High-level presenters enhance postgraduate coursework programs

Two high-profile international presenters extended the range of perspectives available to postgraduate coursework students attending Avondale’s midyear residential school in July 2010.

Dr James Osterhaus, who taught the unit Marriage and Family Process in the Master of Ministry program, is a consultant psychologist in high demand in the United States on account of his extensive experience in helping individuals and organisations move through change, conflict and reorganisation.   He has authored seven books and numerous journal and magazine articles. His co-authored books include Thriving Through Ministry Conflict and Turning Organizational Blind Spots into Competitive Advantage.

Professor Richard Rice of Loma Linda University, California, teamed with Avondale’s Dr Steve Thompson to co-teach the unit Issues in Contemporary Theology.  Dr Rice is Professor of Religion: Theological Studies at Loma Linda. He has authored or co-authored at least eight books, including The Reign of God: An Introduction to Christian Theology from a Seventh-day Adventist Perspective, and is widely respected for his scholarship.

One hundred and fourteen students, including Pacific Islanders, attended this year’s midyear residential school, studying programs to masters level in education, leadership and management, theology, and ministry.

These programs are offered by distance education, with an intensive on-campus session of up to four weeks each July. Students typically take two or three units per year of the eight or twelve units in a masters degree. Masters honours programs have an extra four units, and may include a major thesis. A Master of Education Honours student is currently researching relationships between teachers’ religiosity, spirituality and job satisfaction in two Christian school systems.  Another is researching students’ understanding of chemical bonding in Years 9-12 of secondary school. Avondale also offers a Master of Nursing program by coursework, with optional on-campus sessions arranged on the Sydney campus as needed to provide student support.

The 2010 midyear residential school on the Lake Macquarie campus offered a selection of sixteen units, including Christian Leadership in the Local Church, Pastoral Care and Counselling Skills, Health and Wellbeing Education, Leadership and Information Systems, and Introduction to Educational Research.

Students from varied professional backgrounds

“Increasingly, coursework masters students are experienced professionals wishing to extend their qualifications and expertise,” said Dr Peter Morey, the Distance Education Coordinator on the Lake Macquarie campus. This year’s Leadership and Management students, for example, include several health professionals: a patient flow manager, a San College of Nursing coordinator, two nurse educators and a nurse unit manager.

The 2009 graduates from Avondale’s Master of Ministry degree included New Zealand medical practitioner Dr Elizabeth Östring, who has now also enrolled in Avondale’s Doctor of Philosophy program. “As a medical practitioner I really enjoyed the opportunity to study from a theological perspective,” she said. “The Master of Ministry classes were immediately relevant to either my professional work or church activities.” These have included membership of the South New Zealand Conference Executive Committee (1993-1995), the South Pacific Division Executive Committee (1995-2000), and the General Conference Executive Committee (2000-2005). “The most valuable aspect,” she added, “was the encouragement to reflect on one’s own work and be more focused in outreach.” For her PhD she is exploring theologies of work, which she discovered (to her surprise) to have eschatological significance. “I am learning,” she said, “that the Adventist recognition of the seventh-day Sabbath may result in a different approach to work than the commonly accepted Christian ones.”

Glynn Slade is one of the numerous Avondale graduates who return to complete a further Avondale degree. Glynn Slade studied science at Avondale in 1965 and 1966, and then completed a degree in electronic engineering at the University of Technology Sydney. After working for some years on the family’s ten-thousand-acre property, he established a highly successful automotive electrical and air conditioning business in Esperance, Western Australia, which he expanded over the next twenty-five years. In 2001 he graduated from Avondale’s Master of Leadership and Management program, which he described as “very helpful in my business.”

He has also been very much involved in church work, including service in Western Australia on the Conference Executive Committee and the Board of Management of Church Schools. After retiring from business in 2004 he accepted an invitation from the South Australian Conference to care for three churches.  He later entered full-time ministry, and is currently pastoring The Grove and Trinity Gardens Churches in Adelaide. During this time he enrolled in Avondale’s Master of Ministry program, from which he expects to graduate in 2010. “This program has been an absolute blessing in my ministry,” he said.