By: John Fehlen on January 30, 2023
From 2004-2010 American television had a show that ran for six seasons on ABC. The show was called LOST, and I, along with my family and close friends, were HOOKED. Each week we would tune in live, or watch it downloaded from iTunes, to see what was gonna happen to Hugo, Sawyer, Jack, Sayid, Kate,…
By: Kim Sanford on January 30, 2023
Joseph Campbell’s seminal work points to an underlying reality that myth and story speak to the human heart (or as Campbell would call it, the psyche). Through story we instruct, we connect, we inspire and persuade, and we even rejoice. It’s also how we deal with our imperfection, our brokenness. As Campbell says, “Modern literature…
By: Dinka Utomo on January 27, 2023
A year ago, my son and daughter (9 and 7 years old) asked me, daddy is there any portal in this world for us to go to another dimension? Then the next question that surprised me quite a bit was, daddy, is there any portal in the world for us to go to heaven and meet…
By: Adam Harris on January 26, 2023
After reading this week’s material and watching Robert Coven’s TED talk on threshold concepts, I can’t help but share my personal journey of struggling through certain thresholds regarding my faith, and in particular Scripture in higher education. I have a deep love and respect for the Bible. I couldn’t always say this, but I appreciate…
By: John Fehlen on January 23, 2023
I considered titling this blog post “Threshold Concepts for Dummies” because after reading these two extensive and comprehensive books I felt like, well…a dummy. I’m not being self-deprecating; I honestly felt dumb. I’ve been reading, thinking, studying, and pontificating large biblical/theological concepts for many, many years, and yet I have not been exposed to this…
By: Kim Sanford on January 23, 2023
The term threshold concepts inherently speaks of movement and flow from one place to another. Learners have a “transformative” experience where they understand previously “troublesome” knowledge, often by “integrating” concepts from multiple disciplines. The result of this experience is an “irreversible” clarity that is nonetheless “bounded”[i]. If that definition was a bit opaque at first,…
By: Mathieu Yuill on January 23, 2023
I wondered while watching the TEDx video if Dr. Coven has the gift of prophecy as he described the idea of a threshold concept as he used the example of a new driver learning to drive. My son is 17 and about to embark on in-car driving lessons. However, the journey to get him to…
By: Dinka Utomo on January 19, 2023
Many people in the world, including Christians, struggle with what is their purpose in life. People often ask themselves or their pastors this question. The difficulty in discovering the goal of life can have further harmful effects on many people. We can say feeling worthless or feeling empty without direction and purpose in this life.…
By: Adam Harris on January 19, 2023
Anyone ever told you there are no stupid questions? Mining for Gold may challenge that idea. Tom Camacho claims “There are great questions, OK questions, and terrible questions.” (Camacho, 70) At least when it comes to coaching. The journey that introduced Tom to coaching was raw and inspiring. It involved some real pain and I appreciated…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on January 19, 2023
“It is beautiful. It is pure. It is soft. It is rare.” Honestly this book grabbed me with these twelve descriptive words, and I kept reading until I reached the end. I had no intention of reading every word, but this book was well-timed and really spoke to some struggles that I have been currently…
By: John Fehlen on January 18, 2023
A few times while reading “Mining for Gold” by Tom Camacho, I found myself humming the song “Gold Digger” by Kanye West and Jamie Foxx. It’s a rap song from around 2005. Disclaimer: it’s moral TRASH. Don’t Google it. Don’t Shazam the lyrics. Don’t listen to it on Spotify. It’s morally debased, and I hesitate…
By: Kim Sanford on January 17, 2023
“I have found that almost every leader asks these two questions of God: Who have you created me to be? What have you created me to do to serve you and your kingdom?” [1] Aren’t those the very questions that most Christians ask themselves sooner or later? I would even venture to say that non-Christians…
By: Dinka Utomo on January 13, 2023
A survey in 2018 showed that Indonesian reading interest was ranked 62nd in the world. [1] Somehow, I was not too surprised by that survey. Honestly, I seem to be one of the people mentioned in that survey. I do not hate books, but hard for me to put reading books as my top priority,…
By: Adam Harris on January 12, 2023
While wading through this week’s material on reading more intelligently, thinking more critically, and taking smarter notes, I was reminded of the idea, It’s better to dig a few deep wells, than hundreds of shallow ones. [1] I’ve run across a few versions of this saying over the years from spiritual leaders and yogi’s, and…
By: John Fehlen on January 12, 2023
Last year I read 115 books, and the year before that I read 150. For a number of years now I have set really high goals of reading pretty much whatever I can get my hands on, and in large quantities. Fiction, non-fiction, children’s literature, journals, periodicals, manuals, cookbooks, and the like. Honestly, I’ve been…
By: Kim Sanford on January 12, 2023
If the question today is, “How are my reading skills?” the answer is, in a word, mediocre. Obviously, I can read, but speed and long-term retention have always been my weak points. Even just this week, I picked a book off my working bibliography and began to read it. After about 30 pages, I realized…
