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God is Setting All Things Right. So I am Blogging Through the Bible in a Year.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Reviving the Blog, Class for Sept. 29

The time has come to revive Random Thoughts from Graham. The blog, that is. Although you might want to revive my random thoughts as well. I can become somewhat zombiefied at times which causes ... sorry, I'm rambling. Back on topic!

This quarter (I'm a student at Fuller Graduate School of Intercultural Studies which still uses the quarter system) I am taking the class Church Planting taught by Dr. Ryan Bolger. We have the choice to either blog our assignments or print them out. Being the cheapskate I am, I decided not to print them out but to let everyone in the world see them through this blog. Thus, Random Thoughts from Graham helps Graham pass his class! I will also post interesting quotes from the class on my Twitter account (or search the hashtags #churchplanting or #mc520).

The assignments are as follows:
Students will write a paragraph per chapter read. Student need not write more than 500 words per book, but must reflect on each chapter read nonetheless. Students are encouraged to read in light of final paper, thus these reflections may serve as notes for the term paper as well (15%). Students may read the six books in any order. The six book reports are due on your blog by the start of class on October 6, October 20, November 3, November 17, December 1, and December 10. Late posts will receive a 50% deduction.

For class participation, students will write, on the average, 50 words for each class session attended. These 50 words are due at the start of the next day of class on your personal blog. There will be no makeups or acceptance of late work, but of the ten assignments, only nine will be counted. So, students may miss two without a penalty. The topic will be, "My thoughts on the last class session." The last class reflection is due December 10th (15%).

So hopefully you will see two posts on this blog a week. This week there will only be one post (unless I really get moving and read the first book this week).

Class for Sept. 29:
This week's class, being the first one, focused on introducing the course's history, workload, and outline. The most important part of this class came while discussing the history of the course.
The course was once called "Church Growth." In the 1960s and 70s, it became the buzz word of growing churches. In the 80s and 90s, the name grew passé and Today the name has changed to "Church Planting." As many popular things go, "Church Planting" has become somewhat of a buzz word amongst new church leaders. In a few years this word, too, will become passé and something new will replace it. The focus of churches today should not be whether they are keeping up with the latest church growth fad but whether they are producing authentic Christianity that fosters communion with God and other disciples of Christ and reaches out to the world to save both body and soul. "If something is real and dynamic, people will come." - Ryan Bolger