What Studying Hard Is for?

　　I grew up and served in some other denominations and now being a Th.M. student at HKBTS, what have I experienced in this seminary that underlines the Baptist tradition? Thank God that both the teachers who “castigate” me and the students who learn with me enable me to have a beautiful and special experience, which is a divinely-given gift. What I have gained is due to both the program arrangement and the hidden curriculum which is not easily recognizable.

　　To me, the Th.M. Program content is a kind of training—from learning the basic stuff to re-learning. As we have been trained for a number of years and kept on learning most of the time, we assume that our “Gong Fu” (academic competence) has been fairly good and we can manage the academic discussion content with confidence and skill. However, I find that those theism, Christology and epistemology are not where the problem lies. But the problem has to do with the insufficiency of our own basic training, which can always be exposed when teachers and students ask pointed questions in a gentle way: Can we understand accurately what the author mean? Do we respond in a rational and restrained way? Can we clearly determine what the thesis is? Throughout these dialogues, I feel like they are gifts that the Lord put beside me. I need to face my own inadequacy and I need longer practice.

　　This is a community that practices sharing with one another for we do not study alone. In the study process, in order to help other fellow students whose learning ability is not as good as others, students actively form a learning group and a reading group while our teachers also gladly offer guidance. The group both helps clarify the lesson content and include some extra reading in an effort to share one another’s fruit of learning. Thus, learning is no longer individual efforts but rather the effort of the whole group whose members share and edify one another. In other words, this is a different kind of coterie that drives me to practice how to be a better disciple of Jesus while in academic training and to learn to practice sharing with each other in a learning community, above all, to understand what studying hard is for—giving glory to God.