My Journey with Redemption Seminary
I am pursuing a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies at Redemption Seminary to deepen my understanding of God’s Word, strengthen my theological foundation, and equip myself to engage today’s culture with a clear, biblical worldview. As the founder of Shoe Leather Gospel, my calling is to teach the gospel faithfully, clearly, and relationally—placing the cookies on the bottom shelf for everyday believers. This program supports that mission by helping me refine my hermeneutical skills, grow in spiritual maturity, and apply biblical truth to cultural challenges.
Redemption’s flexible, mentor-driven model allows me to integrate my studies with ongoing ministry, public service work, and worldview training from the Colson Fellows Program. The program also complements my graduate studies at Texas A&M’s Bush School, where I’m learning to lead nonprofits with integrity and vision. Ultimately, this degree is not a credential for its own sake, but a tool to be used in faithful service to Christ and His Church—anchored in Scripture, fueled by prayer, and aimed at cultural clarity rooted in the gospel.
Course Work
SF511 Spiritual Formation – December 2024
Course Description
Leading and counseling others cannot be disconnected from the way we lead and counsel ourselves. Our inner life affects our social life. This involves spiritual growth. Such growth is an ongoing process. This course can be used to help students along wherever they are at in their journey.
This course is structured around the primary themes in the Great Commandment.
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
Mark 12:30-31
This course is designed to help students learn how to gain helpful and accurate self-understanding and awareness. Then students work on their attitudes and habits in areas characterized by the “fruits of the Spirit.” This growth of students’ inner lives is intended to make them better leaders, protect their ministry from potential personal failures, and help them understand how to encourage others to grow in their spiritual life. This course walks through a process of spiritual formation that is rooted in both the community and the Holy Spirit. It offers a thorough explanation of contemporary leadership emergence theory, surveys spiritual gifts, and provides a holistic approach to personal and spiritual formation. The purpose of this course is to raise students’ self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses as they grow in their spiritual development. Gaining these skills helps students know how to apply what they learn in other courses to their own spiritual growth.
Learning Objectives—After completing this course, the student will be able to:
- Communicate an awareness of and ability to discern their gifting including current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and temptations
- Communicate an awareness of and ability to discern their gifting including current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and temptations
- Exhibit an understanding of the value of emotional intelligence and empathetic skills by examining how they show grace to others and themselves
OT551 Old Testament Theology – February 2025
Course Description
This course provides the student with an understanding of the Old Testament as a whole from a biblical studies standpoint. It surveys the themes and purpose of the Old Testament. Students will get a clearer understanding of how the different books of the Old Testament fit together to tell the grand story of God’s plan of salvation. The course covers the creation, the fall, God’s covenants with His people, and God’s great acts of redemption and deliverance in the Old Testament. The student will become proficient with connecting the meaning of the Old Testament with the New Testament and understanding how it is relevant in their ministry.
Learning Objectives—After completing this course, the student will be able to:
- Use narrative criticism to interpret Old Testament narratives theologically
- Recognize typology in biblical texts
- Describe and reflect on God’s Old Testament covenants
- Describe the responsibilities of Israel’s holy personnel, such as prophets, priests, and kings
- Explain the Old Testament doctrine of the land and how this doctrine changed in the New Testament
- Understand the theology of the Psalms
- Understand the Old Testament significance of the concept of Messiah
- Draw closer to God by reflecting on His attributes, plans, and actions revealed by the Old Testament
NT551 New Testament Theology – April 2025
Course Description
This course presents a unified perspective of the NT message, which emerges out of the NT’s various perspectives and genres. It begins by defining the discipline of biblical theology and describing its different approaches, and then it considers the message of the NT in terms of the “new realm”: entrance into it, the nature of life in it, its center, its people, and its consummation. This course uses such key concepts to explain the overall message God has for the church and the student’s ministry.
Learning Objectives—After completing this course, the student will be able to:
- Define “biblical theology” and locate it within related disciplines
- Compare and contrast the old and new realms of salvation history
- Summarize the debate on the nature of justification in NT theology
- Discuss the NT perspective on the church and its practices
BI621 Biblical Interpretation – Current Class
Course Description
This course introduces students to the science and art of Bible interpretation for the benefit of the church. The Bible is a book written for us but not to us, so accurate interpretation needs to be informed by the ancient worldview of the biblical writers, their historical circumstances, cultural and religious beliefs of their day, literary genre, and the original languages of the Bible. Students will consider various interpretive approaches and become familiar with tools and resources for studying the Bible.
Learning Objectives—After completing this course, the student will be able to:
- Explain the theological interpretation of Scripture in the church using the metaphor of drama
- Examine the link between learning the Word, growing in the faith, and walking the way of Jesus
- Understand a variety of difficulties inherent to biblical interpretation
- Grasp the crucial role of context for biblical interpretation
- Be aware of academic resources for recovering the contexts of the biblical writers
- Be able to assess and apply biblical interpretation principles to specific texts of Scripture