Dig Deep. Learn Good. Launch Well.

When people hear about or think of the Brookside Institute, there are three phrases I want them to associate with what we're doing in any of our classes or learning environments.  These phrases are "Dig Deep," "Learn Good," and "Launch Well."  

Let me briefly explain what I mean by each of these:

Dig Deep.

We want the Institute to be a place where you can Dig Deep - a place where you can learn key truths about the Christian faith, ask questions that require more than a sound-byte answer, and hear from teachers who know their stuff.  

The local church needs this sort of equipping environment for all sorts of reasons.  One reason is because there are people out there whose entry point into the church is a place where they can study deeply the things they're thinking about or have recently been introduced to.  But even for people whose entry point into the local church is something else (e.g. missions & service, the worship service, etc.), eventually everyone will need a foundation that can sustain their growth and set their trajectory in a healthy direction.  We need a place where we can encourage people to Dig Deep.

Learn Good.

We want the Institute to be a place that will help you Learn Good - "good" meaning virtue and character (we're aware of what we're doing grammatically!).  We want you to connect what you're learning with a life of virtue and application.

The Institute isn't about knowledge in isolation from application.  The Institute is about "being transformed by the renewing of our minds" (Romans 12:2).  The Institute is about being formed biblically and theologically in ways that  should spill over into practice.  Ultimately, a person's character will be an embodiment of the story they're living in, the truths they're believing, and the good life they're pursuing (among other things).  The Bible and theology speak into each of these categories (story, truth, the good life, and more), and so the Brookside Institute helps nurture a person's formation in these areas. 

Launch Well.

We want the Brookside Institute to be a place that will help you Launch Well.  After taking our classes your trajectory will be set for continued growth, and you'll have framed a foundation you can build upon for a lifetime.

My "spiel" at the end of most Institute classes is that the punctuation mark people should picture when completing a course isn't a period, but should be a comma.  A period would indicate that people can now move ON from the course material into something different.  That's NOT we want to have happen.  Instead, by thinking of a comma when finishing the course, we want people to move further INTO course material.  We want adults to keep their eyes out for ways this material intersects with and informs other parts of their lives.  We want adults to take steps into service and leadership, having been equipped to serve and lead well with the biblical and theological foundations they've gained from Institute classes.

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Knowing that we want these three phrases to describe the Brookside Institute, what additional things can we consider doing to reinforce and live out these things (Dig Deep, Learn Good, Launch Well)?  Be creative in your answers - don't just think about what we can do in classes, but also think about how this blog can reinforce these things, or anything else that comes to mind!