A Teaching So Deep and Wide

　　I attended “Ecclesiology,” “Preaching,” and “William Willimon on Worship, Ethics and Preaching,” which were all team-taught courses.

　　When students take a course, they often expect the teacher to share about his/her research results on a specific topic, and guide students to have in-depth discussions and learning. In team-taught courses, teachers would each deal with the same topic from a different perspective. By multiple-angle analysis and dialogue, the various aspects and diversity of a subject are explored. In the course “Ecclesiology,” professors each with such different expertise as the Old Testament, the New Testament, church history, theology, ethics and practices, lectured on the topics in which they specialized, and guided students to conduct in-depth discussions, so that students can learn the concept of “church” from deep and wide perspectives within a short period of time. In the course “Preaching,” President Cho and Chaplain Rev. Lam taught us the theology and methods of preaching as well as shared their experience and insights. After practicing preaching in the class, students also received precious comments from the two veteran preachers. In the course “William Willimon,” there were three teachers who exchanged ideas and responded with each other spontaneously in the class, presenting the pastor William Willimon’s potential contribution to Hong Kong churches more vividly.

　　As theological students, not only do we need to build a solid foundation for the various subjects, but it is also important that we are able to integrate what we learned in the different disciplines. However, due to the limitations of personal experience and background, we often find it difficult to do so. In the team-taught courses, the example of the various teachers in the class demonstrates to us how to integrate and master the knowledge learned in different disciplines. To master that, of course, requires our own repeated practice and deep reflection.