What is your favorite moment in the classroom from the year?
Since I have a higher percentage of tech-free classes than some of the other faculty members do, I spent a fair amount of September and April teaching on the terraces outside of the Student Life Center. The students really love it, and I enjoy it too. It works like an amphitheater. I teach from the parking lot, and the students sit on the terraces.
When was a moment when you saw God working positive change in the students through one of your classes?
Watching the light bulb turn on is why I teach. I had a moment second semester with a student I’ve had in multiple classes, as I was explaining a theological principle. As we were going along, she put one and one and one together and correctly got there before I asked the question of the class. It was a little internal fist pump moment for me when she was able to understand that the whole of salvation is God moving towards us and not us doing things for God.
What are three words that described the student body this year?
Engaging. Fellowship-minded. Earnest.
What is your advice for incoming students?
Take good notes in class so you don’t have to scramble too much when you need to study. High schoolers are not taught how much you ingest from taking good notes. If you don’t take good notes, then your study becomes more of relearning rather than reminding.
Tell us a story that happened this year that you look back on fondly.
I traveled with the first Proclaim Choir tour in Iowa, and that was a really great weekend. It was good for the students to see me “out in the wild.” I got to know so many of them better, and had such a good time.
What kept you motivated throughout the year in your vocation as a professor?
I love to teach and watch students learn and figure out an idea. Everything I teach is all about practical application, if it’s in Scripture or if it’s worth confessing as doctrine, it matters to life. But I can’t just tell them that it matters. I have to try to demonstrate it. As they figure that out, that’s the days when they engage in class, they ask you a question, and you watch them figure it out. Those are the best days.
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