Me, thinking to myself: "You're biased. People say that about lots of things."
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Then I went to Romania to take part in the DTS in Cluj.
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Me to everyone: "Everyone should do a DTS at some point in their lives."
How do I begin to explain this to you? Let's start with me. I grew up in the church. When I was five, I was in Sunday school, and the teacher marked out a circle on the floor in masking tape. "Step into the circle if you want to accept Jesus into your heart." I stepped in, and never looked back. I'll be 28 in a couple of months, which means I've been a Christian for 23 years. I've read my Bible cover to cover. I've heard thousands of sermons from dozens of pastors. I went to Westmont college, which very nearly requires all students to minor in religious studies. I walked into my DTS with the attitude saying, "I already know everything. What can they possibly teach me?" Maybe that's the attitude that you have.
Over the course of the twelve week lecture phase, 80-90% of the material covered was new to me! People say that you can spend a lifetime with God, and always be learning new things. Phrases like that don't really hit you until you experience them for yourself. Many times during the lecture phase I found myself asking questions like, "Why haven't I heard anyone preach the kingdom message before if Jesus talks about it more than anything else? Why haven't I studied the Holy Spirit that deeply before? Up to this point, why hasn't anyone been able to explain Jesus' authority in such a way that would make me shudder?"
Mark 4:41
And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, "Who can this be, that even the wind and the waves obey Him!"
So yeah, if you're thinking that a DTS is not for you, then stop thinking that! DTS's are for everyone! :)
Now comes the tricky part. How do you actually go and do a DTS? Five months is a long time to try and convince your boss that you need to take off. Maybe you have a new born and you can't exactly pick up and go to a foreign country so easily. There are DTS's all over the world, including some as local as Los Angeles, but that doesn't make it any easier for some people.
I was in that situation. I was working in a human resources job for two years. Our company had some major layoffs, but I survived all of that. I didn't feel very important, but it would seem they thought otherwise when they gave me a raise in the midst of a limping economy. There was really no way I could tell my boss that I needed to leave for five months to go to Romania for a discipleship training school. I also couldn't just outright quit my job because there was no telling when I'd find another one. I wanted to go, but it seemed I was stuck. So, I prayed.
My situation was different, but I prayed a prayer similar to the one King Jehoshaphat prayed in 2 Chronicles 20:12. "God, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on you."
I forget how long it was before I heard an answer, but one day my boss called me into a meeting. He likes to have regular meetings with me to see how I'm doing, and hear about what I'm working on. They're generally a good thing, and the title of this meeting when I got the email about it was something like Redefining Job Description. I walked into the meeting feeling good. My mish mash job where I'm asked to do a little bit of everything will get a bit more focused. There will be less times when I have nothing to do followed by times when I have too much to do. It will be more even.
I sat down at the meeting. "We're going to have to let you go." Well God, that's certainly one way to answer my prayer. I guess I'm going to Romania.
Maybe you have both the time and money to do a DTS, maybe you have neither the time nor the money. Pray about it. If you're even a little interested, check out the website, or read through the questions on the application, or watch the video.
DTS's are for everyone, and since you are a subset of the group 'everyone', that means that DTS's are for you! :)
