Life beyond teaching: cello and nature

While most of my time here in Colombia is spent teaching (or preparing to teach), this past Friday I got to perform the first Bach cello suite as well as accompany the seminary choir for a piece during an annual concert put on by student development . I don't have my own cello here (I'm looking into my options to see about fixing that), but a friend of a friend in student development is a music student who had a spare cello, so with five days notice, I attempted to make up for months of not playing. My fingers were sore from lack of calluses and it was weird adjusting to a different instrument, but I think it came together reasonably well. This definitely reinforced my desire to get a cello here and get back into playing music regularly!

Seminary choir practicing for the concert, led by Santiago Benavides, a well-known Christian musician here and husband of the leader of the student development office.

My other main hobby, the outdoors, has definitely taken a backseat here, but two weeks ago I was able to go on a wonderful retreat with other faculty and staff from the seminary, where we got to enjoy nature around the reservoir at Guatapé, about two hours from Medellín. A very generous donor to the seminary paid for the entire seminary faculty, staff, and their families to attend this two-day retreat (in four groups), the first time this kind of thing has happened in years, if ever, due to the normally prohibitive cost. This was a huge blessing and was cool to see how great of a community there is here among all types of people, from the security guards and janitors to support staff, faculty, and administrators. This was a great chance to decompress from work, relax in nature, reflect spiritually, and get to know others from the seminary better than before.

On a hike overlooking the reservoir near Guatapé with friends who work in student development, English courses, extension programs, and the library.

"Boating" on the lake. The boat more resembled a motorized dock (you can see it in the picture below with the white chairs lined up on it).

View from our hotel in our own private part of the lake. Water level was noticeably low as Colombia has been in a relatively dry spell lately (with severe drought in the far north of the country).

Preaching Proverbs Conference

Of all the books in the Bible to preach from, Proverbs would likely be one of the last I would pick, perhaps only surpassed by Ecclesiastes (I still don't have a very clear idea of what to do with most of the book) and Song of Songs (which I usually just read as fast as possible when I get there in my Bible reading plan, and then move on without lingering on the details). Wisdom literature is not exactly my strong point, especially if I were to try to figure out how to write a sermon outline on a passage.

This past week, however, the seminary hosted a conference on "Preaching Proverbs" as their annual Transformative Preaching conference in conjunction with Langham Partnership International, a ministry that grew out of John Stott's ministry and promotes quality preaching in the majority world. I was able to attend most of the morning sessions and learned quite a lot by seeing different models of expository preaching of a difficult book, all done by Latinos. Probably the most helpful thing for me was seeing how different types of texts and themes can legitimately produce different types of sermons. For example, Diego Cardona, a pastor and the preaching professor at the seminary here, preached a great sermon introducing the book and looking at the big-picture of the concept of wisdom and its connections to the gospel. Another preacher tied in quite a bit of his background in counseling, another focused on one single verse while going very deep in showing the relevance to our lives while drawing on his own life experience, another was brutally honest in discussing texts that deal with the struggles for sexual fidelity, and so forth. In other words, there's not one magic key to preaching Proverbs, but a range of options for communicating effectively what wisdom is about.

I don't know if it's because I'm getting older and realizing that the decisions I make at this stage in my life drastically affect where I will go in the future, but I feel like I'm getting to a point where the wisdom portions of the Bible are beginning to speak to me more. Perhaps this is the flip side of how a lot of people experience their faith. For many, Proverbs connects from the get go and later they go deeper in theology. For me, I've studied theology and the big picture of redemptive history for years, yet this conference has challenged me to remember that preaching (and the Christian life) has other dimensions than just making connections with the Bible's big story. Obviously to be truly wise we must recognize our need for the gospel, but I can't forget that so much of the Bible was written to hit home in daily life and decision making. God cares enough about our conformity to the image of Christ that he has given us pretty clear ideas about what leads to life and which decisions are just plain foolish.

Around 200 people attended the conference, well above expectations and a tremendously encouraging sign! In a country so lacking in quality preaching and nuanced applications of biblical texts, it was great to see so many pastors and other leaders seeking to grow in fidelity to God's word.

Singing a worship song with others attending the Preaching Proverbs conference in response to a sermon.

Two courses wrapped up: Religious Systems, Vocal course

My primary course that has kept me extremely busy, Religious Systems, finished a week ago and I spent a good part of the past week grading papers and exams. I definitely encountered a sharp learning curve in the course regarding the educational system here, where students are coming from, how to assess students well without overwhelming myself with too much grading, and considering how to better contextualize courses for the Colombian context in the future. In spite of all the ways I can see to improve (something I'm sure will never go away), I've heard a lot of positive feedback from students as well as others on staff at the seminary who have spoken with students and said they have learned a lot. Below are a few pictures from the last day of the course, when we wrapped up looking at other belief systems with a discussion on how the church can help strengthen the faith of people facing doubts due to the existence of so much religious diversity and differences of opinion.

With the 23 students in my Religious Systems course.

Four of my students during a group discussion activity.

Brainstorming ideas as a class, drawing on the insights of the different groups.

This past Saturday we also wrapped up the Foundations of Vocal Technique course by having a small certification ceremony. Students prepared a song (the Spanish version of "Lord Most High"), the teacher (Claudia) sang, and I gave a 15-minute homily based on Psalm 95. The message sought to summarize the key themes we studied regarding theology of worship, namely, why we worship (because God is worthy of worship for who he is) and how we ought to worship (with a humble attitude and a heart willing to listen to God and obey him in all aspects of our lives).

Though the course ended with substantially fewer students than we had in the initial five-week module, we still had a decent group of around 15 students who stayed through the whole twelve weeks. I saw substantial improvement in the last few weeks and many students are hoping to be able to continue. I played a role in evaluating the course for the seminary, and they are going to offer the course again beginning in October, separated into two levels this time. I will likely continue to help out with the theology of worship portions, but not attend the rest of the classes from here on out.

Here are a couple of reflections on the theological part of the course from an interview I conducted after the last class:

• Diana, a student involved with youth ministry and music at her church, said: “I have enjoyed the theological part of the class a lot because there are things that one understands erroneously in terms of worship and praise, ideas like thinking that worship is only a matter of singing or raising one’s hands. But worship is much more than just that.” 
• Luz Marina, a lawyer who works with victims of the armed conflict in Colombia and who also serves in worship ministry at her church, said the following, "It has been very special to be part of this course because I haven't just learned vocal techniques to help me sing better, but I have also learned the role that worship and praise plays within a worship service and the congregation's gatherings".

Singing at the certification ceremony for the Foundations of Vocal Technique course (in the seminary chapel).