Amazon Premium Videos Thanked Me - In a Round About Way

 

GCU Swimming Pool

I heard a conversation at UOP about Grand Canyon University wanting to become a Christian version of UOP. Some businessmen bought the school when the Arizona Baptist Foundation lost 85% of the money invested by faithful members and GCU's endowment fund. 

I worked on a potential position there, online for about two years, while they were getting ready to be online. Some time later, they added their seminary and additional degrees. I visited the old campus early on, and I seemed to have come from outer space. "Online instructor? Oh." I was the only online faculty that came to that meeting. 

A parent in Arkansas told me that GCU had grown incredibly with buildings and programs. I just kept teaching, mostly Old Testament. Brian Mueller had been my online boss at UOP, and he came to GCU to be the new president. Long ago he was LCMS and a basketball coach at Concordia University. Think of that, LCMS colleges!

Apparently GCU was down to 1,000 students before things changed. The current figures are 25,000 students on campus and 90,000 online. When other schools panicked over Covid changes, GCU just switched the campus to online in short order.

 GCU - Division 1 basketball

The funny thing is, I have never seen any new buildings first-hand. We left Phoenix in 2009 and all communications were online. The school is non-profit, and keeps the tuition cost level.

The Amazon video  narrator thanked all the parents, students, and faculty for building up GCU. So I said to the screen, "You are welcome!" 

When I saw a chance to study Hebrew at Waterloo Seminary, the dean said, "Why? It's not required for graduation." I said, "To read the Old Testament in the original..." my voice trailing off. I could not believe what he said. But when I officially graduated from Waterloo, I was at Yale studying Genesis in Hebrew, so the seminary had to mail the diploma and stole to me. The extra Hebrew might be why I ended up teaching Old Testament.

GCU volleyball

Zach Engleman Officially Graduated from Grand Canyon University's Seminary

 Perryville, Missouri Pilgrimage - Anita Engleman, moi, Christina Jackson, Zach Engleman. Above, CFW Walther.

October 17th was Zach's official graduation day, earning  the Master of Divinity degree from Grand Canyon University. The question was how to earn the degree while working; the so-called Lutheran seminaries are not Lutheran. Zach completed the degree, which included some local classes in Phoenix, and earned the Professional Engineer designation at the same time. Online degrees from GCU take a lot of work, and many of my students fall to make it through the classes I teach, because of the daily demands of study and writing.

Zach kept up with the blog and we had many long, scheduled conversations about Lutheran doctrine. We talked about what was happening in seminary education. I learned a lot from those discussions, the biggest shock being how Calvinism is taking over Baptist congregations.

Congratulations and God's blessings to Zach.

From Zach:
It was a long program and I feel like I was in a completely different situation when I began the program.  Different city, different job and different perspective back then.  The ordeal was definitely worth the effort.  God’s Word changes us, not only day by day, but year after year.  There is always more to receive from that which is God-breathed.  It was an excellent education to be able to witness the fads and the “best” of modern Calvinism in a classroom (online and residency) setting and then compare that to faithful, Lutheran doctrine.

I greatly appreciate all of the direction and encouragement you gave along the way.

37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.


Thank you.

Zach

 The Perryville Pilgrims were given a guided tour of the LCMS Holy Land by Debbie Gahan, my Moline classmate and bandmate, former mayor of the city.