Course Review: Leading Like Nehemiah

 Information about the Course

This is an advanced Lay Ministry course offered by BeADisiciple.com called Leading Like Nehemiah.  This is a course offered as part of the Wesley Academy for Advanced Christian Studies, created in partnership with Wesley Theological Seminary and BeADisciple.  The course instructor is Darla Theiler, and it includes videos with Rev. Dr. Lovett Weems.  The course is six weeks long. Each week involves a small amount of Bible Study, viewing a 5 minute video of Rev. Dr. Weems speaking about the current topic for that week, answering three out of five questions each week (and posting the answers) and participation in online discussions.

The course can be part of a certification called Certificate in Advanced Christian Study.  The certificate involves completion of six courses such as this one.  The course can also be taken as a stand alone option.

Summary

From the website: (This course) looks for wisdom in the story of an often-overlooked Bible character: Nehemiah, and his testament to the holy calling of leadership. The story of the rebuilding of Jerusalem is well known. Lesser known are the lessons Nehemiah provides to the faithful leader today, lessons like: the role of prayer, discernment of vision, development of a team, and perseverance through the inevitable challenges today’s church leader faces. Join us in this six-week course to explore these virtues of faithful leadership. 

Impressions

This course was less involved than other courses I've taken through this program, but the topic was interesting. In order to prepare prior to the start of the course, I read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah - this was not a requirement of the course. Each week requires a small reading from the book of Nehemiah, a little journaling of your thoughts (that are not submitted), and viewing the video of the week (much shorter than other class videos). Each week has five questions for review. I answered all five, but only posted three answers (per the class instructions). Each week, students are required to respond to other people's posts - at least two significant responses each week. This wasn't hard to accomplish.

A few things I noticed that were different than other courses through this program:

• The lessons were not posted ahead of time. I wish they had been, because sometimes it is necessary for me to work ahead in order to negotiate my schedule. That was not possible with this set up - class material was posted on the Sunday of each week.
• The teacher, unlike other classes, rarely posted responses to students' posts. I missed this because previously the leaders' posts had always kindled conversation. The instructor did create and post (for four of the weeks) a long, involved summary of responses, which must have been time intensive for her to complete. Those were nice, but I missed the interaction.
• Because of the lack of involved reading assignments, I feel like I didn't learn as much as I usually do in these classes. Usually, a class will have a recommended text (but not required) text. This one did not. After the class was over, I did purchase and read a Nehemiah commentary, but it was terrible (review here).

The class was good. The topic was good as were the points that were made. I feel as if I learned much about the book of Nehemiah through the study of it. I would recommend the course, although I am not as enthusiastic about it as other courses I have taken.

Posts about the Class

Posts about the class will have the tag Nehemiah Leadership