Welcome to the Confessions of a Divinity Student
October 5, 2008
I have a confession to make…..
I was almost too busy today and I almost walked past my friend Mike who needed my help. Mike is homeless and he needed eight dollars today to get into a homeless shelter where he would recieve his medication. My confession is that I almost walked right on past Jesus……
It has been tough for me these past couple of months. I have struggled with what it means to follow Christ while away at Seminary. For some, this might be an odd statement. They might respond with, “I thought going to Seminary was following Christ.” In a sense I would say yes, but like I told my friend Jonathan a couple of weeks ago, “We get it, but we don’t get it.” And I know some will say that these three years are meant to mold ones mind, but if we are to embody ministry and embody mission it is not something we wait to do when our three years are up. We need to be honest with ourselves and look at the things we need to repent. We must repent in the ways of this world, in order to join in the ways of the Kingdom of God.
This blog is just that; a way to confess the ways in which we have not loved our communities with our whole hearts. I mean, we want to do something, don’t we? What kinds of things will be created out of this dialogue? Hopefully, through our thoughts and ideas we will disturb eachother to the point that we must do something. I refuse God brought me to Durham just to write papers and I would assume the same for you….
During this time we will raise questions and will make eachother uncomfortable. We will learn that sometimes questions are better than answers. And we will learn that with much trial and discomfort, beauty and truth will find itself deeply meshed with our being.
I encourage you to journey with me through this time. Please make comments and wrestle with what it means for us to walk in the way of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
We must learn to disagree well and learn that maybe some of the best things we can learn are from the people that are least like us. A friend told me one time that we will never make Disciples unless we develop relationships with people very different than ourselves. I trust that to be true.
Through this time, we will wrestle with everything from the idols in our lives to ways in which we can better serve our community.
Will we ever learn that it isn’t about us?????
These are the Confessions of a Divinity Student……
OK so I have many observations/questions to ask and infer but before any of that can come out we must discuss one thing. This is so we don’t blow smoke for a while and come to realize that your’ this means that and mine means something different, there must be a foundation from which we build. I came to this in contemplating my disaffection for seminaries… and I must confess… some seminarians as well. I realized that perhaps my expectations were a bit off. With that said, I would like to pose this simple question – what is divinity school for? what is the purpose? why are and why should people go through formal theology/pastoral training? We must establish some sort of defined purpose for divinity school in order to progress into a fruitful conversation.
I don’t know if there is a straight-shot answer for this question. I would say that for most people, they attend Divinity School to be formed for “ministry.” I feel as though the problem here is that we disconnect from the world around us while at Seminary and compartmentalize our lives. This compartmentalization is very dangerous and I hope that we will wrestle with these questions further. Maybe we need a redefinition of what Seminary is…..