Home
In the Air or Online, He's Flying High
By Craig Pinley
CHICAGO, IL (May 24, 2004) - He might not have been the most visible student
at Saturday's North Park Theological Seminary (NPTS) commencement, but
his story is worth recognition.
Pat Testerman graduated from NPTS with a Master of Arts and Christian
Ministry (MACM) degree with a focus on evangelism and missions. He did
so with the bulk of his course work being done through the seminary's
online distance education program - SEMConnect.
Soon after graduation, Testerman will head to Larissa, Greece, for a
two-year assignment as an air operations planner for the NATO Air
Operations Center. He is an Air Force officer stationed with officers
and enlisted people from various NATO nations. He had been a pilot
instructor training NATO fighter pilots, based in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Testerman had been stationed in Eagle River, Alaska, where he attended
Community Covenant Church. He was encouraged to consider seminary by
pastor Mark Meredith and former Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska
field director Hank Pearson.
"It's divine providence," said Testerman of his educational journey. "I
started in the fall of 2001. At that time, the MACM program was just
becoming a distance degree, but all of the classes that I would need
were not planned, so I just went on faith."
After taking two fall semester classes online in 2001, Testerman
traveled to NPTS for a January 2002 (known as "J-Term") intensive class,
taking some of his military leave to do so. NPTS and other accredited
seminaries require students to take on-campus courses for at least
one-third of the required credits. He eventually traveled to NPTS for
three other J-Term periods in January and another set of intensive class
sessions in May of 2003 and 2004 in order to fulfill the on-campus
requirement. He also took a mission trip to Ecuador as a class assignment.
During the past few months, an impending move, the birth of a new baby
(David) on April 7 and regular work responsibilities took their toll on
Testerman's grade-point average. He said he received his first "B" in a
class - a New Testament course taught by Klyne Snodgrass - although at
this point the end of the educational process is far more important to
him than any letter grade.
"Time management was the most difficult part," said Testerman in
discussing how he finished with honors as a MACM student. "I'm an Air
Force major, so I've got all of those duties. I'm a Presidential Advance
Agent, which means about once per month I prepare Air Force One (the
airplane used by President Bush) for different trips. I'm a father of
three children, so my wife, Martha, and my kids sometimes paid the price
for my schedule. But my wife has been incredibly supportive and we're
hoping our time in Greece will give us a chance to take a breath, have
some more family time and take some fun vacations."
A child of an Air Force pilot, Testerman has spent 14 years in the Air
Force, making 12 moves in the process. He said he has considered
completing a Master of Divinity degree after retiring from active duty.
He isn't sure which direction his future ministry is going, but that
hasn't prevented him from following God's call.
"It seems that God tells us right before it happens where He is calling
us," Testerman said. "I don't know how I'm going to use my degree, but
we're considering missions and some non-traditional ways. There's a huge
vacuum in lay leadership, especially in rapidly growing churches, and I
could see myself training and energizing lay leadership. Flying-related
mission work is a dream job to me and God might still call me there. And
over the past few months I've been seriously considering full-time
pastoral ministry at a church."
As satisfied as he is about his online seminary education, Testerman
thinks that living on campus would make things a lot easier should he
and his family continue at NPTS. However, he also noted that the online
classes provided interaction with students that might not normally have
occurred in a "normal" classroom setting.
"Obviously, during the times on campus I got to interact with other
students and the trip to Ecuador was another bonding time," he said.
"But I was really surprised by the amount of interactions you get in the
online format. The class requirements to post comments on the
assignments on the classroom bulletin board force all classmates to
participate. If you were quiet or intimidated by others, you wouldn't
normally hear from those people in the classroom. But some of those
quiet people have some of the most profound comments in the online
classes. And because of the postings, you're not limited to interaction
for just one hour per day - sometimes those posts can last several
hours. That part is awesome."
Perhaps Testerman's most enjoyable part of this weekend's NPTS
commencement was making face-to-face connections with those he's taken
classes with online. He has tried to find opportunities to meet all of
his classmates in person, although a part-time student named David Noren
is a notable exception. "We've chatted back and forth through emails and
the like, but David and I have never actually met, although it seems
like we have," he said. "I think we've taken four or five classes
together. Probably the person I wanted to meet the most was the person
who picked me up at the airport before my first J-Term, Allyson Dickie.
She was key to the whole program and she was just amazing. She's done an
incredible amount of work for me."
To find out more about the NPTS online educational program, call Dickie,
the seminary's director of distance learning, at 773-244-6287 or email
her at dickiea@northpark.edu. More information also is available by
selecting the seminary link on the home page of the Covenant website at
www.covchurch.org.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
