D. Min Update: "Thanks"

NOTE: I wrote the following in our church newsletter in the midst of finishing the last classroom portion of my Doctor of Ministry studies.  It was published in the April Newsletter.

If I'm timing this article correctly, you will be reading it two and a half days after my return from Erskine Seminary. It might be three days if your mail is like ours, arriving by lunchtime one day and well after sunset on another, in which case you'll be doing more important things by the time the newsletter is placed in your mailbox and then it will sit on your kitchen counter for a little while longer.  But I digress... my reason for writing this on the eve of my last class is to say, "Thank You."

I still have a ways to go-- in fact I have another year of work to do with my project and dissertation.  With this week, however, is my last official class in the Doctor of Ministry program.  I began in 2009 and I will finish in 2013 if the Lord is willing. I've been blessed to have your support as a church family.  

You've allowed me to take multiple trips to Due West and Columbia, you've been generous in assisting with my tuition, and you've prayed me safely from paper to paper and up and down I-20.  You could have just as easily thought of this as some irrelevant hobby of mine that I needed to fit in between every thing else (but you didn't).  You helped me when it was time to do a "space tour" of S. Irby St.  You participated in the "Daring to Draw Near" sermon series.  You've taken part in bringing Psalm singing back a few times a month.  Each of these things (as well as others) is part of the overall fruit of the D. Min program, and you and I have shared it together.

With this final class, I just wanted to say, “Thanks.”  Thank you for encouraging me and challenging me to keep going.  Thank you for being the workshop where all of this work is tended to and crafted.  Thank you for being my partner in this experience. 

In Him,

Pastor Brian

PS  If you’d like to take a look at some of the more recent work that has been a part of the program (papers, notes, presentations, etc.) you can visit: www.Scribd.com/FlyingFleet2000

IMAGE: firstprescolumbia.org