The Green Bean, Spring Break, and Seminary or Law School

Spring break is officially over and here I am, back in LA getting started on my third quarter at Fuller--I can't believe how fast this year has flown! I love fresh starts, so I am actually ok with beginning another 10 weeks of classes already, and I feel like I learned a lot about studying last quarter (i.e. don't save it all for week 10!) and I am ready to try to implement that and try again. Plus, I am definitely looking forward to all my classes this quarter as opposed to last quarter where I really only loved one of them. (Ok, so maybe I am not totally looking forward to Greek, but it's not TOO bad!) Each class will stretch and push me in different ways, which I am realizing I love. I have New Testament 2 (Acts-Revelation) and Pastoral Care and Abuse in addition to Greek and my 3rd quarter of Foundations for Ministry, so it should still be a lot of work, but work that will be really good to do and invest time in. My class on Abuse is going to be intense, and probably really painful at times, I know the book I've already started reading for it is, but like our professor said today, the harsh reality of being a Pastor in a fallen world is that our churches are not full of perfect people, about 1/2 of each congregation has experienced abuse in some way, shape or form at some point in their lives and seminaries are not doing enough to prepare pastors for the reality of encountering those painful stories. So I know it is something I need to delve into even though it is a subject that is unspeakably painful and uncomfortable for most people to even talk about.

Spring break in Seattle was awesome, I got to spend about 6 days up there enjoying seeing friends, spending a lot of time with wonderful women from Bethany (which was a surprise to me, I wasn't planning on getting to have that time with them but it was amazing!), and getting to see my grandma up in Everett. And of course, time in Seattle meant lots of time spent at The Green Bean, the most amazing coffee shop in the world! Seriously, everyone should check out their website www.greenbeancoffee.org and read about them and see why they are so amazing--they are NOT your typical coffee shop! I think I went about 5 times in the 6 days I was there--it was wonderful!

Over the weekend I got to be in San Jose with my wonderful extended family celebrating my Aunt Vernita turning 40-10....you do the math, she refuses to say "50" :) 50th Birthdays on my dad's side of the family are a big deal, so my grandparents, parents, sister, and all my aunts and uncles came together to celebrate her, which was awesome. I got to spend time in Monterey on Saturday with some of them, which has always been one of my very favorite places in California, it is absolutely gorgeous for those who have not been there. Vernita and Steve's pastor and his wife, Rod and Victoria Hall came to join us for dinner Saturday night, and I loved getting the chance to talk to them and hear their story about being called into the ministry and some of Rod's experience as a Pastor. It is so refreshing and healing to meet LCMS pastors who are supportive and encouraging when they hear that I am in seminary. I have been told that not all LCMS pastors are opposed to women being in ministry, but I haven't had a ton of personal experience with them, I've just always been told that I am a woman and therefore I can't be a pastor, but in the past several months I've had the chance to meet several LCMS pastors who are wonderful and so supportive. Rod made the comment on Saturday night that this is where the LCMS needs to get their act together because by not allowing me to use my gifts and follow my calling, the whole denomination looses the gifts and some amazing women that can do wonderful things for the church. It is so encouraging to me to hear things like that and to realize that even though the denomination as a whole does not necessarily stand behind the decision I have made to attend seminary and pursue ordained ministry, there are some in that denomination that do support my decision.

The other thing I mentioned to Rod on Saturday night was how much more difficult seminary has been academically and emotionally than I thought it was going to be. I know grad school is supposed to be tough, but I had no idea how much harder it was going to be than undergrad. Rod made the comment that when he was in seminary he used to study with two good friends who were in law school at a near by campus and one day the two law students told Rod that they both agreed that seminary was a lot more difficult than their law school had been. Rod was of course, surprised by this admission and asked them why they believed that and they said because in law school you memorize a lot and you learn a lot of very specific cases, which is difficult, but in seminary a potential pastor is expected to learn a lot about a huge number of subjects (languages, systematic theology, scripture, homiletics, exegesis, pastoral care, counseling, psychology, leadership, etc) and several of these subjects are not only intellectually taxing but they tap into deep emotions and drain a student. SO, it was kind of fun to be encouraged that way and to realize that it is not just me that is feeling overwhelmed by all the information I am supposed to attain in the next 3 years!

Anyways, that is my random collection of ramblings for this week--I'm going to try to be better about posting stuff throughout the quarter, but I make no promises :)

Random Thoughts

So, winter quarter is officially over, and I'm back in Seattle for the next week enjoying Spring break--and after the last 2 weeks of finals chaos, craziness, and stress I am very much enjoying being here with no agenda, and nothing to do but spending time with some amazing people! :)

The past two months feel a little like a blur, it was an insane quarter academically but it was also full of some incredible lessons learned and memories made with new friends. I headed back to LA in January and started a crazy set of classes--the second quarter of Greek, Systematic Theology 2 (Christology & Soteriology), Foundations for Ministry 2, and Intro to Family Ministry. The first 3 classes were fine, nothing too exciting, a ton of work, but just kind of normal classes...but intro to family ministry was AMAZING. It was taught by Chap Clark, a professor who has done a ton of research & work with youth and families, and his class, the reading, and our final project were probably the most fun I have had in grad school so far. He forced us and really pushed us to think through what our concept of family ministry is--what our theological definition of "family" is (did you know that there is no word in either the Greek or Hebrew scripture for "family" as we define it today? Instead the words used describe entire households or clans and would often include 50-100 people--our concept of the nuclear family comes from the Victorian era). Thus, Chap pushed us to really think through what it means to do ministry with families--if our theological definition of family needs to be broader than our American understanding of the nuclear family, then it should radically alter the way that we do ministry to families. Family ministry cannot be simply a set of programs, instead it needs to be an entire shift in our mindset of families and the churches' role as being a Family of Families. Our final project was to create an entire family ministry program for a church--we basically had 20 pages to design my dream job as a family minister--the context, the programs, the way we care for and educate our nuclear families, and the way that we incorporate those who don't fit into traditional families into the church family. It was amazing and I spent all quarter thinking "this is exactly what i want to do with my life, this is what I really care about." So it was wonderful in the midst of Systematics and Greek to have a class that made me SO excited (often overwhelmed and terrified too!) about going into ministry.

This quarter was also our Presbyterian Retreat which was a wonderful time of resting, relaxing, having extended jam sessions of old random camp songs, and great times of worship and teaching up in beautiful Big Bear. So here are several random pictures from that weekend...

Sunset over the lake--the Pirate Ship is rumored to be the one they used in Goonies according to everyone we talked to--you'll have to decide for yourself, but it was pretty cool!

Look out! Denise is driving!

A wonderful group of girls (starting in the back) Becca, Julie, me, Steffi, Jenn (Pocket), Sophie, Denise and Jenn H.Friday night's Jam session with Luke, Rebecca, Ben and Dave

Reese, Paul, Pocket, Sarah & Ryan

Ryan and ISophie & I--aren't we cute?! :)

Jaden Arnod (Jen and Jeff's daughter) joined us for the weekend and it was so much fun to have a little one with us--we all enjoyed spending time with her! Here she is helping Ryan with his Greek homework--she was a huge help I am sure!