Goals for the New Year 2026

I am great at goal setting. Not as great at reaching them. But in the words of the sick man during the plague on Monty Python, "I'm getting better." 

Personal
I'll share two of my personal goals.

• Duolingo: I'm at 2015 days. I wandered through several languages last year (Spanish, French, Dutch, modern Greek). This year I'd like to continue wandering. I plan to start with German in preparation for taking an ASU competency exam sometime this year. I'd like to spend at least 20 minutes/week having conversation in German with ChatGPT. Probably some more modern Greek. Maybe some Italian.
• Running: I need to resume as usual. 4 times a week is the goal. The children got Angie and me a running pad, so that we can use it during the winter. It would be nice to do at least 250 miles this year.

Reading

• I want to set a baseline again of reading 1 book/month, starting by finishing Paul Sloan's Jesus and the Law of Moses. James McGrath has a new book on Beyond Deconstruction that might be February. 
• I think I'll piddle in some other books along with way with the goal of getting through them by the end of the year, books that align with my weekly blog rhythm.

Blogging Rhythm

• I want to continue my blogging rhythm, which I mentioned in yesterday's post.

Regular Publishing

• I wrote a bit on a Science and Scripture book this year. I'd like to submit this proposal to some publisher.
• To get back in the scholarly game, I thought I might brush off a book I started twenty years ago and submit it somewhere, "Four Jewish Views of the Afterlife."
• I may go to an international conference this year and present a paper. It could happen.

Self-Publishing

• My current project is a book to go along with a Udemy course I've been working on called, "Teaching in the Age of AI."

Projects

Three ongoing projects:

• Udemy course, "Teaching in the Age of AI" -- thirty videos, good stuff, I think
• Chemistry novel -- not just in writing, but in Pixar-style form using AI
• Schenck U -- a learning interface I worked on a little last year. The first course is NT Greek.

Udemy

• The current course I'm working on has been mentioned above, "Learning in the Age of AI"
• Some long term course goals are 1) IBS, 2) Biblical Theology, 3) Sophie's World philosophy, and 4) NT Greek.

YouTube

• Teasers for the Udemy courses go on YouTube. Chemistry shorts would go on YouTube. Greek shorts would go on YouTube.

Too many goals. Too little time. But we'll see what happens.

Goals for the New Year 2025

The New Year is always a time of optimism and hope. Even though winter has barely begun, January 1 always feels like it is looking forward to spring, like the lights are coming back on. As I look back, I didn't do too badly with last year's goals. For example, here's my Shopify store.

This year may be different from other years. This will likely be a year of chaos. There's a fair chance that a lot of "little people" will get hurt in the process. Depending on the extent of the chaos, there could be hard times for everyone. You have to pray for the best and keep moving on.

Personal

• I'll hit the usual reset button on running. My youngest children are running now, and they have gotten me out a little over break. I'd like to run 3-4 times a week this year, and we plan to run a half-marathon together.
• Setting the measly goal of reading two chapters of something a week.
• Continue my weekly project schedule.  

Publishing

• Again, I'd like to get my Science and Scripture notes into a regularly published book.
• I have a contract for another book I'd like to finish by March 1.
• I probably will continue a trickle of self-published books. The first on the docket is a novel. I have another one in process that tells the story of the Bible through the eyes of its women.

YouTube

• A basic goal of 2-3 videos a week -- Hebrew of the Week and Greek of the Week. A Monday-Thursday schedule might work.

Udemy

• This year I'd like to put up a philosophy course that goes through Sophie's World, which I used to use as one of the textbooks at IWU.

Wishing us all a good year. There is so much potential for good in the world. We are our own worst enemy.

The Year in Review (2023)

1. Another year has passed. I continue to be grateful to work for Campus Edu. We have done some tremendous things this year. We found a couple partners who believed in the vision and committed wholeheartedly to it. Oklahoma Baptist University partnered with us to connect high schools to them through our core general education courses (20 courses we built). This was huge. We really only needed one dedicated partner, and they caught the vision. Southwest Baptist and Kingswood University have since joined as well. 

Oklahoma Baptist is also launching Raley Collge with us, an idea about which we have been in conversation with other schools as well. In this approach, students live in the dorms with the other students but take almost all of their general education courses with us at a lower tuition rate. They get an AA degree at the end of two years.

The other key partner was Kingswood University. Together, we have launched Kingswood Learn, a gift of free micro-courses to the Wesleyan Church. These courses are great by well-known Wesleyans across the church, and churches/individuals can upload courses to the platform as well. I believe that this will quickly become a repository of the best of the Wesleyan Church and a go-to place for resources.

2. I did manage to publish some things this year. I had a three-pronged strategy: 1) self-publishing, 2) Udemy, and 3) YouTube. 

Udemy
I put a Hebrew course on Udemy which, all in all, has done pretty well (over 100 students). The Romans course I put up has not done as well.

YouTube
I added over 1000 subscribers on YouTube. My best post was Merry Christmas Algebra, which has almost had 1000 viewers this month. My work has been quite absorbing in the final part of the year and sapped nearly every last bit of my time. As a result, my posting fell off pretty dramatically these last couple months.

Publishing
I did manage to have one book published in the official way: Explanatory Notes on Hebrews. I don't have analytics to know how it is doing.

I am most happy with some of my self-publishing ventures this year. 

Wesleyan Theology
After several years of waiting, I finally edited my notes on Wesleyan theology and published them. I am very proud of these. I also used tools to translate them into Spanish, actually submitting the ethics book in Spanish today, just under the wire.

• Christian Ethics: Wesleyan-Arminian Reflections (January 30)
• Wesleyan-Arminian Reflections on Christian Theology and Ethics (February 4)
• A Wesleyan-Arminian Systematic Theology (February 27)
• Teología Sistemática: Reflexiones Arminiano-Wesleyanas (September 4)
• Ética Cristiana: Reflexiones Wesleyano-Arminianas (December 31)

Explanatory Notes

In addition to the Hebrews volume above, I also published some Explanatory Notes on the Resurrection Narratives of the Gospels:

• Explanatory Notes on Jesus' Resurrection (April 8)

Chat GPT

I experimented a little with AI this year. I was disappointed that my explorations did not get more interest than they did. I haven't given up.

• Chats About God: A Novel Seeking Faith (May 12)
• Plato's Republic (with condescending remarks) (May 27)
• A Pastor's Brief Guide to Business (June 18)

Prophecy

Finally, my mother was quite keen for me to publish a book her father had written in 1960:

• Foundational and Fundamental Truth Concerning the Coming of the Lord (May 2)

3. I remain grateful for the Lord's graciousness to me. God has been faithful. Angie has mostly recovered from her accident in 2022. These have been humbling days for me, but I hope they have brought clarity to who I am and what is important.

New Year's Goals (2023)

And now for the yearly reset:

Personal

• When I was a teen, I read a chapter of the Bible a day. I'm always in the Bible, but I want to do this formally again for the next three years. I plan to take reading notes.
• I want to run the equivalent of a mile a day or 365 miles this year. My daughter Sophie has started jogging. Maybe I will run a race of some sort with her this year.
• I'll be working from home again this year. Same goal of treating each morning like I was going to the office. 
• I have a daily project schedule I don't always keep. But I will continue with it.

Writing

• Finish in January, "The Bible as History and Sacrament," an inductive Bible study textbook.
• Finish in January, Christian Ethics: Wesleyan-Arminian Reflections and then publish the whole theology project I've been publishing.
• Self-publish Explanatory Notes on Jesus' Death and Resurrection.
• Begin writing a manuscript for Science and Scripture.
• I am in the middle of other long-term writing projects: Philosophy for Wesleyan-Arminians, Faith Notes Along the Way, A Schenck History of the United States, and more. Hopefully, before I die.

Reading

• Back to a page a day of STEM, publishing one STEM-related video a week.
• I'd like to read a book a month. I've done horribly with reading this year. First up is R. B. Jamieson's Jesus' Death and Heavenly Offering in Hebrews.
• I'd like to aim at 5 pages of coding reading a day. I haven't done a good job at keeping up with this. I've now taken SNHU courses in Java, C++, C#, and Python. I studied JavaScript at Houghton. Throw in HTML and CSS at Houghton and SNHU (although they aren't languages). I have a book on making apps for Android that I hope to continue with.

Creating

• The big launch this week is a biblical Hebrew course I have put together on Udemy, using Jonah to learn Hebrew inductively. Expect a post early this week with the launch. I hope to create more of these. Requests?
• I plan to continue "Through the Bible in Ten Years" each Sunday. I'd like to publish some of the past material from this project. Possibilities include Explanatory Notes on Revelation, Stuff You Didn't Know about Acts, Explanatory Notes on Mark, etc. I am in the middle of Luke and Acts in the series. Would be nice to get to 1 Corinthians this year.
• I put Southern New Hampshire and Arizona State on hold. It would be nice to take one course with each this year. I'm currently scheduled to take Linear Algebra with SNHU in May, if finances permit. Would be nice to do Physics: Mechanics with ASU, although I hate that their courses are 7-weeks long. Calculus II was a bear in fall 2021.

Reflections on 2022

1. Another year gone. At the beginning of the year, we were living in Fillmore, New York, in a house we had to buy because we had no other real choice. It was a nice house and a nice town. Our roosters were of course a nuisance to the neighbors. That made me uncomfortable. We did get COVID, but by then we'd had the vaccine.

I always felt in-between in New York. There was a heaviness there in my spirit. Once I stopped working at Houghton, we knew we would eventually either move back to Indiana or follow the Spirit somewhere else. We didn't broadcast that sense, of course. We let things play out until the right time. Angie enjoyed teaching at Houghton Academy, although they hadn't recovered from COVID enrollment crisis, which meant a lot of extra work for peanuts or nothing.

Indiana it was. We were grateful to find a nice house outside Marion where we have, for good or ill, multiplied chickens (and two ducks that were supposed to be females but aren't). The market was crazy when we bought, but at least we caught it before interest rates soared. I like the house, although I still remain separated from most of my books, my one materialism. 

Angie had a bad accident at the end of August that could have killed her. We were quickly putting the chickens in the coop as a large wind storm approached, and a large tree branch fell on her head, flattening her. Fractured vertebrae, subdural hematoma. She is in the final stages of recovery, thank the Lord. She will hopefully return to work at least part-time this coming month.

My children are all on a good path. Stefanie gets married in April and has a good job working out of Miami. Stacy has emerged from COVID working at a fulfilling job in Chicago. After finishing at Purdue, Tom has decided to become an electrician and is studying in Chicago as well while working. Sophie has just finished one semester on a master's degree at the University of Edinburgh.

2. I have continued to work for Campus Edu this year. It has been a very stimulating year, working with a number of colleges to build next-generation digital courses aimed to appeal to digital natives. I've learned a lot. With the departure of Erin Crisp, I have slid into the chief academic role, a position very familiar to me from Wesley Seminary and IWU. Here is a reflection on three takeaways from this past year.

I often ask myself what I would do if I had the authority to lead a college. Right now I'm working on the service side. We're trying to help colleges from the outside. What would I do if I were in the driver's seat of a college? Here are some of my current thoughts for anyone to use:

Residentially, there has to be something different that draws students to your campus. 

• For Christian colleges, ideology is usually somewhere in the mix. Maybe it's a denominational school. Maybe it's a conservative school. Maybe it's a "social justice" school. It's at least a consideration--what "idea flavor" does your school have?
• By the way, I don't think trying to suddenly switch your "brand" works very well. You just lose the group you have without necessarily gaining the group your BOT or alumni think you should be going after. Changing brand usually takes some time. On another note, your real brand is decided by outsiders. You can't just say, "We're this," if everyone thinks you're "that." Perception is reality when it comes to marketing.
• Location, location, location. Who or what is within 50 miles of your campus? This can be a problem for schools in the middle of nowhere. If you are in an area with significant economic challenges, leverage PELL.
• Tuition/room-board. Tuition resets have not historically done much good, but I still believe that most Christian colleges should only cost about $20,000 total to attend. 
• For most colleges, a warm, fun atmosphere is ideal. What are your rooms like? What are your dorms like? What are your athletic facilities like? It is not uncommon for a third to half of a school's students to be involved in athletics of some sort. I get push back from faculty saying, "They should be here to study." But "shoulds" don't get students to a campus.
• A former employee at a college did a Minecraft version of the campus. I thought this was brilliant. What would have been even greater if the students designed and regularly played something like this so that the lines between the real campus and the imaginary one began to blur into each other.

Curricularly,

• You should have clear paths to jobs. You need the staples--some relevant business program. Nursing has been drying up, but I still believe in it. You might want to specialize (e.g., rural nursing). Something relevant in computer science or cybersecurity. Partner with nearby industry in STEM.
• Don't let the curriculum get pruned down to those staples or the same blase core that everyone else has. What are your flavor majors? What's the unique thing that some niche knows you are the place to come for?
• Partner with other schools online (Campus is perfect for this) to retain the majors you think you need to close because they are financially unsustainable? Share faculty with partner schools for them.

 Online:

• I believe in the Campus product. We have trailers for our "digital" courses. I love this. Our gold courses have short video overviews for every module. For my philosophy class, we did some quick videos to introduce hard readings.
• Eventually, there will be AI interactive components to online courses (and residential). I can see Oculus-like virtual learning in them as well. This is not that far off. Online courses will increasingly have a video game feel. Why not use students in a game design major to help design online course experiences? Virtual classroom learning experiences are sneaking up on us.
• The residential campus should become increasingly hybrid. I think it's at least worth exploring having some classrooms equipped for HyFlex classes, with some students participating live in the class at a distance. There are ways to keep it from being what it was during the COVID nightmare.

3. I've worked on a number of writing projects this year, both with publishers and self-published. The two mainstream publishing ventures have been an old contract on inductive Bible study (which is still in the final stages) and a volume, Explanatory Notes on Hebrews that I submitted to Cascade. I look for that volume to come out in January. I hope to finish the IBS book by end of January.

In the meantime I self-published several volumes. These largely came from material I had already written. Publishing them is a stress-reliever for me.

First, I self-published the second and third volumes of the systematic theology material I blogged several years ago. More of this to come.

• Christ and Salvation -- volume 2
• The Spirit and the Church -- the third volume
  

I also self-published Explanatory Notes on Jesus' Birth. This is commentary on John 1, Matthew 1-2, and Luke 1-2. I hope to self-publish a similar volume around Easter: Explanatory Notes on Jesus' Death and Resurrection

In the category of humor, I captured some of the "Deep Thoughts" I used to do when I was a professor at IWU (and added):

• Profound Spiritual Reflections (or not)
• Profound Halloween/Reformation Day Reflections (or not)

4. Did I reach my goals from last year? I did not run 750 miles. Angie's accident effectively ended my running. I did continue my "Through the Bible" series on Sunday. I have put a mess of video on YouTube. In late November, I passed 10,000 subscribers. This is mostly because of the Hebrew course I have been building on Udemy. I hope to launch it early next week.

I would say I have the equivalent of one semester of Hebrew content in this course and will continue to add until it has a full year's worth of content. It teaches Hebrew while reading through the book of Jonah (Jonah 1-2 is complete). I think it will be a good course, with vocabulary as part of it. I'm going to charge $24 to have permanent access. Supplemental written material will eventually fill it out.

5. I stopped taking courses with Southern New Hampshire and Arizona State. Just don't have the bandwidth.

Thus concludes 2022. On to 2023.

Reflections on 2021

I typically do an end-of-year post followed by a New Year's resolutions post, so here are my personal and general reflections on 2021. It has not been a bad year by any means. I am far too privileged to have a bad year. But it has been a year of transition, a year of liminality. Although I don't know that I have had COVID, it feels like this time of isolation has finally begun to take its toll on my mentality.

1. I was working at Houghton at year's beginning. By summer I felt that I had played out my role there. Many of my initiatives were reaching their end, and I felt I wouldn't be able to give to Houghton as much as I wanted to give somewhere. The Lord opened a door, and we walked through it.

So I was excited when the chance to work for Campus Edu opened up. It felt like surfing as one wave was going out and another was coming in. I've joked that with Campus I am able to do the things that the structure of IWU wouldn't allow me to do and that Houghton didn't really have the resources to do. I've written a series of blog posts on the Campus blog expressing my sense of what the possibilities of Campus are for Christian colleges.

2. We were forced to buy a house in New York. We moved from the house we were renting into two Houghton College apartments (and 8 storage units) and then into a house that is too small for my books. Perhaps part of my current sense of alienation is that most of my books are in storage and I have no clear office space. I expect we will have moved back to Indiana by the time I do next year's post.

My wife did start raising chickens. They are both an incredible delight and yet we have a taste of a farmer's life. I will not say how many animal "wards" we have but it is no doubt a matter of significant underlying stress, despite the fact that they are all good listeners.

3. My children are on course. Sophie has graduated from Loyola in Chicago in 2.5 years. Tom is graduating from Purdue this year and will do National Guard after ROTC. Stefanie is doing well in Miami and Stacy is still in COVID transition.

4. The situation in America continues to be a matter of concern. The deconstruction of faith is real. The deconstruction of our democracy is real. This is a matter of some despondency for me at times. I am incredibly thankful that the Lord has had mercy on us thus far. I find myself asking what if anything I can do. I may continue a meeting for seekers.

5. I ran a good deal this past year. I ran in the Corning Wineglass Marathon. My training dropped off the last few weeks prior so I only hoped to run the first half without stopping, then to walk/jog the second half. I did play out that way. I must have pulled my Achilles' tendon in the second half. I still have a knot. 

6. I self-published one book this year, a summary of my thoughts on God--God with Ten Words. In this year of liminality, I took five courses with Southern New Hampshire toward a degree in Game Programming and Design. I learned three computer languages--JavaScript, Java, and Python. I don't know if I'll continue. The idea was that courses in the future will likely involve gaming components.

I also decided to work on the chemistry major I started in college. I took Calculus II for Engineers with Arizona State. It was a hardcore course--no punches pulled, as hard as any face-to-face course. I'm proud to say I ended with a 97% in the course, an A+. Don't know if I'll continue. It's a lot of work and money I probably don't need to be spending. It has, however, been very useful to know how these other schools are doing things. I'm currently auditing Calculus I with Outlier. It is perhaps the most innovative approach out there.

I am hoping perhaps that, through Campus, I can help some Christian college or colleges with the insights I think I have gained from these experiences. But most colleges can't see how math and science could be done well online. I've pretty much given up on the Wesleyan schools.

7. I suspect I preached more this year than I have any year since the 80s. I think I preached at least 8 times this year in several different Wesleyan churches in New York.

8. I read some books. Hard to say how many I've dabbled with this year. Let me see if I can jot down some of the ones I've at least dabbled in a little:

• For the Body by Timothy Tennant (strange book. It seemed to amount to--"Listen to your anatomy")
• Fault Lines by Voddie Bauckham (he's a hardcore Calvinist who thinks slavery was predestined by God)
• Reading While Black by Esau McCaulley
• Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli (liked his summary of quantum stuff, but he goes weird at the end, I thought)
• Platform Revolution (the "Bible" of Campusedu)
• After Whiteness by Willie James Jennings
• I started Jesus and John Wayne by Karen Kobes du Mez
• Bob Black's How Firm a Foundation, the history of Southern Wesleyan. He is such a good writer.
• Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning (I've owned but never finished)
• Some business books. I had started a certificate in business at Houghton and passed courses on Principles of Management and Accounting. 
• The Death of Expertise by Tom Nichols
• The Lean Startup -- didn't read but got the overview
• The Women are Up to Something by Ben Lipscomb. not done but very much enjoying
• Designing for Growth -- the main textbook for a course I'm teaching in January
• Android Programming for Beginners -- in process as well

I bought dozens of other very good and worthy books as well. Unfortunately, I have not managed to read them. 

8. I don't suppose many would call 2021 a wonderful year. Still, I have learned many very good things from it, and I have a job with spectacular promise. Put me to work, Lord.

Reflections on 2020

This is my annual reflection on the year that is passing. It has been quite a year indeed, the most turbulent of my life I would say. It was the year of COVID. It was (probably) the last year of Trump's presidency. I finished my first year at Houghton and began a second.  

1. I read a number of books this year, not least because of the seminars in which I participated on Race, Evangelicalism, and C.S. Lewis. Here are the main books I read:

• Surprised by Joy by Lewis
• Mere Christianity (I had read it before)
• The Last Battle by Lewis
• Screwtape Letters by Lewis
• Perelandra by Lewis
• The Four Loves by Lewis
• A Grief Observed and most of The Problem of Pain.
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• Chapters from Sin and Its Remedy in Paul, The Use of the OT in Hebrews, and many more.
• White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
• The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone
• Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
• Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals by William Webb 

2. I became a runner again this year, changed my diet significantly, and lost about 25 pounds. Key was a virtual race across New York this summer in which I ran 500K. I continued to run in the fall. I have an informal goal of running 3 miles under 30 minutes each year and at each age. This year that pace became routine. In fact, I ran 3 miles under 27 once and regularly ran 5 miles under 50 minutes.

3. As I write this post, I have about 6,287 subscribers on YouTube, about 2500 more this year. As a hobby, I continue to post videos on the Bible, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, philosophy, science, and math. I do it for myself. I do get some pretty interesting comments sometimes.

4. When I look back on this year, the word that most comes to mind is blessing. I am enormously blessed. As I make this post, my mother is about to be discharged from the hospital after having COVID. At 94, we took the news of her infection gravely. I do not know why God has spared her and not so many others just as deserving. But we are thankful. It is a story of providence I may share later when things are clearer.

I have been blessed this year at Houghton College. I came here for many reasons last year, a convergence of blessings. I have remarked to a number of people that I have never had to rely on faith more. But God always walks the path with us. I repeatedly find myself looking back and thinking, "Why was I so pre-occupied with direction?" Everything always seems to find its way.

5. Certainly many will disagree with me, but I feel grateful that we have a change of US presidency. I believe history will reveal some sobering truths in the days ahead, truths that should prompt some serious reflection. I became an Independent this year, deeply unsatisfied with both political parties. Somehow it seems fitting to me that a citizen of heaven would sit very lightly to all parties of earthly citizenship.

In the midst of political and social unrest, the church has been deeply divided. This fact suggests that, one way or another, one part of the church has been deeply deceived and/or misguided these last four years. Once things are clear, I believe a major project for the church is to ask why this was the case. I think those of us involved in Christian higher education especially have some reflection to do.  

Onward into 2021!

New Year's Resolutions (2020)

Ten Years
1. Should one set decade goals? Here's one:

• I hope still to be alive in 10 years. If so, I'll be 63.

I expect a good deal will happen with my children in the next ten years. Will I have grandchildren? What will they be like? Will someone finally listen to me!!!

In 10 years I wonder if my son will be a career Army man. In 10 years I wonder if Sophie will be doing something in the world of governmental service. I imagine Stefanie will still be living a sun-filled life in Miami, and Stacy a sun-filled life in California.

2. In 10 years I hope I'll still either be teaching or leading in some way in higher education. I would be delighted still to be at Houghton College. When I came to Houghton this past fall, I came planning to be here for the rest of my career. That's at least 2037.

3. In 10 years time I hope I will have finished some academic books that are in the back of my mind and in various stages of development. These include:

• Four Jewish Views of the Afterlife
• Salvation in the Making
• An academic commentary on Hebrews or perhaps a collection of essays on Hebrews that covers the whole book (I about have enough published for that already)
• A commentary on Philo's treatise, "Who is the Heir of All Things"
• A philosophy book on the nature of meaning

2020
4. This year my primary focus is enrollment growth at Houghton College. I want to contribute as much as I can to the growth of on-campus programs like data science and engineering, as well as to the goal of adding 100 new online students by next year at this time. Feel free to audit an online course, a new initiative!

5. Let's pick one of the academic books above as a focus for this year's writing. Four Jewish Views of the Afterlife it is. I started work on such a book in 2004 while on sabbatical in Germany.

6. I will continue my work on Patreon. I plan to continue looking at Genesis 1 in Hebrew, a verse a week. I will continue my weekly podcast, "Though the Bible in Ten Years."

A new addition is Greek lessons, primarily aimed at pastors. I plan to work through the Greek textbook I've written, putting videos on YouTube that go through it. Then I'll self-publish it at the end. (No publisher understandably seems interested in a Greek textbook.)

7. Books to read. There will no doubt be good books that surface in the course of the year, but I'd like to finish off some old ones. May I finally finish the following books this year. The months are just to give me focus. These are heavy books what will likely take all year.

• January: N. T. Wright, History and Eschatology
• February: Craig Keener, Christobiography
• March: Willie James Jennings
• April: Assorted N. T. Wright
• May: John Barclay
• June on: the above and TBD

8. I continue to inch through physics, calculus, and chemistry textbooks. I got diverted this fall trying to help my daughter Sophie with biology. But let me set some unreasonable goals here. Physics (p.779), Calculus (p.559).

9. Run. I'm missed running 3 miles under 30 minutes in 2019. I tore my knee in September. But I refuse to give up. I ran a mile Saturday under 10. I shall return!

The Year in Review (2019)

And so another decade comes to an end.

1. What a decade! Ten years ago, Obama was president. Ten years later, Trump is president.

Ten years ago I was the founding Dean of Wesley Seminary, on one of the most thrilling ventures of my life. Today I am at Houghton College, on the next thrilling adventure of my life. Ten years ago my father was alive and I was a son. Today I am a father and my two youngest are in college. Ten years ago I was in my forties and was young. Today I am in my fifties and feel... mature.

2. This past year brought the most change I've had since I was married. My youngest Sophie went to college at Pepperdine. She always favored it, but I didn't think we could afford it. She visited a number of schools without peace. We tried for the tuition exchange at Seattle Pacific but didn't get it. We visited Seattle in high hopes but were disappointed.

Then she received a postcard from Pepperdine. It quoted her application back to herself, how she thought she might grow spiritually as a student there. Then we knew we needed to visit, and the rest is history.

Thomas is in his second year doing ROTC at Purdue. He has committed the next eight years of his life to the Army. He has decided on a criminal justice major.

Stefanie and Stacy also left Indiana this year. Early in the year, Stefanie headed to Miami and Stacy to California. Everything was perfectly aligned for a transition.

3. I had one academic book published this year. My new role as VP of Planning and Innovation at Houghton College has kept me very busy this fall, so I have not had too much time to work on scholarly things. But I did present at SBL and have a dictionary article in process. I do hope to write at least one academic book this year.

4. I believe my transition from IWU to Houghton was a God thing. Houghton opened a door for me to innovate again on a new level. I was now empty nest. I was at a point where I felt I should either return to teaching or venture deeper into educational leadership. A number of things came together. It is a great opportunity for us, and we love Houghton!

As of January I am giving some leadership to Houghton Online. We have several initiatives in the works. I have been delighted at how open the faculty have been to these sorts of things:

• The Associate of Applied Science in Christian Ministries is going online. You can start with philosophy January 13 if you wish (email me at ken.schenck@houghton.edu), but the official start is in March with Michael Jordan teaching Intro to Ministry.
• These courses will largely involve live sessions once a week on Zoom. You can even audit them and work toward ordination. The degree meets the educational requirements for ordination in the Wesleyan Church.
• We are doing this in conjunction with Watermark Church. If you have a few people at a church who want to be a ministry study cell, we can make an arrangement for your church to have a local church mentor.
• We also have a series of courses that might be of interest to homeschoolers with a bent toward a classical approach. I will be teaching Latin, for example, in March online.
• With the new possibility of auditing online classes, especially the ones with live sessions, we will be highlighting Houghton as a place for lifelong learning.
• If you are interested in Linguistics, you can audit Steve Doty's intro to linguistics class this spring (email me) or even take it for credit.
• Other online options on the way include the AAS in Music Industry, minors that you can take as a package in Art Business, Linguistics, and Business.

5. I've continued my work on Patreon. On YouTube you can find a host of videos I've done this year in Greek and Hebrew Bible. I'm currently doing a verse from Genesis in Hebrew a week. I've also been doing a podcast on Sundays called, "Through the Bible in Ten Years," looking at a chapter of the Bible a week. Right now I'm in Acts.

A group of pastors have expressed interest in learning or refreshing their knowledge of Greek. So I've started a Facebook group and will be posting a chapter of my Greek textbook for them a week while making videos to go along with it. We will meet via Zoom every other week.

6. I've preached a few times this year. I spoke in chapel at Houghton for the first time in October. I was the Bible teacher at Silver Lake Camp in Canada and will be going back again this year. I spoke at Lakeview in Marion on Father's Day. I was at Three Rivers in Fort Wayne in March, in IWU chapel in February. I did another 8 week Bible study with Light and Life Wesleyan Church in the spring.

7. Finally, I've read/skimmed a number of books this year. They include:

• Prisoners of Geography
• Range
• Ask
• The Language of God
• The Lost World of Genesis 1
• The Lost World of Adam and Eve
• When Science Meets Religion
• Higgs: The Invention and Discovery of the God Particle

There are others I have bought, but they'll have to go on my resolutions list.

Goodbye 2019. Goodbye teens of the twenty-first century. May the next decade resume its course toward peace, equity, knowledge, and the empowerment of the marginalized.

New Year's Resolutions (2019)

"I have a feeling it's going to be an odd year."

The new trend is to pick a word for the year. I'm picking the word INVENT.

Something Old

• I want to finish writing two books this year, two textbooks. They are both already about half written. One is on inductive Bible study. The other is "Greek for Ministry."
• I'll renew last year's goal of 6 miles of running a week in the winter, with 15 once it warms up.
• I'll continue my trajectories on Patreon and Bible study.

Something New
I want to innovate this year, both personally and professionally.

• Personally, Trent Nettleton, myself, and a couple designers have been in conversation to create a New Testament Survey app. This would function like a textbook except it would be interactive. Perhaps finished in spring.
• Professionally, I want to 1) reach new students in new ways, 2) continue to connect the church with the academy, and 3) enrich student formation and experience. Here is where my principal investment in INVENTING may be.

Something Borrowed

• I'm sure I will read several books before the year is out. I'm not always sure what they will be. I suspect the first one will be The Coddling of the American Mind, by Jonathan Haidt.
• Dare I continue my quest in math and science? Perhaps I will feebly aim to continue.

Something Blue

• I'll take this in the sense of family. This is truly launching year and the goal is God-directed launches! My two older step-daughters are on trajectory to leave Indiana. My son has a major decision to make. My daughter is looking at various Christian colleges. May the Lord direct their paths!

The Year in Review (2018)

I have not posted nearly as much on this blog as in previous years. I post nearly daily on Facebook, which I have come to see as a tool of teaching and discipleship. Social media is also a marketing tool. My "marketing" has primarily been for the School of Theology and Ministry at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Here is my year in review.

Personal
The biggest personal change this year was my son Thomas going to college. He has a full tuition ROTC scholarship to Purdue (yes, he was present in Nashville at that horrible game Friday). Pray for the Lord to show him the best path for his future! This coming year will probably see all of our children out of the home. Pray for them if you think of it!

Preaching and Teaching
I preached at least nine times this year, including IWU chapel, the Holiness Emphasis Week at Southern Wesleyan University and a chapel at Asbury Orlando.

I also piloted an 8 week Bible study series on Romans with Sam Maddox and Light and Life Wesleyan Church in Three Rivers, Michigan. We will probably do another study this spring, perhaps on 1 Corinthians. If you have a small group at your church that is interested, this is a live Bible study probably on a Thursday night for an hour, using Zoom. I see possibilities here!

Patreon
1. One of the most interesting ventures this year was my shift from blogging to Patreon. Someone made an off comment on Facebook around April 7 about Patreon, about which I was unacquainted. On April 8, I started posting videos--and then podcasts (at the suggestion of Marc Jolicoeur) on Acts.

It took 35 weeks but I went through the entire book of Acts in Greek both in video and podcast. It turned out to be 220 videos, which you can watch in order at this playlist. It amounts to a course in Acts, minus the homework. Every week I did a special video for my patrons, almost all of which are now public.

I have several patrons who give $5 a month to support my work here. On December 10 I started working through Isaiah 40-66. Here is the playlist site. This week I hope to finish up Isaiah 41.

Books Read
I either read or skimmed several books this year:

• Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education. This is a must read for all of those involved in university leadership in the next decade. From the looks of things, the demographics look good for OKWU and SWU, but challenging for IWU and Houghton.
• This fall our Monday reading group read American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. There's obviously some value judgments here, but also many insights gained.
• I wasn't as impressed with The Evangelicals, the book we read in the spring.
• I finally finished A Brief History of Time, since Stephen Hawking passed this year. I think I started it in the 80s. :-)
• I read a book called Just Six Numbers. It deeply informs the fine tuning argument. I posted a number of videos on philosophy this summer. 
• I finally finished reading Conrad Heiden's Der Fuhrer, which I started in the fall of 2016.
• For a class I was teaching, I read Craig Keener's, Spirit Hermeneutics. Interesting book, but I don't think I'll use it again.
• I read a biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein, a philosophy of great impact in the area of hermeneutics.

Books I've Written

• I wrote two more novellas in my Gabriel's Diaries series. 
• A book on Hebrews moves forward. We'll see what comes of it.
• I floated a proposal something like Sophie's World, spent some time writing a sample chapter. The lack of an enthusiastic response has it on hold.
• This fall I invested a good deal in a Greek for Ministry idea I've had for years. I have about 150 pages written. I hope to send a proposal to a publisher in January.

Math and Science
I have always loved math and science. Several years ago I started making videos going through physics, calculus, and chemistry. Inevitably, I don't have time during the year to work much on these, but I have done quite a bit in the summer. I still hope to better understand relativity and quantum mechanics before I die. Did some study in the summer.

Dean Matters

• This is my third year as Dean of the mostly undergraduate School of Theology and Ministry (STM). Each year surprises with a different challenge, but each year also brings successes and opportunities. 
• STM is a spectacular team. Charlie Alcock is a one man recruitment army with the work he does bringing thousands of young people to campus and running ministry teams in the summer. Amanda Drury is a grant-writing monster who has brought many students to campus who would not otherwise have come, including many diverse students. David Smith has been teaching Bible study in churches all over the US. Eddy Shigley continues to foster connections with the KERN Foundation. Brian Bernius has configured and reconfigured our curriculum into a lean and mean teaching machine. I could go on and on about STM's faculty and divisional leadership.
• The challenge of middle management is always partial power. You can facilitate some decisions, but the most impactful ones are out of your hands. You find yourself daydreaming a lot about what you would do. Suffice it to say, I have a large number of ideas (I've started keeping a notebook). We'll see if the Lord opens the door to use any of them!

So farewell, 2018. Onward to 2019!

New Year's Resolutions 2018

Another year, resolution time.

Looking Back
1. Books I read and reviewed this year.

• I read some but unfortunately not all of Waking Up White.
• I read Adam and the Genome.
• Reality Is Not What It Seems
• I read most of Der Fuhrer.
• I skim/read The Culture Map.
• I skim/read Cultural Intelligence.
• I skimmed Philip Jenkins' The Next Christendom.
• I read Jane Patterson's Keeping the Feast and had a book review published on it.
• I read some but unfortunately not all of The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East.
• I read and reviewed The Shack.
• I skimmed/read some of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. 

2. Things I wrote

• Finished my first novel last week, 70 pages: Gabriel's Diary: The Incarnation. Maybe more to come.
• Self-published my notes on my time as Dean of Wesley Seminary: Six Years a Dean: The Founding of Wesley Seminary.
• I finished a book that was six years late on Hebrews. Turned it in. We'll see if they will still publish it.
• I did explanatory notes on all of Romans. May self-publish with my own translation of Romans.
• One of my most popular posts had 95 theses for the church today, on the 500th anniversary of the Wittenberg Door.
• I finished a series on world history. Got quite far on science and math.
• I did quite a few posts in my Seminary in a Nutshell series on the contexts of a minister.
• I finished a Seminary in a Nutshell series on leadership.

3. And other things

• I became Dean of the School of Theology and Ministry officially in July. Some thoughts. I think it's a job for either 1) people who are ambitious, 2) people who are servants, or often 3) people who like administration. I'm not feeling particularly much like 1 or 3 these days.
• I preached two or three times this year, spoke at the Festival of Preaching. Got sick and so didn't get to deliver this one. Here's the audio of my chapel sermon.

Looking Forward
1. After 13 years of blogging, I almost stopped blogging in September. It would be hard to express how discouraging I have found this past year on multiple levels. I love sharing ideas. I blog because I love sharing ideas. It is no coincidence that I am a preacher/teacher. God often calls us to what we love or we find that we love what God calls us to.

But this year has knocked the wind out of my sails. And of course I've been extremely busy.

So I don't plan on resuming daily posts. Maybe one or two a week. I'll probably do explanatory notes on Hebrews and the General Epistles as I teach that class. My Monday reading group is doing a book called The Evangelicals. Might post some summaries of it. Who knows?

2. I still have the inductive Bible study book to finish. Must get it finished this year. I might do more installments of the Gabriel series. Plenty of books I'd love to write but who cares. Book writing is for the famous, the scholar, and the big-mouthed.

3. Here are my science and math goals.

4. How about a goal of 6 miles a week of running, at least until it warms up? Then 15 miles a week.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Resolutions 2017

It's that time again.

Looking Back
1. As usual I didn't reach all of last year's resolutions. I'm still working on those two academic books I wanted to finish. I still haven't published any more of my theology in a nutshell series. I put the Fitbit back on last week. :-)

2. I did finish my "Theology in a Nutshell" series in the summer. If you want to know my perspectives on a topic in theology as a Wesleyan, this is your go-to site. Still planning to self-publish the rest of the series.

3. Books I read this year:

• Probably the most impactful book I read this year was Jonathan Haidt's Books The Righteous Mind. I suspect there will be more posts applying his insights this year to politics and religion. 
• Since I ended up as Interim Dean of the School of Theology and Ministry this fall, I dabbled in some leadership books in the summer. In particular, I blogged through Jim Collins' Great by Choice and Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne.
• Until the fall hit, I was reading through a book someone gave me called How I Changed My Mind about Evolution.  
• I read some science this year too. I read some of The Road to Reality, some of The Fabric of the Cosmos, most of A Most Incomprehensible Thing.

4. Last year at this time, I had just started a "Seminary in a Nutshell" series. I did half of the first subject by mid-March ("The Person and Calling of a Minister.") I need to go back and finish the second half of that one, "The Contexts of a Minister."

I'm now almost done with the second subject in that series, "The Pastor as Leader." I'll probably move from it to "Biblical, Theological, and Historical Foundations" next. [1]

5. On May 4, I started a "General Education in a Nutshell" series. I finished a mini-course in philosophy by July 27. I'm now most of the way through a series on world history. Then I'm over half-way through a combined math and science series on Fridays. Plan to self-publish all of these too.

6. I'm very close to finishing the editing of my reflections on the first years of Wesley Seminary so that I can self-publish those: Six Years a Dean: Reflections on the Founding of Wesley Seminary.

Looking Forward
Pretty much the same goals as every year.

7. Read some stuff.

• I'm in the middle of Der Fuehrer on Tuesdays and hope to finish it by summer. 
• I hope to translate a sentence or two a day of Gadamer's Truth and Method and then post the translation here about a paragraph at a time. You'll understand why so slow.
• This spring I'm scheduled to skim The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. I may post some summaries.

I might rotate around a little in some of the same old same old:

• Paul and the Gift, by John Barclay
• Paul and His Recent Interpreters by N. T. Wright
• Framing Paul by Doug Campbell
• The Culture Map by Erin Meyer
• Paul's New Perspective by Woody Anderson
• The Mind of the Spirit by Craig Keener

8. Write some stuff.

• I'm nearly done with a book I've been writing for several years now: A New Perspective on Hebrews. I'm in the last chapter. Very, very late.
• Supposed to be finishing up a method of Bible study book too. About a year late. Have an interesting angle, at least to me. 
• Other books have been sitting in my "to do" box for over a decade--writing up the Greek approach I used this year, "Four Jewish Afterlife Traditions," "Salvation in the Making." I suppose there's some universe where I'm at a research university teaching two courses a semester without worrying about fundamentalists.
• All the self-publishing projects mentioned above: the rest of the theology stuff, the philosophy in a nutshell stuff. When they're done--the Pastor as Leader stuff, the world history stuff, the science and math in a nutshell stuff, the "Person and Context of the Pastor" stuff
• Novel? Every year I tell myself I will finish one of some sixty novels I've started. My current goal is a short one called, "The First Day," which I mentioned here. I've also started one again on Paul on Mondays.

9. Fitbit, Run, and Diet.
I'll leave it at that.

10. Schenck App
Since the summer, I've been dabbling in coding. We'll see. :-)

11. Bucket List
For the last decade I've been slowly working my way through some math and science books. Usual unreasonable page goals (708, 383, 209).

See you next year, d.v.

[1] Here's the working outline for the next series:
1. The Law
2. The Prophets
3. The Writings
4. NT Context
5. Mark and the Historical Jesus
6. Acts
7. Paul’s Writings
8. The Synoptic Gospels
9. The Later Writings of the New Testament
10. Johannine Literature
21. Summary of First Century Church History
22. Ante-Nicene Period
11. The Doctrine of God
12. The Doctrine of Creation
23. The Age of Nicaea
13. The Doctrine of Christ
24. The Trail of Augustine
14. The Doctrines of Sin and Salvation
25. East versus West
26. The Roman Catholic Church
27. The Protestant Reformation
15. The Doctrine of the Church and the Sacraments
28. European Multiplication and Colonization
16. Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
29. The Roots of American Christianity
17. The Doctrine of Eschatology
18. The Doctrine of Revelation
19. Contemporary Theologies
30. The State of the Church
20. Christian Ethics Today

New Year's Resolutions

It's that time again, to hit the reset button on life. Here's the obligatory link to last year's post.

This Year's Progress

• I'm on page 285 of Grudem. Some progress...
• I did in fact read, dabble in some books: Five Views of Inerrancy, Unintended Revolution, Bishop, Brain Rules. I'm in the middle of Wright and Worthen. Read some Team of Rivals and some other failed finishes...
• I continue to inch toward my long term goals to work through the university physics and calculus textbooks I have.  

This Year's Goals
Miscellaneous

• I've signed up to get an inspirational verse a day from Bible Gateway. They have a number of helpful reading plans to read through the Bible, the NT, audio, chronological (intriguing). I use BG all the time to look up verses when I'm writing.
• Run at least 3x a week
• To grow in wisdom and favor with God and mortals (and not to shrink in stature)

Things to Read

• I hope to get through Wright's Paul and the Faithfulness of God.  It will take at least all year.
• I'd like to read some other books too... there are just too many to keep up.
• Continue through Grudem, mostly on Saturdays. I at least hope to self-publish a second review volume on God and creation by the end of June.
• Continue my way through physics and calculus, a page a day (note to self, pp. 384, 419), finish before I turn 55. 
• Now the throw away - I'd like to paraphrase some classic philosophy texts on Fridays.

Books to Write

• I have a contract with WPH to finish my NT series with a book on Hebrews through Revelation, due July 1 (there are some accompanying devotionals due this year).
• Another book is embarrassingly overdue with Fortress on Hebrews and my target date is March 1. This is the writing priority for the first months of the year. 
• I have other ideas. :-) 

Happy New Year!

It's New Year... again

We'll all be dead before you know it.  It was yesterday I posted last year's obligatory new year resolutions post.  So how have I done?

• I didn't kill myself as seminary Dean as much this year.  Most of the thanks for that goes to the delegation of tasks to IWU's common infrastructure.  At the beginning of the seminary, I did a lot of micromanaging of the curriculum and other tasks because I felt like we were doing something innovative that "normal systems" wouldn't do. (In fact, I smile when I see some of our Blackboard innovations showing up in CAPS, like buttons that collect all weekly assignments together and dual due dates during the week--yeah, we came up with that first.)
  
  But now we're in phase two of the seminary.  We're working together with existing structures more and more, finding that happy balance between maximizing large scale efficiencies without losing our personal touch or innovative edge.  The seminary now has an empowered faculty, so like it or not, I have to keep my hands off more.
  
  Wayne Schmidt as seminary leader means that we are constantly working together with new denominations and churches.  That means there is a continued place for improvisation and innovation that keeps me interested.
  
• I remain caught up with all my writing.  My next book deadline is not till March and I have some feelers out for other possibilities.  I continue to weigh whether blogging is distracting or helpful. 
• I've been in a good rhythm of reading a chapter a week of something.
• I got all the way through Psalm 11 doing a verse a day.  Not sure if I want to continue, although it was rewarding.

Blog resolutions for the new year?

• I'd like to continue to post on a chapter of some book every Monday.
• Maybe on Wednesdays I'd like to post something I'm reading that isn't religious, maybe something on history or science.
• I'd like to continue working through Grudem on Saturdays.
• I'd like to continue through my biblical theology on Sundays.

Then there's the normal:

• Run more.
• Write something scholarly.
• You may not know it, but I often read a page a day in math or science.  My goal was to work through three textbooks I have by the time I'm 50.  I'm not going to make it.  They're each over 1000 pages.

Oh well... Happy New Year!!

Obligatory Resolutions Post

Wow, I remember writing last year's post... doesn't seem like a year!  Similar feelings, with some differences.  For one, with the grace of a sabbatical I actually caught up with all my delinquent writing this year.  Philosophy's off.  I'm not behind on anything with WPH.  I'm actually on the front end of any new books and have chapters written ahead of any new contracts...

1. I come back from Germany quite determined not to live the way I was living before.  Because I wanted the curricular dream of the seminary to make it to reality (including onto Blackboard), I funneled all the design down to the details through myself the last two and a half years.  No more.  The baby is birthed and, for good or ill, the umbilical cord is cut.  I can die now...

Or at least, I do not intend to kill myself any more.  That means I resolve this year to do the administrative half of the Dean's job during daylight hours.  That means delegation.  It means a new approach to emails.  It means discipline and focus.

For example,

• manageable to do list each morning, broken down into micro-tasks of about 20-30 minutes each 
• work on one pressing but not "must do today" task a day
• only reading/answering emails in between micro-tasks

2. Last year I resolved not to try to write more than 6 pages toward writing projects a week.  Wow.  What a good idea... that I somehow forgot.  I need to renew that one.  It probably means less blogging.  It will be hard not to want to try to write more but my goal for this year is to slow down and set manageable goals.

3. Last year I resolved to read about 30 pages a week of something scholarly.  Failed that one too.  This year I'd like to say 30 pages a week of something.  It's not really a lot of reading.  In fact, it's a depressingly small amount.  But I've learned that the turtle goes a lot further by slow, consistent movement than the hare sitting around thinking about big goals but not doing a lot of running.

4. Here's a new one.  I was thinking I might start trying to read through Psalms in Hebrew this year, just a verse a day at first.  I'm not sure how far I'll get but why not start.

Do any of you have a major New Year's resolution to share?

Happy New Year from Germany!

We brought in the new year with the Blakes over at their almost 20 story high rise. The fireworks were amazing all over the city. In fact, at 1:22am they are still going strong outside our flat. It struck me as what a war zone must sound like. I thought of "shock and awe" in Iraq, although it obviously wasn't quite that powerful. Never seen anything like it. Then I experimented with time travel and was successfully able to call into the past. I called my parents in last year. I'm thinking of patenting the time machine. Happy New Year, America, from the future year 2012!