The purpose of higher education

[Marooncat79]

I think people that live cozy and comfortable lives among people have been blessed for right living, trust more in their community than God: I think it feels safer to think of God as smaller. Whereas people that face danger and poverty feel safer to think of God as bigger. We need to be careful not to imagine God into what makes us feel safe, in either direction.

I think portraying God as small is worse than the emotional stuff the conservative churches preach so strongly against. I think we need to take a good hard look at the more obedient brother in the prodigal son story and not think he was better than the one that left.

The so called obedient brother represents the Scribes and Pharisees in that story. Just an FYI

BTW, you are correct on the older brother. He was very pompous and self righteous

 

[Yeshua1]

With spiritual eyes?

Using the gift of discernment?

 

[Wesley Briggman]

Using the gift of discernment?

Scriptural reference please.

 

[Dave G]

I have seen that too, but not nearly as often as when the pastor started the church.

In Scripture, it is God who starts churches ( Acts of the Apostles 2:47 )...
He only uses His preachers to gather His children under one roof.

 

[gb93433]

In the realm of higher education, we are told that colleges and universities foster intellectual inquiry and critical thinking. They teach students to think, or how to think, rather than what to think. (I question how successful they are in achieving this goal, when they turn out so many students whose thinking is changed to agree with that of their professors!)

So, according to the Bible, what is the “happy medium,” the right place between teaching what we believe and how to think about what we believe?

Having taught at a university which had one of the best programs in America in what I taught it was a pleasure to work with such qualified faculty. The least experienced had 12 years of field experience in what he taught, the next had 18 and three others had over 30 years. We had more companies come to interview as we did students graduating. I taught my students a semester of work in 11 weeks and then had one month to work on a real project that had been done by a company. They were to do a written presentation and an oral presentation as though everything was done with the client in mind. By the time the students graduated I saw better reports and presentations than I often saw in the professional world. At first the complaints I got was I made my students work hard but I never got any complaints after they did their first internship. Because I was a part of the faculty I was well respected. I was also appointed as part of a think tank at the university to improve education and was a mentor to the faculty in my department. At first when I asked some why questions in class it quickly set apart those who just wanted a grade and those who wanted to do well and learn. Because I what I did a number of the other faculty followed. It improved the grades and attitude of the students. All the time I addressed real life situations I had encountered and problems I had to solve. My experience is that what is taught and how it is taught depends on the faculty in the particular program. Our department head had come out of the real world to teach later in life. All of the other faculty had come the same route. We brought our knowledge and experience to the classroom. That made it more difficult for the students because we knew what they needed to know and the attitude they needed to have. A problem I saw is some of us estimated that about 5% of the students who said they were Christians could give reasons for their faith. Interestingly those who became Christians in college and were involved with a group like The Navigators could articulate their faith. About 70% of those come from non-Christian homes. Compare that to those who grew up in Christian homes and went to church. Most of those lived like the world but those involved with groups like the Navigators were reaching others.

 

[gb93433]

I believe the job of higher education should be beyond what the church should have done. The church should be teaching how to make disciples but the kind of disciples Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19, 20. In those two verses are two components of scripture. Those two components are correct doctrine and correct practice. That means the teaching is not just at the cognitive level but also the practical level of showing how it is done. James 1:22 says one who is not a doer is deluded. Leaders who are not practicing Mt. 28:19, 20 are serving as a poor example of what a genuine Christian looks like. Higher education should be higher education, not education that should have been done in the church.