Say “I Won’t Give Up”: Reflections on the Emerging Adulthood Consortium

For the past few months, I have been rather perplexed by the juxtaposition of two songs on one of my playlists. I downloaded the first because of how both its lyrics and musicality depict reality of pain in human relationships. I downloaded the second because of how it captures a sense of hope. While attending…
Experiential Learning and Faith Development – Part 3

The four educators highlighted in my last post all ground their theories of experiential learning in a philosophy called constructivism. What is constructivism? Is it compatible with Christianity? What follows are my in-progress ruminations on these questions. By no means have I found definitive answers. Regardless, I continue to think about these issues because they…
Experiential Learning and Faith Development – Part 2

In my last post, I raised some questions about the role of experience in our faith development. The fact that we learn from experience seems rather obvious. But what sorts of experiences are educative? Precisely how do we learn from experience? How can educators help others learn from their experiences? Several education theorists have sought…
Experiential Learning and Faith Development – Part 1

Every fiber in my body tensed up. In my mind, I immediately began barraging the man sitting to my left with questions. I was baffled. No sooner had I read the last word from a passage in Hebrews than he blurted, “I don’t agree with that.” That comment plagued my thoughts for several days. What…
Celebrate the Pastorate

Celebrate the pastorate. These words caught my eye as I scrolled through my Facebook feed earlier today. I paused long enough to see that they were projected on the screen in the Trinity chapel behind speaker Philip Griffin. This week, Philip Griffin kicked off the Timothy Series, a joint effort of the Henry Center and…
The Missing Link

This post is not about evolutionary biology. Nor is it about a recent citing of Bigfoot. Rather this post is about my recent discovery of the missing link between my post-secondary education and my pastoral ministry: anthropology. Anthropology is the study of humans. Except for one required course in Spanish Linguistics, I finished college and…