Thursday, January 04, 2007
The Basics
As any writer knows, the first sentence is always the hardest--crack that and the rest is a cake-walk! With that out of the way, it seems proper to begin with a somewhat formal introduction.
Who Am I?
My name is Jared Runck; I've been an instructor in Old Testament and Theology at Gateway College of Evangelism for the past five years. I grew up in Nebraska where the only exciting thing was Huskers football (and, yes, I'm still mourning our loss to Auburn in the Cotton Bowl); I came to Gateway in the fall 0f '98, graduated in the spring of '02, married my college sweetheart, and started teaching the next fall.
Wow! I just summed up my life in 3 sentences! Not a good feeling for a first-time blogger.
What's Happening
However, the "Month in My Life" blog came to me on the cusp of perhaps the most exciting semester of my life so far. I will be completing my Master's thesis comparing the Temple theology of Jeremiah and Deuteronomy this springand will graduate (finally!) in May. In fact, my graduation date is also our five-year anniversary. However, before we reach that momentous milestone, we have a daughter on the way in April!
So, writing a thesis, teaching at a Bible college, having your first child are all "fair game" subjects for this month's blog. I hope this piques your interest . . . maybe it's just a warning!
My Passion
Some of you may have read my article on holiness on 90&9; if not, here's the link, in case you are interested: http://www.ninetyandnine.net/cover/20061211.html. I still chuckle at the header-"This was originally presented in a slightly different format". Translated, that reads, "This was the first time anybody played a U2 song for a devotion!"
Anyway, if you have read that, you will understand that my heart's desire is to see the Church truly engage the culture in which we live. We so often pretend 1) that the culture hasn't changed in the last 50 years or 2) that we easily turn the cultural clock back to some era like the 1950s. Sorry, folks, it ain't gonna happen! Our culture has gone postmodern (I'll blog a bit about what I think that means); the question is not how the church can revert culture to an earlier era but how the Church relates to this era. That's why I'm such a strong believer in the mission of 90&9 and the IQ Forum; they are both about making the Christian faith make sense in a nonsense world.
A few years ago in seminary, I took a class on biblical interpretation. The final assignment was to look for cultural artifacts (novels, advertisements, novels, movies, etc) that made allusion to the Bible. Sounds easy, right? Very funny. In case you didn't know it (I didn't before I did this assignment), biblical allusions are all over pop culture. Hopefully, over the course of this month, I can help raise awareness of the ways in which the Bible is present in our world.
Happy reading.
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
Who Am I?
My name is Jared Runck; I've been an instructor in Old Testament and Theology at Gateway College of Evangelism for the past five years. I grew up in Nebraska where the only exciting thing was Huskers football (and, yes, I'm still mourning our loss to Auburn in the Cotton Bowl); I came to Gateway in the fall 0f '98, graduated in the spring of '02, married my college sweetheart, and started teaching the next fall.
Wow! I just summed up my life in 3 sentences! Not a good feeling for a first-time blogger.
What's Happening
However, the "Month in My Life" blog came to me on the cusp of perhaps the most exciting semester of my life so far. I will be completing my Master's thesis comparing the Temple theology of Jeremiah and Deuteronomy this springand will graduate (finally!) in May. In fact, my graduation date is also our five-year anniversary. However, before we reach that momentous milestone, we have a daughter on the way in April!
So, writing a thesis, teaching at a Bible college, having your first child are all "fair game" subjects for this month's blog. I hope this piques your interest . . . maybe it's just a warning!
My Passion
Some of you may have read my article on holiness on 90&9; if not, here's the link, in case you are interested: http://www.ninetyandnine.net/cover/20061211.html. I still chuckle at the header-"This was originally presented in a slightly different format". Translated, that reads, "This was the first time anybody played a U2 song for a devotion!"
Anyway, if you have read that, you will understand that my heart's desire is to see the Church truly engage the culture in which we live. We so often pretend 1) that the culture hasn't changed in the last 50 years or 2) that we easily turn the cultural clock back to some era like the 1950s. Sorry, folks, it ain't gonna happen! Our culture has gone postmodern (I'll blog a bit about what I think that means); the question is not how the church can revert culture to an earlier era but how the Church relates to this era. That's why I'm such a strong believer in the mission of 90&9 and the IQ Forum; they are both about making the Christian faith make sense in a nonsense world.
A few years ago in seminary, I took a class on biblical interpretation. The final assignment was to look for cultural artifacts (novels, advertisements, novels, movies, etc) that made allusion to the Bible. Sounds easy, right? Very funny. In case you didn't know it (I didn't before I did this assignment), biblical allusions are all over pop culture. Hopefully, over the course of this month, I can help raise awareness of the ways in which the Bible is present in our world.
Happy reading.
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!
# posted by Luke @ 8:38 AM 
