JON PASSED HIS DRIVING TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Process
I called my interviewer on Tuesday and we set something up for the afternoon of the 29th. I’m half-nervous and half-excited because the process is finally starting. I also finally have my date for psych testing at Midwest: January 13-15, 2003. Psych testing should be a piece of cake after being in therapy for two years in college.

The Seminary Quandry
I just emailed the admissions dude at Luther Seminary and asked about visiting the school. I’m actually *excited* (or *exsotedci* as the CIT’s at Skylark Ranch would say) about maybe moving to Minnesota and actually having familiar businesses like Wells Fargo around. (Well… all the businesses like CVS back here will be familiar there as well.)

I got the letter from the synod today saying that I have been assigned an interviewer. Thy referrenced an information sheet that was enclosed but… it had magically disappeared from the envelope. I called the Synod Office and they apologized profusely (even though I assured them that this was a source of mirth to me) and I’ll be getting it in the mail tomorrow.

The plot thickens… and I still have to call Midwest about that psych testing.

OK… continuation of my list and the aggravation of my hands and wrist:

4.) (cont’d) My generation wants the incense, the Eucharistic Adoration, the orthodox Christian teachings, since we’re all taught that truth is relative and we want something ABSOLUTE. When I polled people last spring for a paper, the answer people gave was that they either wanted the traditional stuff or they wanted a blend of traditional and contemporary.

5.) Entertainment is not necessarily evangelism and the point of church is not what we *get* out of it. Walt Kallstad of the Community Church of Joy coined the term “entertainment evangelism” and in one of his books talked about how we need to keep people there by making it interesting. Ummm… sorry but the point of church is not entertainment — it’s worship. The point of worship is giving praise *TO* God, not getting *FROM* church. Granted, I know it’s a pain to worship when you are bored out of your minds by the sermon and the worship; but that’s something that is fixable by perhaps livening up the music (i.e. tempo and dynamics) and getting people to actually *discuss* the sermon with the pastor.

6.) You can’t just expect a contemporary service to draw people. You need to provide the fellowship opportunities. If you’re trying to draw 20somethings (and there is actually a need for that), create a Sunday School class for them.

My hands and wrists are numb from crocheting (tip: a size Q crochet hook and three strands is not good for you) so I thought I’d accelerate my path tward carpal tunnel by updating this journal.

My Candidacy Process
Pastor Morgan at the synod office called me back. As soon as they get my congregational registration (which Pastor Tom called me about on Monday) and my undergrad transcripts (i.e. three months since UCSC is processing those puppies) are in, they’ll schedule me for an interview. Oh joyous day! Callou Callais! My friend Doris has been asking me daily if I’m sure I want to go through with this. My response: yes. After receiving that response, she reminds me that I’m only gonna get through my hoops if I really want to do this. This means that I need to make that appointment for psych/career testing.

“Contemporary Worship”
Far be it from me to be controversial, right? *readers nod heads approvingly* Yeah right. Let’s talk about why I think that the whole rush to “contemporary worship” is not the greatest of ideas.

1.) It’s hard to find quality. Face it… most worship bands out there are a few people who know a few guitar chords or think they can sing. There are some good worship bands that are composed of volunteers (I should know… I was part of one last year and in college) but a lot of times, churches go into half-heartedly and the music is half — well… you know what I mean. My thought is that whatever you (as a church) do, it should be done well. This means finding someone with musical talent that extends beyond the garage band to lead the music and recruiting some other people with musical training to be a part of it. Some churches actually pay their worship leader, which means that they can hire a professional.

2.) The message is in the music. Sorry to those contemporary composers out there but… most worship music is the “rah rah Jesus” stuff which is OK as a gathering number but… if that’s all you sing, you are missing a really important way of educating your flock. Rich Mullins has songs that have substance. (Yes, “Awesome God” has some substance — you actually have to sing the verses to get it.) If you want to do a decent worship service, you really have to search to find songs with substance — at least ones that have equal substance to those old hymns.

3.)Division is not a good thing. You tend to get people divided between the “traditional” service and the “contemporary” service. This is especially problematic when you put the contemporary service on Saturday night — you lose those people in Sunday School classes. You also have to factor in extra services which serve to lengthen Sunday morning — something that does add stress to pastors. (They actually *work* during the week — not just on Sundays.)

4.) They don’t necessarily draw young people. My generation wants the old superstitious stuff — not the new PowerPoint stuff. Most of the people who like that are old or at least middle-aged. 🙂

More tomorrow when my hands aren’t burning. Time for Letterman… and some Aleve!

I think I’ve finally figured out how to answer this portion of the essay. 😀

-Reflect on your current understanding of the particular ministry to which you feel called (pastor, diaconal ministry, associate in ministry, deaconess) and your assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, gifts, convictions and concerns related to this ministry.

My current understanding of the pastoral ministry is that a pastor is the following:

• An equipper. Part of my job as pastor would be to equip people for the ministries they face in their lives. As Lutherans, we believe in the priesthood of all believers. This means that all of us are ministers in one way or another, whether it is the pastoral ministry to which I feel called or working as a teacher in the public schools. A public school teacher has just as much of a ministry as I do, and it is my job to equip them with the skills needed to reach out to the students. Within the church, I would need to help people discern where their gifts lie and how they can use their talents and gifts to benefit the community within the church and beyond its walls. My strength in this area is my love of people and the ability to brainstorm ideas with people. I am also wonderful at organizing things, though I would function more in an advisory capacity, rather than the role of chief organizer. My weakness in this area is that I tend to worry about how things will turn out. I am working on the concept of leaving things in God’s hands and not worrying about if someone will do well at something or if a project will come to fruition.
• A mediator of the sacraments. As an ordained minister, I would be baptizing people, presiding over the Eucharist, proclaiming the Word, and being with people in times of crisis. In the past, the pastor was the leader of a spiritual community and looked to for words from God and called on to perform Masses and baptisms. This has changed in that there is now more lay involvement in the church, but people would still look to me for sacramental concerns and for guidance in times of trouble. A strength in this area is my ability to listen. As an introvert, I tend to be silent and listen more than I tend to speak. By doing this, I can size up the situation more easily. I also can think creatively and would work with people to find a solution or someone who could help them more easily than I could. My only weakness is that I occasionally tend to panic because I do care about people and their problems. I am working to let people live their own lives and rather provide advice than try to solve their problem. I understand that I am not to be a therapist, but instead someone who can help guide people to others who can provide them with the help they need.
• A teacher. Aside from mediating the sacraments, I would also be teaching people about God as part of my outreach to the community at large. This instruction comes through preaching, but also through Christian education. I believe strongly in passing on the faith to the younger generations, which means that I’d be teaching it to them in their First Communion and Confirmation classes, but also by having them in church. A large part of my instruction, however, would come from my personal example. How can I tell people that they need to pray and engage in devotional practices if I am not doing that every day?

tell me what you think, especially if you’re a pastor-type person or a missionary type person. 🙂

OK… an hour and a half until Sabrina and I have a purry office assistant in my top drawer. I think I can work on the last question of my candidacy essay.

I’ll probably compile the essay over the next couple days and give it to Jon to mail on Friday. I’ll post the essay on a separate page and post the link. 🙂

-Reflect on your current understanding of the particular ministry to which you feel called (pastor, diaconal ministry, associate in ministry, deaconess) and your assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, gifts, convictions and concerns related to this ministry.

My current understanding of the pastoral ministry is that a pastor is the following:

• An equipper. Part of my job as pastor would be to equip people for the ministries they face in their lives. As Lutherans, we believe in the priesthood of all believers. This means that all of us are ministers in one way or another, whether it is the pastoral ministry to which I feel called or working as a teacher in the public schools. A public school teacher has just as much of a ministry as I do, and it is my job to equip them with the skills needed to reach out to the students. Within the church, I would need to help people discern where their gifts lie and how they can use their talents and gifts to benefit the community within the church and beyond its walls.
• A mediator of the sacraments. As an ordained minister, I would be baptizing people, presiding over the Eucharist, proclaiming the Word, and being with people in times of crisis. In the past, the pastor was the leader of a spiritual community and looked to for words from God and called on to perform Masses and baptisms. This has changed in that there is now more lay involvement in the church, but people would still look to me for sacramental concerns.
• A teacher. Aside from mediating the sacraments, I would also be teaching people about God as part of my outreach to the community at large. This instruction comes through preaching, but also through Christian education. I believe strongly in passing on the faith to the younger generations, which means that I’d be teaching it to them in their First Communion and Confirmation classes, but also by having them in church. A large part of my instruction, however, would come from my personal example. How can I tell people that they need to pray and engage in devotional practices if I am not doing that every day?

he strengths and weaknesses portion, I think I’ll come back to that when I’ve figured out how to integrate it into what I’ve just written.

This essay is really scaring me. Normally, I can write 4-6 pages in a matter of hours. It’s been almost 10 days.

You know you’re a seminary student when the first question that comes to you during a reflection paper is… how can I spin this? A good spin doctor, I ain’t.

All right… Sabrina isn’t on this weekend because there’s a movie on WWHO. I guess I’ll work on this essay until a thuderstorm or something hits…

-Reflect on your personal journey of faith and relationship to the ELCA including your current church involvement.

After I accepted Christ when I was fifteen, I started exploring the way that I could express my faith. My mother’s parents are Episcopalian and I associated liturgy with the way I should practice my faith. Even now, I still feel the most at home in a liturgical setting. It gives a rhythmic setting to the service and the structure helps me to order my life. The hymns that they sang became instructional for me. The tunes are so familiar and singing or listening to them is a calming and soothing thing for me.

When I started going to church on my own, it was an Episcopal church that shared facilities with a United Church in Christ. These two churches had some theological differences, but they put them aside. They shared Sunday schools and the social work they did. Being a part of this community got me very interested in ecumenism as I saw that different Christian groups could mingle with each other and work together.

In college, I attended a Conservative Baptist church and found that I really liked the “contemporary worship” services. They were a new way of expressing my faith and the “emotional” approach to worship took hold in me. When I’d go home for breaks, I’d find my home church to be boring. My aversion to liturgy usually disappeared at Lent, when I would long for the liturgical activities that marked that season in the church’s calendar. My university had an ecumenical Ash Wednesday service, but it still wasn’t the same.

During my second year of college, a local LCMS congregation advertised a Good Friday service and my friend Melissa and I decided to go. The service renewed my satisfaction with liturgy and I started attending their 8:00 service every other Sunday morning before going to worship team practice at the Baptist Church. A year later, I used that LCMS congregation for a Anthropology paper and started attending the 10:00 service regularly. As much as I connect with the more contemporary forms of worship, liturgy feeds me on a deeper level. The church’s 10:00 service had a more blended approach to worship with a mixture of hymns and more contemporary songs.

During my first year of seminary, I discovered that I am “bi-ritual” in that I can be fed by either the contemporary service that I helped lead at Christ and by the chapel worship at Trinity. Liturgy satisfies my need for order and the contemporary form of worship satisfies my need for an emotional connection with God.

Theologically, I really did not understand what I believed until I reached college. I was halfway on the Episcopal bandwagon and halfway on the Baptist bandwagon until I took my Reformation class and read Luther’s writings. Those made sense to me because I believe that we cannot do anything to save ourselves, but instead need the grace of God. As I read farther, I saw in the explanation to the third article of the Creed in the Small Catechism that we cannot come to Jesus on our own. That resonated with my belief that it is God who changes our hearts, not man. Unfortunately, there were no ELCA churches near my college, so I had to settle for either worshipping with the LCMS church nearby or being a closet Lutheran until I graduated. I was a closeted Lutheran for a while and then decided to try the LCMS church, who welcomed me openly.

At Christ , I started really understanding my connection with the sacraments. During the Wednesday night Lenten services, I was asked to be one of the Communion Assistants. I had been a cupbearer before but I had never been the person to hand out the bread. The words, “the Body of Christ given for you” hold so much more meaning when you are the one handing out the bread, and it was a rather humbling experience.

OK… enough faith talk. Time for Red Green! Quandumni flunkus moritati!