Read and Learn: Now on Wednesdays!

Happy Wednesday! The weekly posts for "Read and Learn" which used to be on Thursdays will now be on Wednesdays. In addition, along with Quotidian Grace and JusticeSeeker, there will be a third writer: and that's where I come in. My name is Sara Green and I blog over at The Pinkhammer Blog. I am a seminary student at Princeton Theological Seminary and have just started the Spring semester of my first year here. While I am not yet sure what God is calling me to do after seminary, I am (mostly) enjoying the process of trying to figure that out both here at seminary and as an Inquirer in the ordination process. And I say "mostly" because, well...God has a funny way of keeping things interesting along the way that can be rather frustrating. But I am sure I am not telling you anything you haven't already been through yourself. Though I am exploring campus/college ministry and teaching, I am also very excited about pastoral ministry.

My classes this semester are a New Testament Survey class, a history class that focuses on church and state dynamics from the medieval to reformation time periods, and a practical theology class that focuses on Carl Rogers understanding of pastoral care. Oh! And a worship class on the Psalms which I am taking for my own spiritual development though I can tell it will help immensely with planning and leading worship in the future. I am sure some of my posts will reflect things that come up along the way, but if anyone has a particular interest related to these items, please feel free to leave a comment here and I can blog about it either in the "Read and Learn" posts or over at my blog. I also enjoy peppermint mochas and love photography. : )

Seminary Reflections: A Day in the Life

Sometimes -- often, I'm afraid -- seminarians forget how fortunate they are to be called to the vocation of learning. It happens fairly regularly, I think. All you want to do is serve a congregation as a pastor, so seminary seems like a hurdle to get over rather than three years to enjoy. I’m of a another mindset, however. Whatever follows seminary will be great, but I’m in no hurry to skip the blessings of seminary. With this in mind, here’s A Day in the Life of a Seminarian (basically, my Monday past.)

After going to bed about 1:00 am, I wake around 7:30. Well, “wake” is more suggestive than actual because I hit the snooze for a good thirty minutes before finally getting up and firing up the coffee pot. Off to an 8:45 am men’s prayer group. I could tell you what we talk about, but I’d have to kill you.

Come 10:00 there’s daily chapel led by senior MDiv students. Monday is a service of morning prayer which you’ll probably recognize as Presbyterian, but will also have some more intentional creative elements than your regular three hymns and a prayer. Sometimes it’s great. Sometimes, it’s, well, more experimental.

10:30 = coffee break. Students, faculty, and staff mosey on over to the refectory for the ritual of caffeine, mini bagels (rice krispy treats on a good day), and conversation. A great time to see friends who aren’t in your classes, chat with a prof about non class things, or commiserate about all the work you have to do.

11:00 I’m off to class, in this case, Introduction to Christian Ethics. This day we discuss the place of faith in the public debate of global issues, specifically world hunger. If there is enough food produced every year to feed every person in the world, but if millions die from hunger-related causes each year, how should the Christian respond and is that response unique or different from a Jew or agnostic?

12:30 Lunch. Back to the refectory, perhaps, for some not so healthy food but holy conversation on Harry Potter banquet-looking tables.

1:30 Back to class: Creation, New Creation, and Ecology where we discuss a chapter of a book on how the commodification of time affects worship, church life, and service in general. This class of twelve students is team taught by an old testament and new testament professor. The old testament prof, having written a book on Ecclesiastes, invites us to whip out our bibles and reflect on the sage’s understanding of time. The new testament prof mentions Jesus or Paul or something.

3:00-6:30 Break. Or in this case, time to get some exercise in. A trip to the library is always in order. Then brewing more coffee before class.

6:30-9:30 It’s “suicide day” in pastoral care. After a lecture we break up into small groups and role-play how to talk someone out of suicide, moving methodically through the steps we’ve just learned. Back with the entire group, we discuss warning signs and theological implications.

9:30 onward Reading. Writing. Facebooking. Recovering. Sleep.

It’s really quite a great life, I’d say. But I do wonder what might follow once all my classes are completed. Then again, I’ve got some studying to do.

Seminary Reflections: What's a truly practical class?

This is my first post in a new monthly column on Presbyterian Bloggers creatively entitled, "Seminary Reflections."  It's about, um, well, reflections from a Presbyterian seminarian.  

By way of introduction: I'm a senior Master of Divinity student at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.  Last year I served as a full-time Assistant Minister at a congregation in the Church of Scotland during which time I started my blog, A Wee Blether.  I've really enjoyed my time at Columbia and am a big advocate of the school (not to say we're perfect).  That said, my posts will be more broadly focused on PC(USA) seminary in general rather than specifically oriented to life at Columbia.  

My first reflection has to do with seminary curriculum and the practical life of a pastor.  For a few years now, I've helped gather support during Columbia's annual Fall Phonathon.  This task involves calling alumni and friends of the seminary to ask for pledges to the Annual Fund.  When speaking to a CTS grad currently serving as a pastor, one of my favorite questions to break the ice is, "I'm about to sign up for courses for spring semester and have room for some electives.  Now that you're in the parish, looking back, what sorts of classes do you wish you would have taken more of?"

Curiously, I get a wide variety of far-from-consistent answers.  There was the pastor who told me he really wishes he would have taken more Bible courses.  He said that several folks in his congregation just know their Bible better than he, so he wished, for their sake and his, that he would have taken more Bible electives.

Then there was the pastor who told me I should take every Christian Ed course I could.  "That's what you use immediately when you get out," she said.  "Even if you know everything in the world about something, if you don't know how to teach it it's no use."

Several folks I spoke with said they wished they had taken more classes from a particular beloved professor.  Others, now serving a church in a context they had not anticipated, wish they would have taken a course particular to inner-city ministry, or rural ministry, or older adult ministry.

Though I'm not participating in this year's Phonathon, I have the usual class choice dilemma, this year even more so as it's my last semester.

Should I take, "Theology, Ethics, and Sexuality" or "Death, Dying, and Bereavement"?  "Paul Tillich on Sin and Salvation" or "Literature for Christian Children"?  "Wisdom Literature" or "Hispanic and Latino Culture and Theologies"?  There's the ultra practical "Leading Christian Worship" or "Greek Reading" or "Exploring the Missional Church"?

What a quandary!  Thank goodness, I'm under no illusion that one's pastoral education stops when one graduates.  In fact, I think only then does it truly begin.  But it's an interesting thought experiment, current pastors considering what they would like to study more of at the moment. 

If you're a pastor out there (or other interested folk), what would you choose?

image by Kriss Szkurlatowski