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theLAB

The Logos Academic Blog

Getting Online Students Offline

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Integrate Knowledge and Praxis Through Contextual Teaching and Learning

Kristen Ferguson  | Gateway Seminary

If information automatically led to transformation, then it would be easy. We could upload our fact-filled videos, pour ourselves another cup of coffee, and wait for the metamorphosis. Intentional training demands more. Communicating facts is one thing, but fostering transformation, mentorship, and relational skills necessary for ministry leaders is another.1 Since all types of learning outcomes—cognitive, behavioral, and affective—are essential for all theological education,2 we must not settle for merely cognitive results in online theological education. 

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A Worldwide Vision for Theological Education

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The prayer guide Operation World has taught me much over the years. By its estimates, only 16.7 percent of Christians lived in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in 1900. That figure rose to 63.2 percent by 2010 and is projected to reach 70 percent in a few years. Some movements have experienced especially remarkable growth. Today, for example, there are more than 600 million evangelicals in these regions—12 times as many as there were in the year of my birth. Some in the media depict “evangelicals” only in terms of particular US subcultures, yet evangelicals in the global South outnumber those in the West many times over! 

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Don’t Be Shy: On Mentoring

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Telemachus and the Nymphs of Calypso, Angelica Kauffman. Image source: Wikipedia

A Beneficial Mentoring Relationship Requires Intentionality

Daniel Scott and Taylor Reimer | Tyndale University College and Seminary

‘‘Not the least shyness, now, Telemakhos,” says the original Mentor in The Odyssey.1 He appears as an old trusted friend of Odysseus, and as his guide is the personification of wisdom. 

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Teaching on the Internet: A Guide for Beginners

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To Bridge the Technology Gap, Focus on Learning Outcomes and Student Relationships 

Jeannine K. Brown | Bethel Seminary

There are many ways to be successful teaching online. Online pedagogy is almost as varied as the professors who teach in this delivery system. Just as there is no single way to be successful teaching in face-to-face classrooms, there is no single path for good online pedagogy. With that said, I have found a handful of approaches and ideas helpful over the years. 

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Creating an Appetite for Scripture: Interview with Robert Smith Jr.

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Photo credit: Matt Miller/BP

Robert Smith Jr. on Cultivating Imagery to Satisfy the Narrative Mind

In the twenty–first century world of theological education, preaching can seem an antiquated exercise that no longer speaks well to a culture immersed in social media and increasingly skeptical of the role of religious proclamation in the public square. But what is theological teaching without biblical preaching? Enter Robert Smith Jr., the Charles T. Carter Baptist Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School, who has spent a lifetime preaching so as to teach, and teaching so as to help others preach. Smith spoke recently with Didaktikos editor Douglas Estes about visual teaching and the importance of theological conversation partners.

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I Want to Be Like Mark

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Image credit: Tavis Bohlinger

Inviting Students to Confront Their Misrepresentations About Jesus

Michael Kibbe | Great Northern University

“The Gospel of Mark can be summed up in two words: Rome wins.” I speak these words about sixty minutes into my first hermeneutics session of every semester. It’s a sophomore­-level general education course at an evangelical liberal arts ­university, and since the students have already had OT and NT survey on top of whatever church/­Christian education background they possess, the biblical literacy rate is reasonably high. But whatever perspective they’ve come in with about the story of Jesus, “Rome wins” probably isn’t it.1

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Tendencies to Remember When Teaching Women

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Sue Edwards | Dallas Theological Seminary

How you view women influences how you teach them. Paul uses familial language to describe Christian relationships, and I’ve found this imagery useful in creating a healthy classroom ethos where both women and men thrive.  

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Dueling Professors?

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Image source: Wikipedia

An Example of Co-Teaching as a Means of Modeling Interdisciplinary Dialogue

Eric J. Tully | Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

One of the challenges in Christian higher education is navigating the tension between various fields of study. Christian institutions should have an inherent unity that comes from our faith and mission, but there is often a basic fragmentation that reflects the academic guilds in which we have been trained and now participate.

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The Joy of Ministry

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Mark L. Strauss  | Bethel Seminary

This is the fourth in a series of five essays looking at the multiple hats we as professors wear, including teaching, research and writing, mentoring students, ministry in the church, and administrative roles. My goal is to stretch you a bit in areas that you may not consider your strengths.

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Work with Librarians to Help Students Write Better Papers

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Dougald McLaurin | Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Last fall a student walked into the library and asked me where the commentaries on the book of Romans were located. He said he needed them for an exegesis paper he was writing. I asked, “How are you going to research your exegesis?” He said he would pull some commentaries and quote the ones he liked best. I might have let out an audible gasp, but this approach to research is common among students.

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