What Students Think!

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Theology is best learned in the context of Christian fellowship. Accordingly, our courses (with the exception of postgraduate courses and the Diploma of Bible and Ministry which is offered half time over two years) are full-time and residential. The students are part of a living community which is both a Christian family and an academic fellowship. In keeping with the subject matter of the course, much attention is paid to the spiritual context of education and regular chapel services are central to the College's life.

The fact of residence means that learning is a process which takes place in and out of the classroom as faculty and students relate to each other. Discussion, encounter and imitation are as integral to this process as more formal instruction. Every student belongs to a pastoral group and in these the concern is for such growth in Christian character as will fittingly equip a person for the proper exercise of ministry.

Testimonials

Dani Treweek – 4th Year

Well, I have just three months left….

Just three months before I hand in my last essay, and before I put the pen down on my last exam. Between you and me, I don’t think I am really going to miss the deadlines of exams and essays that much!  However, it really has been a great privilege to devote so much of my time over the last four years to thinking hard (and hard is the operative word in this sentence), about who God is, and what he has so graciously done for us through his Son.

Just three months to sit under the teaching of Moore College’s fantastic faculty.  My classmates and I have been truly blessed to learn from such wise and godly men and women.  (And no, I’m not just saying that because I have a few assessments due for marking! Though, now that I mention it…) A highlight for me has also been coming to know many of the faculty on a personal level. It’s been great hearing about their own Christian lives from both the lectern and the pulpit, as well as over the lunch table.

Just three months to spend each day with my classmates.  Sure, it might have taken me well over a year to learn the names of everyone in my class! But I can honestly say that next year I will miss them all terribly – and not just them but the whole student body. Mixed year chaplaincy groups and our college missions together (this year to South Africa for me!) have provided countless opportunities to consider both the joys and challenges of ministry with other like-minded people.

With just three months left, I can’t help but think that the last four years of my life has been a bit like riding a roller coaster – one with lots of loops and twists. There have been ups. There have been downs.  Time has flown by. Time has crawled by. It’s been exhilarating. It’s been terrifying. I’m ready for it to end. I want it to keep on going.

And just as when you step off the roller coaster when it is all over, I’m sure its going to take me a while to reorient myself, stop my head from spinning and steady my feet. But regardless of what God has planned next for me, I’m just so very grateful to him that I’ve had the opportunity to go along for the ride.

Anita Lovell – 4th Year

Four years has almost come to an end! I’m so grateful to God for my time at Moore College. Here are some things I hope I’ll never forget:

Joshua Kuswadi – 4th Year – Senior Student

Why Jesus? What difference has he made in my life?
I've always been a Christian, so it's not so much about a before and after difference. I'm amazed that Jesus chose to give up heaven for earth and his life for mine. This inspires me to sacrifice my life that others may also know about his sacrifice.
How does serving Jesus affect the way I live in the family day by day?
We trust he's got the big picture in mind. So, while we worry about our big decisions, like a ministry for 2009, we're confident he can use us.
As senior student of Moore, what were my hopes and dreams for the College?
I hope College continues to faithfully teach the Bible and the skills required to understand it and communicate it to others. I hope it continues not to compromise these things for the sake of size, academia or accreditation. I dream it will have a greater influence on other Bible colleges around the world.
How did our mission work in Cairo affect us?
We’re aware of a worldwide need for evangelical Bible teachers. We're generally open-minded to many secondary issues. We have an ongoing concern for how Christians in Sydney can serve the rest of the world.

Natasha Small - 3rd Year

Moore College, what can I say? Hard work but interesting! Challenging but worth it! Overwhelming but good! All consuming but fun! I love college; seriously I think I should be used as a promoter of Moore College because I have a lot of positive things to say. In the beginning, in first year, I nearly quit. I had to come back from Easter holidays and tell my chaplain if I was staying or going. I decided to stay, and it has been worth it, because God has changed me as a person and I have learnt so much about Him and about myself. I think New Testament is my favourite subject, I mean I find the Greek hard, but most of the time when I come out of New Testament class I am excited about what I have learnt.  As a single girl living at college, I thank God for my sisters whom I live with and have grown with. Communal living is not all rosy, but there are positives. The support, care and friendship in the struggles of life and college amongst my friends I live with make college and community living rosy.

Trent Sutcliffe – 3rd Year

The thrills of college are also its tensions. From the beauty of communal living with its chances to deepen friendships comes the trade-off of diminished privacy, especially when privacy is the very thing longed for. Community life at the Croydon gives college wives and children a sense of participation in college life, which for our family has been immensely beneficial for my wife, fostering those deeper and long lasting relationships.

Lectures and coursework are incredibly rewarding, but there is a tension in relating to God’s word in merely an academic way. My personal favourite is New Testament 3 and finally beginning to see a glimmer of exegetical fruit without having been told beforehand what fruit I was looking for.  College work can be difficult on families due to the pressure students place on themselves, with almost endless amounts of reading we could subject ourselves to. College has allowed me great freedom to be with my family at times not afforded to 9-5 workers, but forced me to prioritise my time to best love God’s people, my family, my studies and friends. 

David & Kylie Huynh – 3rd Year

Our time at college has been a great blessing.  We started first year being reminded that the fundamental goal of our time at college is to know God better.  Now in our third year, we have certainly grown in our knowledge of God through all the essays and exams we’ve completed.  But our deeper knowledge of God has not just been the result of the college’s academic curriculum.  Studying together, being part of a chaplaincy group, personal conversations with lecturers and discussions over lunch with other students have all contributed to the way we now think and live.  There is no doubt that our time at college will be some of the most formative years of our Christian lives.  Other joys of College are the relationships that form and living in community.  David has really enjoyed being part of a study group, and playing tennis and table tennis regularly with classmates.  Kylie has enjoyed walks and going for coffee with other students.  We are so thankful to God that some of our closest friends are now those we have made at college. 

Kenneth Lo – 2nd Year

Six months into our marriage, Vivian & I left Singapore for Sydney. Four years on, we are still here and still love the blue sky here more than the grey one back home! Living in a country with a different culture has helped us better understand our true identity in Christ. The intense changes have brought many challenges but along with the difficulties God brings joy. We have been blessed with many good friends at church and College. Aussie mates introduced the ‘barbie’ to Ken and taught Vivian to 'chuck-a-Uey'. Vivian enjoys Old Testament 1 while Kenneth finds second year dumbfounding. Over the years, God has led us to hear the cries and feel the hunger of the Malaysian church for the Word. He has grown us in love for the people there. We now long to see churches there growing in maturity in Christ and glorifying God. So if our Lord hasn't return by 2011, we plan to continue proclaiming the good news of our Lord in Malaysia.

Julie Collins – 2nd Year

Having been a high school teacher for five years, adjusting to being a student again has been a great challenge and a blessing. Sometimes I feel like someone is inside my brain and is pushing outwards as hard as they can! One of the things that I enjoy the most about lectures is the way that clear and biblical answers are given to the many questions that critical scholarship has thrown up over the years about the validity of biblical Christianity, and the fact that as I go about my life and ministry I find that the truth of these answers everywhere resonates with my experience. For me perhaps the greatest blessing of college has been relationships. Living in the college world, particularly in the MAC/Chappo community has provided me with rich and challenging friendships where I can talk and share with like-minded people about the things I am learning, and where I am constantly encouraged in godliness by the remarkable lives that I see those around me living. Relationships with others in my year have also brought me great joy and I have felt very loved as friends have allowed me to share in the joy of their children and families. I’d being lying if I didn’t say that college was hard sometimes… after all, a gym workout is painful for your muscles and college is nothing if not a thorough workout for your brain! There is a lot to do and always another assignment waiting or vocabulary to learn, I don’t think I’ve watched TV since I started! Living in community can be tough too, there’s definitely a fish bowl element involved in living so closely together, and it means you share other people’s heartbreak as well as their joy, just as they share yours. In the end, in spite of, or perhaps because of these challenges College has been a wonderful experience for me and I am so thankful to God for this amazing place and the privilege it is to be here and to learn more about Him.

Garry Dibley - 2nd Year

College has pushed me theologically. The result is I have an increased confidence in the timeless truth in God's Word. It continues to be an enormous privilege to study with some great friends.
These friendships developed over coffee, table tennis, study groups and our year houseparty. Though there are people here who are only a couple of years older than my eldest child, I’ve never felt there was much of an age gap, until I’m the only one who laughs at the lecturer’s 'jokes' about something that happened in the 70's.
There have been some golden moments in lectures, involving such things as Biblical Theology, a small understanding of Greek, a Barry Webb classic quote or Doctrine 1. We often discuss between ourselves the quantum leap many of us have made since February last year!
It has definitely been a challenge for my family. While I’m learning from God’s Word every day, my wife Gail has gone back to work after being a stay at home mum for 20 years. We no longer go to the same church as our three kids so that has its difficulties as well.
But I am confident in what the Scriptures says, What God starts, he will finish (my paraphrase).

Tessa Rossington – 1st Year

Starting College is like starting school. A new alphabet to learn, a feeling of being lost and not knowing where to go for class and hundreds of conversations that begin with ‘Hi I’m Tessa, what’s your name?’ I must admit, I felt as overwhelmed as I did when I started kindergarten.
It takes time to adjust to being in a community where it is normal to discuss theology at lunch, to attend church services four or five times a week, to see people praying in groups everywhere you turn, to have lecturers who pray for you and genuinely care and the phenomenon of praying before a touch football game. On paper this sounds blissful, and there is certainly great encouragement to be found in these things. But it is also hard.
It is hard to remember that Christianity is a relationship with the God I love. A relationship I want to be in, not one I stay in simply because I’m enrolled in Bible College. It’s hard to remember that the facts we discuss in lectures and cram before exams are amazing facts about this God. It’s hard to read your Bible because you want to, not just because you have to. It’s hard to remember that outside college there is a world that thinks the things we discuss are offensive or foolish untruths.
I asked a friend for wisdom. He said pray and trust in God. So I pray and ask that God would edify, encourage and equip all at college, that we would love him, love his people and love the lost. Please add your Amen to my prayer.

Anton Marquez – 1st Year

College for me has been like a fun run – lots of hard work but many around going along with you and free drinks along the way. The beginning of first year was relationally intense with over a hundred new people to meet in my year. However, God has blessed me with a supportive bunch of friends. We’ve been able to share our struggles and joys as well as study techniques. Touch footy has been helpful in getting to know people across all years and it acts as a counterbalance to the delicious lunches we get served. It’s also been great to build friendships through my first year group and study groups. The lectures have been a positive experience for me. I have really enjoyed wrestling with great Christian truths in John Woodhouse’s Doctrine lectures, and David Höhne’s Philosophy course has entered the 21st Century with set readings on the internet and even podcast material! College has not been without moments of anxiety this year from assignments to relationships, church commitments and the ever-overhanging cloud of language learning. As we share in these moments together I’m challenged to keep bringing all these stresses to God.  I’m looking forward to deepening my knowledge of God, deepening friendships and summer holidays as College continues.

Moore and God’s Strategy

Archbishop Peter Jensen

The grand strategy of God is to win people to allegiance to his Son the Lord Jesus through the preaching of his word and the power of his Spirit. Our College is a classic case of the sort of fellowship which the Lord has raised up in order to further this great work. By supporting it you are helping advance the cause of Christ in this world.

At this moment in history we are well poised to spread the knowledge of Christ though the new means of communication which have developed.  But even so, the fundamental means remains people who share the news about Jesus with their friends. Attracting and equipping those who are gifted for this task is the job we have set ourselves. We need the help of those who have been trained in the word of God and can address the world in which we live with the gospel.
The graduates of the College have a key role to play amongst the Global South churches as so many turn to Christ and need to be nurtured and built up in the faith. I judge that we underestimate the impact we are already having and the impact that we can have. Naturally I support other Christian causes, but if I was forced to choose only one cause to support, it would unhesitatingly be the College because of its alignment to the Lord’s big strategy.

Preparing people for ministry involves fellowship. That is why Moore remains residential and why we try to create the opportunity for community.  The buildings we do this in need a very significant up-grade. Here is an opportunity for us all to help build for the long-term future. Will you join us in the task of building so that we can continue the great wok the College is doing and make sure that it continues into the next generations?

Wendy Colquhoun  - Acting Dean of Women

The integration of the training of women into Moore Theological College in 2008 is a significant development in the theological education of women in the Diocese of Sydney. In a fresh and exciting way the Biblical understanding of the complementary partnership between men and women is being explored. Men and women together are being equipped to serve God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

To facilitate this, several changes have been implemented at a structural level. All meals are now served in the College Dining Room and include men and women. Chaplaincy groups include both men and women and are pastored by a male Faculty member with a female visiting chaplain. This year there have been five visiting chaplains and next year the aim is to have a full complement for each of the sixteen or so chaplaincy groups. Men and women meet together for chapel twice a week and separately in split chapel once a week. Women’s chapel continues to provide an opportunity for women to gain experience in teaching the Bible and may now be supervised  by men and women Faculty. Residential accommodation for women is still provided at 28 Carillon Avenue with a greater degree of individual responsibility expected.

A new initiative this year is the inclusion of women as members of Faculty appointed by and accountable to the Principal of Moore College. Women members of Faculty may be married or single and are entitled to the full range of benefits for Faculty. There has been one appointment this year, with the prospect of further appointments in the future.

The specialized vocational training and pastoral care of women training for ministry is the responsibility of the Dean of Women. This new position has been created with the support of  the Anglican Deaconess Institution of Sydney. Tara Thornley will take up her appointment to this position in 2009. This year it has been my great honor and privilege to act in this position and to be appointed to the Faculty.

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