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.