Today’s Online Education: The Massive and the Intimate

November 5, 2012 By 8 Comments
Sanders Theater at Harvard University, filled to the brim with students for Michael Sandel's "Justice" course. In some years, this course included more than 1,000 students. I was a teaching fellow for this course when it began in the early 1980s. I led a couple of sections for discussion and graded my students' work.

The New York Times has christened 2012 as “The Year of the MOOC.” No, “MOOC” has nothing to do with the presidential election or with Hurricane Sandy. “MOOC” means “Massive Open Online Course.” It is the name for a new mode of online education. MOOCs are exploding in popularity. According to Laura Pappano, writing for [...]

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The Mission of God and the Missional Church: Sent as a Community of the Good News, Part 2

August 29, 2011 By 1 Comment

Part 15 of series: The Mission of God and the Missional Church In my last post, I began talking about how we are sent as a community of the good news to join in the mission of God in the world. I said that our corporate sending is important because: first, we get our training [...]

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Divine Guidance Through Community (Part 2)

July 7, 2011 By 2 Comments
A picture of my wife and me around the time of my story. Yes, I was wearing those giant glasses and that stylish moustache. And, yes, I was wearing shorts that short. I'm glad some things change, though I'd be happy to have all that brown hair again.

Part 10 of series: How Does God Guide Us? In my last post, I began to explain how God guides us through Christian community. This sort of discernment happens especially in the context of intimate relationships: small groups, prayer partnerships, or spiritual direction relationships. For example, several years ago, my wife and I were going [...]

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Divine Guidance Through Community

July 6, 2011 By 1 Comment
The agora (marketplace) of ancient Thessalonica as it looks today. Picture thanks to HolyLandPhotos.org.

Part 9 of series: How Does God Guide Us? Today, I’m getting back to my series: How Does God Guide Us? You can find the first eight parts of this series here. So far I’ve shown that the Spirit of God guides us through circumstances and Scripture. But, as I have admitted, both circumstances and [...]

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