Starting a New "Great Commission School"

[Candlepower]

Steve, this is very exciting news!

My wife and I have often commented that we would like to have attended your Oregon school years ago. We are part-time Oregonians (the other part Missourian), but have become familiar with your work only in the last few years. We spend time almost every day listening to your MP3 lectures, all of which we have downloaded. They are such a blessing. We attended the Oil Station seminar in which you participated last fall near St. Louis.

We will be praying that God will work out all the details of your vision, and we plan on being a part of it when it materializes.

God bless you; keep up the good work.

[steve]

If I do not miss my guess, I am speaking to Tim and Sue. It's good to hear from you, and to know of your interest in the school. I really think it will be much better than our old school (in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some of those who went through the former school in Oregon would decide to take the course again, more than ten years after the closure of the first school. My views on most things have not changed since I recorded those lectures in the Oregon school, though some of them have, and others have been moderated. I certainly am reading the Bible with a larger perspective than was the case back then, and the changes in my own life circumstances (I was in a long-term marriage rearing four children in those days, none of which is true now) allow me to view the scriptural truths from yet another perspective, in addition to what I saw in my previous circumstances. To get everything re-taught and re-recorded before I die would be an exciting goal for me, and would allow a new batch of students to be personally discipled as well. I am looking forward to it.

[Jason]

Steve, having heard most of your older lectures I'd be interested to know what kind of insights you've gained since those were recorded. I wouldn't ask you to spell those out in detail or anything, just some general categories where your thoughts have changed substantially. I know that I personally tend to become myopic until the floor falls out... which has happened on numerous occasions. This has caused me to examine things I thought I knew. Then again, this is coming from the perspective of one still nursing milk so the rate at which this happens to me is fairly constant.

[steve]

Jason,

I don't know if I can catalogue the ways in which my perspective has been affected by gains and losses in the past decade. It is not as if I have learned something startlingly new in those years. It's more of an adjustment in balancing issues that I already knew and taught. I don't think that there is much in my new teaching that would disagree with my old tapes—although I am occasionally surprised when someone points out something I said in one of the posted lectures (apparently from verrrry long ago) which reflects an idea that I abandoned twenty or more years ago! Yes, some of the lectures are that old! Most, however, are more like 12 years old (the ones at the digitalministries.us site are a bit more recent, and a few at both sites have been recorded in the past year or two). If I have not matured or learned anything in that length of time, I suspect that you should be checking me for vital signs.

[Candlepower]

If I do not miss my guess, I am speaking to Tim and Sue.

Steve, your guess was right! Thanks for the response. We will continue to pray for your work and vision (which has influenced us so much) and to contribute what we can to it. We hope others will join in. We're looking forward to growing in knowledge and wisdom.

God bless you,

Tim & Sue

[Sarah]

Hey, Steve--

It would be a shame if you didn't include the discipleship portion of the curriculum if you do start another school. I realize that not everyone who comes to your school would be fresh out of high school and a Christian home, as I was when I attended GCS, but even those who may have already thought through the issues beforehand could only benefit from studying them further. For me, those weeks studying the authority of the Bible, etc. were some of the most beneficial of the entire year.

Sarah (GCS 91-92)

[Johnsdad]

Regarding the online portion; Recording these to video and then distributing when time or circumstances allows would be a wonderfull blessing to many. I for one, would gladly pay the tuition for either an online video or DVD series.

Just something to think about. Good luck on your future endeavors and may God bless you in your teaching.

Dave

[darinhouston]

By the way, a caller asked about recording Skype video -- I stumbled across this -- it would be interesting to try and have Steve do a lecture from home broadcast on Skype at a pre-determined time announced on here as an experiment and if someone bought this software (or another like it), someone could record it and we could post the video.

http://skypecap.com/

That would open up some interesting avenues. I'm sure there are providers other than skype even more friendly than this, but it would be a fun experiment.

[steve]

I have an update on the progress of plans for a school. Nothing is in the works yet, but I consulted with my friend Danny Lehmann, who is (in his own words) "a top mucky muck" in the international YWAM organization (his formal title is: International Dean of the College of Christian Ministries). I asked whether my idea about renting vacant YWAM facilities around the world for the conduct of our school seemed like something that would be a realistic possibility, since I was not aware of YWAM's policies about such things. Danny wrote back encouraging me in this direction, saying he would recommend me to the leaders of any YWAM base that I wished to approach, and giving me the names of many of the leaders of various bases who are particularly good friends of his. He also wrote me a glowing letter of commendation (which he emailed me, but said he would also send in hard copy of YWAM stationery) addressed to any YWAM base leader—and telling them that he recommends their complete confidence in me and my program.

While this does not make any prospective school any nearer in time (I still would not consider it until fall of 2010), it moves it closer in terms of logistics and likelihood. What this means is, essentially, that I would be able to hold three-month modules in virtually any country in the world (YWAM bases are in every country).

This is not really anything more informative than what I shared in the first post in this thread, but it confirms some important aspects that were only theoretical when I posted there.