Simon Cox Blog: One-on-One with Ann Voskamp about Going Back to School

Saturday, 1 September 2018

One-on-One with Ann Voskamp about Going Back to School

It's important to her that she models an appetite for Christ.

Ed: Why did you decide at your place and stage as a writer and a leader, to go back to school?

Ann: I think we are as good a teacher as we are learners. I want to stay in a posture of humility. As a mother of seven, we have always taught our children that education isn't about filling a bucket. It’s about lighting a match, and that match burns the rest of our lives.

Any person in leadership needs to model what it's like to have an appetite for more of Christ, to be growing in Christ. The professors at Wheaton are brilliant. To listen to their experiences, their readings, their perspective, so that whatever we're bringing to the page or bringing to the table in terms of ministry, comes from beyond ourselves.

As we are watered by other people, we are yielding something that benefits the community at large. So we have a posture of listening, humility, and growth not only for ourselves personally, but that we can model to others.

Ed: What's the value in directed learning rather than me picking the learning?

Ann: I'm finding books I would never have pulled off the shelf. For instance, for this one particular course, we're reading eight books. Those eight books, as you're reading them, start to have an interior conversation as you're reading them. You look at how this idea bounces off that idea and the connections, and then that leads to growing your own ideas.

So I want to have a posture of being led by other people as I pass on that baton on faith. There are those who are wiser and know far more than I do. Directed learning is a growth process that helps us individually.

As a farmer, I don't necessarily say that I know best how to grow. There are all kinds of other inputs that I need to grow ...