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Teaching with a long view

Posted by tom | Mar 12, 2007

Here's some thoughts from Miller, inspired by A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, as to a long view of teaching . . . students can see progress just by the fact that each term they have more courses and credits on their transcript . . . a writer can see certain works completed . . . my cousin was pastor of a conservative baptist church in wyoming . . . now he does ministry on the side and does cabinet making in his shop in las vegas . . . so each day he can see visible results . . .

teaching math is a long term situation . . . presently i have the same students for two terms back to back . . . i can see gradual changes in some students . . . for that i'm thankful . . . with others i'm not sure what's happening...that takes a long obedience in the same direction . . .

but teaching the Bible and trusting and longing for signs of spiritual maturity . . . i don't think anything takes more patience over a long period . . . we hear about george mueller praying for a friend's conversion all his life, and the friend didn't become a believer until after mueller's death . . . and the missionary (maybe father of modern missions) spent a lifetime in a foreign country, and saw only one or two converts during his ministry (but later, after his death, significant growth happened) . . . missionaries started work in china and vietnam, then were forced to leave, and must have felt their work was in vain...but God took the "little" they did and the church has grown faster than we expected (despite the absence of the missionaries)... the thing i'm thankful for is that God takes our small efforts, and greatly magnifies them by His power . . . as Jesus did with the few loaves and fishes . . . RC Sproul had a fine sermon on this one sunday when we were visiting his church . . . when i was getting discouraged (tired?) of graduate work in physics at carnegie mellon, i talked with the chair, said i wanted to leave after a master's degree . . . and he said, you seem to be doing well, why not stay for ph.d . . . i said i wanted to try teaching, and he said, that in teaching you never know whether you're getting results because so much depends on the students, but in research it's your own work, and you can see the results more readily . . .

in schindler's list, (which i haven't watched) i think schindler at one point could see lined up on the streets all the souls he saved from the nazi camps...all lined up to honor him...max lucado refers to paul saying that "you people are my reward"...and lucado believes that some ministers will one day see in heaven, a line of souls who have been blessed because God used us to minister to them . . . ones we never thought we had much influence on . . .

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    When did you go to RC's church? It's just "down the road a piece" from us.

    Posted by sursumcorda, Mar 12 2007, 11:22

    Just to clarify, that was a quote from Miller. He probably visited RC's church when Ligonier Ministries was still in Ligonier, PA. But Miller may have visited in Florida, I'll ask him. Tom

    PS. RC's undergraduate degree is from Westminister College and his MDiv from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His son's undergraduate degree is from Grove City College and his MDiv is from Reformed Theological Seminary . . . note the deepening Reformed direction, but not enough considering the various controversies of the late 90's and turn of the millenium during which I lost track of their ministries.

    PPS. I visited the local congregation RC was a part of when I visited RTS-Orlando about a decade ago, but I think that he may have a new affiliation.

    Posted by Tom, Mar 12 2007, 13:18

    Okay, now I'm even more intrigued. Did you go to St. Paul's Presbyterian? "About a decade ago" was about when RC left there to start St. Andrews Chapel. If you were at St. Paul's before mid-1998 we were probably in the congregation with you! (Actually, we would have been in the choir.) But unless you came in the summer, Heather would have been at CMU at that point. By the way -- I remember reading about a Canadian prime minister who remarked that bordering the U.S. was like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how good your relations, you are disturbed whenever the elephant rolls over. Having RC go to your church is kinda like that....

    Posted by sursumcorda, Mar 12 2007, 15:00

    Yes, I vaguely remember a conversation with Heather along these lines. I visited in Fall 1995. Theresa was so convinced of our move that she began looking into Florida teaching standards. God impressed upon us the desire to offer this stage of our life to Him through IVCF, but by the grace of God, our family's paths crossed none-the-less :-)

    Regarding RC, he was one of my attractions to RTS, I sat in on one of his classes on the Westminister Confession of faith. Intense. My primary attraction to the seminary grew out of several conversations with Charles MacKenzie, former President of Grove City College, see http://www.rts.edu/faculty/StaffDetails.aspx?id=24 In Christ, Tom

    Posted by Tom, Mar 12 2007, 21:30

    we visited sproul at his st. andrew's chapel in sanford florida....there for the morning and evening service...he was really surprised to see me...talked with him for about 20 minutes about many things, including his discouragement with berkouwer, his thesis adviser at amsterdam...will relate some more about this in next email....his health isn't very good...they've bought new property for a college and to house ligonier ministries...and they have plans to build a larger church building (and sell the "small" one they're in now...holds maybe 500)...he's been preaching morning and evening...they have a "music conservatory" at his church to encourage students taking lessons, with emphasis on classical music...i think you know he became a christian while he was a student at westminster college...i will mention more about that later...his mentor here was tom gregory (father-in-law of rick gamble, the new systematic theologian at Reformed Presbyterian seminary in pittsburgh)...sproul is ordained in the PCA church, but st. andrews (his church) is independent....

    Posted by Miller Peck, Mar 12 2007, 21:47
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