It’s been almost two months since I posted my last blog. My goal is to post one per week. Something’s not working.
The problem is that I’m also trying to pursue a PhD in evangelism and missions. I’ve completed all the course work, passed my “comps” and have now arrived at the dissertation phase. This includes:
• writing a dissertation proposal (about 20-30 pages)
• traveling to Chicago to meet with my committee to “defend” my dissertation proposal
• doing a lot of research
• writing a dissertation
• traveling again to Chicago to “defend” my dissertation
I can’t think of two genres more disparate than a blog and a dissertation proposal. Blogs are short, concise, pithy, helpful, occasionally funny, thought provoking, discussion-stimulating (hopefully), and memorable. At least, those are some of my goals in writing my blogs.
A dissertation proposal is, well….different.
So, I need to set aside my blog-writer hat for a short time and put on my scholar hat and see if I can make the progress I need to make. As you can imagine, I’d appreciate your prayers. I do hope to resume the blogging after I defend my dissertation proposal.
In the meantime, if you haven’t read my paper “Training Timothys to Do the Work of Evangelists,” that might be something helpful for you if you’re looking to help your church or ministry weave evangelism into its everyday life.
I’m grateful for the ways blogs can advance God’s kingdom. I look forward to reconnecting soon.
Congrats on the comps, Randy! Will keep you in prayer daily for continued success! You might take a gander at Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. A standard for most PhD work even if you are not doing a “scientific” topic. I would work in a reference to it in your PhD proposal and work — think about talking about the three levels of paradigms and how they relate to your research — good stuff! Hank
Hi Randy, no probs on the lack of posts, it’s been a couple of months since I visited 🙂 Thanks for the tip to read the Timothy resource, I appreciated your insights.
http://www.randydavidnewman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Equipping-Timothys-to-Do-the-Work-of-Evangelists.pdf
I’ve been writing my blog since March this year with the general thought of setting people free, whether they are Christian or non-Christian, churched or unchurched. It largely came out of a long-time latent heart’s desire, but was also influenced by “Reimaging Evangelism”, a DVD small group course by Rick Richardson.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/articles/evangelism/100824.html
All the best with your studies. They obviously come from a heart of wanting to reach the lost, so I am confident the blog will come to life in good time 🙂 May you enjoy much fruit for your labours!
God bless you and yours,
Dunc 🙂
http://www.wheaton.edu/Academics/Faculty/R/Rick-Richardson