A modular class is short and focused. Instead of meeting weekly for sixteen weeks, it meets in a block, with a visiting professor teaching one subject for hours each day.

A conference works the same way. Students can sit in and take notes. But attendance alone is not a course. Attendance plus extra work, planned in advance and checked, can become one.

"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." Proverbs 27:17

A visiting teacher brings a different life and angle on the same Book. Use that gift on purpose.

Who to Bring In

Bring in someone to train children's workers. They shape the next generation first, and need lessons, order, discipline with love, and a gospel a child can understand.

Bring in someone to train youth workers. Young people need leaders who listen, tell the truth, and stay. A week with a veteran can save a young leader years of guessing.

Bring in someone for the choir. Music is ministry, not decoration. A choir leader must teach parts, lead rehearsals, choose true songs, and point singers to Christ.

Bring in a missions teacher, someone who has gone, learned a language, and planted a church where none stood. Missions from a missionary carries a weight no textbook can.

Hold a prophecy conference to hear what God has said about what is coming, taught carefully from Scripture. Hold a stewardship conference too, to handle money, time, and gifts as trusts from God. One lifts the eyes. The other steadies the hands.

One or two a year, done well, beat six done in a rush. Choose teachers for life as much as for learning. A man who loves students will teach more in a week than a brilliant man who does not.

Attendance Plus Work Equals Credit

Have students attend and do extra work, and you can give up to three hours' credit. Credit follows work. Full work may earn three. Less work earns less. Showing up alone earns nothing extra.

Plan the work before the module begins: reading before the teacher arrives, notes turned in, a paper that makes him think, a project done by hand, a lesson taught, a meeting planned, a rehearsal led, a missions plan written. Real, assigned, collected work turns attendance into a course.

Tell students the work and the credit at the start, with due dates and who will grade it. No surprises at the end.

Count the Hours Honestly

A real college meets for sixteen weeks, and a three-hour course meets three hours per week. That is 48 hours of class time, the normal measure for three hours of credit. Hold modules to the same measure.

If a module meets forty-eight hours, class time alone carries three hours. More often it meets fewer hours, say twenty. Twenty in the room is not forty-eight. The rest must come from outside work, for three hours' credit.

So give a bunch of homework: reading, writing, study, practice, projects, planned to take real hours. Twenty in class plus about twenty-eight outside adds up to forty-eight. That is the work behind three hours of credit.

For two hours credit, give less homework. Two hours rests on thirty-two total. Twenty in class plus about twelve outside adds up to thirty-two. Less work, less credit.

Do not give three hours for twenty in a room and a light paper. Another school will not honor it, and the student will lose the credit on transfer. Count the hours, write them down, keep attendance and graded work in the file.

The same honesty applies to a conference. Count sessions attended, plus reading and work added. If the total earns one, give one. If two, give two. Never give three to sound generous. Keep the same rule for every student. Same work, same credit. Different work, different credit, and the file should show why.

Plan It Like a Course

Name the module, describe it plainly, name the teacher and what he has done. Set dates, hours, and work before sign-up. Give reading ahead when you can. Keep attendance, grade the work, record it on the transcript.

Announce it early, so students can clear calendars and read. After it ends, collect the work on the named date, grade promptly, and discuss how they will use what they learned. The point was a worker better fitted for his work, not credit alone.

A Gift Worth Planning

A visiting professor costs money and trouble. A conference takes students away for days. Both are worth it, planned well and counted honestly. Students hear new voices, come home sharper, and the credit is real because the hours were real.

Bring the teacher in. Send the students to the conference. Plan the work. Count the hours. Give the credit the work earns, up to three hours, and no more than the work supports. Then trust God to use a well-spent week to shape a lifetime of ministry. A week like that can set a ministry's direction for years.