The Cohort in Houston

I taught last week in Houston, both at Lanier Theological Library and at Camp Allen. I’ve been teaching for more than forty years and the classroom at Lanier is knock-down the coolest classroom I’ve ever been in. It’s only rival for me was the Lightfoot Room at Cambridge (if I got the name right). I remember because I sat next to none other than EP (“Ed”) Sanders.

HTS DMin students on the staircase on the way up to the ‘great room’ at Lanier Theological Library.

The class at Houston Theological Seminary, which was co-taught with my friend Lynn Cohick, was the first course for a new, good-sized cohort in their DMin program. Lynn sketched the hermeneutical process in Biblical and Theological studies, and I concentrated on the kingdom. Which means Kingdom Conspiracy, which always raises the question about what constitutes “kingdom work,” which gets us all thinking together about what the NT means by “kingdom.”

We had a wonderful discussion. We also discussed the Jesus Creed, kingdom and church, as well as what kingdom mission entails.

First-year cohort at Camp Allen.

All of us were together at Camp Allen. We ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner together. We stayed at a wonderful Episcopalian retreat center. It was lovely. Places to walk, and sit, and the internet, and the weather was cool so Kris and I took customary morning walks.

This DMin program was designed by Ben Blackwell (you can see him in the top picture) and others at HTS. Because it integrates research and writing into classes it’s not sunup to sundown in a classroom talking about one thing until … well, until we are fatigued. By the way, I rocked some of my son’s “Dunks” one day. (So I had some coolness in my corner.)

I’m sure you can see which are mine and which are a student’s. Three guesses, the first two don’t count.

One afternoon on the campus at HTS, we sat around a room chatting with professors, including with Phil Tallon, Paul Sloan, Seth Ehorn, and my contemporary colleague, Craig Evans, at the seminary and university. The place is teeming with activity. We had dinner together at President Robert and Susan Sloan’s on-campus home. That evening Esau McCaulley lectured to the students about Philemon. Friday evening we had dinner at a TexMex restaurant and discussed a little while about Invisible Jesus.

Lynn and I spent a good hour with the students talking about how we read and how we write, which we hope will both calm some nerves about the thesis process and provide some helpful approaches to what to read and how to get the writing process underway. HTS gets the research and writing process underway immediately. Their three-year curriculum is well-designed.

Resuming teaching with Lynn was a joy. Our students are diverse in so many ways, including careers and plans and callings and ministries. I’m so looking forward to the next time we gather for another cohort course. The best part of intensives is a week together; the worst part is leaving one another; but we can say Next Year in Houston!