Roles and Goals

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Mr. Rod McNair presented to us with an informative forum on the importance of schedules and goals.  After our first week of classes has come and gone, we were able to take this information in and absorb it more appreciatively thanks to our currently full schedules.  

What are your goals?

To start the discussion, Mr. McNair made it a point to interact with us by asking, and honestly wanting, the feedback we had to offer to questions he posed.  He cultivated a closer connection with us by caring for and feeding the goals that we hold for ourselves to achieve throughout the program.  He shared some of his own goals and reminded us that they should not be the same as the world’s.  A key example of this is being a homemaker.  With the feminist movement in the world today, being a homemaker, rearing children, and caring for the home is frowned upon, yet Scripture encourages the opposite.  (Titus 2:4-5)  “They admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.”

Make goals a reality

Everyone has goals, yet what sets the successful apart from those that never achieve their goals is scheduling.  Mr. McNair shared with us a schedule that he planned out for his life when he was a student at Ambassador College.  Seeing this was enlightening for us because we could see the way it worked out after being written in ink.  We are all thankful for the reminder he gave us, “Even if things seem overwhelming, you must make time for God!”  God should be first and foremost in our goals and lives.

Focus on the short-term

While we are excited about what the future can hold for us, Mr. McNair made the point that we must put action into the short-term, day-to-day workings, to achieve our further-off desires.  He provided us with one basic key to staying on track in the short term.  He said that if we only take one thing away from what he shared it was, “Take the time to write out a schedule with goals for the upcoming week.”  It may take a little time to become accustomed to this practice, but having the dedication will result in a more organized and productive week in which we can grow.  

It’s about growth!

Mr. McNair said, “It is not about perfection, it’s about growth!”  He made the point that we can write out our goals and create a schedule to achieve them, yet some situations may arise that affect our outcome. This is okay. To assist in making this point, Mr. McNair finished by playing a video on the Ernest Shackleton expedition from 1914. The goal of this expedition was to be the first to cross the continent of Antarctica, yet due to unforeseen circumstances, they narrowly made it back to civilization after two years of being shipwrecked. He said that looking at this story through the lens of goals, it was a massive failure because they didn’t attain their goal, and nearly died;  However, this is an incredible story of leadership as Shackleton brought all his men back safely. While we work to achieve the end goal, unseen events can drift us off course to a different outcome.  With our working to achieve goals, and God at the helm, nothing can drift us away from God’s plan for us.

We are excited to make our own goals and schedules to share with future generations.  As Mr. McNair said, “It’s not rocket science…”  

Living Education:  Foundation Elements from LCG and WCG

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Mr. Strain began his forum to the LivingEd students by introducing himself and his role in the church as a pastor of the Charlotte, NC congregation. He went on to share with us what we can expect from Living Education and being close to the work at headquarters. These values that guide the program and Church culture were passed down from Mr. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God.

Understanding Church History

Living Education and the cultures and values the Church espouses can be traced back to Mr. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God. Mr. Strain himself attended Ambassador College, part of the Worldwide Church of God. Several of the men involved in the work at Headquarters attended Ambassador College. This has also influenced how Living Education has been designed and how the Church acts. To understand more about the history of the church and its teachings, the speaker encouraged us to read: Mr. Armstrong’s Autobiography (Vol. 1), Mystery of the Ages, and to study the LCG Statement of Fundamental Beliefs. He went on to give several examples of the values that Mr. Armstrong helped introduce within the Worldwide Church of God that we still hold onto today.

Work

Mr. Strain described how students were expected to work at Ambassador College and to maintain the cleanliness of the dorms and facilities. Similarly, at Living Education, students have the opportunity to work at headquarters and these same standards of living are to be valued and upheld.

Attire

Proper dressing standards have also been passed on. Mr Strain described how women should dress modestly and pay attention to what they wear for Sabbath services. Men also should take care of their appearances and make sure to not dress casually when appearing before God on the Sabbath. The speaker commented that the LE students should strive to apply these same standards of dress to what is worn throughout the rest of the week.

Music

Special music for Sabbath services should not cave into the ‘nice sounding’ songs with a contemporary feel which are popular nowadays. Much popular ‘Christian’ music is shallow, emphasizing only grace, not the keeping of the law and the gift of grace. The Church should strive to hold itself to a higher standard of music that is played at services. Mr. Strain commented that performing special music for Sabbath services is not a display of skill, but a service to the congregation and to praise God.

Manners

Mr. Strain also emphasized how good manners never go out of style and should be valued by the students. Those who are older or in a higher office should be addressed properly, not by their first name, but by using ‘Mr’, ‘Mrs’, or ‘Miss. He mentioned Leviticus 19:32 where God says to “rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man.”

Final Thoughts

As the students began their nine-month journey, Mr. Strain provided valuable insight into the perspective that the Living Church of God holds and that is mirrored at Living Education. Mr. Strain shared the history of how the culture and standards upheld now are a result of God working with Mr. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God. 

Katelyn Wissinger

An effective SPS – what you’re missing!

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Be as effective as you can!

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Mr. Mike DeSimone provided us, newly arrived Living Education students, with an insightful lesson on how to become even more effective in our work, academics, and personal lives. He provided an interactive game that made his points stand out even more. This was a much-appreciated discussion, and it inspired us as we begin to kick off these exciting nine months here!

The Myth of Multitasking… 

Mr. DeSimone started by sharing a story of how shift-tasking can be falsely confused with multitasking.  Unlike how we think of multitasking being a good and productive way to manage our time, shift tasking, also known as switch tasking, takes the focus off the project at hand and distorts it elsewhere.  Instead of being able to do the work quicker, shift tasking takes longer to complete because of the time to “switch” back and forth between tasks.  It is better to do one task efficiently, then move on to a second, instead of a poor attempt at doing two things at once.  

The 5 S’s 

A large key to Mr. Desimone’s discussion was focused on the 5 S’s.  

  1. Sort:  Keep only what is necessary and discard everything else.
  2. Set in Order: Arrange and label only necessary items for easy use and return.
  3. Shine:  Keep everything swept clean, and tidy.
  4. Standardize:  The state that exists when the first three pillars of the 5 S’s are properly kept.
  5. Sustain:  Make a habit of properly maintaining correct procedures.

The 5 S’s, we have learned, are beneficial in ensuring that the precious resource of time is well cared for.  Mr. DeSimone provided a handout to assist our grasping of how the 5 S’s can play a drastic role in the effectiveness, efficiency, and accuracy in our lives.

Further Than Just the Physical

When posed with the question of whether the 5 S’s could be taken past the obvious physical principles they hold, Mr. DeSimone responded with, “These can be taken and used to assist the personal relationships we hold with others.”  If how we interact with others is not sorted, then we may be spending time as a group when it should be one-on-one.  Setting the time spent with others in order can aid in a stronger relationship with other people. Mr. DeSimone’s lessons were taken to heart by all of us as we strive to be the most efficient and effective students/workers we can!