It is a weird, weird time to be in the ELCA, and even stranger to be in seminary. It's not something that is very popular to say, but the whole denomination is in a lot of flux right now. Money is extremely tight, individuals and congregations are leaving for any number of other smaller, alphabet soup Lutheran "denominations", others are staying and waiting for better options. There's not a lot of leadership within the denomination - for those inside or outside the seminaries. This adaptation of Luther's "my conscience is bound to the Word of God" to "my conscience is bound to me and my personal opinion" has, in my personal opinion, left a lot of people scrambling.
Everybody has to say that what everybody else thinks or says is okay, even though no one actually thinks that anything other than their own opinion is, in fact, okay. There is miscommunication, distrust, suspicion, and rudeness on all sides. Seminary students and professors have to guess at each other's opinions from classroom vibes or campus rumors. Seminarians and candidacy committees play footsie with each other, trying not to talk about the thing that everyone is talking about and no one is talking about, all at once.
As a new friend of mine has been prone to say, "It all comes down to authority." Who is in charge, who is leading this bandwagon of crazy ELCA-ers, and where is that person (people?) leading us? I wish I knew...
Thursday, August 5, 2010
"Housekeeping"
I always find it a little strange when people who have blogs that no one actually reads write like the whole world is reading, but I think I'm about to do it. Also, you know how on the first day of class when the professors go through the syllabus and various other organizational and administrative junk and they refer to it as "housekeeping"? Why do they do that? Is anyone vacuuming? Cleaning out the refrigerator? Doing a load of laundry?
Well, regardless, I feel compelled to set the stage for this here blog, now that I've had it for three months and have done virtually nothing with it. I've been re-inspired, I suppose.
I need to write; I love writing; I reflect best through writing. When I'm thinking, when I'm really putting my best effort into it, I write very "tightly" - I pack a lot into concise sentences and turns of phrase. When I'm just sort of meanderingly (?) reflecting, I can be very long-winded. Sometimes I'll even go back and edit these later, because they end up annoying me when I'm not so emotional.
Nonetheless...my goal here is to try to make sure I write for at least 10 minutes a day about...something. (I use lots of ellipses, which I think is actually reflective of how I talk, and how I think.)
I'm writing because I need a place to write down the things I think I think (stealing from, at minimum that NFL column in Sports Illustrated, but probably somewhere older than that...) I'm going to try to stay relatively anonymous here, mostly because of what's called the "candidacy process" in the ELCA.
I'm going to be writing about whatever I feel like writing about: the wrap-up to CPE, internship, stuff I'm reading or thinking, the strange parts of my life, whatever. I'm a writer, and I want to write, and so I can, should, and will write.
I haven't really told too many people about this blog, just because, well, I don't know...But I'll probably tell others about it as I get more comfortable with the idea of blogging, and possibly also less paranoid. And I'll be linking to people much cooler and worth reading than I.
If you're here and want to comment, please be charitable. Ascribe the best motives to me and others, and I'll do the same for you. Heed the admonition in the comments form. The internet does a lot of good, but it is also a really mean and nasty place, and I don't want my little corner of it to be that way.
So, enough cleaning the windows for now. Onward and upward!
I need to write; I love writing; I reflect best through writing. When I'm thinking, when I'm really putting my best effort into it, I write very "tightly" - I pack a lot into concise sentences and turns of phrase. When I'm just sort of meanderingly (?) reflecting, I can be very long-winded. Sometimes I'll even go back and edit these later, because they end up annoying me when I'm not so emotional.
Nonetheless...my goal here is to try to make sure I write for at least 10 minutes a day about...something. (I use lots of ellipses, which I think is actually reflective of how I talk, and how I think.)
I'm writing because I need a place to write down the things I think I think (stealing from, at minimum that NFL column in Sports Illustrated, but probably somewhere older than that...) I'm going to try to stay relatively anonymous here, mostly because of what's called the "candidacy process" in the ELCA.
I'm going to be writing about whatever I feel like writing about: the wrap-up to CPE, internship, stuff I'm reading or thinking, the strange parts of my life, whatever. I'm a writer, and I want to write, and so I can, should, and will write.
I haven't really told too many people about this blog, just because, well, I don't know...But I'll probably tell others about it as I get more comfortable with the idea of blogging, and possibly also less paranoid. And I'll be linking to people much cooler and worth reading than I.
If you're here and want to comment, please be charitable. Ascribe the best motives to me and others, and I'll do the same for you. Heed the admonition in the comments form. The internet does a lot of good, but it is also a really mean and nasty place, and I don't want my little corner of it to be that way.
So, enough cleaning the windows for now. Onward and upward!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
God is good!
So, last week I ran into (well, not literally), an old campaign co-worker in the Starbucks drive-thru of all places. I was opening that morning, and I took some lady's order over the headset, had her pull up, and then went over to the window to get her money. I looked at the lady, thought, "Wow, she looks like Bobbie," and she must have been having a similar revelation because at the same time we both said, "OH MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
She was, in fact, visiting her brother not far from the store, but she remembered or knew somehow that I was up here at school. Not sure how that info gets around, but politics is a small world, I suppose. We chatted for a few minutes - she told me what she was up to, who she was working for, caught me up on a few other people, and then she left because we were holding up traffic behind her.
We weren't friends, per se, when we worked together (I actually couldn't stand her), although there's always something about seeing someone from your past that makes you reminisce a little, right? No, not at all. And it had nothing to do with her personally. I realized, in that brief encounter, how glad I am that I have permanently quit politics, how delighted I am to have God call me to something radically different.
She was, in fact, visiting her brother not far from the store, but she remembered or knew somehow that I was up here at school. Not sure how that info gets around, but politics is a small world, I suppose. We chatted for a few minutes - she told me what she was up to, who she was working for, caught me up on a few other people, and then she left because we were holding up traffic behind her.
We weren't friends, per se, when we worked together (I actually couldn't stand her), although there's always something about seeing someone from your past that makes you reminisce a little, right? No, not at all. And it had nothing to do with her personally. I realized, in that brief encounter, how glad I am that I have permanently quit politics, how delighted I am to have God call me to something radically different.