Todd H Dow

So I’m sure that some of you are probably asking, “Okay, so you’re working in a career in computers. Why are you going to school for theology and what are you going to do with that?” And I’ve even had a couple of friends ask, “How are you gonna make money doing that?” These are good questions. And, I have some good answers. Here goes…

I love my career in IT. I work with a great team of people and we build websites for a living. I don’t really feel like leaving this career path. It’s been very rewarding and it continues to provide sufficient challenges and opportunities for growth that I would have some serious problems with walking away with it for good.

That being said, I feel quite lucky to be able to live my double life as an IT professional, as well as being a student. And, I really enjoy the fact that I’m expanding my knowledge base on something that contributes to my personal growth.

So what are my priorities for the next five years or so? I’ve got four main “buckets” that I will be devoting my energy over the next five years or so:

1. MY CURRENT CAREER - For the time being, my first priority remains my current career. This is my livelihood and it’s also a great passion of mine. So, if my boss is reading this post, until I say otherwise, I am committed to my job and am not looking at going anywhere anytime soon. Don’t worry!
2. MASTER OF DIVINITY - Obviously, my most important next step is to finish school. I am committed to finishing my masters degree. Doing it part time will likely take me another four or five years.
3. GAIN EXPERIENCE - This four or five year period will coincide great with my practical time spent at my home church. I am the student pastor at my home church. That means shadowing the rest of the pastoral staff, giving sermons, leading worship services and teaching sunday school. All of these activities provide excellent opportunities for me to apply my studies and to become more comfortable in a church leadership setting.
4. WRITE - Writing has provided me with a great outlet for my creative energies. In fact, I am seriously considering writing as my long term ministry outlet. This would allow me to continue my career in IT while practicing my craft at the same time. I will continue to write my blog. And I am also interested in writing to get published as well. I would like to write some articles for magazines and I have some ambitions to write a couple of books as well.

So yeah… that’s where I’m at right now. These are my priorities. I hope you’ll continue to read my blog, to provide me with words of encouragement from time to time, and I hope that I’ll be seen as a positive encouragement to all of you in your faith.

This is the last of my biographical posts for a little while. It’s been great sharing a bit about myself with you. I thought it was important to explain a bit about myself and to give everyone a grounding of who I am and where I’m coming from in my writing.

What’s next, you ask? Well… I’d like to start developing a couple of book ideas that I’ve had for a while. I’ll be using my blog to stretch my legs a bit and to help develop some sound arguments before I put them into book format. So, you’re gonna get a look at some topics that I am extremely passionate about in the next little while.

Coming up next: My critical reflection on The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

Last time I talked about my experiences so far as a student pastor. There has been some overlap between grad school and my student pastor experiences due to the overlapping nature of the content involved. School requires work term placements within a church setting and my classroom learning has been incorporated into my role as a student pastor. It’s been great to apply what I’ve been learning directly into a practical setting. I couldn’t ask for a better way of practicing what I’m learning in real time.

Grad school has also allowed me to discuss some difficult topics in a non-threatening and supportive environment. Well… for the most part, it’s been non-threatening and supportive. I have noticed a bit of a difference between my undergrad and my grad school experiences though. How so? Well…

Many people in undergrad philosophy programs are there to question the established church. There were plenty of challenges to the established religious opinions. I felt outnumbered most of the time and I felt that it was an uphill battle to defend my faith in the face of so much “post modern opposition”. But, everyone was able to respectfully ask the questions and share the opinions that they wanted to ask, regardless of their perspectives (myself included).

Grad school has been a little different. Most of the time, I’ve felt comfortable to ask questions or discuss things in an open and non-judgmental environment. But unfortunately, there have also been times when I’ve detected a little resistance to my questions from other students. It feels to me like there are those that don’t like their denominations questioned or their worldviews to be challenged. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I have sort of felt that disagreement was seen as a slight to some other students. Don’t get me wrong… for the most part, classroom discussions have been great. It’s just been the odd comment that has made me feel this way. Note: I’ve only felt this from other students. The professors have always been open minded, approachable and encouraging of alternate viewpoints, regardless of their own opinions.

The other thing that’s been great about grad school has been the chance to solidify my Christian worldview in a supportive and encouraging atmosphere. My undergrad was neither encouraging or discouraging. It just was. But my grad program has been about building stronger faith and encouraging me to walk with God. Being surrounded by like-minded individuals has been extremely motivating and I am thankful for the opportunity to learn in such a great atmosphere.

I look forward to continuing my grad studies. I’m working on my master’s degree part time, and it’ll take me another 5 years or so to complete it. I’m looking forward to the additional learning that I’ll be receiving in the years to come and the additional growth that will come out of it as well.

Stay tuned… I’ve got one more post left in this series of biographical posts. Next time, I’ll be talking about my next steps and where I’m headed.

I am definitely in my early days as a religious leader, but that doesn’t mean that I should avoid practical experience. I’ve been fortunate enough to have my home church support me in my walk with God and they have embraced me as their student minister.

Note: I am still growing as a religious leader and I definitely have gaps in:
a) my knowledge of how to be a pastor; and
b) my strength and moral conviction as a spiritual leader;

But, that’s part of the journey: living, growing and breathing in God’s presence as we strive to grow closer to him and to represent ourselves and our faith in an appropriate way.

My home church has offered me numerous opportunities to serve and get involved in various roles within the church. There are three valuable growing experiences that stand out in particular as tremendous areas of growth:

1. Prayer - My self-proclaimed weakness has and continues to be public prayer. This is an area that need to exercise in order to make it strong. I have had the opportunity to develop this through prayer groups, worship leading with the congregation and leading sunday school classes.
2. Preaching - Until a year ago, I had never delivered a sermon. Period. Since then, I have performed numerous sermons, and each one has been increasingly better. I have a greater sense of confidence at the pulpit, greater confidence in my knowledge of the subject matter and a greater maturity at delivering my messages.
3. Leading - My largest area of focus at my home church has been as a Sunday School teacher. I have had the priviledge of building a Christian parenting and marriage group. This experience has been extremely rewarding. it has given me the chance to learn a great deal, while working to build a community of like-minded people in a fun setting.

My biggest lesson so far has been the power of relationships. Pastoral ministry is about building relationships and connecting with people. At first, I thought that strong academic content would be the best way to connect with people. I found that academic language quickly took a back seat to relaxed group discussion, anecdotal examples and personal reflection. My experience has shown that group dynamics typically require short, easy to understand and quick to explain snippets of information. Thus, I quickly adjusted my teaching style to present succinct examples that prompted group discussion. I noticed that the content became secondary in many of our group discussions. The content was simply to start conversations. From there, the discussions typically took on a life of their own.

Does this mean that I no longer care about content? Hardly. On the contrary… I focus more on content than I did in the past. Valuable class outlines require tight agendas and meaningful content in a brief, organized and accurate layout. This type of an outline is harder though: it’s harder to convey meaning in a short explanation than in a longer one. And, each week, I try to make my descriptions as short and concise as possible.

I have a long way to go in order to perfect my skill and ability as a pastor, but the experience I have received so far has been extremely helpful. I look forward to continuing my education on an ongoing basis.

That’s it for today. Next time, we’ll discuss, Grad School - my experience so far at Divinity School.