University Courses
Below are courses pertinent to my goals that were taken at university and my rationale for taking them.
COMM 3315 – Advanced Public Speaking
Description: An in-depth study of the principles and practices of public presentation. Recommended for majors taking teacher education.
Rationale: I have gained much experience in public speaking over my 20 years of doing so. However, the experience gained and the understanding achieved has been largely through hard knocks. I tend to know the how, but not the why. My hope is to gain technical understanding in the field of public speaking that I can correct remaining deficiencies in my presentation that I may well be unaware of currently.
COMM 3320 – Communicating in Families
Description: An examination of the ways in which family members communicate, make decisions, settle conflicts, and learn to relate to one another in contemporary American culture.
Rationale: Much of my work as an evangelist is counseling in nature. I counsel people in crisis, I counsel people at life choice junctures, and I counsel people in family interaction. I have gained much experience in this field over my 18 years preaching, but once again it comes much from hard knocks. My hope is that I will gain technical knowledge in counseling in my evangelist endeavors and also that I will be able to convey technical information regarding how to evangelize to families at the evangelistic summit to the other evangelists.
COMM 4340 – Organizational Communication
Description: An in-depth study of the dominant theories, principles and practices of communication within the organization through capstone course.
Rationale: I have worked with a church organization for nearly 20 years. There are many challenges to leading an organization. Many times these challenges can be hard to overcome absent technical training in how to recognize how an organization best operates and how best to communicate to that organization. I hope to gain understanding in how best to evangelize to my organization and also to convey to the other evangelists at the summit how they can take the same strategies and increase their evangelistic success at their respective home congregations.
Elementary Greek I & II/Greek Reading I & II
Description: A study of the Greek language.
Rationale: I have always wanted to be able to have some understanding of the language of the New Testament. I never knew just how much this would help until I jumped into the middle of it. I now have a strong foundation of understanding of the language of the New Testament.
TH 6311 – Christology
Description: A study of Christ.
Rationale: This class has given me much greater insight into the person and the work of Jesus. While I have spent much time in my years studying Jesus and what He has done, not much time has been spent on the “why”. This class has greatly helped to better understand why Christ did what He did and to help me in my future work of explaining Jesus to others.
TH 6310 – Systematic Theology
Description: A study of how the various doctrines and areas of Biblical studies fit together.
Rationale: While I have spent much time examining various doctrines, I have never spent time working to fit it all together. This class has helped understand how it all fits and why God established things as He did. It is very easy to teach error if we do not understand the big picture, and this class has helped me to better understand and teach this.