Two Cent Tuesday - Going on Vacation?

So, I’m sitting in the airport with my wife and we’re getting ready to head home from a short mini vacation. We knew that we could use some time away, just the two of us, after such a crazy 6 (actually 12) months. So, I arranged for my mom to come watch the kids and we were cleared to take off. The destination was a toss up for us. It was between going to the beach and soaking up the rays or flying up to Richmond and spending time with our friends we’d been missing. In the end, the friends ended up winning out and I’m really glad. It was so great to go and spend time with those people who mean so much too me… yeah, maybe it wasn’t as relaxing as 3 days on the beach, but it was refreshing to our souls.

So, as we sit hoping to get on this flight (flying standby) how about you? You heading anywhere this summer? Are vacations a time to relax for you or just a time to cram as much activity into your trip as possible?

Forming the Character of our Future Ministry

Many seminaries advertise their core emphases, God-centered and Bible-saturated curriculum, world-class faculty, modern facilities and great equipping strategy. Thank God for these places of higher learning. We want to be prepared for ministry in the church today, and the church needs the academy, and vice versa. Yet, story after story reveals the crux issue with seminarians after graduation is one of character not competence.

In all our learning of theology, biblical languages, let us not forget the reason and focus of our studies, and for our being Christian: Christ.

He is our Source and our Joy, and the One whom we desperately need. Without Him we will perish, and with Him we can endure all things. Cultivating this relationship is essential in seminary as in all of life. For without Him we can do nothing (John 15:4). We can get a new church, retake a course, but we have no other Savior. Cultivating the inner life of our souls is key when hitting the books and preparing for ministry. The motives and habits we form now will continue for decades and influence all whom we come into contact with (not the least our families).

On this point, Robert Murray McCheyne offered some essential advice to a young seminarian more than 150 years ago:

“Do get on with your studies. Remember you are now forming the character of your future ministry in great measure, if God spare you. If you acquire slovenly or sleepy habits of study now, you will never get the better of it. Do everything in its own time. Do everything in earnest; if it is worth doing, then do it with all your might. Above all, keep much in the presence of God. Never see the face of man until you have seen His face who is our light, our all. Pray for others; pray for your teachers and fellow students.”[1]

Although McCheyne never made it to 30 years old, in his pastoral ministry he saw great fruit. The key, however, was not in the fruit, but in his own faithfulness, brought about by heading his own advice, to “above all, keep much in the presence of God.” He took the call to know, love and enjoy our Triune God above all else, and saw it work out in a thousand practical ways. His character was deeply rooted in Christ, the result of daily faithfulness in the small things.

While in seminary, are you likewise knowing, loving and enjoying God, intentionally in His presence, and watching Him daily transform your character as you stare at Him? (2 Cor. 3:18).

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[1] Robert Murray McCheyne, letter to seminary student, 1840. Memoirs of McCheyne, edited by Andrew A. Bonar (Chicago: Moody, 1947), p. xvi.

Keeping a home library

Many Seminary students like books. Some of us, I being one, are book geeks. This means that we drive our spouses or housemates crazy with the amount of books that we seem to go through. So why is it important for the seminarian (and minister) to maintain a good library?

1. It allows you to have access to your thought process.
Hopefully, you are reading things you agree and disagree with. When you decide to keep certain titles it means that something important went on when you read that book. The level of importance may vary, but you want to keep the book as a resource for future needs. After a while, you can almost trace the history of your theological development by what titles are in your library. I love finding a book that I went through a couple of years ago. I end up being transported back to that time in my life.

2. You gain the ability to have better citations in papers.
What this means is that you know your library. To really do this, you need to have some sort of collection system for your notes. I use a searchable document that is updated every time I finish a book. This way I am able to quickly find sections that jumped out at me (more on this method at a later date). I have learned that I have a rotating stable of around 20 books that I use most of the time in my specific area of research. Many of these titles were books that I caught myself checking out 2-3 times from the library and decided to buy them. Some are out of print and having constant access to them allows me to not worry about them being checked out (or archived out of the stacks). I know these resources really well, and having them at my house (or wherever you keep your library) just makes it easier to write papers.

3. You can work on something at a moments notice.
While I am in an academic track in seminary, I also serve at a local church as youth pastor. It is a smaller congregation with a retired pastor. From time to time, I find out on short notice that I am needed to preach the next service (sometimes with a four hour notice on Sunday afternoon). Since I have been conscious about buying commentaries and other books, I usually don’t have to worry about not having access to the library at school to work on my sermon. I am slowly buying several commentary series, and when I am devotionally studying a certain section of the Bible I try to buy one or two commentaries on the book, because most of my short notice sermons come from what I have been going through in my own personal study time.

I also am a night owl. So when I am working on a project, or just a blog post at three in the morning, I can go over to my library and find what information about whatever I need.

Part of keeping a good home library is knowing how and when to buy books. Every Seminary student is short on cash, so we can’t just having shopping spree’s at the bookstore. How to build a library on a budget will be talked about in my next post.

Thrifty Thursday - Taking Care of Your Cloth Diapers

Last week I wrote about cloth diapers. This week I would like to elaborate a bit more on the care of the cloth diapers as well as a few more tips for being a good steward of your funds while keeping your children clean.

Rinsing the Dirty Diapers

Last week I talked about attaching a kitchen sprayer to your toilet to clean out the dirty diapers. It is not as hard as one would think and it does not take as much time as one would think. Another benefit of having the sprayer attached to the toilet is that it makes rinsing down the bath tub much easier than just using a cup of water. (Because I keep my hair short, I usually cut it myself in the bath tub so as to contain the cut hair.)

At the end of this article, I have included step-by-step directions for how to make the diaper sprayer as well as how to attach it to your toilet.

Containing the Diapers

There are a couple schools of thoughts on what to do with the diapers while they are waiting to be washed. The first is to fill the diaper pale (trash can or whatever) about 1/4 or 1/3 of the way full with water and sprinkling some baking soda which acts as a neutralizer for the odor. The problem with this is that when the pale gets full of diapers and the additional water from spraying them out or the other bodily fluids that come in diapers, it tends to get pretty heavy. Unless you have handles to carry it, it can become very awkward to carry.

The second school of thought is to just rinse them in the toilet and toss them into the container. Our trash can that contains the diapers has a lid that flips open that we bought at Wal-Mart for like $8. My wife and I have discovered that the odor is hardly there and that it is easier to not only carry but to get into the wash machine. If there is an odor, we use vinegar during the first rinse cycle.

Washing the Diapers

***This is only cost effective if you have a washer and dryer. I would not do this at a laundromat or on-site coin laundry at a complex.***

The actual washing (or warshing if you are from the mid-west!) of the diapers is a two-step process in the washing machine. First, you dump the diapers into the wash and set the machine on the second rinse cycle (after the first spin cycle) This will agitate the diapers and get any extra junk out of the diapers and then spin them out before actually washing them. This is an important step.

After this first step is done, you then act as though you are washing a regular load of laundry except you should use a liquid detergent (All or ERA is what we use) that does not have any perfume or dyes. To be honest, I am not sure why this is necessary, but everything I have read says that this helps extend the life of the diaper.

I always set my load setting on the largest load capacity in order that there is more water for the diapers to be washed in. I also use the hot/hot setting for the water temperature. It is my opinion that this helps with the sterilization of the diapers each wash.

Drying the Diapers

We use two methods for this as well depending on how much time we have on a given day. The first method is to throw them in the dryer and set them on the low heat setting. This usually takes 40 minutes to dry the diapers completely. If you uses the high heat setting, the diapers begin to crack and the longevity of them is much less.

The second method is to hang them on a rack or clothesline to dry. We do not set them in the sun for the same reason we do not set them on the high heat. We hang them on a clothes rack we bought at Wal-Mart (bet you wouldn’t have guessed that) and then put them in front of one of our fans overnight (or not). After they are done drying this way, we throw them in the dryer on the no heat cycle just to fluff them up a bit.

It may seem like a lot of work put into saving a few bucks on diapers, but it really is not. We have two kids in diapers which translates to about two extra loads of “laundry” each week. Spraying out the dirty diapers does not take very long at all, either.

I will write later on how to either make your own wipes out of paper towels or simply make your own cloth wipes.

Directions on how to make a diaper sprayer

Supplies needed- you can get them at any hardware store

3/8″x3/8″x3/8″ tee
barb splicer
sink sprayer
hose clamps 2
toilet supply line

1. Shut off water at the valve behind the toilet
2. Remove supply line to toilet from the valve
3. Install 3/8″x3/8″x3/8″ tee to valve (One end should be horizontal- the other two are up and down)
***One of the two “up and down” ends needs to be a male (with the ability to attach to something) end and the other a female (with the ability to receive an attachment) end. The horizontal part needs to be female.***
4. Take the removed supply line and install it to the tee-the top of the tee
5. Cut off large end of new toilet supply line
6. Insert the barb splicer (this will connect the toilet supply line and the sprayer)
7. Put hose clamp on the new toilet supply line
8. Cut off very end of the sink sprayer
9. Install on the other end of the barb splicer
10. Add all of this to the other end of the 3/8″x3/8″x3/8″ tee-which is horizontal
11. You are finished. You can buy a hook to hang the sprayer on the wall.

Total cost: about $17.00-$21.00.

Sustaining Relationships

This is a guest post written by Mark Warnock.

People wash out of seminary and out of ministry all the time. Sometimes the most promising people in ministry self-destruct, abruptly landing in the hospital, divorce court, or on the front page. Others just tire out and change careers.

In every case I’ve personally observed, a major factor in ministry dropout is a simple neglect of key relationships that keep us on an even moral and emotional keel—what I call sustaining relationships. These are God’s resource to keep our emotional and spiritual tanks filled up, even as we pour them out in ministry.

Here’s how critical breakdowns often happen: You give and give and give of yourself in ministry. The demands are always more than you can meet, but driven by a noble work ethic, you over-give, to neglect of your walk with God, your family and friends. It looks like servanthood, but it’s really pride. You run dry, and then you are fair game for washing out.

In one common scenario, you find an easy, familiar way of finding some little relief: porn, the cute girl at work, drinking, gambling, smoking, whatever. We usually go back to the old “medicines” we used to enjoy. Sometimes it stops there, but sometimes, you start rolling downhill.

In the alternate scenario, you manfully struggle on, depleted, until the wear on your body, your faith and your relationships becomes unsustainable.

This happens far more often than any of us want to admit. Seminary students need to give high priority to their sustaining relationships. Once established as habit, this will become an important hedge against ministry failure or burnout.

Last month I got a call from a friend in ministry I’ll call Glen. He called me to confess he’d been viewing pornography for a few weeks. This surprised me. Glen is no dilettante; he’s mature in age and in his faith, and has a successful, deep ministry. As we talked it out, some contributing factors emerged:

• He’s working too hard
• His wife just went back to work full-time and they have much less time and energy for each other.
• He’s not sleeping well.
• His time with God lacks the calm, unhurried quality that he needs.

It’s dead simple. He’s overextended. His most important sustaining relationships are out of kilter, and out of exhaustion, he’s reverting to old patterns of medicating himself.

Ministry and life drain you; sustaining relationships fuel you. Go too long without that fuel, and you will break down. Here are the ones you should pay attention to:

Key Sustaining Relationships

God. Jesus was constantly surrounded by demanding crowds; they wanted healing, a miracle show, or just a free meal. His disciples bickered and missed the point more than they got it. So Jesus deliberately took hours of time to get away and be with God, to the point where people came looking for him. Learn now to step away from your ministry to be with God and leave people looking for you. This will require that you leave things undone.

Spouse. Your husband or wife is there to help you. Their love will help sustain you. This is not to say that spouses can’t be a drain; they certainly can. But a well-maintained marriage is a source of strength, energy and joy like few others. Spend whatever time you need to get it right and keep it right.

Children. Like spouses, children can be a drain, but the joy of watching and enjoying your kids is like nothing else. Don’t cheat them or yourself.

Your body. You need to sleep. Psalm 127:2. God designed us to be unconscious a third of our lives. Rebellion against this design is Luciferian arrogance. Cast your cares on the Lord and go to bed. A counselor friend of mine says that sleep deprivation is a rampant, unacknowledged factor in most of the sin, addiction, and family dysfunction that he sees.
You need to exercise. Pastors are notoriously sedentary and have the heart disease to go with it. Get out and move. It will improve your metabolism and your mood.
You need to eat well. The typical American diet will leave you sluggish. Avoid fast food; go for fresh fruits and veggies, drink lots of water.

Close friends. Here I mean people who give you energy, who know you and love you, and can easily see if something is wrong with your soul. This may include accountability or prayer partners, or maybe just lifelong soul friends. Nurture and cherish these friendships, and make time for them along the way. And be careful not include in this category any hangers-on who are drawn to your spiritual depth but have none of their own. They will only drain you.

People who challenge you to grow. These are mentors, folks whose faith and life stir you up. For instance, I have a few intelligent, well-read friends who can interact with me on history, philosophy and politics. This is nourishing to me. You don’t necessarily have to know these mentors personally. One of mine is James MacDonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, who I’ve never met. His no-nonsense, in-your-face preaching (via podcast) is a tonic for my faith.

Notice that seminary classes aren’t on this list. Study is part of the drain (Ecclesiastes 12:12), and knowledge is not life.

A few questions for reflection:

• Right now do you feel generally tired or energized?
• Is your time with God of sufficient quantity and quality as to be perceptibly refreshing to you?
• How is your relationship with your spouse? Really good, or just ok? How about your children? Are they getting enough of your time?
• When was the last good night’s sleep you had?
• Who in the last two weeks has asked probing questions of your soul, to find out how you really are? Have you answered them honestly? If no one has asked, why not?
• Do you feel that you’re deeply loved?

Mark Warnock is the General Editor of Seminary Survival Guide.com. and an occasional contributor to Going to Seminary.

Summer Intensive

Well, today I start a week of a 9-5 class called Introduction to Pastoral and Theological Studies.  I’ll write a post later in the week to give some of my thoughts on 1 week intensives, but for now I just wanted to comment on how amazing my fellow classmates are in this class.

So, one guy is a missionary in Turkey whose pastor is beat and stabbed on a regular basis.  Another is a missionary to China who has been kicked out twice.  Another is a guy from S. Korea who went to elementary school and university… between that he studied judo.  Oh, and then there is John Piper’s assistant…  I’ve never felt so boring.  Thankfully, Kari’s post from Saturday reminded me this seminary isn’t a competition.

Is Seminary Highly-Competitive?

Perhaps you are blessed with a blissfully content heart that enables you to attend seminary for the purest motive of simply learning. You shrug your shoulders at a C+ and praise God that your friend pulled off an A. When someone else’s sermon leaves yours in the dust, you are giddy with excitement that that person has such tremendous gifting for the glory of God. You love losing arguments because you realize you just gained a new perspective. If that’s you, you can click on another headline because this article will leave you a bit disillusioned and maybe a little shocked about the depravity of your classmates! Because you see, there is a vast majority of us who have yet to be freed from the unrelenting compulsion to compete.

Is Competition Godly? I’ve been exploring that recently and have decided that there is Selfish Competition (which seeks its own), Godly Competition (against the forces of evil), and Neutral Competition (two or more parties agreeing to engage in recreational competition for the sake of a common goal, such as exercise or stress relief).

Academic Competition in Seminary?

But does academic competition belong in seminary? Yes, we are called to compete against laziness, to compete against procrastination, to compete against ungodliness so that we might show ourselves a workman approved, rightly dividing the word of Truth (2 Tim 2:15). But are we called to compete with each other?

How many times have you sat in seminary classes and listened to people argue? More often than I care to recount. Yes, we’re called to pursue truth, and I’m the first to engage in some exhilarating theological debate. But the goal is truth, the goal is a new perspective. Sadly more times than not, what’s bubbling up beneath the surface is not a passion for God’s truth, it’s a gnawing desire to be right. We are desperate to prove our own point, to validate our own position. In a word, to win. In our journey of theological training, we simply hate to lose.

What about those of us plagued with the ability to receive academic awards and honors? Do we relish the thought of receiving honors, being ranked highly in our class, being named the recipient of a distinguished award? Is this appropriate for those of us who have devoted our life to serving the cause of Christ, the Humble King?

I suggest that where selfish competition is present, we are missing out on the essence of our seminary education. We are called to esteem others better than ourselves, to rejoice in the success of others, to care more for others than for self. If we don’t walk circumspectly, our seminary classes will be nothing more than a fleshly competition for earthly “success.” Nothing could be farther from our goal.

My own prayer is that God would purge my heart of selfish motivations for honors, awards, accolades, and applause. Root out that gnawing desire to be right. With eyes peeled for his smile and ears perked for his praise, I pray to lay aside fleshly competition, and truly study for His pleasure. Even if it means losing a little along the way.

Thrifty Thursday - Saving on Diapers

If you are in seminary, then you realize money is tight (that is why we have a Thrifty Thursday). If you are married and in seminary, then you definitely realize that money is tight. My wife and I are always searching for ways in which we can cut our budget. One way we did this was to transition to cloth diapers.

Now that you are over the “eww” factor, let me explain a few things. First, cloth diapers are not like they used to be back in the day. There are no diaper pins and there is no proper folding of the diaper as such. The cloth diapers I am talking about are just like the disposable diapers from all the major name brands (or not so major brands). Second, depending on which brand you invest it, you may never have to buy diapers again.

Brands

For example, the bum genius brand of diapers are made to grow with your child. Basically, it is a one-diaper fits all model. They are designed to fit newborns up to toddlers (7-35 lbs.). They are about $19-$21 a piece depending on where you buy them.

The fuzzi bunz brand are one of the more popular brands of cloth diapers (along with bum genius) but do not offer the one-size-fits-all model. They have sizes small-medium-large for the child. These diapers have an insert that you need to stuff inside the diaper in order to absorb liquids and such. They run about $18-$20 a piece depending on where you buy them.

Finally, the model my wife and I use are the Kushies brand. These are an all-in-one diaper in that there are no inserts to be added. They do come in various sizes from newborn (up to 10 lbs.) to infant (10-22 lbs), and toddler (22-45 lbs). I know you can buy inserts to help with absorbency, but they are not necessary as each diaper comes with an insert as part of the diaper. They run from $9-$10 per diaper depending on where you buy them.

My wife has found that the best (and cheapest) place to buy cloth diapers is Wal-Mart.com. However, of the three I mentioned in this article, you can only by the Kushies through Wal-Mart. If you are able to do Site-to-Store, then you do not have to pay for shipping and handling. The other two can be found at most cloth diaper stores (I had no idea there were stores dedicated to just cloth diapers!) or online.

How Do I Clean Them

Now, I am sure most of you are balking at the thought of having to wash poop out of diaper. Did you know that on the box of every disposable diaper there is a little note that says, “Rinse or shake baby soil into the toilet”? Most people do not know that, but it is true. I will wait while you go and look on your package of diapers. See, I told you. We have a kitchen sized trash can with a lid on it in one of our bathrooms. We also add a little bit of baking soda to the can to fight odor though it is not as bad as you would think.

If you are going to get started with cloth diapers, I would recommend getting 20-25 diapers to begin with. That is about three days worth and then they need to be washed. Given all that has happened to my wife and I regarding income and such, cloth diapers have saved our…er…butts a time or two. We do have disposable on hand for when we go to church or just go out, but not having to buy diapers once or twice a week has helped with the budget immensely. It is also a great way to “go green” if you are into that. Personally, I just find that it is helping me to be a better steward of what we have.

In a later post, I will show how to attach a kitchen sprayer to your toilet. This helps to not only clean the diapers but also clean your tub and or sink. A by-product of the sprayer is it makes a good conversation piece as well. I have actually used it to witness to a few friends about stewardship and God’s faithfulness.

Keeping Your Mind Fresh During the Summer

For kids, having the summer off from school means lots of sitting around watching TV, riding bicycles or playing sports, and sleeping in. But seminary students are no longer kids, and summer break is not going to be like that anymore. At least they shouldn’t be.

If you don’t take any classes during the summer, it is easy to get lazy. Once the required reading is done it is hard to find the motivation to pick up a book again and read. It is hard find the desire to open the Greek textbook once in a while in order to keep your mind fresh on what the aorist middle participle of a certain verb is. It can also be difficult to keep your mind thinking through a lot of the ideas and issues you came into contact with during the semester when you would rather sit with a bowl of chips in front of the game.

But these things are important. Those of us who are in seminary need to keep our minds fresh during the summer. Before I started seminary I spent a year working, and hardly did any reading during that time. Once the semester started I fell behind quickly and spent the rest of the semester playing catch-up.  I’d let my mind be idle for too long and it wasn’t quite ready for the intellectual challenge of seminary.

So let me offer a couple of suggestions. First, keep reading. If you are like me, you have a lot of books on your shelf that have never been read, or you have seen a lot of new books in the bookstore that have piqued your interest. Go ahead and read them! Don’t feel the need to rush through them like you often need to do during the semester, but pace yourself. It’s very easy to read a book a week, or if you are working or busy with other tasks, to do so over a period of two weeks. The point is just to keep your nose in a book and keep your mind accustomed to reading.  Someone once suggested to me that reading a good novel along with a non-fiction book is helpful.  Novels are much easier to read, and if you spend a half-hour reading that before you go to the other book, reading that non-fiction book will be a lot easier as well.  Plus, your imagination gets a workout then too.

Second, if you are a student of the languages, you must keep active in studying those. There are ample opportunities to do so. At my seminary, a local pastor comes in to the bookstore every Friday morning and sits with about five students reading through a chapter of the Old Testament in Hebrew, translating as they go. They spend about an hour together. See if you can find a group like that to be a part of. Another thing you can do is take your original language text to church. My pastor is preaching through the gospel of John right now, and so I sometimes take my Greek New Testament with me and follow along. It’s a simple way to keep on top of it.

Third, make sure you keep interacting with people on the levels you do during the seminary. Keeping discussing theology, faith, and the Church. Allow your mind to be active because you have a lot of free time to engage these issues during the summer. Also, take advantage of podcasts–sermons, lectures, conference audio–and set aside an hour every few days to listen to these. Some seminaries have material available through iTunesU or available for download elsewhere online. Lots of conferences makes their audio resources available online as well, and almost every church has sermons available for download.

By all means, enjoy your summer. Spend time with your family, take a vacation, and go to a ball game. But by keeping up with some simple things like reading, once summer is over you will be well prepared to get back into studying.

Two Cent Tuesday - To Twitter or Not to Twitter

It would seem that Twitter is the new cool thing these days. You can’t get very far on the blog-o-sphere without people talking about twitter. Pastors twitter, Missiologists twitters, Professional Bloggers Twitter, Moms Twitter (not mine, of course…) Twitter is everywhere…

Up until now I’ve stayed away from Twitter because, seriously, do I really have time for another distraction? However, I’ve been thinking about it more and more, so today I wanted to hear from all of you out there. Do you Twitter? If so, why? and, more importantly, should I Twitter and why?

The post is open, what is your two cents?

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