My new blog home is www.drewsams.com
My collaborative youth ministry blog is www.collectionofcrumbs.com
My twitter page is www.twitter.com/surferdrew
See you there friends!
After much prayer and reflection, I’ve decided to pursue my Doctor of Ministry (DMin). For those who know me, I’m a learner (my StrengthsFinder assessment got it wrong and said I wasn’t) and I find great joy in the process of learning. I’m a voracious reader and I approach every situation as an opportunity to learn. My mom told me when I was young, “you can learn from everyone.” As I’ve gotten older, I’ve experienced the truth and beauty in this statement and it has enabled me to see value in every person…no doubt, some are much wiser than others but everyone has something to offer.
Over time, I’ve learned that I retain information more efficiently when I learn in community. Through the process of receiving and experiencing input within the context of community, both the input and the experience are sharpened through the communal and dynamic reflection on what we are learning. Blogs that allow comments are a case in point. It is in the interaction and dialogue that the real magic happens.
Because of this, and my desire to be a more effective leader, I am planning on joining a small community of people who I can embark on this journey together. In educational circles, this small community is referred to as a “cohort” and is somewhere between 10-30 people.
Most DMin programs that provide a learning experience within the context of a cohort last about 3-5 years. The idea is that you go through the program with the same group of people, each bringing experience and knowledge to the table, and greater learning is accomplished than if you were to take the classes on your own.
The fact that I want to pursue a DMin is clear.
However, where to enroll is a little foggy.
I received my MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary. Absolutely loved it…and they have a reputable and well-known DMin program. Just this year, NT Wright, Dallas Willard, Alan Hirsch, Richard Mouw, and Chap Clark are just a sampling of the professors teaching within the DMin at Fuller. All-star lineup indeed. See the course catalog coming up…it’s great!
However, a few have advised me that getting my DMin at Fuller will be like repeating my MDiv experience at Fuller but with more papers to write. Friends tell me, “Branch out…get varying perspectives.” True, when I look at the required reading for each class, I own and have read 80% of the books already.
So, I’ve consider branching out. I Google: “top DMin programs,” “best seminaries,” and even “which school should I go to get my DMin.” None, especially the last, helped all that much.
I’ve consulted friends, mentors, and many of the school’s websites.
I’ve checked out:
Biblical Seminary (Ed Stetzer and Andy Crouch are a draw)
Drew University (no, I can’t get a discount because I share names with the founder)
Duke Divinity School (no DMin but they have a ThD…means I’d have to quit my job and become a resident student)
Gordon-Conwell (in conjunction with the Arrow Leadership Program)
King’s College London (I like how they spell Doctorate and Programme)
If you have enough time…you can peruse through the entire list of schools that have a DMin accredited by the Association of Theological Schools.
After spending hours researching each schools philosophy of education, theological values, areas of concentration, faculty, notable alumni, program design, and cost….the one seminary that is peaking my interest at the moment is:
George Fox Evangelical Seminary
I was initially recommended to George Fox by my friend and former boss, Lars Rood who also blogs at Relevant Pew. He is wrapping up his DMin at George Fox and he highly recommends it. (He’s even offered to write one of my letters of recommendations…thanks bud.)
Of the two areas of concentration, the DMin in Leadership in Emerging Cultures immediately caught my eye.
In their own words, they describe the program:
The Leadership in Emerging (LEC) DMin track explores the character and shape of effective Christian leadership in the emerging culture.
The LEC DMin track features an approach to “academics” that engages a variety of venues that are experiential, participatory, image-driven, and connective (EPIC). It utilizes a mentor-based, cohort-driven model that values “relationship.” As such, faculty, staff and cohort peers comprise the “heart” of the program.
The delivery system includes participation in several conferences, personal mentoring by Dr. Sweet and select faculty advisors, online interactivity with cohort members and professors, three “advance” experiences, as well as reading, reflection, research, and writing.
So after all my research, why am I interested in this program?
- Opportunity to study under Dr. Leonard Sweet
- The program design is a healthy mix of face to face learning, experiential learning, mentor-based learning, and online distance learning.
- I am deeply passionate about the topics addressed in the majority of the classes.
- The concentration is in an area that I believe I have the most room for growth – leadership.
- The dissertation can be completed in very creative ways. (See below)
There are 2 tracks for the Dissertation…the first track is a traditional dissertation that is a 100-150 paper.
BUT, the second track can be completed in a variety of ways. They describe as follows:
Len Sweet contends that leaders in the emerging culture must master communication in at least four media forms: print, image, audio, and the internet. To that end, students are given a second option for completing their projects:
Track 02: This approach allows students (individually or in teams) to implement a project in one of the four media forms that incarnates a practical, real-world solution to a stated ministry problem. It also includes a “written statement” of 45-60 pages that incorporates rigorous investigation, clarity and coherence of thought and quality of writing, and delineates the biblical, theological and theoretical framework that underpins the multimedia project.
For me, this is exactly what I was looking for.
HOWEVER, today I received an email from Jason Clark (who also contributes to the Deep Church blog) confirming that George Fox is on the verge of approving a new DMin cohort led by Jason. He describes the DMin in Global Missional Leadership that he has submitted to George Fox on his blog. Besides the focus of the degree (which looks fantastic), I am very excited at the international focus. In fact, the three face to face gatherings are each on three different continents: Europe, Africa, and Asia. (We’ll see what the total cost of the degree is when it gets approved)
So much to consider over the next few months as I get closer to application deadlines!
So, now that I’ve opened up my process for determining where to go to get my DMin, what are your thoughts? What am I missing? Do you have a DMin experience that you’d like to share?
I’m always impressed when people are able to develop creative ways to communicate a message that evokes a deep sense of awe.
This video, using a technique called pixilation, left me in awe.
It took 4 weeks of prep, 4 days of shooting, 20 “animators”, and close to 300,000 tea lights. The making-of video on the original website is as amazing as the video itself.
Click on the picture below to jump to a hi-res link of the video.
Tomorrow I will be starting a new series within the high school ministry at Calvary Community Church that will extend through the month of January.
The title is “Your Series.” When I first told someone about it, they replied, “my series? What do you mean?”
Their response is the exact reason why I have wanted to do this series. You see, as someone who has been raised in a consumeristic, individualistic Western culture, I have been taught to read the bible through that same lens. Pastors and bible study leaders would ask questions like, “what does this passage mean to you?” or “what does this mean for you in your life?” At a surface level, these aren’t bad questions…however if we dig a little deeper, what they have done is created a mindset that it’s all about “me and God.”
I have misunderstood passages like 1 Corinthians 2:19-20 where Paul says, “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit” because I had been taught to read the bible from an individualistic perspective.
I have been told, “Drew, your body is God’s temple. Therefore you need to not smoke, not drink, not get tattoos, and eat healthy.” I have walked around my adult Christian life believing that my body was God’s temple and that my Christian brother’s body was another one of God’s temples and so on. I had been taught that whatever impure or immoral I do to my body…it only hurts God.
The problem is, this is a COMPLETE MISUNDERSTANDING of what Paul is saying.
Dr. Ward Powers, the Director of Tyndale College has a fantastic post on the proper understanding of this passage.
So, starting tomorrow, we are going to take a look at how we have misunderstood many passages in the Bible where we have read the word “your” in an individual manner when the author clearly intended the “your” in a corporate manner.
Finished reading ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for A Missional Church last week.
Check out my Amazon review.
I have had the chance to share two meals with missional thinker and author Alan Hirsch over the last year and I always walked away challenged and refreshed.
Cheers mate on another great work!
Here we go again…my blog.drewsams.com crashed and i’m not html savvy enough to fix it. Starting over…now.
Just finished reading a great interview with Alan by Christianity Today.
I want to spend 24 hours processing it and I will post a reflection tomorrow as to some implications for youth ministry.
Until then, here is a great quote to ponder:
In your book, you echoed a statement by Neil Cole that basically said the bar has been set too low in most modern churches when it comes to disciple making. Can you explain that a bit further?
Yes, what Neil says in effect is that we need to raise the bar on our expectations for disciple making and lower the bar on our expectations for church. And I think he’s right. I mean, that’s exactly what the early church did, and it’s certainly what the Chinese church is doing. In a martyrdom movement, you’re raising the bar extremely high. People are going to die, and the churches teach them how to die well.
But in our culture, we tend to reverse that. We deliver all the goodies up front, and then we wonder why people don’t become disciples. My question is: Why would they? What’s with all that stuff about “death to self”? Why should I change, and why should I volunteer for all that heavy lifting when I’ve got my snout in the trough right now?
Great stories are like great meals…all the ingredients come together to make for a fantastic experience that you can’t stop telling all your friends about. And like any chef, we want to cook up some great stories…stories that captivate, motivate, and transform lives.
So as we step up to the preparation counter, I want to help you grab the necessary ingredients in order to create and deliver a great story.
Let’s get cooking! …OK, i’ll stop the cheesy (pun intended) metaphor. 
Ingredient #1 – Point of View
The perspective of the narrator (not the author) determines the point of view. It can either be in the first-person, second-person, or third-person. An effective use of point of view can be in telling a familiar story from an unfamiliar perspective. For example, how many times have you communicated the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) from the father’s perspective? a hired servant’s perspective? the foreign landowner’s perspective?
Experiment with reading and communicating stories from Scripture from an uncommon point of view.
Ingredient #2 – Setting
This is the backdrop for the story – time, location, circumstances. The setting sheds much light on the story. By understanding the setting we can better understand why characters act a certain way and say certain things. Setting is crucial. A story without it’s setting is like a Mona Lisa without it’s canvas – it just doesn’t make sense. As you read Scripture and understand the stories in it, do your homework and research what the setting is. By understanding the historical, political, religious, and cultural backdrop of 1st century Jerusalem we will gain greater meaning to Jesus’ life and ministry, Paul’s missionary journey’s and letters, and so on. Many bad sermons are preached because we have not understood the backdrop and setting in which the stories in Scripture take place.
The key in storytelling is linking the setting of a particular story in Scripture to the current setting of our lives.
Ingredient #3 – Characters
Every story needs characters…characters that often stand as mirrors that reflect back to us truths about our lives, our insecurities, our fears, our hopes, and our dreams and everything in between. In preparing to communicate a story from Scripture, ask yourself questions about the character: what emotions are they feeling? what has happened to them leading up to this? why do they say what they do? what is their motivation for their actions?
By stepping into a character’s shoes, we can help students step into God’s story more effectively.
Ingredient #4 – Protagonists
Also known as the main character or hero, the protagonist is essentially the “good guy.” These are the characters that you cheer for! Traditionally, the protagonist is the character that undergoes a dramatic change throughout the course of the story. Think Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, Ruth, King David, Esther, Jesus…just hearing those names incites memories of heroic tales.
Look for the protagonists in the story and see how they are changed throughout the course of the story.
Ingredient #5 – Antagonists
Every story has a antagonist. These are the “bad guys” that we come to hate. Antagonists can be sinister villains, oppressive governments, machines, even ourselves…really anything that opposes the protagonist. We see them at the movies in Darth Vader, Agent Smith (from the Matrix), Jaws and we see them in Scripture in Pharoah, King Herod, and ultimately Satan.
Try looking for antagonists that have turned into protagonists as a result of God’s grace…think the murderous Saul becoming the apostle Paul.
Ingredient #6 – Conflict
Conflict is a state of discord that is caused by the opposition of real or perceived needs, values, or interests. Conflict can be either internal or external and, traditionally, is between the protagonist and the antagonist. In other words there is a whole lotta conflict between Daniel LaRusso and the Cobra Kai in the 1984 masterpiece. The key here is that through conflict the characters are changed…some for the better some for worse. In our American culture, we often avoid conflict and think that a healthy spiritual life is one that is void of conflict. However, if you look throughout Scripture, conflict abounds and is even promised to those who choose to follow Christ. By understanding and embracing the reality of conflict in our lives and in Scripture, we can better communicate the power of God who steps outside the comforts of heaven and into the messy conflicts in our lives – and changes us for the better if we allow Him.
Ingredient #7 – Climax (Turning Point)
This is the point in the story when the highest amount of conflict tension is reached. Everything hangs in the balance…what will happen when Luke Skywalker turns off the navigation computer and simply relies on the force just moments before attempting to blow up the Death Star? What will happen to Maximus in his epic fight with Commodus in the Gladiator? These are the moments that everything builds too…the defining moment of the story. This is not the resolution, it is the moment before the resolution.
If we understand Scripture as the unfolding narrative of God’s Story, then what is the climax? Is it creation, the birth of Jesus, Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ return? If we look at God’s Story from a narrative perspective, it’s actually none of these.
In fact, the climax in God’s Story is His death on the cross. The God who is the creator and initiator and the main character throughout the entire Story dies. The hero has been crucified and left for dead. Everything hangs in the balance…Jesus, who is fully God and fully human, might be a complete liar because of his death. There would be no kingdom come…no peace on earth…no abundant life.
Though Jesus has been resurrected from the dead, we haven’t reached the resolution of God’s Story (which we’ll talk about next). In fact, as my friend Darrell Walters who is on staff with Mosaic, Pasadena so insightfully said:
We live our entire lives within the tension of the climax of God’s Story. We often incorrectly read Scripture and think that everything has already happened, the story has already been finished, and we just look back and reflect on it. Rather, the resolution will come when Jesus returns and establishes his kingdom here on earth. We play a critical role in God’s Story as he invites us into it. He wants us to be either hot or cold…we’re either in or we are out…there is a sense of urgency in our decision to join Him or not.
This has HUGE implications as we understand God’s Story and our role in it. Narrative preaching should not only draw people into God’s Story that is continually unfolding but also acknowledge that we are living in the a crucial point in the story and we have a significant role to play.
Ingredient #8 – Denoument (Resolution)
These are the series of events that follow the climax that also serve as the resolution or conclusion of the story. The princess is rescued and marries her prince, the unlikely hero overcomes his internal fears, and they all live “happily ever after.”
The great news is that we have been given a glimpse of the denoument of God’s Story. It’s a conclusion that will last for eternity…God will establish his kingdom, Jesus Christ will sit on the throne, we will all live in peace and as John gives us a glimpse in the Book of Revelation:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God hiself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, there will be no mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new!”
Become familiar with the denoument of God’s Story. Because we have a sneak peak, we can offer hope to those who are in the midst of crisis, turmoil, and guilt.
Again, great stories are like great meals…let’s keep spurring each other on and serve food that will nourish and transform lives for Christ.
Next post will be: The need to understand and be able to communicate your own story
