New class offers new skills...

New class offers new skills

I am very excited about a new class that I am going to be teaching at the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver starting in mid-November. We are going to begin a class that we are calling “Ministry Technologies” to our seniors this year. This class will deal with various digital tools and technologies to deepen Bible Study, preaching and teaching, and improve outreach and communication.
Students will be taught to go deeper in their Bible study and research using the Libronix Digital Library System. This software has amazing new tools for examining the text and digging into the original languages in ways never before possible. These new electronic libraries contain hundreds of books, are completely portable (actually they are stored right in the student’s laptop computers) and can be searched in seconds. Research and textual studies that used to take hours or even days with paper books can now be done in minutes. This time savings can be put into making sermons and Bible classes more applicable and powerful.
In addition to Bible study and research skills, the students will be learning how to preach and teach using PowerPoint. This tool has been gaining ground over the last few years, with more and more preachers using it. But making the change from verbal communication skills to visual communication skills can be a challenge. We will help the students use imagery and presentations to reinforce the message rather than distract from the message. This skill can help members connect with the lessons by involving more senses and promotes active rather than passive listening.
New technologies to improve outreach will be examined in detail as students are exposed to website strategies as well as potential ministry uses for blogging and podcasting. These new tools are easier than ever to use and we are excited to be able to provide the students with hands-on experience with these powerful technologies.
I will be posting more about this class and these technologies in the near future. Stay tuned.