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Showing posts from May, 2009

For Those About To Be Rocked, I Salute You

For those in certain pastoral preparation programs, Memorial Day weekend has a special significance. It isn't the debate on the role of patriotic songs in worship (We did hear "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" as the closing hymn at the G'burg Lutheran Church I attended today. But when you have a soldier shot on the steps of the church during the battle, I think you have to.) No, the event is the beginning of CPE, your Clinical Pastoral Education. Prospective minister candidates from various traditions will spend the summer being chaplains at hospitals, nursing homes and other settings. It is an opportunity to learn what "doing ministry" means and the emotional and physical toll it takes on you. My own experience last summer was difficult . Spending 10 weeks at a hospital only 4 months from my dad's death and after spending the week prior taking care of my mother who was hospitalized with double pneumonia added to my challenge. It colored my experience

For Your Theological Consideration

Based on some readings and coursework I have done, I propose the following: Our foremost responsibilities as Christians is to love God. But I claim the only way for us to demonstrate our love to God is to through human relationships, performing acts out of love to other people, in particular, to the stranger, the other, the enemy. The only way for us to fulfill the first part of the Great Love Command (Matthew 22:37 - “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”) is to fulfill the second part (Matthew 22:39 - And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”) Agree, disagree, or comment. THX!

The High Price

As I've finished, and am finishing (I'm using the perfect tense of finish) my second year at The LTS and the Road to Ordination (my favorite of the Hope-Crosby road movies) I am realizing what a high cost many of us have to pay for following our call. I have friends here and at our sister seminaries who have: lost parents, lost children, lost friends, lost marriages, lost their health, lost their life. I think there have been more weeks with people crying than not. When I have been asked what is the part of this I didn't expect, the real answer is that I didn't expect it to be so hard. I didn't think the process would get in the way. I didn't expect pastors to not provide or model pastoral care. I expected to be challenged mentally, morally, spiritually and theologically; I didn't expect to be challenged emotionally more than all those combined. I didn't expect God to show mercy and peace to those who are seeking to be leaders of the Church; I thought w

I Can't Believe It's Been Two Years

This is just a quick post as I am on my way to Day Two of our Internship Team Building Workshop here at The LTS. I am planning on posting more, during the summer and especially when I'm on internship in the Garden. I'm hoping to use this as a chance to reflect on what has happened to me in the 650+ days since I drove out the 'burg. To quote the Prophet Jerry, "What a long, strange trip it's been." Grateful Dead - Truckin' Like the do-dah man. once told me you've got to play your hand Sometimes your cards ain't worth a dime, if you don't lay 'em down, Sometimes the lights all shinin' on me; Other times I can barely see. Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip its been.