Weekly Email: July 6, 2026
We are now in Week 6 of the Summer term. This week I want to share a story from one of your fellow online students who put something from these newsletters to the test and was surprised by what happened. I also have a first look at some of the electives coming this fall.
In this email:
- Student Tip: What Happened When One Student Moved His Phone
- Program News: Fall Term Starts in About a Month
Student Tip: What Happened When One Student Moved His Phone
A few months ago, one of your fellow online students reached out to share something that's been working for him. He'd noticed a recurring theme in these newsletters about putting your phone in another room when you study and he admitted he was skeptical. He didn't think his phone was a problem or that it affected how much he got done in a study session.
On Monday and Tuesday nights he had about an hour each to work on schoolwork and then nothing until the weekend. In those hours he never felt as productive as he could be. So he decided to test it by putting his phone in another room and a writing down a specific, actionable goal to hit in the hour. For the first couple of weeks, that goal was a set amount of reading.
The first session surprised him. About twenty minutes in, he started getting antsy. That's when he realized the phone had become a crutch he didn't even notice. He'd check his email or the score of a game and what felt like a couple of minutes was probably five to ten, plus however long it took to get back into the reading.
After several sessions, the results were hard to argue with. He was reading, on average, three to five more chapters in that same hour. He wasn't reading any faster. He was just reading for the full hour, with a specific goal in front of him and nothing pulling at his attention. By the fourth session, the antsy feeling was mostly gone and he was hitting his goals.
I share this because most of us assume we're being efficient with our time. And as I say over and over, we don't want efficiency for efficiency's sake. We want to be efficient with our studying so we have more time with our family, more time with our church, more time with our neighbors, more life-giving time with the people who matter to us.
So as you start this week, think about your own study habits. Is there anything blocking you that you might not realize? If your phone sits in the same room while you study, I'd challenge you to put it in another room and see what happens. Several students who have tried this have told me the same thing: they didn't realize the phone had become a crutch until it was gone and they finally experienced what a full, undistracted hour of studying feels like.
Program News: Fall Term Starts in About a Month
It's hard to believe but the fall semester is right around the corner. We have several great electives being offered in the first fall term:
- Apocrypha & Pseudepigrapha with Dr. Jarvis Williams
- Early Christian Biographies with Dr. Stephen Presley (this one was recorded in a unique format, where we brought in six online students to have a lecture and seminar style discussion)
- Reformation Preaching with Dr. Michael Pohlman
- Islamic Thought: Belief and Practice with Dr. Ayman Ibrahim
- Leading Change in Ministry with Dr. Juan Carlos Martinez
Obviously there are several more plus a whole slate of core courses being offered as well. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me.
Quick Reference of Upcoming Term Dates:
- Current Week: Summer, Week 6 (July 6-13)
- Fall 1 Term Begins: August 3, 2026
- Fall 2 Term Begins: October 5, 2026
Register for Courses →
Registration for Fall Experiential Modulars is open now
