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One of the things we’ve been able to do recently, because of a grant from Bible Study Fellowship International, is to sponsor conferences in the spring. We had a conference on Generation X ministry. Last year, we held a very well-received Children’s Spirituality conference, focusing on issues that Kevin talked about earlier, and we didn’t have enough space for everybody. There was a real, pent-up demand for the topic. This coming spring we’re offering a conference related to the “emerging church” and the seminary.
Sundoulos: Changing gears here: How do you see your dual role as scholars and ministers? How do you keep one foot in the rarified atmosphere of academia and the other foot in the church? How do you keep practical and yet up to date? Do you feel a tension in that?
Anthony: We just never sleep, that’s all! [laughter] I think a lot of us have hands on in different avenues of ministry. At the moment, I’m a police chaplain, and Tuesday we had a jumper on the freeway, so they called me over to help out and counsel the girl who drove over the guy who jumped off the bridge. I get a lot of hands-on ministry counseling officers and their families — the divorce rate of police officers is 74%, and the suicide rate among police officers is the highest of any career — so there’s never a shortage of crises to deal with. And then I bring that into class, and I say, “Okay, this is what happened at 2 o’clock this morning when I got a call.” I go on to say, “As children’s pastors and youth pastors, you will be brought in on these same calls, because they often times call you first when a crisis hits, and when you get called in, what are you going to say? That’s not the time to start digging through your files and your books — you need to know now.” I bring that stuff into class and break them into groups and do case studies, trying to come up with real-life biblical solutions to contemporary problems.
Leyda: I think that because we are an applied discipline, we don’t have as much difficulty as some of the other disciplines in terms of making it practical. So whether it’s remaining active in the church, on search committees, elder boards, or serving on other boards, I find that’s an important thing to keep me thinking about things that I teach. We are blessed with Jane because she’s actually on a church staff at Yorba Linda Friends, but also we have her full-time…. I don’t know how she does that…maybe she never sleeps. [laughter]
Carr: I do think that it’s a difficult balance. I never wanted to leave the church; that was part of the difficulty in making my decision to come to Talbot in the first place. Most of the time I feel like I’m on a treadmill, trying to keep both going, but when I see students light up because you’re telling them something that happened to you yesterday at the church office, not ten years ago, that’s the blessing that keeps me going and doing it.
Leyda: And absolutely critical is the internship program that we have. The university is pretty good at the theoretical, but it’s not very good at giving a real-life experience, so unless we partner with a church to be able to immerse students in a specific experience where they can get on-site mentoring, their education is just chopped in half. As director of our undergraduate internship, I see the program as critical for us to make a bridge with the church.
Kim: I try to ease the tension between classroom teaching and ministry by connecting theory and practice in what I do as an educator. I often volunteer to serve churches, especially small, ethnic churches which often are run by a single pastor. What these churches often lack is the ability to provide training resources and workshops to equip their lay leaders. That’s where I come in as I try to provide training and assistance to these churches.
Sundoulos: What sort of research projects are you working on? Do you have articles or books coming out? Kevin, how about the journal you’re editing? What’s bubbling up that our alumni can be looking for?
Lawson: The Christian Education Journal is one thing. We have taken on the ownership of the journal, and our third issue is out this fall. I’m the General Editor, and Klaus is the Book Review Editor. Working on it with other Christian Education faculty across the country has just been a great experience.
And one more thing I’ll mention: I did a casestudy of a group of women who have been part of a prayer and Bible study group for 40 years, looking at the impact of that kind of a group on those who participate over that length of time. So many people in the past have talked about the danger of long-term small groups, that you really ought to split up or start multiple groups. Yet, this is a group that has stayed together, and I’m interested to see what I can learn and share that with others in small group ministry.
Anthony: I just had a book released with Broadman & Holman called Management Essentials for Christian Ministry, looking at the organizational management aspect of how we manage religious non-profit ministries. I’m also working with Gary McIntosh, writing a book entitled Front Door Side Door, also for Broadman & Holman. We’re surveying 1,500 new members in churches around North America, ascertaining what is it about the church that attracted them to the degree that they wanted to actually join the church. And I’ve recently contracted to co-author a book with Dr. Mick Boersma entitled Sojourners: Career Directions for Pastors in Transition, based on a survey of nearly 100 pastors. The book is designed to provide assistance to pastors who are making frequent career changes. It will be published by Zondervan next year.
Sundoulos: Michael, you also edited a dictionary…
Anthony: Yeah, the Evangelical Dictionary of Christian Education, as well as a relatively new Introduction to Christian Education text, both with Baker. I think that’s great for Talbot, because people are reading these foundational books in Bible colleges all across North America, and of course, they ask the obvious question, “If I’m going to go into this field, rather than just reading these books, why don’t I go the school where these professors are housed?” And so they come to Talbot and they get the professors who are the authors of these chapters, the editors of these books.
Issler: I’ve got a book with J.P. Moreland coming out next February on the area of Christian living and spiritual discipline, published by NavPress.
Carr: I initiated a web-based networking arena for children’s ministry professionals called CM Pros, an online e-group. To subscribe to it, you go to cmpros-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, and once someone has subscribed, you interact online with hundreds of professionals from around the world. I moderate it to keep things focused and headed in the right direction.
Sundoulos: As you look back to your own days in seminary, what have been some of the most influential factors that God has used to make you the person you are today? Has it been people, books, habits, conferences, associations?
Leyda: I’d have to say my wife and kids, my family. God seems to have a way of getting at issues in my life through my kids, bringing theory into stark reality. You can’t insulate yourself from your family.