I finished my practicum up this summer, and that only leaves two classes and a thesis before I finish my M.Div. degree at Lipscomb. This Fall I am taking Theology of Ministry with Dr. David Fleer, and this coming Spring I’ll take Intro to Preaching with the same teacher. Below is my reading list for the semester. These all look like some good books to digest. It should be a fun semester.
1. William H. Willimon, Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry, (Abingdon, 2002).
2. David Fleer and Charles Siburt, editors, Good Shepherds, (Leafwood Press, 2007).
3. David Fleer and Charles Siburt, editors, Like A Shepherd Lead Us, (Leafwood Press, 2006).
4. Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, (HarperCollins, 2006).
5. Abraham Verghese, My own Country: A Doctor’s Story of a Town and its People in the Age of AIDS (Simon & Schuster, 1994).
6. Jerry Taylor (author) and David Fleer (editor), Courageous Compassion,(Abilene Christian University Press, 2011).
7. Darren Dochuk, From the Bible Belt to the Sun Belt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism , (Norton, 2010).
Those books sound great. I’d be interested in reading a post (or an email, if you’d prefer) on how your experience doing a M.Div. has been. Almost everyone I know who has done graduate studies in Bible has done a M.A. instead, and I’ve sometimes heard people suggest that M.Div. programs tend to include a lot of classes that are a waste of time. What are your thoughts?