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No Matter What Your Educational Goal is, Be Deliberate
If you have had a chance to read the last blog entry “Choosing College, A Hierarchy” and have had a chance to look over the flow chart, hopefully one of the conclusions you came to was: You have to take ownership of not only your education but your future too.
Teaching English at the university level, I have met hundreds of students—all with varied goals and aspirations. I saw a lot. I met students who knew exactly what they wanted to do with their lives and how a college education fit into that vision. I met students who thought the goal of life was to get a college degree. I also met students who had no idea what the goal of their life was, but they thought they should be in college because they thought somehow they would figure out life simply by being in proximity of those who had a firm handle on their own life vision.
One truth I can tell you is this: you have to manage your educational pursuits yourself. Let me reword this three different ways—I feel extremely passionate about this issue and I want to reach as many individuals who do not quite have a vision as possible. You are in charge of your life and thus the things you will or will not do. God has given you life and free will—outline and live a lifestyle that will bring glory to God. Even if you do not believe in God, this makes your life—your limited amount of time here on earth—that much more sacred, do not waste it thinking that you cannot do the things you want to do—spend your life chasing after the worthwhile pursuits you want to do and even if you come up short in the end, no one will ever say you wasted your life, because you tried.
So, this business of choosing what type of education you will pursue is tied intimately in with the overall goal you have as a human being. Do not go to college unless you know what your goal is. Abstain from enrolling in a university until you know what you wish to do with your life. Avoid institutions of higher learning unless you have a vision of your life. If you know what you want to do, say you want to be a doctor, then find a mentor to help you choose the path that makes the most sense and pray on it before you start the admissions ball rolling.
What if I have no idea what to do with my life? The one thing I can tell you is not to go to college—and here’s why. If you were given a package by a friend and they said they needed you to deliver it to a location for them, but they would call and give you the directions later in the day, you surely would not get in your car and start driving anywhere beyond your driveway. You would have no idea where to take the package and you might end up driving for miles in the opposite direction. True, you might end up going in the right direction, but this is not an either or scenario. A compass has 360 degrees of choices: your life has infinitely more than that and you have to decide where you will go—don’t let your friends decide for you.
So what should I do? Sign up to see the world. Volunteer to serve the underserved. Get a job in a car factory. Sign up with your church or local humanitarian organization and dig wells for families in Central America, South America, Africa, and/or Asia. Go see the world. Go see something strange. Go do something ordinary. Go do something unordinary. I am certain when you return, you will know a lot of things that you do not want to do, as well as a few things you do want to do. If you decide you need to go to college after your service, you will be much more engaged and interested in your studies than the majority of your classmates.
But if I don’t go to college right after high school or if I don’t choose the life path my friends and family want me to pursue I’ll be considered a failure. Not true. Would you consider anyone who, during WWII, graduated high school and immediately served over seas and went to college afterward? Not immediately going to college after high school does not disqualify you from ever going to college—bad choices after high school disqualify you from college. I have not met too many high school graduates who did not know what they wanted to do with their life and who also acted completely responsible while attending college and “figuring out” life. These students were idle. They had no group of fellow majors to collaborate with—they were also much less likely to join clubs and other social organizations. What usually happened to these students? They joined a collection of idle or delinquent students who also had no vision for their future and together they simply existed on campus. They participated in activities that I label “Time Travel” activities: e.g., smoking, drinking, drugs, sex, video games, etc.
In moderation and for recreation—when you’ve earned it—some (some is the key word here) of these activities are fine to indulge in (taking into account state and federal laws as well as respect for women and the sacredness of marriage). But, let’s be honest, none of these activities will lead to a successful life or career that fulfills what God calls us to do with our lives (and maybe you want to start a ministry through video games, okay, but you will have to complete a host of other activities to achieve this—playing video games 24/7 will not bring your vision to fulfillment). “Time Travel” activities are available to individuals whether they are in college or taking a year off before starting college. Their temptation is real and it is strong if you do not have a vision for your life. Like driving around with the package in your car waiting for your friend to call, it is tempting to stop at the local tavern and get a burger and a beer—who knows how long it will be before you hear from your friend. The worst occurrence, that I’ve seen happen too often, is an individual realizing their vision for their life, but they have dug themselves into a hole that overwhelms them with despair and they never attempt to realize their vision for their life. They adopt a lesser one, call it their life vision, and in ten to twenty years become disillusioned and claim that the whole life vision thing is a lie—well, if it isn’t your first choice, it is a lie.
Removing yourself from the current American culture is a great way to stimulate deep thoughts about your life, the world, and your place in it. “Time Travel” activities most often deny you deeply reflective moments and deliver you into the future unchanged and uneducated—you have in essence simply hit the skip button for a portion of your life. You will never get that time back. Do not listen to popular culture. You are not a loser or a failure if you decide to go and serve in an underdeveloped country for eight months after high school. Failure is not taking the time to envision your life. Failure is never planning a path to bring about your life’s vision. Failure is never starting in on your life’s vision and purpose because you voluntarily gave up your God-given free will to the culture you live in—a culture that will never truly love you they way you wish to be loved and will never sustain your soul in the way you hunger for it to be sustained. A college degree, in and of itself, will not make you happy.
A college degree is not the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. A college degree, when you pursue your life’s purpose, is like a patch on a quilt. One square is not an overwhelmingly great reason to start a quilt nor will one square—by itself—complete the quilt. The square is a part of the quilt and is there to bring the vision of the quilt, that its maker had, into reality. When you pursue your vision, if you need a degree to bring it to fulfillment, you will earn a degree to help you along your path—but, it should only be done because it is necessary—if it is not necessary, you really are wasting your time and life. A typical undergraduate degree takes 4-5 years of your life. The average lifespan of an American is 80 years (I rounded up from 78.7). That is 5% of your life. That’s not a big deal. Oh no? Add that to the 18 years of your life you must pay until you are recognized as an adult and you are out 27.5% of your life. Deciding to invest 5% of your life into something is a big decision—even bigger if you are considering graduate school.
If you are having trouble getting yourself ready to apply the flow chart to your life and plan a path to reach your vision, I’ll finish this post off with a few activities that can help you generate ideas and get you thinking about what you might like to spend your life doing.
- Figure Out How You Like to Help Others
If you look at great leaders like Jesus, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mother Teresa, what we notice right away is their devotion to others. You hear it all the time from people who have gotten out there and served—it makes them feel satisfied, fulfilled, content. It is not just a bunch of bull that people are trying to get you to believe. Get out there and do some service. Sign yourself up for a whole bunch of different things in your community—small and large. It is extremely unlikely that after a few service missions you will feel the same as before you started. Keep this in mind too, even mentally impaired individuals enjoy helping others—it is simply part of our DNA. It’s who we are, we are helpers.
- What Careers Would Enable You To Do the Service You Enjoy the Most
Reflect back to your service and think about which types of service you enjoyed the most and why. Not everyone likes working with people one-on-one. Some feel best working behind the scenes and remaining anonymous. You have to be honest with yourself what you prefer. Make a list of possible vocations that would enable you to pursue your service preference.
III. Have the Hard Heart-to-Heart With Yourself
Subtract everything—as best you can—from your life vision but you and God. Narrow down your career choices to three. Imagine you develop a rare disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and you know that your body is going to slowly deteriorate and you will lose motor function. What career would you choose despite this physical handicap?
The truth is, if you chose wisely, you don’t have to stop pursuing your passion at 65. If you want to serve through teaching—you can teach for a long time. One of my oldest professors in college was a 90 year-old woman—and she was sharp as a tack. The point is, you are planning for the long haul, so keep in mind, if you are young, feeling all the strong feelings that come with being in your prime, that is great, but it will fade as you get older and you will want to take this into account. There is nothing that breaks my heart more than when an athlete retires and their life is over. Be practical and realistic about what type of service you will be able to continue to do over the course of your lifetime.
Thank you for reading. My name is Joshua R. Franklin. I am a Christian and a writer. Currently I am working toward a Doctorate in Biblical Studies at Colorado Theological Seminary. If you think I’m smart, you can be too, check out where I am getting my Christian education: http://www.seminary.ws.
Accredited or Not Accredited
It is unfortunate, but each year thousands of students fail to ask two crucial questions: is my school accredited and do I need to attend an accredited school to accomplish my future goals and dreams? The repercussions of this failure to examine ones school are not felt until, in many cases, years later. The most emphasized consequence we see occurs when a student needs an accreditation stamp on their diploma, but unfortunately no one informed them of the necessity of attending an accredited institution. The end result is that all of their hard academic work is deemed null and void. They must either begin school again or bitterly go through life with what they have.
There is a reason that this scenario gets a lot of attention, because the individual will not get to reap the benefits of their investment of time and money. However, there is another scenario that plays out, but it does not get as much emphasis, and I will explain why. In this other scenario, students attend an accredited school, but for what they wish to do in their future, they do not actually need a degree that has an accreditation stamp on it. These students will spend years of their life in school becoming educated and will then spend more time than they should paying off the high price of an accredited degree. Now this scenario doesn’t get a lot of emphasis because most students simply accept that college is expensive and you have to pay the fee just like all the other students, so they get their degree, begin their future, and when they look back they point to their education and say it was worth it because they are doing what they want to do in life.
My point is that perhaps a great many students could benefit from having a serious conversation with themselves as to whether accreditation is absolutely necessary (and as I mentioned, for a great many students accreditation is). What about the student whose future does not hinge on an accredited degree? There are still enough professions out there that it is worth examining the accredited or not question. There are a huge number of artists out there who do not need a degree at all—they just need to know how to do what ever it is that they wish to do. Unless they wish to teach at a university, they just need the education and with the cost of an art degree from an accredited institution (google it, the cost will have an effect on your jaw) I think it is absolutely worth questioning the necessity of an accredited degree for all students. Many students could be starting out after college with significantly less debt (or in some cases none at all) if they simply analyzed their situation to see if they really need to pay the accreditation fee.
What exactly does it mean if a school is accredited? Accreditation is a good thing. It means that a school has basically been audited by a third party, the department of education, and after some scrutiny, their academic programs have been approved. Or in other words, a school’s academic programs have been reviewed and it is concluded that a reasonable student who went through the program would receive the education they need to move on and successfully utilize the knowledge and skills offered by the school. Accreditation is a good thing because it helps to ensure quality and thoroughness of academic programs. The downside is that it comes with a high cost and that cost is passed on to students.
Schools that are not accredited do not have such a fee to pass on their students and can offer education that is significantly less expensive. Not accredited does not mean “cake walk” or “diploma mill” or that the school will just give anyone a degree. Some schools that are not accredited do sell degrees, but not all. The same applies to accredited schools, it is not impossible to find an accredited school that passes the majority of its students and not because the quality of their work was deemed acceptable. I can still remember being appalled when I was teaching English for a school and was basically stated, in a meeting, “these are private liberal arts students, you don’t fail them—they are paying too much money.” I don’t teach for that college anymore.
Now, in order to teach English on the college level, yes, I did have to earn multiple accredited degrees. But, to attend seminary, and learn about God, no, I do not necessarily have to have an accredited degree. My situation, however, is not every student’s. The student has to have that honest conversation with themselves about their future and what their future is going to expect from them. I would encourage every student to seek mentorship from someone who has already walked the path.
I want to dispell just a few myths that are out there regarding schools that do not pursue accreditation before the end of this post:
Accredited schools are academically better than non-accredited ones.
I would never subscribe to this as a general rule. When it comes to your education, you do not want a blanket statement to dictate your future—you will want to get in and do your homework on the schools you are interested in. What you will find is that, just like anything else in life—there are great accredited schools and not-so-great ones, just as there are some great unaccredited schools and some not-so-great ones.
An accredited school means I am guaranteed a quality education.
I wish this were the case. However, there is still the human factor. Just because a school’s programs looks good on paper does not guarantee that they will be executed in the classroom to perfection. Any institution will tell you that hiring quality instructors is no easy task. Accredited schools do end up with poor quality instructors who run their classrooms in a way that would not pass accreditation standards if they were individually audited. On the flip-side, there are countless instructors who teach at schools that are unaccredited that, if audited, would pass accreditation standards with flying colors.
Accreditation is really supposed to be a voluntary process—or so it is claimed. However, “voluntary” as it is in conversation, it would be suicide for a university from, say, the Big 10 to forego renewing its accreditation status. So, this raises the question of how voluntary is the process really? It is a bandwagon situation, if you don’t get on it, you aren’t as good as everyone else. Sure, except that one of the best teachers I ever had was a small 90-year-old woman who taught American literature. She did not go to an accredited institution, that is accreditation was not then (when she was in school) as prevalent as it is today. As time goes on, we will have only instructors at accredited institutions who have degrees from institutions that were accredited when they were students.
As I have said, accreditation is meant for good. If you need it for your future, then you need it for your future. I would just tell any future student to take some time and analyze your situation to determine if an accredited education is what you have to have. If you don’t need it, then you don’t necessarily have to pay the high cost of it. You can get a quality education at a price you can afford if you take the time to be deliberate about your education.
By Joshua Franklin, Doctor of Biblical Studies (DBS) student at Colorado Theological Seminary
Brick & Mortar or Online: The Better Conversation
The conversation of “brick and mortar” versus online has been going on since at least the 1970’s. Getting educated through a computer network seemed like a crazy idea. As crazy as it seemed, many educators and former students felt that online education was a threat to the real education, the kind that can only take place at a “brick and mortar” location. Many set out to make sure everyone knew that one was clearly better than the other.
But, what exactly is meant when someone says one is “better” than the other? They actually mean a few different things, and you have to really examine what is being said to determine what they likely intend.
Many mean a higher quality education when they say one is better than the other. I would say that this is something that you would absolutely want to find out if you were checking out various schools, online and onsite. Quality is a big deal. Early online academic programs may not have benefitted from the same types of resources that onsite schools had, but fast-forward to today and things are a bit different than they were 40 years ago. Onsite schools are tripping over themselves to make online education available for their students.
Another interpretation of better could be related to the available social support that accompanies each—but, depending upon your lifestyle, one will have the advantage over the other: e.g., a single parent isn’t likely to be impressed with a school that makes all first years students live in campus housing for their first year; likewise, a theater student attending classes online is going to have a tough time putting together a play when his/her classmates live all over the world. Nevertheless, the social element of education is important and some students make the mistake of prioritizing it above all other factors.
The last interpretation that I am going to mention (and there are others) is prestige—that Harvard is better than any online school. It is also often implied that no online school could ever equal a brick and mortar institution. Prestige comes from reputation and reputations are built over time. Harvard and its Ivy League friends have a few hundred years head start on all online colleges. But, if you are a student who knows that you will need the prestige of a school to get your foot in the door and make your career happen, then you know where you have to go. However, existing physically does not automatically grant an institution prestige nor does it validate the school’s educational programs as quality ones.
If prestige is not a factor in your future career and life, and you are the master of your ego, then you are free to choose a school that meets the educational preparations that you require, first. Once you have narrowed your list down to only the schools that will adequately prepare you to live your life, filter out the schools that will not meet your social needs. This is an important hierarchy to observe because getting an education isn’t a party; it is a preparation for your life to come.
It is more to a person’s advantage to select a school that meets their educational needs and not so much their social preferences than a school in which the student feels right at home but isn’t getting the education they will need. The time it takes to earn a degree is short. A student will soon find him or herself out in the post-college world and lament their waste of time. Often you will hear them claiming and telling all who will listen that college is one big scam.
So what is the difference? If the school adequately prepares you to start your career and live your life fruitfully, you won’t notice a difference. Both settings can provide students with the resources, mentorship, and the technology to receive a quality education. A brick and mortar school may have its own private archives that only its students have access to, but an online student is not bound to a physical location to meet attendance requirements and could feasibly (if finances allow) travel to a museum or adequately comparable location as the private archive. Each could give a rich learning experience.
That a school exists at a physical location does not constitute as valid evidence to support the claim that brick and mortar is better than online—the inverse of this is also false, online is not better than brick and mortar. It is people that make education, no matter the location, better. Quality teachers and quality students trump resources and location every time. Jesus sure didn’t have a physical location that he arrived at every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at ten o’clock sharp. One could make the argument that he was promoting distance education by physically doing the legwork that the Internet can do for us today.
The only difference between brick and mortar and online education is that for some one is better for them and for others the other is better. It depends on the student taking charge and identifying their current and future needs: when this happens, a student has found the path toward excellence. My prediction is that as more and more schools add an online option to their curriculum, this debate of which is better will fade away, as even Harvard offers educational programs online, and the conversation will return to where can a person get the quality education they need to be successful in their future.
Thank you for reading. My name is Joshua R. Franklin. I am a Christian and a writer. Currently I am working toward a Doctorate in Biblical Studies at Colorado Theological Seminary. If you think I’m smart, you can be too, check out where I am getting my Christian education: http://www.seminary.ws.
Education Today Has Changed?
Education clearly has changed, hasn’t it? We no longer push our children to select a college or university based upon the exclusive book collections that it houses inside its libraries. The academy no longer has a stranglehold on textbooks and thus your access to textbooks is not determined by access to a specific academy. You no longer have to go to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, unless you absolutely have to see it in person, that is. Students do not even need to go to the bookstore anymore, they can rent their books from their dorm room. But, I am getting ahead of myself, I am writing under the assumption that education means a college education, but this is a large and not completely accurate assumption.
Education, many of us know all too well, is not a piece of paper. It is not a credential. It is not a rite of passage. It is not training. It is not neutered knowledge. And, when done correctly, education is not a scam and does not feel like one. Education cannot be a piece of paper simply because you can buy paper–many have–and they are none the wiser for it. Furthermore, there are too many people who have lived and educated others, yet they had no piece of paper or credential: take Jesus, for example. Education cannot only be training because if this were the case, wouldn’t we have trained ourselves into an intellectual utopia by now? We are very good in the modern day at mass-producing things, why not education? We can’t mass-produce education, because neutered knowledge will only get you a computer and not an educated individual.
So what is education? It is knowing the truth, but also applying it to the world around you in a way that is good. Only by applying the truth for the good can we thrive, which is what God wants for us–if you are uncomfortable at this point in your journey with using God’s wisdom as your guiding light, simply look to nature. Nature’s goal is to flourish and thrive–I believe it does this because it reflects God’s will to us–either way, God’s way or the “natural way,” the point is to prosper. To be truly educated means you are thinking about the good and the good of not only today, but the big picture.
If you want to do what is good here on earth, there is a bit of sacrifice you will have to endure. Whether is is signing your life away to an institution of higher learning for a few years, seeking the wisdom of the elders in your life, spending hours in the library, or praying, you will be investing time into an activity (or activities) that do not always give an instantaneous reward. But you do it because you know that it is for the good of your overall life.
So we return to the question, has education changed today? No and yes. Yes, education has changed in that one can have access to information in volume and multitude in a way that those before us never had access. I can access the same information and texts in rural Alaska–as long as I have current or prior internet access–as a student at a top tier university. So, yes, how we access information has changed and thus education has changed in that it has added a new road that one can get to it–it would seem that even education seeks to thrive.
But, education in its most simplistic sense has not changed. If I am to learn–for example–how to perform a medical procedure such as setting a broken leg and putting it in a cast, I need accurate information. This has been a staple of education that we could trace back beyond Plato and Aristotle. Some might argue that it is not completely necessary that a student have a steward or teacher present for the student to educate themself–they just need correct information–but a teacher is necessary. I once taught myself how to type using the free tutorials I found on a website. I did not have an active mentor–but I did have an inactive one, the generous individual who created the tutorials. The mentor, steward, teacher, facilitator, or whatever you want to call that person who helps you come to know and do what you could not and did not previously know and do is impossible to remove from the education equation.
In today’s electronic educational landscape, the teacher has not gone away and will never go away–you cannot become educated without a teacher in your life. We can trace any education you have back to a source, a teacher. So, education has not changed, only the way we can come to be educated has, through expansion of means to get it.
This new avenue, online education, is becoming increasingly popular in the formal education sector: i.e., the academy. 32% of all enrolled college students have taken at least one online course, this percentage has been on the rise consistently year after year for the past ten years. And the remarkable thing, we still find a human being on the other end of the computer for subjects that want students to do more than rote memorization–because education is a little more than simply knowing.
So what has really changed about education? We haven’t gotten rid of the need for accurate information, learning, the teacher, or application of correct information. I suppose the world’s perception of what is an acceptable way to become educated has and is still changing–and it will continue to do so for awhile. Online education, as the avenue to becoming educated, could deliver us to the intellectual utopia I made light of earlier. If knowing the correct information and being able to do the correct things with that information is all that matters, then the academy will be changing in the next couple of years. Sounds crazy you say? Well, the no-pay MBA already exists. The world of business is just one profession in which the embossed piece of paper you paid for that has your name and an institution’s name on it matters less that what you know and what you can do.
Online education is attempting to bring education and people to what is actually important: what you know and what you can do. After all, isn’t that what is most important in a business transaction where you could lose everything? Or if you were a first time parent and wanted to give your baby something sweet, but all you had was honey. Maybe you wanted to try your hand at hunting mushrooms during spring season. These are practical matters, but they can truly change your life if you do not have the right information and do not apply it correctly. But what about matters of the heart, spirit, and soul? Again, what matters is the knowing what is true about God and how to do correctly what it is you are supposed to do–trust me, education from the armchair sounds much easier than it is, and that notion, like education, hasn’t really changed. You can’t fake being educated, when tested, and receiving your education via electronic methods can be as successful for you as non-electronic methods: you just have to have those three things I mentioned before: correct information, a teacher, and apply the correct information in the correct way.
Thank you for reading. My name is Joshua R. Franklin. I am a Christian and a writer. Currently I am working toward a Doctorate in Biblical Studies at Colorado Theological Seminary. If you think I’m smart, you can be too, check out where I am getting my Christian education: http://www.seminary.ws.
The State of Online Learning in Higher Education
An infographic from ACCESS – The Association of Christian Distance Education
The Accreditation Debate
“…ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality. Accreditation in the United States involves non-governmental entities as well as governmental agencies.”
(http://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation.html).
With the current political administration in power, it is very likely that there will be more infringement on Christian values and educational institutions by the non-profit and education czars. So, pay close attention to the “accreditation” issue. The accrediting apparatus of the US is likely to change in some form or fashion in the near future.
Defending Our Defenders from the Christian Law Association (CLA) Newsletter 1 Oct 2013
Colorado Theological Seminary has been supporting the Christian Law Association for a few years now. They do a great service in using their legal expertise to defend Christians and their constitutional rights. This article made a particular impact on me since I am a Vietnam veteran. Dr. Delbert Chapman is Korean War veteran. We both, as co-founders of the Seminary, feel very strongly about protecting our servicemen and women. We feel so strongly that we offer them a tuition scholarship discount in addition to our already low rates.
I hope this article brings to light, and reinforces your desires to see that our Christian defenders get the proper treatment they deserve.
“When the attorneys from the Christian Law Association stood with several Christian servicemen several years ago, it was a dynamic trial. During their lunch break some of America’s finest servicemen were stopping outside a medical clinic in Louisiana to pray for the end of abortion in the United States. When the Christian men were court-martialed, because they were praying in their uniforms, CLA was there to assist them. One of the men had his uniform hat off and a coat over his uniform but he was also court-martialed. Yet their conviction to stand and pray to stop the sin of abortion overcame their ambition of careers in the military.
Today there is another vicious attack on believers in uniform. In the past, the military leaders had great respect and showed deference and honor to men of Godly faith. They respected and honored the beliefs of others. Now the pattern seems to be changing consistently toward a more liberal and Godless system.
The situations faced by believers in military uniform are varied and widespread. Christians in the various military branches are working under duress and great pressure to affirm support of same-sex marriage. Reports are emerging that homosexual commanders and officers are pushing their agenda on those in the military. Many believers in the military are also being discriminated against and even accused of belonging in a cult due to the Biblical beliefs and convictions they attempt to live by. Not only are they being told to be silent about their faith, but also to support what the Bible teaches are sins against God. The threat of court-martial has been brought against those who share their faith and try to win others to Christ in their area of service. How can this be? Isn’t America supposed to be the country defending the right of religious freedom?
This trend of change across the branches of the military should cause great concern. Is religious freedom in American being stripped away from these defenders of our freedom? Why must they fight to protect their own religious freedoms within their own beloved country? What will the face of our country look like in the coming years if this progresses?
While the winds of change blow across our nation even to the highest ranks, we must be faithful to support and pray for our fellow Christians serving in the military and defending the United States of America. As fellow believers, we must support those being persecuted for their faith. What can be done? How can we do this?
Even now, the legal team at the Christian Law Association is providing support and counsel to many fine Christian men and women serving in our United States military. Each time you support CLA financially and through your prayers you are enabling us to stand with those who are now facing intimidation and persecution while they serve. It is our joy and honor to assist these brave heroes who defend our freedoms. Isn’t it time for us to help them defend their freedom?
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Psalm 33:12″
Dr. Gary Tryzbiak
Expanding Your Borders – from Christianity Today Online
I find this to be a good and interesting article. Fourteen years ago, when Dr. Del Chapman, myself and our wives started Colorado Theological Seminary, the main stream brick and mortar seminaries and bible colleges wanted nothing to do with distance or online learning. Now of course, online instruction is their cash cow. It’s funny how things work out.
Enjoy the article:
Technology has changed not only our lives, but our vocabularies. Words and phrases such as webcast, e-mail, text messaging, and chat room were unheard of just a decade ago. Now they are a part of most people’s (especially young people’s) everyday language.
Sometimes familiar words take on new meaning. The word virtual is a good example. This word has been around for a long time, but only within the last decade has it been paired with the word classroom. The implication of a virtual classroom, based on a traditional understanding of the words’ meanings, is that such a classroom is not real, but rather, merely virtual.
One could, however, make a strong case that the term virtual classroom is in some sense a misnomer. After all, the people whose lives (not to mention careers) are being changed as a result of the virtual classroom of distance education are real. The knowledge people from all around the country and all over the world are gaining about the Old and New Testaments is real. Their increased understanding of Christian theology and doctrine is real, as is their spiritual growth and the new insights they are gaining in such ministry areas as evangelism, leadership, counseling, discipleship, and Christian education.
Through the virtual classroom, students are discovering that good information is good information, whether it is transmitted from a professor to students in a classroom or via an e-mail exchange from a teacher to a student who might, quite literally, be located halfway around the world. Indeed, distance education has, for all intents and purposes, eliminated the distance gap. It has provided people (who ten years ago could never have dreamed of getting a quality theological education) with an opportunity to see such a dream become real.
For some, distance education is a step toward a new career. For others it is an opportunity to pursue an interest. For many, the goal is to become more effective in Christian ministry. For all, the results are both real and significant. Following is a small sampling of testimonies to the real changes resulting from the virtual classroom.
Rebecca Giselbrecht, an online studies student in the Moody Distance Learning Center program, is pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Biblical Studies from her home in Switzerland. She chose Moody because her mother had a friend in the U.S. who’d gone to Moody and who recommended it highly. “I had a real desire to understand God’s Word,” Giselbrecht says.
She started with an Old Testament survey class and, several courses later, will graduate in May 2005. She actually took more courses than she had to take in order to earn her degree. “It is important to me that I know the Bible well, and the Bible classes were a treat to me,” Giselbrecht says.
“The Personal Evangelism class was an eye-opener, and Global Culture and Christian Missions changed me greatly,” Giselbrecht continues. My desire to carry out the Great Commission has grown and become a big life motivation for me. In the process of studying, God has changed my character, lifestyle, and priorities.”
Giselbrecht was pleasantly surprised by the relationships she formed. “Some people think that online programs are impersonal or make it difficult to have friendships, but this wasn’t true of my experience. I’ve had lively contact with other students and the professors. It was always encouraging when my professors would write an e-mail or join in the discussion boards.”
Giselbrecht plans to attend seminary, as does her husband. She will work toward a Master or Arts degree in Global Leadership. “We would like to work in missions, and have even considered developing some online training for missionaries in Europe,” she says. “My studies have enriched my work and been a pleasure. All of the classes are useful for my work.”
Dennis H. Rowell did his student teaching in the fall of 1972. However, he did not begin his teaching career until the fall of 2002.
Why the delay? Well, soon after Rowell graduated from college over thirty years ago, his father-in-law was injured and could no longer operate the family’s dairy farm. Rowell had grown up on a farm. “The opportunity to buy and operate a dairy farm seemed like the right decision,” he says. “At that time, I thought that people who couldn’t do anything else became teachers. The best people became farmers.”
Nearly three decades later, in 2000, Rowell sold the dairy farm and worked for two years in a lumberyard before sensing it was time to rekindle his interest in teaching. “I felt a little like Moses,” he says. “I had a good education, then had gone into the wilderness for several years, and now it was time to come back.”
In the fall of 2002, Rowell was hired to teach algebra at Jay County High School in Portland, Indiana, 16 miles from his farm. And in June 2003, he began working on his Master of Education degree online at Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU).
“I needed to get caught up with what was happening in education throughout the country,” Rowell says. “IWU’s online program was just right for me. I’ve done all of the work for my master’s degree on weekends, so I can keep up with lesson plans and grading during the week.”
Rowell says the M.Ed. program at IWU is just one of the ways the Lord has affirmed that he made the right decision to return to teaching. Rowell completed work on his master’s degree in January of 2005 and is scheduled to graduate in April.
Cheryl Erb is a perfect example of how Columbia International University (CIU) reaches non-traditional students as part of its mission to develop and equip people of all ages to know Christ and to make him known throughout the world. She is 40, single, and has lived near Mandeville, Jamaica, for almost seven years. Prior to moving to Jamaica, Erb worked in a bank as an administrative assistant. She says that earlier in her life, she felt anxious and worried, and thus chose not to go to college.
However, a deeper desire to understand the Bible coupled with a mission board requirement for her to get some kind of Bible knowledge to become a missionary led her to CIU. She is currently a Mission to the World missionary in a co-op with the Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf.
Erb took two Old Testament Survey classes and is currently finishing up New Testament Survey. She has been challenged in her walk with Christ and uniquely equipped for her work in Jamaica because of the program CIU offers. “It’s great because it can fit into my individual schedule,” says Erb. “Having the cassettes means that you can go over a lesson again or keep it and listen to it long after the course is finished.”
This flexibility is something that all non-traditional students cite as being critical to their on-going progress and success at CIU. Erb could not have achieved this balance of work and study without this distance learning relationship. “The opportunity to learn and grow without taking extended time away from the ministry God has called me to is one of the biggest plusses for me.”
Although a veteran college-level mathematics teacher, Graham C Ashworth has harbored a lifelong passion for theology. That is why he was delighted to discover Trinity Theological Seminary’s doctoral program. “Trinity provided me with a distance educational program that was accredited, unique, and challenging,” Ashworth says. “It was an exciting opportunity for me to earn valuable academic credentialing without being required to relocate or sacrifice current employment.”
Soon after the materials arrived for the first course, Ashworth embarked on a demanding yet fulfilling and enriching journey that he was both determined and highly motivated to finish. “I found it tremendously gratifying to realize that my interest in theology had progressed to formal study,” he says.
Compared to his two traditional degrees (undergraduate at the University of Wales and graduate at Harvard University), Ashworth quickly discovered the advantages that come with being able to work according to his own timetable. “Without the pressure of meeting a professor’s deadlines, I found that I was researching and reading more, rather than less, in preparation for writing papers. The modular course structure enabled me to pursue learning and complete research that was personally interesting and completely relevant.”
“Teaching is my ministry,” Ashworth says. “My doctorate from Trinity provides a new level of academic credibility among my peers, allowing me to extend that ministry to other disciplines.” For example, Ashworth’s took for his English elective a class on the Bible as literature. The degree “also provides the credentials necessary for me to teach in a Christian college or university, which would add a new depth and perspective to my work with young adults,” Asworth says. “There is no question that my life has been enriched by doctoral level study and research, as offered by a quality distance-learning course of studies.”
About five years ago, after 23 years in ministry with the Worldwide Church of God, Charles Fleming began looking for a special program of study. “The demands of ministering in a confusing world had been compounded for me by a radical change in theology, administrative structure, and practice in the Worldwide Church of God,” says Fleming. “Our move from cultic existence to orthodox Christianity required that after decades of legalistic thinking, we all learn to minister out of the grace of Jesus Christ.”
Fleming says he felt ill equipped to meet this demand, especially when he was asked to provide leadership for the denomination’s churches in Latin America and the Caribbean. “It took me two years to find the right program,” says Fleming. But “Fuller Theological Seminary’s Master of Arts in Global Leadership (MAGL) program was worth the wait.”
“Helping to renew a denomination involves more than just changing its official teachings,” Fleming says. “Ultimately, renewal means a transformation of the heart. God renews a church one member at a time in a process that is both supernatural and organizational. Individual growth is strengthened by the formation of a culture that enhances spiritual transformation and reinforces mission initiatives.”
“The MAGL, with core and elective courses taught largely online, has given me the flexibility to grow and meet these challenges, becoming both a facilitator of individual spiritual growth and an agent of structural change. Most precious and transformational for me has been the deep spiritual community that emerged within the cohort and with the Fuller staff.” Fleming adds, “The richness of this community will remain with me fully as long as the profound intellectual stimulation of the program.”
Such testimonies demonstrate both the power and the promise of distance education, including in the theological realm. Among other things these testimonies address what some have considered to be the virtual classroom’s biggest drawback, namely its impersonal nature.
Those who have experienced distance education, however, have found that it need not be impersonal. People have, from a distance, formed close relationships both with professors and with “virtual classmates.” Many would contend that a knowledgeable and caring teacher of a virtual class is preferable to a mediocre professor in a traditional classroom.
Few, if any, would argue that virtual education ever will or ever should replace traditional education. But it is hard to deny that distance education has opened doors that were previously closed to people because of family or employment responsibilities. As programs have expanded, people have more and more opportunities to pursue a new career or gain knowledge in an area of interest. The virtual classroom is changing their real lives.
Considering Distance Learning… From Christianity Today Online
I came across this article today while looking over the online version of Christianity Today. I thought it relevant and wanted to share it with you. I have also added my comments. Let me know what you think or if you happen to have other pertinent questions a prospective student should ask him or herself.
Here are eight questions to ask yourself.
1. Do the benefits of distance learning outweigh the benefits of living on campus to complete a degree?
This is a good question and probably one only you can answer. In my opinion it would always be best to go on campus if you had the money and the time. But, like most CTS students, they are busy working and raising families, and this option is just not possible.
2. Do I require live interaction with other students in order to learn most effectively or am I more adept at setting my own pace and becoming self motivated?
This is a good question. Although we assign every student a mentor to help them through their program, the real motivation must come from within. As I stated in an earlier post, finding an accountability partner will really help out with the motivational issue.
3. Do I have the necessary technical equipment and operational skills to participate in the distance learning course I’m investigating?
A number of years ago this may have really been a pertinent question, but I think in today’s environment, everyone has the technology to handle distance and online learning.
4. Do my long-range goals require an actual degree or will I be satisfied with non-degree courses for continuing education purposes?
Another good question to ask yourself. CTS does offer certificate programs in which a student would receive credit which could be applied to one of our undergraduate degree programs. Of course the certificate for completing five courses in an area of competency is in itself quite an accomplishment.
5. Are on-campus seminars required and how will that affect my schedule and budget?
CTS does not require on campus time or weekend intensive sessions. These are costly and take time away from family, work and church.
6. Do I have the budget necessary to complete a series of courses or an entire degree? Are there scholarships available which might apply to my area of study? What student loans are available and how will a student loan affect my budget?
Notice the paradigm here. The prime thought when it comes to education is not the education but how to pay for it because it is so expensive. Don’t fall into this trap! Students at CTS generally pay by the course and advance at their own pace. By the time they graduate their education is paid for. What a novel idea! Don’t go into debt to learn the Word.
7. Does this course or degree program require a local mentor or proctor? Who might I ask to help me with this role?
We assign you a school mentor to assist you with your program, but having a friend, pastor or family member work with you and guide is an awesome idea. Some of our Christian counseling programs require a proctor for exams. In this case, a proctor is someone who is not a family member.
8. Does the degree or series of courses I’m looking at require a great deal of academic writing? If so, have I done well with previous writing assignments and am I capable of keeping up with high writing expectations?
Most of our courses require some writing, although some of our Christian counseling courses do not.
Five Success Skills for Independent Study.
Having been a life long learner myself and having co-founded CTS fourteen years ago, I have a few ideas on how to be successful in your studies and ultimately earn your degree. Alumni, please add to this list since you are the owners of a success story.
1. Do something every day toward your studies, no matter what or for how long. Try to schedule at least 10 minutes. If you will just spend ten minutes reading a page or chapter or answering questions, it will almost certainly turn into 30 minutes or an hour. But at least DO SOMETHING!
2. Early in your program, DON’T BURN YOURSELF OUT. Don’t get so excited that you over read, that is, read more than required. Take the program in stride. If you over do it right out of the chute, you will become over done and give up by the second or third course. Follow your mentor’s advice and the course material guidelines. If you need to write a five page paper, don’t write a ten. If you are supposed to read 350 pages, don’t read 1000. By following the course material requirements and doing SOMETHING each day, you can be confident in reaching your goal in a reasonable length of time and acquiring the knowledge necessary for you to perform your God given goal.
3. Refuse to be influenced by negative sources. I don’t know how many times new students (especially younger ones) sign up with such enthusiasm just of be told by a family member or friend that they made a bad decision for one reason or another. They then drop out. Probably never to take up education again. If God led you to your studies, follow through. Stick to your own convictions. It will go good for you and good for the Kingdom. The devil will use anyone and anything to keep you from accomplishing your task.
4. Find an accountability partner to share your progress with. Let someone who is interested in your achievement know how you are progressing. It is that extra encouragement and accountability that will help keep you moving forward. Contact that person bi-weekly and let them know how you are doing. Let them know the grade on your last test. Don’t be afraid to go to The Seminary Club and find someone in your area or someone working toward a similar goal to connect with.
5. Don’t worry! Your program is not really that hard! Just use the ten minute rule. You can write that paper, or read that article. Hundreds upon hundreds of students before you have done it. Don’t let your brain make this hard. Trust me. That monster is only in your head. The devil will give you all kinds of excuses why you are not worthy. Don’t listen to him. You have to know that you can do this. You are worthy. Remember, God will not give you more than you can handle.
Colorado Theological Seminary 