I left you at my accepting a job at the University of Cincinnati. What a blast. Karen and I moved into an upper class men's residence hall with our little six week old daughter Julia. The guys had a little sister and we had 600 men to corral.
Finding a church was difficult. They were different from the little congregations back home. But we found one way out in Dent and settled in there. We started to teach Sunday school for the College and Career Group and fell in love with the kids and their families.
I was growing in my job and taking classes on a doctorate in counseling. I discovered the power of small groups and saw the way God could use groups to train Christians to learn His word and do His works.
Through a guy named Barney Ford, Campus Director of InterVarsity Fellowship, I was invited to attend a series of training classes on Inductive Bible Study. That means we study what the Bible says and interpret it ourselves rather than have a teacher prepare a cookie cutter lesson and tell the students what it means.
These two insights were like gold to me and I immediately started to try the ideas out in tandem with our C&C group. We met in homes once each week and encouraged them to dig deeply into the passages we chose and arrive at their own conclusions. WOW! What freedom and what excitement on their parts.
Well, that did not last for long. The Church Leaders heard what we were doing and called me in for a discussion. The end result was a request for my resignation. I was hurt, mad, frustrated, sad and disbelieving. In retrospect this painful event was like the one at Mt. Vernon when I had to resign from teaching. Humiliating, humbling and infuriating but redemptive.
God meant it for good and He brought good out of it. Like Joseph in the pit. I was a better man after I got out of the hole God put me in.
More on UC next time.
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