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MAGL Wrap Up

Chris —  November 13, 2012

fuller-seminary

Today I finished the second and final week of the Fuller MAGL intensive.  Over our two very full weeks, I was able to experience some one-of-a-kind fellowship, and I learned a lot.  Here’s a few of my gleanings.

  1. Organizations succeed in accomplishing their vision and mission when their leaders are aware of themselves, their team, their setting, and their Lord.  This is the thesis statement for a capstone paper that will synthesize two years of study and reflection.  These courses have helped me  have grace for some of the flaws of the organizations I’ve been around.  It’s also made me aware that I, as an individual, am in desperate need of clarifying my own hopes, dreams, values and mission.
  2. There are huge, worldwide changes that will shape how we live our lives and full our ministries in the years to come.  Most people now live in cities.  The church is now strongest in the global south.  Technology makes things possible but society are not necessarily prepared. Pluralism is normal. What does it mean to follow Christ in this reality?
  3. The fall of Christendom will usher in a new understanding of ecumenicism.  I remember the first time I met a missionary and found out that in their context, they were much more willing and ready to partner with other denominations than we were back home.  I came to understand that when Christ-followers are a minority, and they view their life as a mission from God, they find fewer things to fight about. My cohort represented a diversity of denominations and mission agencies.  While we might not necessarily believe all the same things, it was incredible to learn from each other, and imagine how we could partner together.  As the West becomes even more of a mission field, learning to get along will be necessary.
  4. Missional theology is for everyone.  I was surprised to hear that missionaries who have devoted their lives to serving in places like  the rural Senegal and urban Indonesia were greatly moved by studying the concept of the Missio Dei and the missional church.  I heard one of them say “I moved across the world to be a missionary.  But now I realize all of life is a mission, and that everything I do is missional.”  The church does not have missionaries, The Mission has a Church made up of Missionaries.
  5. The Church is in good hands.  I’ve had the privilege of spending two years with men and women who desperately love God and have a posture of life-long learning.  With the church being lead by such servants, it is exciting to imagine what God will do.
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MAGL Week 1 Review

Chris —  November 5, 2012

523052_861116808561_1973781226_n-1I’m been in Pasadena, California for the last week, visiting the campus of Fuller Theological Seminary for the last few classes of the MAGL. It’s been an amazing week in a beautiful part of the country, with incredible people and a lot of learning.

522305_860006793041_2100790664_n-1This past week’s course was Organic Organizations and Churches, taught by the inimitable Dr. Shelley Trebesch. Before coming to Fuller, Dr. T served with InterVarsity and OFM. The course covered concepts like developing a values and mission, understanding organizational life cycles, and leading with emotional intelligence. It was fascinating discuss this my cohort-two dozen missionaries and ministers from all over the world-and hear how these concepts play out in different circumstances.

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In my downtime, I’ve visited the Getty Museum, which is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.  I also took a bicycle tour of the city.  Near campus we have an Intelligentsia, where I’ve been spending way too much money. It’s been about 85 degrees, and the light, dry air would make you sing.  I wish you could be here!

550625_858936413091_1607161630_nI’ll be here for one more week completing the capstone course of the MAGL.

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7 Things I’m Thankful For: MAGL

Chris —  November 23, 2011

As I approached the end of my undergraduate experience, I was faced with two realities: my degree hadn’t set me up for a job, and my heart was really in “ministry.”  So I moved to my school’s seminary, where I was promptly miserable.  I learned a lot from my year with that school (primarily, a music degree does not prepare you to write academic papers), however I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being prepared to lead churches that only existed in the Bible Belt of the 1950s.

Then I had the opportunity to take an internship with a church in Atlanta, Georgia, and continue to take classes by making occassional pilgrimages to campus.  This allowed me to do two things that I could not in when you live and breath academia: being deeply involved in the life of a local church, and deeply committed to relationships with non-Christians. Now this is sad, because I love the classroom, it’s a place where I come alive.  But I couldn’t shake the feeling that none of what I was learning had any meaning if I left it relegated to an ivory tower.

So I’ve tried to integrate the seminary into my life.  This has been difficult.  It’s taken me years to get to the point I am at, and I am a ways from finishing.  It’s also been a lonely task.  That’s why I’m grateful I found the MAGL.

Fuller Seminary’s Master’s of Arts of Global Leadership has provided a practical way to continue my education in the manner that I feel is best.  The program is based on doing everything in a cohort, made up of like minded practioners from around the world.  Our course work covers issues like Adult Education, Globalism, Missiology and Self Understanding.  All of these are viewed through the lense of helping us develop as leaders, and apply them to our local churches.

The cohort program also offers something that I was unable to find in my previous experiences, a sense of academic and missional cameraderie that my other experiences had lacked.  Through the MAGL, I have been reunited with a childhood friend, met a local youth pastor, made friends with missionaries to China, heard first hand accounts of the civil unrest in Liberia and stories of life in undeveloped corners Senegal.  As diverse as are cohort is, we find things to laugh and pray about everyday.

But most important, the MAGL has forced us to rethink what God’s really up to in this world.  Knowing people scattered across the globe, and wrestling together with them through these issues has a way of making God bigger, and my struggles and pet issues much, much smaller.

That is very difficult.  But I’m thankful for it.

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MAGL Review

Chris —  May 18, 2011

My last two weeks were spent in Colorado Springs, Colorado at the campus of Fuller Colorado, an extension of Fuller Theological Seminary.  The time was spent participating in two courses as a part of my Master’s of Arts in Global Leadership.  The MAGL gathers students from Churches and Mission Agencies across denominations and around the world.  The degree plan focuses on leadership, adult education and organizational dynamics.  Because the degree is aimed at practitioners in the field it is made up of a unique combination of online classes and week long intensives.

Our first week was a class called “Character, Community and Leadership.”  The majority of the time was spent hearing the stories of our fellow cohort members.  Stories about growing up in Liberia, or Korea or France.  Stories about faithful parents that raised kids to be missionaries.  Stories about drug dealers that met Jesus.  Stories about moving across the world because of a sense of calling.  In light of our own journeys we discussed what makes or breaks a leader, and how to help people grow to look more like Jesus.

The second week was spent relearning how to read the Bible in a class titled “Biblical Foundations of Mission.”  We looked at the over arching story of how God interact with his creation.  We saw that he loves the nations of the world and the world itself.  We followed how Abraham and his children displayed God’s kingdom to their neighbors.  We studied Jesus fulfilled the role of Abraham’s children to be a blessing to all nations.  We delved into Paul’s message of how all people are reconciled to each other through Jesus.  We glimpsed God’s grand plan to renew all things in a fresh, grand garden.

As good as the classes were, any of us would tell you that the academics had very little to do with what they got out of our time together.  Our cohort is made up of people who believe that there is more to life than the American (or Korean, Liberian, Libyan or Canadian) dream.  It is made of people who live as aliens and strangers in this world.  We’re committed to the belief our neighbors, friends and communities would be better off if they knew about Jesus.  In many ways, it is made up of lonely people, who have followed a calling that has taken them far from home.

Perhaps the biggest take away was the sense of relief when you realize “I’m not crazy!”  There are people who are also passionately living out their faith in a way that leads them to the ends of the earth.  Now, we know who those people are, and we can pray for them by name.

 

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Fuller Theological Seminary MAGL Week 1

Chris —  May 5, 2011

I’m halfway through my first week of Character, Community and Leadership, the first on campus course for my Master’s of Arts of Global Leadership.  The class takes place in Colorado Springs, within walking distance of the Garden of the Gods.  The other members of my cohort are men and women from over a dozen countries on every continent.

This course is structured around a few principles.  One is that we must learn from our journeys.  The other is that adults learn the best when they are self directed.  Practically, this means that much of our first week is spent hearing each others stories.  These are amazing, since many of the participants are people who have experienced powerful callings.  They have given up much, and gained much in return.  They are also practitioners, with hands on experience living out the way of Christ in places like Liberia, Thailand, Florida and D.C.  We also spend a lot of time unpacking our experiences of reading various leadership and character related texts, my favorite being Willard’s Renovation of the Heart.

I have high hopes that big things are happening here, for all of us.  I would like to ask your prayers that this will be a watershed experience for me, where I will learn a lot about who I am, and what God has in mind for me.

 

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