Reflections From My First Week Back at School

Recently I have been doing a lot of reflecting. When I planted our church thirty years ago, I was young, naïve, and still licking my wounds from a very painful two years of ministry at another church. Prior to that, my Bible College and seminary days were amazing. I was introduced to a set of ministry skills that laid a foundation for a fruitful ministry.

In school I made lifelong friends. Even now I am still in contact with several of them on a weekly basis. The church in which I was involved was strong and thriving. The leaders were great examples of what godly leadership and ministry is all about.

I have learned so much more about ministry and leadership over the past three decades. I still have much more to learn. That is why I am enrolled in the Doctor of Ministry program (with an emphasis on Strategic Leadership) at Corban University School of Ministry in Salem, Oregon. (This is the same place I started my formal Christian education forty years ago!) I first heard about this program through Pastor David Robinson. The elders gave me the green light to pursue more education and complete a life-long goal of earning a doctorate.

The design of the program is for me to take two classes a year. For each class I read and write from January through May. (Since January, I read twenty books, wrote twenty-four papers, and prepared a major presentation for class.) Then, in June, I am in class for two weeks from 8:00 – 5:00, Monday through Friday. During the following six weeks I will read more books and write a major paper (approximately fifty pages) synthesizing what I learned in both classes.

At the end of my course work, I will be writing a Thesis-Project (approximately two hundred fifty pages) that answers a specific question/challenge that I am facing in my ministry. I have already begun this process.

We spent eight hours in our final day of class learning about how to formulate the Thesis-Project question, how to create a hypothesis (anticipated solution) related to the challenge I am facing, the kind of research that needs to be done to answer that question, where to find the research related to the question, how to interpret the research, how to explore and communicate what the Scriptures say about the ministry challenge I am facing, how to build a testing instrument to validate my hypothesis, and then how to effectively communicate the results and action steps to follow. I will be working on this writing project for the next five years.

At the time of this writing I have just completed my first course – Personal Leadership Foundations. My professor, Dr. Gary McIntosh, is considered by many to be the world’s most effective and influential church consultant. His instruction, our class discussions, and my one-on-one time with him talking about WestHill Church were huge blessings from God. My eyes were more opened to who I am, who our church is, how our leadership functions (or doesn’t), and how to take our church into the future.

The students in my class (my cohort) are high-functioning leaders from all over the world (Singapore, India, Cameroon, Canada, Peru, and several states from across the US). The camaraderie and fellowship is so inspiring. I know that I have made another group of life-long friends. Many of them are from the Seattle area. Together we explored many aspects of leadership and discussed how those dimensions impact who we are as individuals and how we lead our churches. We explored the sovereign foundations God laid in our lives that have shaped us into the adults and leaders we are today. We also looked into how God is shaping us right now for more effective leadership in the future.

I am so grateful to the leadership at WestHill church for allowing me to go back to school. Furthering my education not only helps me, but our whole church, and our whole community as well. Ultimately, my educational pursuit is about being more efficient, effective, and strategic in advancing the kingdom of God in our own neighborhood and perhaps around the world.

I am not pursuing this degree as a stepping-stone to another ministry. My commitment when I planted our church thirty years ago (and as I stated in our first worship service on August 7, 1988) is to be the pastor of this ministry for its first forty years. Even after serving here for more than half of my life, I still have much more to learn. Thank you, to each of you, for supporting me over the decades, supporting me right now, and supporting me in the future. I look forward to a better future with all of you!