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College/scholarship essays with a university instructor
Richard D.

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About Richard

Bio

I am completing a Doctor of Ministry in Contextual Theology at Northern Seminary, where my dissertation studies pastoral training for a post-Christian culture. I also hold a Master of Arts in Pastoral Leadership and a Bachelor of Science in Religion from Olivet Nazarene University. I have been ordained in the Church of the Nazarene since 2000. My doctoral research has kept me reading closely in American religious and political history, and I write on faith and culture on Substack.

I teach...

I am completing a Doctor of Ministry in Contextual Theology at Northern Seminary, where my dissertation studies pastoral training for a post-Christian culture. I also hold a Master of Arts in Pastoral Leadership and a Bachelor of Science in Religion from Olivet Nazarene University. I have been ordained in the Church of the Nazarene since 2000. My doctoral research has kept me reading closely in American religious and political history, and I write on faith and culture on Substack.

I teach three graduate courses a year as an adjunct instructor in Olivet Nazarene University’s Master's level programs in their School of Theology and Christian Ministry, including Theology of Ministry and a course on competing worldviews. My students are working adults and much of my time with them goes to their writing: reading research papers, giving detailed feedback, and helping them sharpen an argument and cite sources correctly in Chicago style. I also served 29 years as a pastor in five congregations, where I taught the Bible every week to people from teenagers to retirees in sermons, classes, small groups, and one-on-one conversations. I have written and adapted Bible study curriculum for adult small groups.

My approach starts with questions. Before I explain anything, I want to know what a student already understands, where they are stuck, and what they are trying to say. With Bible and religion students, I set a passage in its original historical world before we ask what it means today, and I treat other traditions and faiths with respect. With writers, whether a high school senior on a college essay or a graduate student on a thesis, I help them find a clear central claim, build an outline that serves it, and revise in rounds. I do not write for my students. My job is to help them say what they mean in their own voice and leave each session knowing their next step.

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Education

Olivet Nazarene University
Religion
Olivet Nazarene University
Masters
Northern Baptist Theological Seminary
Other

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Approved Subjects

American History

American History

My doctoral research at Northern Seminary examines religion and national identity in America, which has kept me reading closely about how faith and politics have shaped each other across American history. I teach graduate courses at Olivet Nazarene University, where I spend much of my time helping adult students build clear, well-sourced arguments, the same skill most history essays and research papers depend on. Outside the classroom, I am a longtime reader of Mark Twain and do my own genealogy research in old family and public records, so I love showing students how to read a primary source closely. I can help high school and college students with survey courses, document-based essays, and research papers, especially on religion, politics, and social movements in American history.
Bible Studies

Bible Studies

I taught the Bible weekly for 29 years as a pastor in five congregations, leading sermons, classes, and small groups for teenagers through retirees, and I have been ordained in the Church of the Nazarene since 2000. I now teach graduate courses at Olivet Nazarene University and am completing a Doctor of Ministry at Northern Seminary, including coursework in biblical interpretation. In lessons, I set each passage in its original historical and literary world before we ask what it means today, so students leave able to read a text on their own. I work well with Christian high school and homeschool students, Bible college and seminary students preparing for exams or papers, and adults who want to read Scripture with more confidence.
English

English

I teach graduate courses at Olivet Nazarene University, where I grade adult students’ papers and give detailed feedback on thesis statements, structure, clarity, and grammar. I write regularly for a public audience on Substack, and for 29 years as a pastor I wrote something every week that people would hear or read, so I care about sentences that are clear and sound like a person wrote them. I love literature, especially American writers like Mark Twain, and I help students read closely, find evidence in the text, and turn what they notice into an essay with a clear argument. I work with middle school, high school, and college students on essays, literary analysis, reading comprehension, and grammar.
Public Speaking

Public Speaking

For 29 years I spoke in front of a congregation nearly every week as a pastor, and I have also spoken at weddings, funerals, and community gatherings where the room and the stakes were very different. I now teach graduate courses at Olivet Nazarene University, where I lecture to adult students. I help students build a talk around one clear idea, organize it so a listener can follow it the first time through, and practice delivery out loud: pace, pauses, eye contact, and what to do with nerves. I work with high school and college students facing speech assignments, professionals preparing presentations, and anyone who needs to give a wedding toast or a eulogy and wants to get it right.
Religion

Religion

I teach a graduate course on competing worldviews at Olivet Nazarene University, where adult students study how the major religious and secular traditions make sense of God, meaning, and how to live. I am completing a Doctor of Ministry in Contextual Theology at Northern Seminary, and my research includes how religion and national identity get fused, especially in American Christian nationalism. After 29 years as a pastor, I also know religion at ground level: how people practice faith, argue about it, leave it, and sometimes come back. I can help with religious studies courses and religion and politics in America.
Thesis Writing

Thesis Writing

As a graduate-level instructor at Olivet Nazarene University, I read and grade research papers from adult students and give detailed feedback on argument, structure, and use of sources. I am now writing my own doctoral dissertation at Northern Seminary, so I work through the same steps my students face: narrowing a question, building a literature review, and keeping an argument together across chapters. I help students turn a broad topic into a researchable question, outline the project, keep a realistic writing schedule, and handle Chicago and Turabian citations correctly. My strongest fields are theology, religion, ministry, history, and the humanities, and I coach students through their own writing without writing it for them.
Handwriting
Reading
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