Sick… again

Posted on by

Well… the virus given to me by my in-laws has reared its ugly head. I woke up yesterday with severe stomach pain and had to have Jon call me in sick to work. (I’m amazed that I’m still working there since I’ve been out more days than I’ve been in this month.) I spent the day praying that it wasn’t a.) a Crohn’s flare up or b.) appendicitis since appendicitis is a hereditary condition in my family. (I’m the only one of my cousins over the age of 21 that hasn’t had it on my mom’s side. Mom is the only one of her siblings who hasn’t had it.) Oh yes… Jon’s scar from his scalp surgery started bleeding profusely yesterday morning so when he woke me up for help, he was covered with blood from his head to his waist. (I got the bleeding stopped and the doctor on call told me that I’d done all the right things and to get him stitched up if he started bleeding again.)

If I’m not on a lot in the next few days, it’s because I’m in bed. I have to work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday this week and I’m praying that I can get through all of those shifts. I worked on the 11th and barely made it through my shift after the first part of this virus.

This morning, I tuned into the religious channels (PAX and EWTN) for some edification since I missed church for the first time since August. (I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve missed church in the last two years if that tells you anything.) On PAX, they were playing some Vineyard settings of Psalms. On EWTN, there was a speaker on teaching teens about sex and dating. I then caught part of Mass before turning off the TV to engage in some LBW Matins. Jon brought me Communion which was really nice. (There are some advantages about being married to a pastoral intern.)

Mind Drain

Posted on by

Work
I was invited to apply for another library position and I’m doing it somewhat half-heartedly. I’ll also apply to be a counselor for the Seminary Sampler program at Trinity this summer. Last time, she was still looking for people and I have a feeling that CPE will probably prevent some people from applying. Then again, I don’t have as much youth experience as a lot of people do. I’m going to submit my application and pray that all works out. It’s 6 weeks in residence with the high schoolers and I think it would actually be fun. Most importantly, it would be a chance to show the kids about ministry and I really think that this is essential if we’re going to keep people my age in the church.

The only downside: I’ll probably be competing against a lot of people for the Seminary Sampler job who have MUCH more youth experience than I do. I’ve been a camp counselor, taught VBS all of ONCE, and I’ve done about as much work with the youth here as they’ll let me do. Still… if I don’t apply, I’ll never know if I will make it.

Why I am Lutheran
My in-laws got me “The Third Miracle” for Christmas and watching it made me have dreams about maybe joining the Roman Catholic Church. It would be interesting, it would indulge my mystical side but…
-They won’t ordain me. Sorry, but… the Lord has called me to ordained ministry.
-As much as I revere the saints, I still have some issues with the way a lot of Catholics pray to them. I know that there is the distinction that it’s like asking a friend to pray for you but… some people cross the line on that.
-The Roman Catholic Church is NOT the one true church. The universal (“catholic”) church is. I cannot say that all Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Orthodox, and [insert Trinitarian Christian group] are wrong and going to hell. This is also what prevents me from being Eastern Orthodox.
-The way things are done in the Roman church is NOT the way they’ve been done since the beginning. Much of the way things are done is how they’ve been done since the Council of Trent or at most 1000 years. Celibacy did NOT exist until the 11th century and purgatory started with Augustine.

I’m in a really strange position because there aren’t a lot of Lutheran bloggers. There is a pretty good-sized Reformed community but I cannot claim to agree on the way a lot of them express their faith given that a.) talking theology does not turn me on; b.) I am not a believer in paedocommunion — there is no basis for it in Scripture and I think that children need to be old enough to understand the sacrament in which they are partaking; c.) I do not view my faith in terms of covenants; d.) I feel like a lot of Reformed bloggers neglect the fact that Luther was influential on Calvin which means that *I* can count myself as Reformed (something many of them dispute); and e.) I don’t really find a lot of Refomed theology to be Cross-centered (which is what Lutheran theology is).

Oh yes… a lot of the Reformed bloggers I encounter don’t affirm my call to ordination, which is fine — I just feel like a lot of them look at me as a heretic.

Psych testing

Posted on by

Finally… something to blog about!

I just finished my psych testing for my entrance process. On Monday, I reported to Midwest Ministry Development Service in Upper Arlington and spent the morning with 5 other people talking about ourselves and interpreting pictures that we’d drawn. We all went out to lunch together and took the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory) when we returned. That was a weird test! It was a bunch of true/false statements like “people are trying to poison me” and “stealing things is how I keep sane”. After everyone had finished the test, Jay (who was leading all of this) went over the Enneagram with us and gave us our Meiers-Briggs readings. I’ve jumped from INFJ to ISFJ and I think it is mostly due to having studied theology.

On Tuesday, we were split in half. One half of the group went over questions we’d been given to talk about ourselves and the other half did a round robin of meeting with various people. I was part of the first round robin group and my first meeting was with the psychologist. I was really terrified going into it because of the fuss that had been made over my sexual harassment experience at my initial interview. Once I found out that it wasn’t going to be an issue for him, I calmed down and I told him about all the stuff he was pointing out on my medical history and in the results of my MMPI. I triggered the validity sensor which basically predicted that I wasn’t being truthful in order to present the best picture of myself possible. My over-controlled anger score was also pretty high, but that’s normal for clergy. After meeting with Dr. Bartha (the psychologist), I met with Jay and that seemed pretty un-productive other than getting my Enneagram reading. Then, I went with Carol and did the Glaser-Fox test (measuring critical thinking) and some other paper work. We all went out to lunch together again and in the afternoon, I was with Kristen and Jonathan (two other potential candidates who were my age). We went through the list of 10 questions and it was really eye-opening for me what my answers for myself were. (I’ll post them later.)

On Wednesday, we gave our answers to the 10 questions to the whole group and then went through some ministry scenarios. They were interesting and I answered a little differently than I think he wanted me to on two of them. Then we went to lunch. When we came back, we had a role-playing activity that was really nothing I would ever do, so it bombed for me. Then, Jay called us into his office individually to tell us his findings. Apparently, I bombed the Glaser-Fox test. (To be fair to me, it’s really only given to ministry candidates and we would probably score in the 90th percentile of the general populace. It’s also a left-brain test.) He said that he felt like I had a strong call to ministry but didn’t really know where to put me. It was news that was kind of good but also kind of bad since he couldn’t really see me in ordained ministry. (I think part of it is that I haven’t really developed a pastoral care identity since I’m not a parent and I haven’t had experiences like the ones Kristen had had the previous summer while working at a camp for 9/11 victim’s kids.) So… in three weeks, I get the results and I’ll see how things are with the report. I get a copy first so at least I have that before I go for my panel interview.