This summer, I spent a month taking classes through Campus Crusade for Christ’s Institute for Biblical Studies. This summer program is part of Campus Crusade’s commitment to our ongoing spiritual and theological development. I enjoyed the atmosphere of being on the campus of Rollins College, here in Orlando.

I enjoyed the classes and it was a lot of work. I was in class for 4 1/2 hours a day and had lots of reading and projects to do each night. Here is the list of classes I took:

• Biblical Interpretation and Communication – For the first two weeks, I applied what I was learning in the course to interpret Genesis 11:1-9 (The Tower of Babel). For the last part of the class, I worked on a 20 minutes sermonette on the passage. I learned a lot about this passage and I am still mining gold from it. One of the things I enjoyed about these courses was a focus on the redemptive context and then bringing that into the message. We considered the entire drama of the Bible and how our passage fit in. I believe this course and approach to the Scriptures will enrich my time in the Word for the rest of my life.
• Comparative Worldviews – I enjoyed this class as the instructor mixed the lecture with movie clips from popular movies to illustrate points about different worldviews. I also interviewed three people to see what they believed and wrote a paper about how it compared to the Christian worldview.
• The Biblical Theology of God, the Bible and the Holy Spirit – I really enjoyed this course taught by Dr. Bruce Ware of Southern Seminary. It was very rich to look into these subjects and I learned some really good stuff. I am looking forward to continuing to read my book and take another course on Christ, Humanity and Salvation either next summer or in two summers.

We have been traveling in Arkansas and Oklahoma for the past couple of weeks. It has been fun to see many of our ministry partners and be back in both Little Rock and Tulsa.