!

To Tell the Truth

 
 

Many of us reading this will remember the original version of the television game show, To Tell The Truth. It ran on CBS from 1956-1968 and was produced by the well-known Goodson-Todman team. People like John Cameron Swayze, Kitty Carlisle, Gene Rayburn, Tom Poston, Bud Collyer, and Gary Moore were a part of the show’s appeal. Johnny Carson was on the panel in 1956!

The plot of the game was that three people would come before a panel of four people and tell a story about their lives. Two were imposters, one was telling the truth. The panel’s job was to try and determine who was telling the truth. 

The show has had several remakes and, according to one source I read, has had at least one episode broadcast in seven consecutive decades. The Price is Right is the only other game show for which that is true. 

We are living in an age when, deep within our own hearts, we may be wishing that someone would simply “tell the truth.” The twenty-four hour news cycles bombast us with “breaking news” and “news alerts” about things we have no way of knowing what the real truth is. Depending on your political point of view, we often pre-determine that some news outlets lie, others tell the truth. But how do we know?

But it isn’t just the media. The Me Too movement has generated all sorts of indicators that over the years no one had the courage “to tell the truth.” Now that some have decided “to tell the truth” about things that happened to them, we are discovering that they themselves didn’t “tell the truth” about what they did to others.

What about the Penn State abuse issue and its cover up? Or the US Olympics gymnastics problems? Or the current Ohio State football issues? 

If all of those kinds of issues aren’t challenging enough – the news is frequently littered with stories of churches where pastors and other leaders simply did not “tell the truth” about what was going on behind the scenes.

One of the issues that makes “telling the truth” so important is that truth telling is a character issue more than a behavior issue. I often tell students that there is no “behavior” issue I won’t try and help them address appropriately. But, if you don’t “tell the truth” about the issue, that’s a character issue and is much harder to fix unless we repent and “tell the truth.” 

There is so much in our culture right now that is disturbing. I can’t help but think if we would follow Paul’s advice in Colossians 3:9, “Stop lying to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with is practices,” we could take a huge step in the right direction of “pursuing what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding.” (Romans 14:19)

To Tell the Truth – more than a game show title!