The Summer ‘08 FFI Class
Posted on June 27, 2008
Filed Under Personal |
Well, the summer Institute class has arrived…all 80 of them…from 49 universities all over the country, including Canada. During the summer semester, we follow a block teaching format, and I was up first. I have just finished my course and I am going to miss not spending every day with them.
We start the day with matins…a time of devotion that includes singing and prayer and contemplating some portion of Scripture to seek the answers to three questions: what does God reveal about Himself in this passage; what does He reveal about man; and what is the implication for me personally. After a short break dedicated to making sure we have properly greeted each other that morning (I try to get around to everyone in the back row), we start class. My responsibility is to walk the students through a high-level view of God’s design for social order, gazing first of all upon the social complexity of God Himself (the Trinity) and how that divine image has been stamped upon His social creation.
We use that foundation to better understand His design for the family, the church, the state, labor, community, and the personal relationship, unio mystica, that He grants to His children. Following each class (as often as possible) the students get a tray of food and come back to the classroom for an hour to “potpourri”–an open forum where we engage in an open dialogue about anything that is on their mind–from class or life. The rest of the afternoon is filled with one-on-one meetings in my office, where we deal with personal questions and sometimes some very personal struggles and heartbreaking issues. It isn’t hard to fall in love with them.
Tuesday nights we have dinner at the park and end with a wonderful time of worship, led by the students.
But my portion is now over and I will deeply sense the void of not having a full day with them throughout the rest of the semester. They will graduate before any of us want them to and then they will venture back into the world they came from. Our prayer is that the Lord has done a deep transformational work in them while they are here and that they will be found, years from now, fulfilling God’s call in their life, wherever that may be and in whatever vocation God has gifted them to engage in…light and salt…attractively winsome…turning the world upside down.
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Now playing: Truth Project June 19 CCN recording
via FoxyTunes
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Now playing: Truth Project June 19 CCN recording
via FoxyTunes
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Dr. Del Tackett is president of the Focus on the Family Institute and Senior Vice President to Focus on the Family. He is also the architect and chief spokesperson for Focus on the Family's The Truth Project--a nationwide initiative designed to bring the Christian worldview to the body of Christ.
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May God richly bless you and all the Institute staff that give them this extraordinary opportunity. I pray they go forth to be world changer for the Truth! If there ever was a time when we needed them to, now is that time.
I can say with confidence that since attending the Institute, I have seen the world in a different light. Everything, indeed, everyone is tented in Glory! On a daily basis I find myself going back to our lectures on Truth, in order that I may apply them to my everyday life.
Thank you Dr. Tackett and the rest of the Institute staff for your patience and love.