This blog is written by Jim Reiher.

Jim Reiher

Jim is husband to Julie, father of four adult children, and he has been a grandfather for the last 8 years (the count at this stage is 6 grandkids with 2 more coming during 09). Since finishing high school in 1974, he has been an Ambulance Officer (4 years), a High School Teacher (8 years), and a Theology lecturer (13 years in total, the last 8 with Tabor Victoria). At the end of 2007, Jim and Julie joined Urban Neighbors of Hope (UNOH) based in Springvale, Noble Park and Dandenong. Jim is working full time for UNOH overseeing the training programs (especially “Submerge” the one-year full-time live-in discipleship program).

Jim loves to write and his first book was the self-published The Message in the Tarot – a book for New Age dabblers and inquirers. It considers the major Acarna Tarot cards, and offers Jim’s perspective on them. It shares his own spiritual journey thought the pictures on the cards, and it encourages people to look a bit closer at Jesus - “the son of the eternal one”. In Nov 2005, UNOH published his next book The Eye of the Needle: Discipleship and Wealth. The book explores the question of how we should view and handle money and possessions, and rebuts “Prosperity Teaching”. Early in 2006, Acorn Press published his Women, Leadership and the Church, which offers strong support for women’s ministry and leadership opportunities in the church.

Jim has a Bachelor of Arts, with a double major in History, a Diploma in Education, and a Masters in Theology with Honours.

Jim is also actively involved in politics. He believes that Christians should be committed to caring for the environment, they should not be obsessed with material accumulation, and they should be advocates for social justice and active in caring for the poor. He sees it the mandate of people of faith to be relevant and involved, and servants to those around them. Political power and involvement should be – not to seek power or even influence but - primarily to serve the community. Jim stood as a lower house candidate for the Greens Party, in Victoria, in the 2004 Federal Election. He stood as an Upper House State candidate in 2006, for the south east metro region. And he stood on the Victorian Greens Senate ticket in 2007. Jim has been the Victorian Greens spokesperson on Religious and Multicultural Affairs.

Jim has also been active working in Casey to help establish a multi-faith network of members of different faith communities. That is now up and running and Jim served as the President of that group during 2007. He is also a member of a Victorian Catholic/Pentecostal/Evangelical dialogue group that meets quarterly. In his spare time, if he is not writing, he likes to go to the beach, go bush, get in a game of tenpin bowling, or watch a good movie.

Accreditation:

UNOH is in partnership with Tabor Victoria, and the “Submerge” program is an accredited Tabor Certificate IV in Christian Ministry and Theology.

Students successfully completing the Submerge year, will earn an accredited Cert IV from Tabor, as well as a statement of completion from UNOH.

Students completing the Cert IV under Tabor, will have the same pathways and transfer of credit options as other Cert IV students at Tabor College.

Full time “Submerge” students are able to apply for Austudy. We can not predict the outcome of that application. It is means tested. But some will qualify because the course if fully accredited.

There is no Fee Help at this stage for any Certificate IV programs.

If students wanted to do other studies with Tabor, or if they wanted to earn credit towards other courses, they would need to discuss that separately with Tabor Victoria, and see what they recommend. It is feasible that a student might do other subjects around the edges of their Submerge studies and practical work, towards other awards. Such a student would want to make sure he or she did not overstretch themself, of course.