Last month I graduated from Denver Seminary’s Master of Divinity - Leadership program and have been reflecting upon the experience ever since. Family and friends gathered with us to celebrate, and the two most commonly asked questions were: “What did you learn?” and “What’s next?” I am thankful for the opportunity to breathe, reflect, and share some lessons learned.
Grad school is hard. And if you’re going to do hard things, you best have a reason. My first semester of Hebrew was a shock to the system, and I wondered if I was going to make it. In my second Hebrew semester (during COVID-19), four hours into my final exam, I hung my head and wept while Elliot rubbed my back. I thought Army Pathfinder School was hard, but this was graduate-level, brain-breaking hard! I asked myself, “Why am I doing this?” I was routinely reminded of the answer: God called me to DenSem - walk in faith.
Brandon, with his wife Kelly, and daughter Elli.
No one achieves anything worthwhile alone. My family, friends, mentors, and professors supported me. Kelly reminded me of my commitment when I wanted to take a semester off. Will and Tim encouraged me when I needed it most. Joey, Knut, Eva, Angie, and Ryan challenged me when I needed to go further and gave me grace when I needed to be content. Blayne carried the tripod when I was smoked.
Driving on taught me a valuable lesson in the midst of the struggle: Never, ever quit. Though I learned this many times in the Army Rangers, it’s a lesson we must routinely relearn to achieve great things. It would be easy to rest on my Army credentials at this stage in life. It would also be lazy. When I left the Army, I wanted to challenge my mind in ways the Army no longer could. Graduate school has achieved that objective, just as sales, nonprofit leadership, and growing a startup have in other seasons of my life.
It’s all Greek….
And though I didn’t give up, I did learn to let go of non-essentials that did not align with my goals. Last summer, I registered for a course in Spiritual Direction as an elective. I did not realize it was a four-class certification track until I began. At the time of my graduation, I still had two more classes to go. The last thing I wanted to do was graduate on May 20th and start another 5-day intensive on May 22nd. I could do it, but I needed to examine whether I should do it. Thanks to the guidance of my supervisors, professors, and the Holy Spirit, I felt released from the rest of the program. I never intended to be a certified spiritual director. Letting this go and embracing the joy of completion was critical for me. Not coincidentally, withdrawing left me with a week blocked off work I used to respond to a Ranger Buddy in crisis. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Almost coincidental, but not.
I also learned to be less certain about most matters, yet certain about the few things that matter most. I often joke that a more appropriate name for my program might be a Master's Degree in “I’m Not Sure”…but I don’t think that sells very well on the course catalog! At the very least, I recommend a rebrand to Mastered by the Divine! I digress. For just about any topic under the sun, there are a host of conflicting perspectives articulated by earnest and thoughtful people. Most of them can level solid support for their views. The task is to hold these perspectives in tension, sit in the nuance, examine the evidence faithfully, and then determine the most rational, verified, and convincing position. I am far more apt to investigate conflicting views today than ever because Denver Seminary taught me how to think, not what to think.
Though I’ve experienced other programs with the same stated objective, no other program has honed my critical thinking skills as much as the Denver Seminary Master of Divinity program. DenSem is committed to a concept called charitable orthodoxy, which means that “We are people of the Faith, committed to the great core confessions that have defined Christianity for centuries…[and]...we engage in gracious and serious conversations about many different areas of faith and life.” The commitment to charitable orthodoxy taught me a lot about faithfully and graciously following Jesus while examining various perspectives, positions, and truth claims in a pluralistic society. I am a better man for it. I used to be certain about just about everything. Now I am only certain about the very few things that truly matter.
I also learned practical stuff, like how to speed read and find the essentials of any book. I learned how to write for distance with clarity. I learned how to write in Turabian style. I learned how to read Hebrew and Greek. I learned much about God, faith, the bible, and Christianity. I wrote nearly 1,000 pages representing a fraction of a speck of the scholarship related to God and leadership that has amassed over the last five millennia. And while pouring over the millennia of scholarship, I learned that wisdom is greater than knowledge, that new information is not greater than ancient wisdom, and that applying the wisdom of the ages to modern life leads to understanding.
Finally, I learned that I am smart. I felt less than for much of my life. I felt like I had something to prove. I knew that I was smart, but I never felt smart. Today, I feel smart for the first time in my life, and I am humbled by how little I truly know.
So, what’s next? I left my last job in 2019 with no plan. It was a toxic leadership environment, and I knew I needed to move on. That winter, I applied to Denver Seminary, and shortly after that, Blayne and I started Applied Leadership Partners. I was an oddball at Seminary because I was one of the only students not serving in vocational ministry. Yet I was embraced and encouraged to consistently explore how our studies applied to the world in which I live and worked. You are hard-pressed to find a more complete Academic Leadership Program than the one built by Tim Koller, Ph.D. Every bit of my coursework has influenced our work at Applied Leadership Partners. As a result, I am a better coach, guide, and mentor. I am a far better leader.
Moving forward, I will keep learning, growing, and serving great leaders doing great things in the world with great people. Oh! And I intend to read some good old-fashioned fiction; I’ve already started cleansing my brain palette with “A Fighting Man of Mars,” book seven of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter series!
Anybody got any recommendations?
