I attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where I am getting my Masters in Divinity with a concentration in Children's Ministry. For my first semester, I enrolled in Biblical Hermeneutics, Biblical Hebrew, Administration of Early Childhood Weekday Program and Spiritual Formation.
Prior to coming to seminary, I always explained hermeneutics as "interpretation of the Bible." While in Biblical Hermeneutics this semester, I learned that I had been explaining hermeneutics incorrectly. Hermeneutics is the study of Scripture and explaining the meaning of Scripture. I understand hermeneutics now to be the study and application of Scripture.
I learned a lot of interesting things in Biblical Hebrew. In general, I have a better understanding of some basic Hebrew words in the Old Testament. I am able to confidently translate Hebrew to English, not so much English to Hebrew, but that's okay. The most interesting thing I learned this semester is about the word Jehovah. Did you know that Jehovah and Yahweh were originally the same word? Jehovah is a misinterpretation of Yahweh.
In Administration of Early Childhood Weekday Program, I learned how to direct a daycare/preschool/weekday program that is associated with a church. This was an interesting class, that I had to consistently open my mind to. I think that I will never be able to use this information, but I have no idea what God has in store for me in the future. What if one day I end up the director of a Children's Ministry that has a weekday program? We learned how to make a budget, motivate staff and how to create a positive working environment.
Coming into this semester, I thought Spiritual Formation would be the easiest class. It was one credit hour, couldn't be much work, right? Man, was I wrong. For Spiritual Formation, we got to attend chapel three times a week, meet weekly in a class setting or with an accountability partner, and have weekly assignments only. The meat of the class was learning different Spiritual Disciplines. This class opened my eyes to the different spiritual disciplines and ways I can improve disciples.
Chime In! Do you have any questions about the classes I took?
Coming Up... I will be sharing things I learned through experiences at seminary and my overall reflections of seminary life. Stay tuned!!
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