If We Build It . . .

I continue to work on "becoming a seminarian" tasks, although I've done all that I can do for the most part, and now we wait.  Yesterday I called the Admissions Coordinator at Southern Seminary.  As a Lutheran going to a Methodist seminary, I'll need to affiliate with a Lutheran seminary, and I chose Southern, so I called to make sure there wasn't anything I needed to be doing.

The Admissions Coordinator was wonderful, even as it was quickly clear that I was calling too early.  But she didn't say, "Call back when you've gotten accepted by the candidacy committee."  We talked about the process and several different approaches.  I was hoping she would say, "Hey, we have a class starting this summer, and it's online, and you should take it.  That way you'll be much further along in your Lutheran year requirement."  But that wasn't one of the options, and it makes sense to me.  I might be able to do the Lutheran year requirement as I go along, if I plan my electives carefully, so why take a class before we're sure I need to do that?

It was great to talk to the Admissions Coordinator and comforting to know that I'm on track.  She said they often hear from people as they're finishing, which makes it much harder.  It was also great to talk to her because she mentioned that she's in her seminary position as her call--as an ordained minister, that's where she serves.

I continue to hope that I can have a different kind of call as an ordained minister.  I'm not dreaming of a parish, although I'm not categorically opposed.  But yesterday, as I explained why I chose Wesley instead of a Lutheran seminary, I talked about Wesley's Theology and the Arts track, and I said, that my dream job would be creating a program on Theology and the The Arts at Southern, or any other Lutheran seminary. I said it out loud, and the Admissions Coordinator said that it sounded wonderful.

Let me say it a different way:  I said it out loud, and the Admissions Coordinator didn't laugh at me or tell me why it was impossible or stupid or that no one would care.  She didn't say, "Well, you'll need a Ph.D. in Theology, which will be 5 more years after you get the M.Div, and people will pay more attention to you if you spend 5 years in parish ministry first."

I continued to think about that all afternoon; I've been assuming I would have to choose between pastor and college professor.  Now I'm going to keep dreaming about how I might combine them.  I know that there aren't many seminary programs that have a Theology and the Arts track--I know, because I've been looking for them.  

I've been assuming that there's no track because there's no interest.  Now I'm going to start changing my thinking--maybe for once I could be on the cutting edge or riding a cresting wave.  

I'm seeing many conversations about how we change the church after the pandemic loosens its grip.  What have we learned and what do we need to do?  Many of these conversations revolve around the discoveries that we've made around online/virtual church.  But let me remember that there are other yearnings too, other ways that we could be church and help people perceive the presence of God.

Let me continue to dream of training the next generation in creative ways to do that.