Pray & Break Bread + 09.18.09

Context matters to me deeply. Besides being the entire reason I began this seminary journey, it has also been the very thing that sustained me in my first year at Luther Seminary as I served The Netzer Co-Op in Austin, Texas and studied towards an M.Div. in the distributed learning program. One of my primary questions during the transition to residential study was how do I stay grounded in a context? Seminaries are strange places, let's be honest. They are not normal spaces. Matter of fact Luther Seminary is formative precisely because it is not a normal space -- it is a liminal space in which a provision community forms made up of more pastors than we ever know what to do with, a level of education that is freightening and a degree of homogeny that we'll leave alone for another day. Its a crucible this place called seminary. It's not normal and it is not supposed to be. But what about context? What about the places we all come from? What about the very neighborhood that surrounds 2481 Como Avenue? How do we stay connected to that?

What if we walked the neighborhoods?
What if we prayed for them as we did just that?
What if we listened deeply to the voices of pastors who served in the neighborhoods of our city?
What if we took the time to quite our spirits down and be present to the living God is has gone before us to shape the world we will soon be sent into?

This past Friday, a group of students, faculty and pastors did just that. This is important stuff and the kind of thing that is driving the theological imagination of this weird, liminal space we call Luther Seminary. If you have ever asked yourself these questions or if you are now, you should come next time.