High Pile of Papers to Mark

Today is a public holiday, but I guess it is work as usual for me. When I look at the high pile of unmarked papers sitting on my desk, I would not have felt at ease to take the day off. These are papers that have come in from the class I taught last year for both the Doctor of Ministry and the Theological Education by Extension programmes. I know that if I do not get passed marking the papers, I will be receiving an earful from the students pretty soon.

So it is work as usual.

TEE Weekend in May

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I had a very busy 2 weekends in the month of May teaching a course on Biblical Interpretation for our Theological Education by Extension programme.

Here is a group photo of the students who took the class with me, and endured a total of 28 hours of gruelling time of instruction. I hope they have learnt something in the course.

For a perspective of one of the students who took the class, please click here. (Thanks, Janelle, for the post).

Busy TEE Weekend

Over the next two weekends (8-10th May and 15-17 May), I will be busy teaching a course on Biblical Interpretation for the seminary's Theological Education by Extension programme at the Petaling Jaya/Kuala Lumpur centre.

As at last count, there are a total of 25 students who have signed up for the course. The number for this class is slightly bigger than usual, partly due to the fact that this is a core course for the TEE programme.

I look forward to having a good time with the students this coming two weekends. It's no rest for the wicked budding NT scholar!

NT Use of the OT by Zondervan

In my recent book shopping quest, I managed to get hold of the recently released book by Zondervan, Three Views on the NT use of the OT, by Walter Kaiser, Darrell Bock and Peter Enns. I have already introduced this book in an earlier post where a fun quiz to test one's position is also highlighted.

Over the next few days, this book shall be my bed-time reading. I would be doing reviews as I go along. At the same time, it would also be a good to assess whether this book could profitably be used as one of the primary texts on a course that both my colleague, the Rabbi, and I would be thinking of offering sometime in 2010, The Use of OT in the NT.

Preferred NT Course for 2010 TEE

For the entire month of October 2008, I ran a poll in the seminary's Theological Education by Extension Forum for our TEE students. The purpose of the poll is to solicit opinions on "What New Testament Course would you like me to teach for TEE in 2010."

I listed 5 courses in the poll and asked the students to select one that would most likely appeal to them as an indication of interest. This would help me design and prepare for a course that would meet the interest of the students.

The 5 courses are:
1) Romans
2) Ephesians
3) The Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament
4) New Testament Theology
5) Mission in the New Testament.

And the results are in now, and the surprising verdict is as follows.

The most popular course is The Use of the OT in the NT, generating the highest interest at 34%, while NT Theology takes second place with 26%. The remaining courses attracted an equal interest of 13% respectively. I do not anticipate this results, as I would imagine that Romans would probably the most popular course. But it seems that this poll suggests otherwise. Perhaps the rise in the interest in the use of the OT in the NT is also in response to the proliferation of publications on the subject matter in recent years. So looks like I would take some time to prepare for this course, and I might rope in my colleague, the Rabbi, to co-teach this course too! Rabbi, are you game?

TEE Course: Parables of Jesus - Part 3: The Parable of An Inculpatory Servant and A Gracious Master

Since I will soon be teaching a course on the Parables of Jesus for our Theological Education by Extension programme, I thought that it might be good for me to attempt to write a parable as well.

The following parable is inspired by many personal encounters with believers who question God or others for the consequences of their actions. Sometimes it is sad that we refuse to take responsibilities for our mistakes, weaknesses, and failures; rather, we find it much easier and convenient to point our fingers at others.

Parable of An Inculpatory Servant and A Gracious Master

How then shall I describe our relationship with God or with one another? It is like a slave that works for a very wealthy master. One day, the master discovers that the slave has stolen some money from the safe, and he questions the slave about the theft. The slave denies any knowledge until the master produces the evidence as recorded in the CCTV. However, instead of dismissing the slave, the kind master graciously decides to give the slave a second chance to work for him, hoping that the slave would have an opportunity to repent from his serious mistake and would turn over a new leaf and become a better person instead.

A few weeks have passed, and the master discovers to his horror that the slave has once again stolen some money from the safe. The master confronts the slave, but as in the first instance, the slave denies any knowledge, refusing to admit his acts of dishonesty. When the evidence of his dishonest act as recorded in the CCTV is brought forward, the slave becomes very angry and upset at the master for exposing his deeds and for dismissing him from his job.

Not only does he not repent from his sins, the slave decides to engage a lawyer to sue the master for an amount of RM10 million for installing the CCTV with the purpose of surveillance in order to expose his shame. Now that his reputation has been seriously undermined and the prospect of finding a job elsewhere appears dim, the slave also demands another RM10 million in compensation from the master for potential loss of income.

Questions:
What is the main point of this parable, taking into account the culture and custom of an Asian society than places emphasis on honour and shame?

How many of us, instead of taking responsibility, would blame God and our fellow brethren for our sins and the consequences of our actions?

TEE Course: Parables of Jesus - Part 2

I have been reviewing some of the resources that could be recommended to the students who will be taking my upcoming elective course on Teaching and Preaching the Parables of Jesus. One of the graded assignments for this module is the preparation of a lesson plan/sermon based on the student's choice of a parable of Jesus. To give some practical ideas in helping the students prepare for their lesson plan, I have been reviewing some of the resources available in the market.

One of the most useful resources that I have reviewed is Zondervan's The Parables of Jesus under the Deeper Connections DVD series.

This series contains a comprehensive study guide on six of the parables of Jesus:

• Matthew 13:24-33: the coming of the Kingdom
• Luke 7:36-50: the grace of the Kingdom
• Luke 15:11-32: the God of the Kingdom
• Matthew 13:44-46: the demand of the Kingdom
• Matt 22:1-14: the mission of the Kingdom
• Matt 25:31-46: the fulfillment of the Kingdom

Each of the studies above is taught by six well known and well respected NT scholars:

• Gary Burge
• David Garland
• Mark Strauss
• Michael Wilkins
• Matt Williams
• Ben Witherington III

In order to help the participants appreciate the impact of the message of the parables in the times of Jesus, each of the lesson plans consists of three components:

• historical and cultural background
• an engaging investigation of the biblical text and its meaning
• challenging application of the message of the parable in contemporary context.

This DVD series is also accompanied by a Participant's Guide that helps the participants navigate through the teachings of the instructors. It also contains thought provoking questions for discussion. In addition, the Participant Guide also brings the application of the message of the parables further by providing five daily personal reflection studies that could be used as personal devotions.

I will be using some of the lessons from this DVD series for my lectures and will engage the students to review critically the effectiveness of the teaching method and to consider how to contextualise this resource for the use in our local context.

Hopefully, this excellent series by Zondervan could help us reflect on how best we can creatively teach and preach the parables of Jesus so that the message of the parables can still be driven home in our contemporary context.

TEE Course: Parables of Jesus - Part 1

I will be teaching a modular course for the seminary's Theological Education by Extension programme to be held at the Kuala Lumpur/Petaling Jaya centre (which happens to be my church) on the weekends of September 5-7 and 12-14.

The course, Teaching and Preaching the Parables of Jesus, is an elective course that offers an in-depth study of selected parables of Jesus, including a survey of the history of their interpretation, their role in Jesus' ministry, and reflection upon their challenge for NT theology and interpretation. Special attention will be paid in the use of parables in contemporary teaching and preaching ministry where students will attempt to understand the parables of Jesus in light of their First Century Jewish environment, and to bridge the gap between then and now in applying the parables to their present situations in life.

One of the requirements of the course is to create a 15-minute teaching/preaching presentation based on the student's choice of a parable of Jesus, in consultation with the instructor. The presentation should include the student's interpretation of the parable in the form of sermon, teaching lesson, drama, Sunday school material, bible study, movie clip, music, or any other creative form which demonstrates a clear indication of how the parable functioned in the ministry of Jesus and how the parable is relevant to the situation of the current audience of the student. This assignment will be evaluated based on originality, creativity, and clarity of the presentation and the effectiveness of conveying the message of the parable to the student's contemporary audience.

For registration of the course, please get in touch with Ms Sarah Yap, Director of TEE Programme at sarahyap at stm dot edu dot my.