S3:E5 Preview Day Unplugged

Summary: This podcast episode features a Q&A session with prospective students and families visiting the Institute for GOD. President Garner and Academic Dean Jeff Sherrod sit with current students Anthem Bloyer and Julian Carrion to address questions about campus life, academics, internships, and the Institute's unique approach to faith-based education. Key topics include: student life outside of campus, the importance of pre-college internships for ministry experience, the structure and workload of freshman classes (including a focus on Exodus), the Institute's integrated professional development (ProDev) program, the school's founding vision emphasizing strong biblical literacy, and how to discern God's calling regarding college choice. The episode highlights the Institute's commitment to providing a supportive community, practical skills training, and debt-free graduation with immediate job placement opportunities.

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— Gregg Garner, Jeff Sherrod, Anthem Bloyer, Julian Carrion

[00:00:06.08] - Jeff Sherrod

Hey, everyone, and welcome back to College Conversations. I'm your host, Jeff Sherrod. In this episode, we're doing something a little bit different. Twice a year, we have prospective students and families come and visit campus. They get a tour. They get to see what a Bible college is really about. And in their last session, they get to ask any questions that they want along those lines. In this episode, we just filmed that and turned it into a podcast. So the questions that you're hearing for this one are coming directly from those prospective students and their parents. President Garner gets to answer questions about what's the heart of a Bible college? How did this thing get started? What can students expect? And how does this really prepare them for the next stage of life after college? I think you guys are going to love this episode. As always, thanks for joining us for College Conversations. Hey, everybody, and welcome to College Conversations. My name is Jeff Sherrod. For this episode, we're doing something a little bit different. We are currently hosting a student preview. So we have about six, seven different students that are here visiting the college this week. Along with student preview, we're also doing the inaugural first ever. What are we calling it, Julian? Sports. Sports Training Day Tryout. Try sports tryout. That was what I was looking for. You can tell I come from an athletic background. Thank you for the laugh. And if you guys do hear that, we do have a studio audience today. So typically, what we do for when we do a student preview, we have one session. We try to have people ask questions about, like, their experience, things about the college or anything else. And so we have some questions that we've gathered from some of the people that are here. Some existing students kind of go through some of those. Before we get into that, I'm gonna have you guys introduce yourself. Julian, you've been on the podcast before. Remind us who you are.

[00:01:57.82] - Julian Carrion

My name is Julian and I'm a sophomore here at the Institute. I'm also the Student Government association president.

[00:02:05.98] - Jeff Sherrod

Congratulations.

[00:02:06.67] - Julian Carrion

First one ever, by the way. And I come from the hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[00:02:12.46] - Jeff Sherrod

Awesome.

[00:02:14.15] - Anthem Bloyer

My name is Anthem Bloyer. I am a freshman here at the institute, and I don't really have any cool titles, but I'm from Missouri, so.

[00:02:21.75] - Jeff Sherrod

Awesome. Awesome. Okay. And we are going to. President Garner is also going to join us as he's coming over, but I'm going to go ahead and start a question, and I'm going to aim this at you guys. We'll have some questions that are aimed for you guys and then some also that are just aimed for that are really, Greg, I think, are specific to you. So we have some good questions.

[00:02:41.97] - Gregg Garner

Let's go.

[00:02:43.06] - Jeff Sherrod

All right, first question. Are students allowed to freely go throughout the town? For instance, you need to go to the grocery store.

[00:02:50.58] - Anthem Bloyer

Yeah.

[00:02:51.62] - Julian Carrion

Oh, that's the question.

[00:02:53.13] - Jeff Sherrod

This is the question.

[00:02:53.81] - Gregg Garner

That's an actual question.

[00:02:54.81] - Jeff Sherrod

This is the question. We got this one written down. Yeah.

[00:02:56.86] - Gregg Garner

Who's. Where'd these come from?

[00:02:58.21] - Jeff Sherrod

Okay, so we pulled the audience here, questions in the time before. And these are questions. I'm telling you, we got everything from questions from occupation to dinosaurs.

[00:03:07.43] - Gregg Garner

Let's go.

[00:03:07.83] - Jeff Sherrod

So we got some. We got some questions. Yeah.

[00:03:09.46] - Gregg Garner

Okay, so you guys got this answer here?

[00:03:11.50] - Anthem Bloyer

Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. We spend a lot of time, I think, just like, having, like, hangouts and stuff in town. I mean, we go to the coffee shops. We go to Opryland Hotel, like, all the time. So, yeah, we frequent town a lot.

[00:03:22.75] - Julian Carrion

I guess some of us are going to watch the Chosen comes out in theaters this Friday. I'm excited for that.

[00:03:27.34] - Jeff Sherrod

Nice.

[00:03:27.99] - Julian Carrion

I go to the grocery store. Yes. I go Aldi. Because it's the cheapest option.

[00:03:32.43] - Anthem Bloyer

Amen.

[00:03:33.43] - Julian Carrion

Although it is getting expensive. So we're going to have to work some things out on that. And where else do I freaking. The gym. The gym. Although I have not been faithful recently. The gym.

[00:03:44.46] - Gregg Garner

Lock in, bro.

[00:03:47.03] - Julian Carrion

I'm trying. I need more help.

[00:03:49.99] - Jeff Sherrod

But, yeah, I mean, so, yeah, short answer.

[00:03:52.11] - Anthem Bloyer

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

[00:03:53.46] - Julian Carrion

We're not locked and trapped. We're free.

[00:03:56.87] - Jeff Sherrod

And maybe that's the reality of some Christian colleges, but I don't know. Yeah. All right. I have so many questions. You can kind of see me going throughout these a little bit here. I'm going to. I'm going to do another one here. Okay. So this one is related to going on a summer internship. So let me read the question, and maybe we can just talk about summer internship for a little bit before you guys want to answer it. Would you recommend going on a summer internship before or after your first year of college? So maybe, Greg, if you don't mind just kind of talking a little bit about summer internship just to make sure people.

[00:04:27.48] - Gregg Garner

Yeah. Summer internship is the opportunity for a student to travel and to do various types of ministry, whether it's youth ministry or health, public health ministry, or evangelical ministry. There's several categories that we intentionally create, avenues for people to get experience. And then we do this in the Western hemisphere and also the Eastern hemisphere so that they get, again, a diversity of ministerial focuses that then get implemented in various cultures and countries. And it's really an exposure experience to enhance awareness. And I think if it's possible. Yeah. Prior to coming to the institute, if you can go on internship, it is going to give you these referential experiences that will come up over and over again in classes. I think it really brings the Bible to Life. There's over 200 hours of Bible study over the course of an internship. And it just gets people, I think, really regimented into spiritual disciplines. Prayer, worship, reading the word, service. And it's just a really good, like, conditioning experience. You know, athletes before a season, they're going to train over the course of like the summer if they had a fall season. And this is exactly that.

[00:05:50.79] - Jeff Sherrod

Yeah. Okay. So if we were talking about this, it's a great. I would say for me, when I did this, when I was young, it was absolutely life changing. 2004, the first time I ever went was 2003. Yeah.

[00:06:01.22] - Gregg Garner

Was that my internship? Yeah, it was.

[00:06:02.98] - Jeff Sherrod

And then I went again in 2005. But yeah. Cool, cool. Just a fun fact there. So, yeah, the question is, do you recommend doing it before coming to school here or should people come to and do a year and then. And then do that? I don't know if you guys have enough even experience to be able to answer this.

[00:06:24.13] - Julian Carrion

So maybe, I mean, I went after my first year, which I. I'm glad I went after my first year because I had a year of some Baba classes to make sense of my experience. But I could see, like, even from my friends who went last year before coming their first year and seeing how that has just pushed forward their drive to learn the Bible. And I kind of wish I had that coming into school. Whereas, like, when I came into school, I kind of was like, oh, it's a Christian college, you know, I don't know what to expect. Whereas after internship, like, I want to learn the scripture because of what I've seen abroad. So if I could do it again, I would go before. But I'm not mad about my experience. It pushes me forward every single day because I want an internship. So. Yeah.

[00:07:04.67] - Jeff Sherrod

What would you say?

[00:07:05.94] - Anthem Bloyer

I haven't been on internship yet. This is going to be my first time going, which I'm really excited about. But if I, if I had the chance, if I had known about it in time, I definitely would have gone. Just like he was saying, hearing some of the stories of those who did go before they started is just like, very impactful and powerful for them. And I know that it's going to be the same for me. But yeah, I would encourage you that if. If you are coming and you have time and you. You have the resources, you should. You should go before.

[00:07:33.20] - Jeff Sherrod

Yeah, yeah, that. I mean, that would probably be my advice too. And that's the advice that I've kind of given people. Everyone's in a different situation. Right. So not everyone's able to do that. But there is something unique when someone's able to start the program and already kind of be like, I know where I'm going. Like, one of my prayers, I've always prayed is that I want to be able to see people behind pages. And I think being able to do a trip like that helps that you're not just studying. You really know. You're not just studying for you, you are studying to be prepared to help these people that God's called you to help. So again, I don't know if there's a correct answer, but if I had a preference and all else being equal, I would say be awesome if you could go before you start. Yeah. Okay. What are some classes that a freshman will take? Anthem. I'm start with you because you are a freshman.

[00:08:16.95] - Anthem Bloyer

See, the first one that I took was college composition, I think, and Exodus, I believe it was. They're. They're very impactful for me. They're really good. Just like starting out. And college composition definitely is like. Like a. Like one of the more. I don't know, it's called basic classes.

[00:08:35.00] - Jeff Sherrod

Like a general education.

[00:08:36.72] - Anthem Bloyer

That's what I'm looking for. Yeah. But it was really, really powerful. Just like seeing how even in something like that, like the word of God is woven into it and it's just like even something that is general is just super impactful. And then the Exodus class was very like life changing for me. Just like learning just like the character of God and just how much he loves and cares for his people is really powerful. But those are the first ones that I took.

[00:08:59.30] - Jeff Sherrod

So awesome. What about you? Remember any other ones? Julian?

[00:09:02.14] - Julian Carrion

Yeah, College Comp, Exodus, and after that. It was Exodus, Deuteronomy then. Psychology of faith development was like the study of how people go through stages of faith, which is really cool to see how I'm even on the lower bar of that. And the humbling experience of realize real fast people.

[00:09:20.91] - Jeff Sherrod

Like not long, but real fast.

[00:09:22.08] - Julian Carrion

So throughout your life, you go through stages of faith. There's six stages. Six stages. Six possible stages. The six is like, you're like proclaiming your faith. You're all the way out there. Some people would be like, Moses would be a stage six so, like, it's like Bible characters, like big prophets, big leaders.

[00:09:41.79] - Gregg Garner

This is based upon the work of a professor named James Fowler out of Emory University. And he is. He follows in line with all of the historical, developmental analysts, whether you're talking about Eric Erickson or Jean Piaget or Daniel Levinson. And so he takes the same human growth and development stages and puts them into categories of faith.

[00:10:05.85] - Julian Carrion

Yeah, so I really enjoyed that class because it gave me time to reflect on where I'm at in life and how to humble myself to learn more. And it was really impactful. I think that was the four classes.

[00:10:18.22] - Gregg Garner

That happens in the first.

[00:10:19.17] - Jeff Sherrod

Yeah, yeah, that's part. So part of our goal for freshman classes is that we want people to get the tools, like, so college composition to be able to do stuff. But we also don't want to wait for Bible classes. So we try real early and be like, all right, let's get them into Bible right away. We used to start with Genesis, and that proved difficult because it actually requires a lot of knowledge to study with Genesis. So, you know, any book you start with is going to require other knowledge. But starting with Exodus, we've been doing that for a long time. And that seems to be one of the highlights of students freshman experience. People, like, just get into the Bible right away and go from there along. This one's kind of related. What's the homework load like? All right, what would you guys say? Homework load.

[00:10:59.03] - Julian Carrion

You want to start first because you're a freshman. Compare.

[00:11:02.39] - Anthem Bloyer

This is. Might sound a little bit weird, but it's definitely kind of honestly up to you. Like, how you view your homework is kind of up to you and what you do, like, how you manage your schedule. I mean, like, there is, like, a decent amount of homework, and there's a lot that you have to dig into. But, like, if it's. I don't know, like, I think of. When I think of the word load, I think, like, that seems like how heavy, like, how much, like, how hard it is or whatever. I really have enjoyed my homework and the time that I've been able to spend just, like, learning. I've had to be very intentional about also, like, spending time in the word of God outside of that homework that I'm doing. But it's not, like, overwhelming. Like, I can't finish this. It's up to you to, like, manage your schedule in order to have the time. But there's. It's just really impactful. Every single thing is so intentional. Like, there's no homework that you do that doesn't have a purpose or doesn't bring you closer to the Lord. So yeah, that's all.

[00:11:54.35] - Julian Carrion

Yeah, I think for me practically each class would probably take a few hours a week for homework wise. So like we have 1.5 credit classes or 3 credit classes. So 3 credit classes will be more heavy based on homework. So like for instance, I'm in intro to Bib-Interp. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. Which is since we have the flipped classroom model, which means we get homework first and then we have workshop times where we talk about the homework and lectures. So in that class I have about three to four lectures per week that I had to listen to before class and then some few assignments. So that class will take longer because it's more homework based because it's a bigger class. And then 1.5 credit classes are kind of more laid back homework homework wise. So it'll take a few more hours for the time.

[00:12:39.00] - Jeff Sherrod

You're just guessing on a weekly average.

[00:12:40.97] - Julian Carrion

I think for like 1.5 credit. Maybe like.

[00:12:42.85] - Jeff Sherrod

No, let's just say for the.

[00:12:43.64] - Julian Carrion

Your homework, everything. Yeah, 10, 12, 10 to 12 hours, maybe 13 hours all together throughout the whole week. I like to space it out well, so I take a break.

[00:12:55.04] - Anthem Bloyer

Very helpful for. Yeah, we do a lot of homework on the weekends. We just like have like group studies and we all just kind of like help each other with classes that we're in.

[00:13:01.85] - Gregg Garner

So we designed it so that pragmatically, if you have whatever amount of units you have for a course, the homework on average you should expect to be a ratio of times two.

[00:13:13.21] - Jeff Sherrod

Right.

[00:13:13.61] - Gregg Garner

So if you took a three unit course, typically you're going to have six hours of homework. If you took a one and a half hour course, you're going to have three hours of homework. But that's an average. Some people do more, some people do less.

[00:13:23.85] - Jeff Sherrod

Right? Yeah. And that's going to depend on people's skill. I mean like again, if you're treating this what we want students to do as an act of worship, you know, then people are going to like give themselves to it. But we try to even help them recognize like hey, you have to remember this is the long haul. So like every assignment doesn't mean like spend as much time as possible because recognizing that there's going to cumulative effect that happens.

[00:13:45.66] - Gregg Garner

Jeff, you said something real quick, you glossed it, but I think I had an impactful moment one time with a student. This is maybe, I don't know, 12, 13 years ago and there was a, it was a class maybe about 30 students and a couple of students were just talking about the homework load and how it felt pretty heavy, and it was just a lot. And there was a bunch of things going on at the time. And one of our older students at that time, probably in her 50s, she just raises her hand and then looks at the rest of the class, who are all younger students, and just tells them, you know, I'm listening to you all talk about what we're doing as homework, and I get that. But she said, we're studying the Bible. And she then communicates to me, what the Lord showed me is that this is an act of worship. And she said, I think it really does change how you feel about it when you recontextualize it into what it actually is. This is an act of worship. And so you made that statement there. I know that for me, that moment in that classroom was. It was kind of a holy moment because everybody in the class felt humbled by the communication from someone who hadn't been to school literally in, like, 30 years. And now they're back in there just struggling to get through all the homework, but then getting through it because they had a change of perspective. They. They saw it for what it was, that this is an opportunity to worship God.

[00:15:10.13] - Jeff Sherrod

Yeah. Yeah. And I. You know, for all of us as professors, we're. We've all been students, so we know what busy work looks like. We know what an assignment's like. Ugh. This is not. And that's none of our spirit. Our spirit is like, if we're going to give you guys an assignment, we want it to count, and we have intention with it, and there's been thought put into it and prayer. So, yeah, there's intentionality even as we're assigning these things so that people are not wasting time doing that. Greg, this one's going to be for you. You're not only the president, you're the founder of the institute. So this question is, when the vision for this. When did the vision for the school come? What were the initial steps in getting it started? I know this could be a big question, but I'll let you do what you want to do with it.

[00:15:53.22] - Gregg Garner

These are. These are fun questions because, you know, I'm. I'm now on the other side of the history that already transpired. And I think it's easy for people, when they get older, to superimpose a mature reflection onto what it was that they were doing when they were younger. And I try my best not to do that. But even. Even in Telling the story. I think it'll get really interesting. I was about 12 years old and my, my dad's an academic and I had shared earlier this morning that my great grandfather's preacher, my grandfather, my, my father and they, my dad was just always studying, always studying the Bible, always studying theologians. And so every day I came home to him doing that. And as a son I wanted to emulate. So I had my own books and I was studying and reading God's Word. And at one point we would just have these times in the living room where he's reading his book, I'm reading and he looks over at me and he says, what do you think is going to be the next qualitative leap in Christianity? And the 12 year old me looks at him quite confidently and quickly and says, education, we're going to need to remedy biblical literacy. And he goes, interesting.

[00:17:09.27] - Jeff Sherrod

I love how he was also expecting a real answer there.

[00:17:11.72] - Gregg Garner

Yeah, yeah, I guess that is, that is part of the story. It's funny though when you tell these types of stories because only he could verify they happen, but it happened and because he just nodded his head and said, all right, that's good. I think that put into me, I now need to figure out how that happens. And so I, I started praying about it, what that would look like. And as a young guy just even going to church, I would go to, you know, like churches after oft offer foundational classes, like if you want to be a member and you can go to like 12 courses or whatever. I did those at my church like three or four times just so I can learn more. And every Bible study that was an option, I would go to it. I felt, I felt like, you know, like people go to church once a week for like Sabbath. I was like reverse Sabbath. I was like at church six days a week, my parents like you got to take one day off. But I just, I just love to be around God's word and to be around the church and, and the more I did it though, the more I realized, wow, do we actually know what we're talking about around here? I just kept finding people repeating things and I'd look it up and I'd ask questions and people that I cared about and I think that were very sincere just always didn't know the answer. And that's when I decided I'm going to go get a post secondary biblical education. And I felt very clear about God wanting me to do that, even though I didn't want to personally. I just wanted to make some things Happen. But I went to Bible college and it was boring. It was so boring. It was like. One of my first classes was a gospel class for Luke. And I would just fall asleep every single class. And I had this sweet little old lady professor. And the way she would try to get me re engaged is she'd be like, greg, please join the class. Greg, please join the class. And she would just repeat herself. One day I was like, let's see how long she can go. And I just let it. And she was incessant. I think she learned the persistence of the widow in Luke 18 because she annoyed me. And I went, I'm here, here. But it was rough. I had a couple teachers that I thought were, like, helpful and were really teaching how to study the Bible and look into it. But it was often an academic approach that was so highly conceptual, was like disconnected from the practice of our faith. And I even took a course on practical theology. And I found that very interesting. But a lot of my experience in college was to figure out what Christian education looked like in the formal setting, the post secondary setting, especially because when I started looking at scripture and I mean, I. I grew up. I love Stephen Curtis Chapman. Still love Stephen Curtis Chapman this day. If you go to school here, you'll probably see him around town every once in a while. But I remember the first time I saw my fanboy. The whole time I couldn't even talk. I just. I just kept hearing in my head, saddle up your horses. And I just really enjoyed seeing him. But he. He wrote this song called in this Little Room. And he talks about how the Bible is a. A love letter to children, to God's children. I remember that sentiment being circulated. But man, if you read the Bible, it's not for kids at all. Like, the Bible is a document for people who are mature enough to even contend with the commands and the challenges. And while I believe in teaching children, it's a scaffolding approach to get them to the place where they can actually ingest the scripture. And I know that even in starting the academy, I was the first Bible teacher over there. And when I. We were. We did start with Genesis, because every kid at the academy will tell you Genesis means beginnings, and they'll let you know it's the beginning of the world and the beginning of Israel. And I even got them a new living translation Bible, because this isn't a translation that's intended for audiences around fourth to sixth grade. So it's like pretty basic. I remember we got to Genesis chapter four, and I just had some of the students reading it. And a cute little student opens up the Bible, starts reading and says, and Adam had sexual intercourse with his wife Eve. And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on there? And I really long for the King James because the King James is like an Adam knew his wife Eve and they conceived and bore a son and called him Cain and she called him Cain. That is a much like, better version of scripture for kids. But it doesn't, it doesn't make sense. But at least we, I guess, religiously are communicating what kind of happened without any, you know, it's. In that moment I was like, okay, what is going to be the goal for teaching these kids the Bible? And the big goal for us at the academy along those lines is just getting kids familiar with storylines, characters, geographical locations without making it history boring. Like really helping them understand the stories on a glass level. But when I saw Jesus operating with his disciples, I even heard people say that Jesus had like 12 year old disciples, like little teenage disciples, that John was likely a very young disciple because he would even lean his head into Jesus's bosom at the Last Supper and things like that. But when you read the Gospels, these guys have jobs. Like Peter and his brother actually own a boat on the Sea of Tiberius or the Sea of Galilee. It's expensive to do that. You have to pay high taxes out there. The sons of Zebedee are, are obviously at work with his father. And even when they leave him, they leave him with the other employees. Like these guys are in adult functions. Levi is a tax collector. Yeah. Simon's a zealot, which means he's old enough to join this, this pressure group, you don't really have a bunch of young kids. And Jesus then even as a prerequisite to becoming a disciple, which is the process of getting educated, he says, if you're going to follow me, then you have to deny yourself and pick up your cross. Well, a kid's trying to learn who they are. How can you deny a self you don't know? And so I started to piece together. Wow. The kind of rigorous discipleship that Jesus was implementing is really something for at that stage of young adulthood when people are starting to come into their own autonomy where they can make decisions that are independent of the very healthy constructs that a kid grows up in. So I just had to think through all of that. And while I was in college, I was comparing, contrasting, and I was taking notes and going, when I do this, it's going to be different in this way and it's going to be different along these lines. And I talk with my friends about it. And so it, you know, it wasn't a few, just a few more years later started the school.

[00:23:36.10] - Jeff Sherrod

Yeah.

[00:23:36.50] - Gregg Garner

And wrote down all those principles and foundational pillars that would make up what it is that we now have as the institute.

[00:23:44.06] - Jeff Sherrod

Yeah. And I mean started with two undergraduate programs, Biblical studies. Called it Missiology at the time.

[00:23:50.78] - Gregg Garner

We haven't changed from.

[00:23:52.23] - Jeff Sherrod

Continue to have those two things. Yeah. So a lot of many of the same things, of course, getting better in so many ways. But the heart being very similar to what we started with.

[00:24:00.75] - Gregg Garner

Yeah. The, the idea was let's just teach the Bible. Let's stop having class about books that are about the Bible. Let's have class that's about the Bible. Because initially I was a theology major. And as a theology major you read books about the Bible. You don't necessarily read the Bible. So I changed over to a biblical studies major because you implement a hermeneutic and you start learning to interpret scripture. And that was a much more enjoyable experience. So when we created the curriculum, it's like, are we going to name the classes? Let's just name them after the books. That's why you hear them saying Exodus, Deuteronomy, Genesis. We just want students to read the Bible.

[00:24:36.16] - Jeff Sherrod

Right. Yeah. That's great. Okay, question. This is going to go back to the students here. Are students usually in class during the day? And maybe I can ask a follow up question. What does a normal day look like for a student?

[00:24:50.75] - Anthem Bloyer

Our day looks like we get up at 6, we have morning prayer with our houses. It's really, really special time. Our RA usually leads it. We have like other people who will come in and lead it for us. We do that for about 30 minutes and then we have classes at 7am.

[00:25:08.21] - Gregg Garner

And these other people are usually the various mentors of people in the house, right?

[00:25:13.25] - Anthem Bloyer

Yeah, yeah, we have mentors and we've even had a couple of teachers that will come in sometimes and lead them for us. Yeah. So we have class at 7am and usually gets out around 8:30. And then just like my schedule would be, I work, I have a couple different, different jobs that I work. So I would work for most of the day if we. There are some classes that are later.

[00:25:33.11] - Gregg Garner

I'm gonna have to correct your terminology.

[00:25:34.79] - Anthem Bloyer

Sorry. I do pro dev.

[00:25:38.40] - Gregg Garner

It's a pro dev experience.

[00:25:39.92] - Anthem Bloyer

Yes.

[00:25:40.64] - Gregg Garner

So I have to correct this because sometimes these guys get under the impression they're, they're working. But when you're unqualified to do the job and it's requiring the resources of everyone else to help you figure out what you're doing. Who's going to pay for that? That's not like a, it's not like a job. So we try to call them pro dev experiences. And I imagine that's what you're talking about.

[00:26:01.35] - Anthem Bloyer

Yes. Yeah, I'm sorry.

[00:26:02.48] - Gregg Garner

So she enters into her experience and she doesn't have three jobs. She has a variety of three different pro dev experiences because that's intentionally designed for, for her to touch different interests. That way she can kind of figure out I think I want to do this. And then it narrows as you get further into the program. So by the time you're a senior, if you're like, I have four pro devs, we're going to be like, dude, you got to focus.

[00:26:26.77] - Anthem Bloyer

Yeah, yeah, Pro devs, they're really great experiences and it's a great environment because we're also being, we're being, we're being challenged so much and trained intentionally by the people that our bosses I guess is the term for those. But they're just like, they're very intentional in like sharing the word of God and challenging us in that as well. So that's a really great experience. There are some classes that are later at night, I know college conversations or sorry, college composition was later in the afternoon. But that just depends on the class you're in. That's what my day looks like.

[00:27:03.51] - Julian Carrion

Yeah, Julian, exactly the same thing.

[00:27:06.03] - Jeff Sherrod

Yeah. So I think that if I to just add onto that sometimes I think people, you know, a traditional model, you're going to class maybe starting at 9 o' clock and going till 1 or something like that. And then if you have a part time job, you're going to that afterwards. What we try to say is prodev is part of the educational experience of the institute. It's not this separate thing outside of there. And it's tied to occupational focus classes that they'll take. It's tied to considerations that they'll make. Even in papers that they're writing at the institute. We'll have sections of papers that they'll say, hey, how does this relate to your occupational focus? And those things are practiced in your professional development program or program development. So it's not that when people are again like, hey, they're not in class at this time. We've tried to move classes to early mornings and late afternoons and into the evening so that we can open up availability for people to have real world experiences. For the kinds of professional development that they can have. Because if, like some of these people, some of you guys want to do like, let's say construction, and if you are in class until 2:00, you're like, all right, I'm ready to learn how to do this. You know, those businesses are starting to close down at that time. So it's often just a matter of timing to make sure, or even the academy, right? Like you guys want, some of you guys want to be like Julian, you want to be involved in K12 education. So having availability where you can do your pro dev experience during that time is crucial. You have to have it.

[00:28:33.07] - Gregg Garner

And this is part of the design of our curriculum. And I think that's really important to know. So take for example, if you were to go to a traditional college and you took 12 units, your 12 units would be spread maybe over four three unit classes throughout the week. Those four three unit classes would probably be two times a week at an hour and a half each to get the necessary contact hours. Usually the ratio is one contact hour per one unit. So if you have 12 units, you're going to be in class for 12 hours. Then also usually at a college like that, your homework ratio will probably be anywhere between 1.5 to 3. So let's pretend it's two in between. That means now you've got 24 hours of homework. So you've got 12 hours in the classroom, 24 hours of homework. That's 36 hours that you now have towards school. And that's if you're like taking a lighter load and you're of course getting your homework done efficiently. So what we did is he said, okay, instead of just having two major semesters, we're going to have seven different terms over the course of the year. And we're going to allow students to spread out those 24 units on the year at minimum between those seven courses. So you can see there that if you just do the math, you're going to take between three and four and a half units per term. All right? So now if that's the case and you look at the homework load, let's say you are taking three units in a term. That three units now plus the times two for six hours of homework equals nine hours. So in a traditional setup during that term, you would have been doing schoolwork for 30, 45, 36 hours a week. In our setup, you're doing your schoolwork from that class about nine hours a week. So then that opens up what we recommend for prodev is that at at for most people, they do 25 hours. So now you add the nine hours onto the 25 hours and it equals the same amount of hours that you would have done as part of your traditional school experience. Everybody following this. So then when you consider that it's integrated in our curriculum because we do believe that as disciples of Jesus and with the goal of becoming a laborer for his kingdom, we have to develop some kind of competency that allows us to serve God in the world around us. And Bible colleges, one of the reasons why they're, in my opinion, dying and falling apart is that after a person gets a Bible degree, there's very limited jobs that they can have. They can go on to get a higher level degree so they can maybe teach in Christian education. There might be a pulpit that opens up for them to be able to preach at. But the ratio of job availability for church work or academic work in the Christian realm compared to how many students go to Bible school is way off. It gets oversaturated. In that case, you have young people who then go and get their Bible degree and then can't get a job and then they end up doing something else. And so parents who recognize that they don't want their kid in their basement when they're 27 years old, they may be like awesome at theology but have no job and unable to advance in life. We've said that's not going to happen. What's going to happen with our students is they're going to develop while they're learning God's word, which is going to give them the filter and the frame by which they now see the skills development that they're acquiring. They're going to be able to. To finish, because you used the term earlier, but it's a term unique to us. Occupational focus. Occupational focus is similar to another college's concentration or minor, but it really is a specific opportunity for a student to get. You'll have five associative classes to get that occupational focus, two to three of which those classes are very specific to the. The focus that you have. That's connected to 12 overarching categories related to community development, which are pretty broad, but nonetheless they're essential for any community being healthy, whether it's here in the United States or it's abroad. And so once a student picks a focus, let's say it is human resources, by the time they graduate, they're going to have like a certification from the Society for Human Resource Management, or if they did choose construction and they focused on plumbing, they'll have their, their license to practice plumbing or mechanical or whatever is associated with that. So they graduate with a skill set and a biblical education that's connected to community development so that now we can make the promise that we do, which our students both graduate debt free. And then they also have a job offer immediately after graduation, which is very unique for Bible colleges because you can't really guarantee that with most Bible colleges when at the end you have a degree and biblical studies. And again, it's oversaturated the amount of people ready to go into these ministerial positions and the positional availability. So we've seen that our people now are able to get involved. And it really does expand your concept of ministry. Much like the sermon I preached this morning that salt is a very helpful ingredient into all kinds of recipes. And this whole earth has all kinds of recipes that are being cooked up. And it's important to get God's people who know his word, who've been discipled by him, who sat at his feet, who are blessed in that way to be able to now enter into those various categories of service that exist and demonstrate through the light that they illuminate. So whether it's as an educator or like you brought up construction, now you've got, you've got biblically literate people operating in those capacities, which you might think, well, that's what all the other schools do. I think it's important for you to know that most liberal arts colleges where you do have a major in something like that, you take on average 12 units of Bible classes. So that that gets you enough for them to graduate. One of the higher ones would be like Biola, which is the Biblical Institute of Los Angeles. They don't call themselves that anymore because they became a liberal arts school. So it's just Biola. Theirs is the highest, it's at 30 units. So if you were to graduate with one of their degrees, you get 30 units of Bible, where at our school, you're getting close to 100 units of Bible to. And then 12 units connected to the actual skills development. And what we've seen, and we have experience with this, is that people who graduate from the institute, they are constantly praised for how great they are at work in the various industries. And it is. People could say whatever they want. If they get an opportunity to hire an institute graduate, they're almost begging, like they know that having a person who learned God's word, that person is going to be a total game changer for your organization. And whatever it Is that you're doing whatever they're implementing.

[00:35:28.59] - Jeff Sherrod

Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, I think we have time for one more question. I think this is a good question to end on. How do I know that I'm called to a specific college? So maybe I'm okay with starting with you guys. Maybe you guys can even just talk about. If you don't answer the question directly, if you don't know, you can just say, what was your criteria for choosing? You guys obviously came here, so what was your criteria for choosing?

[00:35:52.36] - Julian Carrion

Yeah, I can talk about my experience. My criteria before coming and kind of looking on this college was I want to find somewhere I can learn Scripture. And with people. That's really my two criteria is really. Because I would see ministers, I would. That were my mentors growing up, and they were kind of alone in the process. They were really faithful to the Lord, but, like, they only even. They only either had their spouse or they were alone in the process, which I was like, I don't want to go through that. I want to go through it with people with friends. And also, I noticed that back home, they made me the youth pastor at the age of 16 at my Spanish church, which was a wild experience. And I learned that I know nothing about scripture because they would ask me questions. I'm like. Like, I can't answer that. I'm sorry. This is all the time. It wasn't like I had an answer. I never had an answer. So I had those two considerations. And coming here, like, hearing, like, the credits they offer, how many Bible we get, and our whole undergrad was like, wow, that's a lot. I love that. And then seeing everyone being friends and being close and everyone knows your name and can look in your eyes and ask how your day is, and you're in a safe, safe place to tell people about your day and about your experiences and how the Lord's moving your life. That. That drew me here, and I was like, I want to study here. And I have best friends who study with me. We talk about the Bible late at night. Just last night, I was listening to a lecture, and it brought me to my knees to pray and ask for repentance. And I talked with my friend about it, and as he was there, so it was like, those are. Those bond experiences. Mold us for life, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. And it was definitely the best decision in my life. So that was my criteria.

[00:37:33.00] - Jeff Sherrod

Thanks, Julian.

[00:37:33.51] - Julian Carrion

So that's great.

[00:37:34.28] - Gregg Garner

You're just. You're just in Philly thinking about all this stuff.

[00:37:37.19] - Julian Carrion

Yeah, I was in my middle room that's so humid in Philly town, home, thinking about how can I study the Bible. And I found this place. Praise God. Well, they found me.

[00:37:47.34] - Gregg Garner

That's awesome. That's great.

[00:37:49.57] - Anthem Bloyer

Mine is definitely the same in. In a lot of ways. I was really craving a spiritual community, like a biblic, biblically literate community, and just, like, people that would support me and draw me closer to the Lord. The community that I was in back home was. Was very shallow, I felt a lot of the time. And so I really wanted to learn the Word of God. And like, he was saying, like, actually read the Word of God and not just take classes, like, about it. Just, like, actually be able to dig in and learn it. And, yeah, it was definitely a miracle that I was able to come here. It was the day that I spent, like, half an hour with my pastor just praying, asking the Lord to move in a big way, because I was getting to the end of my senior year, and I didn't know where I was going next. And that day I got a call from the institute, and it was just like. It was just miracle after miracle that the Lord provided. And then coming here and just, like, seeing the community and seeing how everyone cares for each other, and just like, every answer to anything, any questions you have, the word of God is always a part of the answer. And that was something that I had been praying for on my knees for, like, so many years. And so it was just really powerful and peaceful, like, so much peace when I came in here. And I was just like, this is where I'm supposed to be.

[00:38:59.88] - Jeff Sherrod

Yeah, that's awesome. Greg, anything you want to add to that? How do I know I'm called to a specific college?

[00:39:03.55] - Gregg Garner

Yeah, I don't know if you'll know. I don't know if you'll know. So much of how our life plays out in Christ is by faith, right? We walk by faith, not by sight. But I think most people here would know Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, that if you do really trust in the Lord with all your heart, you recognize that your understanding can be a crutch. And so you don't want to lean on that understanding, but instead you want to really just acknowledge God, and God will give you direction for your path. And I think sometimes we want to weigh out whether or not the path is worth traveling based upon whether or not we can see what's at the end of it. But the text doesn't give us that. The scripture tells us that it's God himself that we should be acknowledging. And then God gives us this path to walk. We don't know where it's going to go, but it's okay because he's on it with us. And the great thing about coming into that relationship with the Lord is that His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. So as we keep learning the Word, even how we understand the journey on the path becomes more illuminating and things start to make sense. So I'm not sure you could know, know, know, know the way a person would like to know. But I think you can know by faith and you can trust God. And I would just encourage anybody who's thinking about it to just talk to God and trust God and always have.

[00:40:21.98] - Jeff Sherrod

A good first step.

[00:40:22.59] - Gregg Garner

And if you're having a hard time discerning that, talk to like Anthem did. She prayed with her pastor for half hour. Pray with your pastor for half hour. Like, talk to people who know God and just connect with God. What I would caution you against is people who don't want to talk about God trying to give you some direction. That's like the opposite of the Proverbs 3, 5, 6, where all of a sudden they're trying to appeal to your understanding. When you know, we're, we're works in progress. We don't. The Paul the apostle will say, when I was a child, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child. But when I became an adult, I put away those childish things. And but then he also concedes and says, but we still see through a glass dimly and we know in part, and we tell the truth in part, that there's, there's, there's even Philippians 3:12, he at the towards the end of his life, he has to say things like, it's not that I've already attained that. I'm continuing to press and I'm going after that mark. I'm going after the high calling, that prize that's in Christ. So I think if you have a sense of calling, you got to go after it. And I think that God will bless it and it'll help.

[00:41:26.80] - Jeff Sherrod

Absolutely. Well, I appreciate guys thanks to the studio audience for you guys submitting questions. That was fun. I really appreciate that. Thanks for everyone listening at home. I'll see you guys next time. Thanks for joining us today on College Conversations. Please, like, subscribe share this episode with others. If you guys have a comment, we would love to hear from you. If you want to learn more about our work, you can visit us at theinstituteforgod Edu. Until then. We'll see you guys next time.