advisor #3
Posted September 12, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Well, my final fall semester at the seminary has begun, and it feels like I’m not really doing anything. And that is an accurate statement, because I’m actually not doing anything… yet. I begin CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education, like a pastoral practicum in a hospital setting) next Wednesday, and I have one distance class but haven’t received the materials for it yet.
On the other hand, things have gotten interesting again at the seminary. What with new faculty hires and other changes in faculty responsibilities, the seminary has reshuffled all of us students under our academic advisors.
Again.
This is my fifth year at the seminary, and now, with this fall’s reorganization, I am on my third academic advisor. And the amazing thing is that my two previous academic advisors are still full-time faculty members in some sort of advising role!
When I was a student at Taylor, I had a total of two advisors. The only reason I had more than one was because I changed departments - from computer science to mathematics. And when I landed in the math department, my advisor stayed my advisor throughout my college experience. And the neat thing was that he took interest in my life. He wanted to know how I was doing outside the classroom, how my family was doing, how my hopes and dreams for the future were shaping up into realities. He cared about my spiritual health, my physical health, and my academic health - usually in that order. I really appreciated his influence in my life during those few years.
It hasn’t been that way here at the seminary, strictly speaking. Each of my previous advisors have cared about me in all of my dimensions, to be sure. But something has been different during this degree program. The relationships I have with these men and women are built not on our advisor-advisee relations but rather on our classroom and chapel experiences. In fact, from my perspective, the advising process at the seminary is simply about getting the class registration form signed so I can take my classes. I remember one semester my advisor (#1) was out of the country on vacation, so my dad signed my form instead.
And now that I have a third academic advisor, I honestly don’t care. I have already signed up for next spring, my final semester of classes. There is no need for me to ever have an advising conversation with my new advisor. And I don’t anticipate my relationship with her - which, again, has been built around classroom and chapel (and other) experiences - changing, growing, or developing in any way because of this new organizational structure.
So here’s the question: What are academic advisors all about, anyway? And here’s the other question: How do we prevent students from being dropped through the advising cracks as they get shifted from one advisor to another (to another)? Or, stated differently, how can we help students maintain strong advising relationships (like I experienced at Taylor) when personnel changes necessitate advisor changes?
Topics: seminary | 1 Comment »
CHOG registration
Posted July 24, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Today in the mail I received a packet of information regarding my re-registration with the Church of God for its 2009 yearbook. This is something I’ve needed to do for a few months, but haven’t gotten around to it … essentially, the Church of God does its best to keep track of its active and retired ministers, for the sake of congregations seeking pastors and for the sake of pastors seeking contact information for other pastors. And for lots of other reasons, too, I suppose, but those two come to mind first.
Anyway, somehow I magically appeared in the 2008 yearbook. I believe that was due to my ordination process, which began last summer. When the yearbook was published this spring, it was kind of cool to walk into my dad’s office, open up the yearbook with him, and see our names next to each other in the alphabetical listings.
But even then I noticed a problem - they had listed my e-mail address incorrectly in the 2008 yearbook. No big deal, I thought. Who would e-mail me, anyway (who didn’t already have it handy)? I figured I’d correct it when it came time to register for the 2009 yearbook.
So this packet of papers arrives today, and, in a word, I’m flabbergasted. (What a great word, by the way.) There are three pages, printed front and back, with all sorts of different fonts, font sizes, boxes, lines… and I can barely make heads or tails of it at first glance. I begin by reading what looks like the first page - it just had that kind of look to it - but finally at the top of that page I see the subheading “Page 6 of 6.” So I flip the whole packet over and start again.
Page 1 of 6 contains all of my current information, as recorded in the 2008 yearbook. So does page 2 of 6. Page 3 of 6 finally includes some sort of instructions as to what to do with these pieces of paper. Page 4 of 6 lists all possible ministerial codes (two or three letters), in a font that’s almost legible. Page 5 of 6 is the payment sheet, and page 6 of 6 is a “no changes” page which contains a box I can check if everything is correct from last year. Whew … I managed to decipher the packet.
Ok, so I have to review my information and make any changes that are necessary. I’m already looking for the e-mail address … but here’s a list of the changes I had to make:
- e-mail address: not @hotmail.com, but @gmail.com
- phone number: change one digit from 2 to 3
- marital status: change from “Single” to “Married”
This last one is particularly interesting to me, since my wife’s name is clearly listed in the next section, “Spouse Information.” Who entered my information last year, anyway? They were none too careful.
Finally, all the information is correct. But then I see that I can save five dollars if I register online. I’m always happy to save a few bucks (and a stamp), so I wander over to the computer and fire up the old browser. It only takes me a few minutes to finish the registration process, but I’m 28 years old and I know what I’m doing with a computer. At several points along the way, I have to make some intelligent guesses about what the system wants me to do. Lemme ’splain.
On the data entry webpage, I enter all the corrected information (thankfully, the page looks a lot like Page 1 of 6… which is to say, it looks totally inappropriate and inefficient in print *and* online), and I click the “save information” button. The page reloads … and looks exactly as it did before, with the exception of a new button at the bottom entitled “submit registration.”
So I click that new button. Next comes this frighteningly complicated page giving me a list of five or six instructions I will have to follow - on the five or six following pages - in order to complete my registration payment by credit card. Thankfully, I’m a reasonably intelligent person, so I figure I can feel my way through this process pretty painlessly. (I do check to make sure the following pages are secure, though… I have my doubts.)
On one of the following pages, I see the receipt. Or bill. Or the table that shows how much you owe, whatever that’s called. And here I am confused again. The total price is blank! But, once again, being a reasonably intelligent twenty-something, I do the only reasonable thing: I play with the stuff on the page. And here’s the kicker: the *ONLY* thing I can modify on the page is an unlabeled drop-down menu. It currently displays a zero, and I can change it to display a one. Pretty fancy, huh? There is no hint whatsoever as to what this menu is supposed to do. So quite naturally, I change it to one, and then the receipt/bill/table fills in the appropriate amounts, and I am ready to go. Perfectly obvious solution.
To move on from that page, I have to click the button labeled “process credit card.” This makes me think twice, because that text usually appears after you’ve entered your credit card information. But of course this system hasn’t received that info from me yet. So I reflect briefly on my experiences with this system so far and proceed to click the button, fearless that the train will be derailed at this point.
Sure enough, I get to enter my credit card info on the next page. This page contains one very prominent warning: that I must enter the credit card’s expiration date as mm/yyyy, not mm/yy. I think to myself that if the receipt/bill/table page could update itself, I bet this page could have a snazzy line of javascript to insert “20″ into the middle of a string of text. But whatever… I finalize the deal, pay thirteen dollars, and hopefully will have a correct ministerial listing in next year’s yearbook.
I should have taken screenshots to show you all what this looked like. The technology that Church of God Ministries is using for this registration process looks like it was produced in 2000 or 2001, not 2008. User-friendliness is definitely not one of the strengths of this process, and that bugs me. This system should be much, much better. I suppose I should be thankful that it works at all …
… but no, that’s not enough. There is no reason that any organization should have to function with such a low level of technological sophistication. The tools are out there, people. Make it easier for us commoners!
Topics: ordination | 4 Comments »
bronchitis
Posted July 23, 2008 at 12:56 pm
So this cold that I’ve been nursing for the past week has developed into a pretty serious cough, which just hasn’t gone away, all Dayquil and bags of cough drops notwithstanding. So I went to the doc-in-a-box and got diagnosed with bronchitis. Let’s hear it for the z-pack! Plus they gave me a prescription for some thick, yellow cough syrup that I’m only supposed to take at bedtime. Don’t expect me to be awake before noon tomorrow. 
Topics: life | No Comments »
summertime
Posted July 17, 2008 at 2:12 pm
It’s that time again, when nothing happens in my life. The Sunday school presentation went really well, I think, even though half of the audience was related to me. I guess that wasn’t so bad, anyway… I wasn’t expecting big things from that presentation, but apparently the paper is getting some pretty broad circulation. So that’s kind of cool.
Lately I’ve been doing the summer thing, which this summer consists of doing lots of reading for my ordination process. Remember, my seminary degree, for which I’ve worked four years (so far) and for which we’ve spent thousands of dollars, counts for absolutely nothing when it comes to being ordained in the Church of God in the state of Indiana. So I’ve been working through my reading list, and I think I’m about halfway done with the part I have to read before my next interview (which is at a date yet to be determined).
Let me tell you, I’m starting to think more about this movement concept. Remember, the Church of God is a reformation movement, not a denomination. But as I read the history of the Church of God, there’s a definite swing through the twentieth century toward the denomination side… so much so that the author of one of these books asks, in a discussion question at the end of a chapter, if we should fear losing our distinctiveness if denominational walls somehow fell down and Christians around the world began thinking, functioning, and worshiping as one church. I have a hunch that many Church of God people would hesitate greatly at the thought of losing our distinctiveness, of losing our campmeetings, of losing our general assembly, of losing our heritage. But if that part of the mission gets accomplished, we had better be ready to jump ship and join everybody else.
In this century, I foresee people paying less and less attention to denominational differences. Many churches already have taken their denominational brandings off of their names, letterheads, and road signs. (And many have subsequently forgotten what they believe, which is unfortunate.) Even in our own Baptist congregation, we can only count four or five “true” Baptists. The rest of us are there for missional purposes, because of the outreach of the congregation.
So the time may be getting right for the Church of God’s message of unity in Christ to take full effect, to come into full swing, only 125 years after it began to be proclaimed here.
But are we ready to be a movement? Or are we stuck being a denomination?
I don’t know how you can be a Church of God person in today’s world without being an ecumenist. Come out of denominationalism. Be part of God’s church. Draw people together; don’t divide. And in so doing, show the world through our unity that God the Father really has sent Jesus to the world because of his love for humankind (John 17).
(Oh yeah, and since last Friday, I’ve been battling a stomach bug, a sore throat, head congestion, sinus drainage, and pink eye, generally in that order but not all at the same time. I’d like to feel well again soon.)
Topics: seminary, life, ordination | 1 Comment »
CHOG Sunday School research
Posted June 21, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Well, it’s been an interesting spring/summer for me already. From hanging out with my sister-in-law for a month to getting a new car - a 2008 Honda Fit, something to write home about! - I’ve had a lot on my plate. In addition, I’ve been wrapping up my research on the history of the Sunday school in the Church of God. That also has been something to write home about… all my research has turned into a 36-page paper (ok, only 28 of that is text, but still…it’s my biggest paper to date), which I will be presenting at a small gathering at the North American convention of the Church of God.
Sounds pretty cool, huh? I’m excited about it. I even have a cheesy Powerpoint presentation coordinated with the paper…should be fun.
This convention is held every year in Anderson, the Mecca of the Church of God. Historically, I haven’t participated very much in these conventions, because when you’re from Mecca, making the pilgrimage just isn’t quite what it could be. But anyway, it looks like I’ll be able to spend most of a whole day (or even a day and a half) at the convention, so that should be quite interesting indeed. Lots of seminars and worship services, and the meeting of the general ministerial assembly, of which I am a card-carrying member these days.
So if you happen to read this before next Tuesday (June 24th), and if you happen to be in the Anderson area, you are more than welcome to come hear my talk (along with the talk of another student researcher, two birds with one stone). Our session is from 8:30am to 10am, Tuesday 6/24, in room 113 of the seminary building on AU’s campus.
Topics: seminary, life, ordination | 1 Comment »
all bust up
Posted June 6, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Captain Midnight has had his final ride…
That was my dad’s name for my car, which I bought (in a manner of speaking) from him back when I left for Miami six years ago. I’ve put a lot of miles on it in these past two degree programs… it was up to about 130,000 miles, and I hoped to get it all the way to 250,000 before it died.
Last weekend, our pastor graduated from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary up in Chicago with a D.Min. degree. Several people from our church wanted to travel up there to attend the graduation ceremony, but the number of people was substantially greater than the number of available seats in the cars of those people who can drive. So Tara and I lent my car to friends of ours (Bethany and James), so they could drive their car and my car up to Chicago and therefore carry twice as many people.
All went well with their trip until they got off the interstate, less than a mile from the location of the ceremony. Bethany, driving my car in front, stopped suddenly at a stop sign which was mostly hidden from view by a bush on the side of the street. James, driving their car behind Bethany, was checking his mirrors and getting ready to change lanes if necessary. He looked forward just in time to smash into Bethany at a whopping 15 miles an hour.
Everybody walked away from the collision, thankfully. The only injury of note is a cracked rib in an elderly lady who was sitting in Bethany’s front seat. Both cars were deemed undriveable and were towed to a nearby towing yard. Bethany and James rented an SUV and were then able to drive everyone around in one car (and thus avoid rear-ending each other again!).
On Thursday, Bethany and I (and our pastor) drove back up to Chicago - our pastor, because I believe he felt somewhat responsible for causing the whole scenario; Bethany, because she had to return the rented SUV; and I, because I wanted to see my car and perhaps drive it home if it were worth repairing. On the way up, Bethany got the call from her insurance - both cars were totalled. (We’re still waiting on the details of the settlement.) When we got to the towing place, we cleaned out both cars and took a few pictures for posterity. Click on any picture for easy viewage:
A close-up of the front end of the car James was driving. Notice the perfectly round circle in the condenser - that’s the work of my tailpipe, which is only two or three years old.
A broader view of the front end of James and Bethany’s car.
My car. Notice the lack of rear bumper. Dad, that cracked bumper finally gave up the ghost - it fell off at the site of the accident.
The worker man is taking off my license plate for me. Notice my tailpipe, as strong as ever. (Of course, the collision may have destroyed where this pipe connects up at the front of the car.)
Lack of fender. Notice also how the body is squished up on the rear tire. That’s what made my car undriveable.
There wasn’t much room left in the trunk. The lady in the front seat is on oxygen, and she had an extra oxygen tank in this trunk. I’m glad it didn’t explode…
This is a close-up of that rear tire. Bethany’s finger shows how close the body is to the tire. It wasn’t quite touching, but roads aren’t perfectly smooth (and people do have mass, as well).
So, there goes my car. It’s all bust up. Any ideas on what we should get to replace it? We’re about to go car-shopping this evening…
Topics: life | No Comments »
women priests
Posted May 30, 2008 at 12:47 pm
This week, the Pope issued a decree stating that women priests are subject to automatic excommunication. If you’re at all interested in the topic of women in ministry, then this should create some sort of reaction in you. If you’re for women in ministry (as is, in general, the Church of God - after all, this is the contemporary issue of the day), then this decree probably feels like a step in the wrong direction. Our world doesn’t function in a male-dominated manner like it used to; Christianity needs to be at the front of this wave of change, not at the back.
Topics: seminary | No Comments »
books
Posted May 12, 2008 at 2:06 pm
It’s summertime, and that means that I get to start reading my ordination books.
For the record, let me say that I think it is somewhat silly that all the reading I’ve done for seminary thus far - probably 50 to 60 books at this point over the past four years - counts for absolutely nothing when it comes to ordination in the Church of God in the state of Indiana.
Let me reiterate: that is, in a word, silly.
I have spent thousands of dollars and thousands of hours working on this M.Div., apparently a practical degree. And yet, just now, I purchased eleven more books totaling over a hundred dollars so I can have even more reading materials that will prepare me to be the perfect minister.
And while I’m on this topic, let me explain one thing of interest. These books that I have to read to be ordained all fall into one of several categories; I have to read one book from each category. One of the categories is “Church of God Contemporary Readings.” Sounds pretty good, huh? Contemporary readings, what’s going on now in the life of the church, what are the vibrant topics of discussion, things that are really important in the Church of God today?
Two titles. Both of them about women in ministry.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I strongly support my female colleagues who are working hard to follow God’s call on their lives to become pastors. And, on the face of it, it’s probably a good thing to make all the yet-to-be-ordained men think about women in ministry and to make all the yet-to-be-ordained women feel better about their journey into hostile territory.
But is that the only contemporary issue that the Church of God is facing today? Hardly.
Hardly.
What about unity? What about homosexuality? What about war and peace? What about environmental stewardship? What about reaching a post-Christian, postmodern culture? What about racism? What about American affluence? What about the nature of the church? What about congregationalism? What about the decline of Sunday School? What about the shortage of pastors? What about Christianity and Islam?
Two titles. Both of them about women in ministry.
This, too, is, in a word, silly.
(And I score ten grammar points for using four commas in a seven-word sentence.)
Topics: ordination | 1 Comment »
another year…
Posted May 1, 2008 at 10:11 pm
…in seminary… has drawn to a close. (Actually, I should say “is drawing” - even now I’m taking a break from writing one of the final two papers of the semester.)
We had our final SOT chapel service of the year this past Tuesday. The last chapel is always the “hooding ceremony” in which the graduating seniors get their Master’s degree hoods. Very fancy, very formal, professors and administrators in “monkey suits” as my dad calls them. I was asked to lead the congregational singing through the service, so I had a lot to pay attention to … and I had an interesting perspective on the goings-on.
As a worship leader, I always find it difficult/challenging to bridge the gap between the message and the following congregational hymn, if a hymn does follow the message, which was the case on Tuesday. I spend a lot of mental energy paying attention to the message (strange, I know) and trying to draw some connection between the message and the text of the hymn so that the transition can be as seamless as possible.
I had two ideas for Tuesday’s transition. The one I went with was, I think, the more appropriate choice. The message was about Christ’s command that we love God and love each other - when seen in context of graduation from seminary, this command becomes immediately practical and fresh. When your daily world changes dramatically (as it does in graduation), you have to remember who you are and what you are doing. The concluding hymn was “And Can It Be That I Should Gain” - a marvelous hymn about the work of Christ to bring salvation - what amazing love! The connection, in my mind, was obvious: our obedience to Christ in loving God and loving others is a direct response to his love for us. So stand with me and sing…
The other idea I had was very hard to ignore. You see, the speaker of the hour wore a bright red academic robe, not black or blue or green like those of other professors and administrators. Dr. Stafford, had he been alive on Tuesday, would have worn his bright red academic robe, as well. The resemblance was actually very strong. And we sang “And Can It Be” - the last time I sang that hymn was at Stafford’s funeral service just four weeks ago. It was his favorite hymn.
It probably would not have been appropriate to twist the emotional content of the service by mentioning Dr. Stafford in the transition between sermon and hymn. But we remembered. I know, because I remembered, and I saw the same memory on the face of one of the graduates. I am certain that many remembered. “And Can It Be That I Should Gain?” Stand with me and sing…
Topics: seminary | 1 Comment »
oof
Posted April 16, 2008 at 10:12 pm
The last few days have been, in a word, pretty heavy. (Oops, that’s two words.)
On Sunday evening, I gave a short testimony at church (pre-arranged, we’re not that spontaneous) about the influence of prayer on my life. So I told the story of my call to ministry, which took place in the context of prayer with a friend. I’ve been thinking about that call a lot lately, especially as another graduation approaches (and mine looms ever larger just one year away)… what is it that I’m doing with my life, anyway?
Then on Tuesday, the multiple whammies hit. My church history prof, whose wife died last fall, somehow got to talking about her and her joyful life at the end of class in the morning… and he got choked up, which was only natural… but that’s the first time he’s gotten emotional in class since those first two weeks or so after she died.
In chapel, then, we had the annual commissioning service, complete with distribution of servants’ towels and all that good stuff. (When I get mine next year, it’ll be my third. So I can wash three feet at once.) And each senior had the opportunity to say something to the community, offer some kind of thanks to the faculty and staff, etc. Of course that became emotional pretty quickly. (On the plus side: they do the M.Div. graduates first and alphabetically, and my last name starts with A.)
Add to that a discouraging (to put it mildly) CPE situation for a couple of good friends of mine… and then in homiletics class, I was scheduled to give the devotional thought for the day, so I told the story of my call to ministry again, this time with a slant toward the meaning of preaching (being the voice of the shepherd, John 10:1-10). Then two classmates gave powerful sermons about (a) our ability to think too much of ourselves when we shouldn’t and (b) our need to find songs to sing, figuratively speaking, about the faithfulness of God in our lives. (what would I pick? I honestly don’t know)
Oof. It’s just a lot to handle all at once. But I should have expected it sometime… for the past few weeks, I’ve been wondering if I’m going down the right path with this whole seminary bit. It’s just like God, I think, to drive a point home with merciful abandon.
End result? Well, for now, it’s a good bit of reassurance that I am on the right track, even if there still is so far to go…
Oh yeah, and the Indians need pitchers. Like a flooding city needs a levee.
Topics: seminary, life, baseball | 1 Comment »