That is an excellent observation, and probably right on target. This cycle seems to be reflected (at least at DTS) in the way students dress. You can see that the longer a student is there, the more sloppily they dress.

At least, this is something I have noticed among many of my peers, and a bit in myself…

Then it takes about 5 years after seminary to be able to say, “What I learned was really helpful, it just took me a while to figure out how to use it.”

I’m a little slow, so I went on the 6 year plan

Are you in theatre? Are you doing any shows or plays? I read your blog a bit and enjoyed several of the articles (I laughed about the Winter Solstice one, since Christians often think that the world is trying to steal Christmas from us, but in reality, it is the other way in around in many ways…). Anyway, I couldn’t tell if you were in theatre or not.

Theatre students could use the same orientation. It’s amazing how many technical-sounding terms and intense debates we had for what was basically making it up as you went. Very funny.

Ha ha. I hope not as well! Of course, there are no secrets on the internet! But even if some do, I’m not doing anything against them or the seminary. I go to class, do the assignments, write the papers, take the tests. Oh, and I do learn things, much of it very good.

And I’m not real critical of the professors. I respect many of them, and hope to maintain relationships with them once I graduate. I also appreciate most of the students and their hearts for ministry and love for Jesus. But there are always a few of these other kind…God bless ‘em. They’ll probably be writing the theology books of tomorrow.

Jeremy, I hope your profs don’t read your blog.

That is so funny! I laughed so hard. It is all so true. Oh, my aching side!

I don’t think I will be able to hold a straight face in class any more.

I think “ontological” is a favorite buzzword among many seminarians. Also, don’t forget about infralapsarianism, traducianism, Petrine, Pauline (I have a great aunt named Pauline, but we pronounce it Pawl-een), and Johannine. I have thought about playing buzz-word bingo at seminary.

I have often thought how I would do new student orientation if I were in charge. A rough outline would be…

1) Teach students how to instinctively say “Hmmm” and have a very serious look on their face any time a professor says something profound. They should then think about the point for a while and the take a few notes as they nod their head in a ‘well-done’ fashion as though the professor needs their approval.

2) Instruct students to immediately buy a Mac and then put a Starbucks sticker on it and download the most recent Derek Webb album.

3) Divide the room in half and have one half put Libronix on their PC and the other half put Accordance on their Mac and then have them argue over which is better.

and finally…

4) Teach them how to phrase an observation in the form of a question so that they are really asking no question at all. This usually comes in helpful when a student wants a professor to know that they are really into the lecture. Another modified form of this skill is the student who reads ahead in the professor’s notes and asks a question from the upcoming notes so that they professor will say, “Excellent question, that is actually my next point!” An even more refined form of this skill is the student who can begin a question by saying, “Our brother asked an excellent question. To piggy-back off of his question, how do you think his point fits into God’s missional desires for the nations in light of what was said in chapel last Tuesday about the imago dei?” This scores major points because in a few sentences, the student complemented another student even though he doesn’t know their name, demonstrated that they were paying attention in chapel last week, and they also used a term (imago dei) that is current, trendy, emergent and is also trying to be introduced into the seminary student’s day-to-day vocabulary by the theological and world missions departments so that such students can stake their claim in the dialogue and conversation going on among other students. A vague, open-ended question like this also allows the professor to embellish. In my time at DTS, though, I have only come across a handful of students who have reached this level of classroom etiquette.

I am ready to be done too,
Daniel

I don’t think I know him.

I checked the picture directory and cannot find him in the listings. Did he just begin?