This week, we were able to listen to the teachings of Dustin Jizmejian. While here, Dustin covered a wide array of topics that all dealt with understanding who we are as Christ followers and how that corresponds to our call as chosen people. This overarching topic encompassed many interesting concepts like mind styles, the biblical metanarrative, Christian leadership, and habit formation. Overall, the lessons of the week contributed to the main theme of developing the personal growth of a young Christian in today’s society.
When Dustin was here, he had all the students participate in an assessment called mind styles, which helps people understand how their way of thinking can address how they approach core needs and questions. The core questions contain things like “What do I do well?”, “Why am I alive?”, “Who wants me?”, “Who am I?” and “Who can I trust?”. The core needs that the questions address include competence, purpose, belonging, identity, and security. This assessment aims to evaluate your metacognition to figure out how you learn and process information.
Another interesting area that Dustin covered was the Biblical meta-narrative and how it pertained to Christian leadership. The Biblical meta-narrative is the overarching story of the Bible and the story it conveys. The meta-narrative pertains to Christian leadership because a good leader is fully aware of the cause they are promoting. The meta-narrative also gives key themes like “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” which allows Christians to take the themes and apply them to leadership qualities like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Holly Grimes is 19 years old and from Bakersfield, California. She is taking time away from studying Biology at Oklahoma Christian University to pursue the wisdom and knowledge that Summit Semester offers. She is most excited to gain a deeper understanding of her beliefs and to grow in a Christian community.