pat loughery

Part of the learning model in the Doctor of Ministry program at Bakke Graduate University has us writing daily journals for each in-class day. These journals describe what we saw, how we interpreted it and what we’ll do with it. I plan to do these each day (not waiting till after class) and posting them here as appropriare.

JOURNAL
MONDAY 6/2

Class began promptly at 8:00AM. As the students entered the building, a few of us met each other. I’m surprised that we’re meeting downstairs in the building, but it’s larger than our regular classroom and has good light.

The day began with worship. Grace Barnes played a piano instrumental of Jesus Loves Me, and it centered me well. Julie Gustavson sang and then lead us in singing, first as an entire group, then singing to one or two others – Jesus loves you – this personalizes the song. We then thought of our “Samaritan”, our “enemy”. I thought immediately of a church group that I have difficulty respecting for what I perceive as pride and arrogance and who we will visit as part this class, and I was able to sing “Jesus loves them”, bringing me freedom.

Judi Melton then walked us through the first section of our paper binder, giving us an the overview of requirements of the class – worship schedule, syllabus, requirements of our paper and project. I am motivated by the idea of writing a paper on my own spiritual journey that includes how transformational leadership can play out in my life.

Afterward, Grace Barnes talked about her interest and study in leadership, in particular servant leadership. I am very interested in leadership in relational forms, and I think that this course and this particular D. Min will help me to bridge the parts of my life that are focused on software work, and the parts of my life that are focused on mission and ministry. Grace then spent time with us talking through Ephesians 2:11-12, and what it means for us to be a new community in a foreign world. This was the first part of our classroom interaction time, and it started awkwardly, but I’m sure we’ll be much more comfortable together over time. We talked about the dynamics of belonging to a community that is embedded in the culture and the world around us, but we are also called out to be separate and not driven by that culture.

Grace lead us into a short discussion of transitions, which she describes as having three phases: Endings, neutral zone and beginnings. I have spent the last year of my life in that neutral zone with respect to my own personal ministry arena, as the church that we planted closed just over a year ago, and the next phase of my assignment in the Kingdom as a leader isn’t yet known. I’ve described it to others as saying that I know that I’m to go on current marching orders – to keep working on my D. Min, to spend time with my family, to enjoy my job, and to learn what I feel invited to learn. I also know that I’ll have some form of church leadership again – perhaps teaching, perhaps a church plant, perhaps something different. I’m comfortable knowing that this isn’t yet clear. This description is of one who’s in the neutral zone. To close this time, a student – Thomas Law, sitting next to me, asked us what it means to finish well. Grace addressed the question, but then asked us to spend a few minutes journaling about what it means to finish well. This is a highlight of the morning for me.

We are introduced to the BGU staff and then to our fellow students. I’m always impressed with the rich collection of people in a BGU class, and I looked at the roster before class time to see a wide range of nations represented. I am excited to be working with people from around the globe and hearing their perspectives and stories.

Ray spoke next about the mission statement of BGU, and talking about the urban focus of Bakke Graduate University. I’m especially excited about Ray’s discussion of our commitment to the global poor and vulnerable, and doing that with a socially responsible focus. Ray discussed the PLC (Personal Learning Community), and emphasizes that the PLC you choose will be asked about your learning experience in order to keep you accountable. I suspect that this also helps to keep BGU accountable as well, since the BGU learning experience will also be examined. Ray then talks about the D. Min model, and he uses a great example about learning models: “Do you know how surgery is taught? It’s not in the classroom; it’s in the hospitals, where the blood is.” The BGU D. Min is aimed at learning from practitioners of the Gospel in global, urban contexts.

Before lunch, Brad Smith talked about how spiritual formation happens in an apprenticeship model, where we first do something, and then we learn a structure underneath it for why. He then described two tools for helping us to tell our life stories: life lines and life maps. Each provides graphical ways of describing your circumstances, your emotions and your spiritual life at different chronological points in your life. At lunch, we meet in groups of 4 to share our stories in this way. All of them have interesting stories to tell, and also have spent a great deal of time overseas serving in community development or mission focuses.

After lunch, Brad talked about the sociological shifts that are happening right now – moving from a world in which maps were drawn with political alignments to maps that are now drawn around economic development; a world in which for the first time in human history there are more urban people than rural people; a world which is broadly connected via the Internet which has transformed youth culture. Then Brad spoke about the vision of BGU as a holistic, global and decentralized educational delivery system.

We walked down to the Columbia Tower for an overview (geographically and historically) of Seattle, with Ray Bakke leading the tour. I’ve never been to the Columbia Tower’s viewing platform, and I loved the view of the region. More than that, I was engrossed in Ray’s discussion of the features, history and geography of Seattle. Ray has a unique gift to weave together stories from the past and present in a tantalizing way. He spoke about the growth of industry in Seattle from the Skid Road days through the Amazon days, and discussed Seattle’s opportunity, poised to continue its commerce and relationship with the Pacific Rim countries. I was able to talk to Ray about his thoughts on the regional leadership and its inability to execute long-term planning with regard to public transportation and other challenges. And in between these lectures we had more conversations with other students when walking the streets of Seattle, and when having dinner at Gordon Biersch where I sat with a woman from Alaska, a woman from Ethiopia, a man from Kenya, and Vineyard pastor from Reno, Nevada. We sought for and found common connections in our stories. I greatly appreciated my conversation with another local minister and community developer who is serving the Rainier Valley area of Seattle with exciting, transformative, holistic ministry in his neighborhood. It is conversations like these that make a BGU class such an engaging blessing.