Life@Luther has MOVED!

We're really excited to announce that our Life@Luther blog has moved to Luther Seminary's website! We'll have the same awesome content from some amazing students, we're just going to be in a new home at www.luthersem.edu/lifeatluther.

Grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and dig in to what life is like for students at Luther Seminary!

Credibility

I’ve had a couple of experiences lately that have made me reflect on where our credibility as church leaders comes from.

On Tuesday I had my first teaching experience at my church as part of the class for new believers. When my supervising pastor prepped me for this experience, he encouraged me to share something about myself so that people could get to know me, but not to focus on the fact that I’m a seminary student. As he put it, I would not gain credibility with people because of a degree but because of my experiences in the life of faith.

At first this seemed odd to me, since studying in seminary seems very relevant to teaching a theology class. Yet his explanation made sense, especially considering our context. First, we are in a church where pastors do not necessarily need to be ordained or have a seminary degree. Second, we are dealing with new believers or people who have been disillusioned by church, so emphasizing a seminary education or being a “professional” church person might put a distance between them and me.

Depending on the context, being in seminary might gain for us a certain degree of credibility. I have visited churches where people ask me all sorts of theological questions, assuming I have an answer. My voice was given a place of authority because of my education, whether this was deserved or not.

Then in my church history class yesterday the professor touched on this point, claiming that the office of pastor should not carry an inherent authority, but rather the authority or respect must be earned. One student responded that the reality is often that people automatically give respect because of the office, whether it should be that way or not.

I think there is a balance here somewhere. A seminary education is very important in preparing us for our ministries. In the class on Tuesday, I was able to answer many of the questions people had precisely because I have studied these issues at Luther. I think people are more likely to trust a teacher who demonstrates some knowledge about the subject at hand.

Yet my education or the degree I will some day have cannot substitute for relationships with people or showing that I understand questions of the faith on a personal level as well as an academic one. Eating dinner with the students is just as important as teaching a class, and in these moments there is no distinction between who has a theological degree or not, there is just being together.

My mom's garden

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my mom’s death. Her death was a unexpectedly fast and devastatingly slow battle with breast cancer. She was much too young but sometimes it feels like forever ago that she died. But it’s only been one year.

Yesterday my family (husband and three kids) were joined by my father to have dinner and remember my mother. I wanted to do something special to remember the day but to not sit in our grief. I suggested we make paving stones for my mom’s garden. Well, I guess it’s our garden now since live in my parents’ house, but it will always be my mom’s garden. She loved the garden. It started out as just a rose garden but expanded to include whatever flower or plant my mom had a whim for each year. It is just beautiful and with my husband’s blessing (he likes to garden, I don’t), we are going to keep much of the garden the same. Come spring, we’re going to put these paving stones in my mom’s garden in her honor.

Christmas was also very important to my mom so we took some of her less favorite and least meaningful ornaments and placed pieces in the cement. (See the picture.) They probably won’t last very long, but we’ll know they’re part of the stones. It was wonderful to be part of a ritual where we all joked around and the kids thought very deliberately about what “grandma would love” as we all decorated.

It was important to have this moment with my family totally unrelated to the seminary and my ministry setting. It was important to see God at work in my own life.

A fine, fine evening.

Internship is pretty great. I’ve been blessed with a lot of freedom and flexibility from my supervising pastor. Towards the beginning of the year, I brainstormed ideas for my internship project, which is a requirement from the seminary. After narrowing it down, little by little, I settled on a great opportunity to both serve the congregation and learn a lot.

This post isn’t about that project.

This post is about one of the ideas that were pushed to the side during the process. As you may now, I love to cook. I love communion. And I love people. I thought it would be great to begin a ministry of visiting our homebound members, cooking for (or with) them, enjoying a meal and conversation with them, and sharing the Sacrament with them. So, even though it’s not my official project, I still decided to give it a try.

This past Thursday evening, around 5:30, my wife dropped me off at the Landt residence. She hurried off to tutor a 1^st grader in reading, and I walked up to the Landt’s wooden front door, and rang the illuminated doorbell. From the moment they opened the door, it was a whirlwind of chopping, boiling, frying, tasting, sharing, talking, and laughing. A lot of laughing.

The only moment that escaped the whirlwind of fun and fellowship was Communion. After I had cooked, and before we began to eat, we sat down and shared in the bread and the wine. We heard the Lord’s promises and prayed the Lord’s Prayer, then ate the Lord’s body and drank the Lord’s bread. Without question, our small group of three added a fourth in the Lord. And there was peace.

Then, the night continued in just the same way it began. Thankfully, my wife was able to join us for dessert and more conversation--and wine.

It was a fine, fine evening.

I already have another couple lined up to visit in a similar fashion, and hope to involve more families in the cooking and visiting, too.

I think there’s something to this fellowship, to this sharing a meal, and to this breaking of bread and drinking of wine. I could get used to this.

Snow Day!

I don’t remember the last time I’ve experienced an official “snow day,” when school gets cancelled. I especially didn’t expect a snow day at Luther, considering all the snow we got in December without classes ever being cancelled. It was a pleasant surprise to learn this morning that I have the day off. It couldn’t have come at a better time.

Sometimes (ok, often) I forget to take a day of rest. Ironically, I have all but stopped celebrating the Sabbath since I started seminary! Last year, when I attended the Spanish-speaking congregation, I was usually at church from 9am until 2:30pm on Sundays. By the time I came home and ate lunch, it was time to start my reading for Monday classes. Not much actual "down time."

This year I’m at a different church, where the services are exactly 1 hour and 15 minutes. I have mostly been going to the Saturday evening service, so as to have all of Sunday free. But instead of actually resting on Sundays, I tend to work ahead on my homework for the week, do laundry, make food, etc. I’m not good at resting.

This weekend I realized how exhausted I am. Besides the normal life of being a student, for the past two Saturdays I taught my “Greek for church people” class. It was a wonderful experience that went very well, but it did take some energy out of me. Four hours is a long class, both for teacher and students. Plus, I put a lot of preparation in figuring out how to teach Greek in 8 hours through Spanish.

All that being said and done, by the time Sunday rolled around I was really tired, but decided to work ahead on my assignments for the week. When I went to bed last night, I dreaded the thought of getting up at 5:45am to shovel my car out of the snow and leave enough time to get to Luther for my 8am class.

Early this morning I checked the Luther website, just in case, and found out that classes had in fact been cancelled. And I finally understood the message that sometimes I just need to take a break.

Ministry Moments

You never know when an experience that happens in ministry is going to come back and smack you right between the eyes.

This evening, as I've been sitting at the table working on homework, my wife was watching a tv documentary called "The Man That Lost His Face." It's about a man from Portugal that had an extremely rare tumor that, over the course of this lifetime, engulfed most of his face in an extreme growth. The documentary followed him as he underwent surgeries that removed the tumor and began to reconstruct his face. One particular moment caught my attention.

Following the first surgery, the man was recovering and it was going well. After about two weeks, his surgeon walked into the room. He recognized the doctor and reached out to shake his hand.

Enter in my own personal experience last fall. In going to a routine home visit, I found a congregation member post heart attack. He was alive, but clearly in trouble. I phoned in the emergency, and then spent the rest of the day at the hospital with his daughter. Now in the end, the man died, but he lasted for a couple weeks before God called him home. It allowed time for him to connect with his children which meant a lot to them.

I got the call when he started going downhill, and went to the nursing home to visit with him and his family. When I arrived, I was told that he was in and out of conciousness, mostly out. However, when I walked in, his son whispered in his ear "this is Scott that found you." He woke up, reached up and shook my hand as he looked me square in the eye.

That was it. As soon as he did this, he lost conciousness again, and that was the last I saw him.

Watching this particular image on the documentary brought that whole situation back to me and I broke down.

Sometimes we experience some situations that are truly amazing. They are amazing in ways that don't necessarily mean wonderful, but yet they are amazing none the less. I feel incredibly blessed to be invited into these moments, and yet incredibly humbled at the same time.

Return of the Snow!

The weather in the US is strange indeed. This week the snow had begun to melt and we had about 30 degrees outside. It would seem like the spring was coming to Minnesota. That would turn out to be false.
I just learned that Luther Seminary will be closed tomorrow (Monday, February 21) due to a snowstorm. This was no surprise to some, since we had a snowstorm raging on the whole day. So much, in fact, that I have been unable to go anywhere today which was a little sad since I had to cancel some plans I had with a couple of friends this evening.
In all honesty though, I kinda like the fact that I get to experience a real winter in the US. Our "snowstorms" back in Sweden seems small in comparison!

Otherwise it's been a pretty rough week, papers and books to read all over the place... and then there was the issue with taxes... Apparently we who are "aliens"/international students also have to pay tax and file tax papers. But instead of explaining (you who live here in the US probably know this better than me) let me sum it up with the following excerpt from my tax papers:

"part time residents or nonresidents: from schedule M1NR, enter the tax from line 27 on line 14, from line 23 on line 14a, and from line 24 on line 14b."

This is one of those things that makes me miss my native country...
Back in Sweden we declare and pay our taxes in the following way:
1. We receive a letter with our tax information.
2. We sign it.
3. We send it back. (We can do it online as well. If we do, we can skip this step).

Luckily there are a some nice people at Luther that have promised to help a poor and confused Scandinavian!

Deepest Fear

This week I had my first Monday night class of the semester. This half semester class—Women in Ministry—is going to be interesting for a number of reasons. First, it is the largest class I have experienced at Luther. With over 40 students, small-group discussions will be a must. Second, it is my first opportunity to take a class from Professor Karoline Lewis. I'm rather excited about this. I've heard she is an excellent professor but as I am an MA who does not have to take the preaching classes that are her bread-and-butter, I didn't expect the opportunity to learn from her. Third, the topic is going to be very interesting. When we discussed why we were taking this class, I couldn't think of a reason. Then it hit me: I'm a mother. I'm a wife. I have two jobs. I'm a student. What I never address, though, is that I am also a woman who is pursing her call into world of ministry. A world that has not (and sadly is not) always welcoming to women in leadership positions. I think I’m going to look at this class as an opportunity to explore what that call looks like for me and what challenges I may face.

Professor Lewis began class with a reading. I think I’m going to post this reading on the wall over my desk (maybe I’ll make copies so I can post it at all of my desks). I might just have to read the whole book. I get chills just reading this, because it's true.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” —Marianne Williamson, “A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles”

Practical "Test"

Last night I had an interesting time at my Teaching Congregation. It was the second week of the Discover Jesus class, but the first week we had small group discussions after the teaching. This class consists largely of new believers or seekers, which made for a very raw and honest conversation.

I was asked to co-lead a group this time. When I sat down to the dinner table where we connect with our small groups before the teaching, there was just one other young woman there. Within minutes she opened up about her life and quest for faith, which she admitted she hadn’t found yet. A co-worker had encouraged her to try Jesus for a year and see what happens, so this class is part of her “trial period.”

Speaking with this woman, as well as our small group discussion, was like a practical test of everything we supposedly learn in seminary. All the big apologetic questions arose, like “if God is powerful, why is there so much suffering in the world? Why do I pray and nothing happens? Why does God seem so distant? What’s the deal with the Trinity? Am I really supposed to believe in a resurrection?”

It’s one thing to discuss these questions at a deep academic level with people at Luther who already assent to the Christian faith, but entirely another to discuss them with people who have never been part of the church, or had been turned off of it at some point. This is not the place to discuss the social versus classical views of the Trinity, but rather to enter into people’s very personal struggles with faith.

As a seminary student, my tendency is to jump to giving solid Biblical answers to people’s questions (which of course assumes I must know them!). That is useful in this setting at times, and part of our call as church leaders (and as Christians) is to speak truth. Yet I also remember my pastoral care class, and how my role is not to have all the answers, but to facilitate a discussion, and above all, to listen. I learned a lot from my co-leader, who has led groups before and is good at drawing people’s own reflections out and opening the conversation to the group.

So, I look forward to the next 12 weeks of this class. I am thankful for the challenge of speaking about God in ways people can relate to—especially “non-church” people—which unfortunately seems to get lost at times when I am immersed in the academic study of the faith.

A Couple of Observations

Two things occurred to me today. One of them is related to the transition from DL student to on-campus, and the other one...well...isn't.

First things first...the transitional one...and keep in mind that what I am about to share with you is completely observational based on my personal experience yesterday and is by no means statistically accurate or even plausible.

Okay...disclaimer aside...here we go.

It seems like the general trend of age groups on campus is younger than what I'm used to in the DL program. In a way, this makes sense. The DL program is really aimed at individuals that would have a harder time relocating due to constraints of family, employment, etc. In general terms, this applies to people that are older and more firmly entrenched in a particular location. That being said, people of the younger persuasion would likely have an easier time with the relocation required for becoming residential.

I bring this all up because yesterday I started to really interact with several different classmates that are in some of the same classes that I am this semester. Discussion that occurred included internship placement interviews, which of course are going on right now. I have on in about an hour as a matter of fact.

While I was having these various discussions with new classmates, it occurred to me. I'm older than these people.

I'm used to being one of the younger ones. I'm 31 and as of J-term (my last hurrah as a DL student) I was the 2nd youngest member of my cohort and I was okay with that. After 2.5 years, it seemed pretty normal. Now I seem to be interacting with a lot of classmates that are mid 20's (give or take a couple years). Granted, this isn't that much younger than me, but I do recognize the small gap. Conversations that show glimpses of what they are experiencing in life happened to me 5-10 years ago.

Is this what its like to officially realize that you're getting old?

Now, the second observation. Before coming over to campus today, I was reading for tomorrow's session of Reform of the Church (aka History 2). The section that I was reading was essentially "History of Luther" (the guy as opposed to the school). As I was reading it, I realized "Hey, I know this stuff. I've taught this stuff." Background, at my teaching parish back in Iowa, I taught Lutheran history as a part of our confirmation program.

Now, here comes the nugget of wisdom. I don't remember where I heard this, but I know I've heard it within the last 6 months or so. It could have been my supervising pastor, it could have been my CPE supervisor, it could have been a seminary prof, or it could have been one of countless other people.

Brace yourself...this is going to rock your world...

If you really want to learn something...teach it.

My realization this morning shed so much light on just how utterly and completely true this statement is that I had to stop (at least metaphorically as I was driving down the interstate when the light bulb went off) and laugh. Every once in awhile, we realize that the wisdom shared with us from the generations that come before us, is valid.

This is not to say that the wisdom that they share isn't valid all the time, but rather to say that every once in awhile, we actually believe it.

Signs of Spring

For all the complaining I tend to do about winter, I must not miss this opportunity to rejoice over the recent signs of spring in Minnesota.

We have had several days in the 40s, which is a much welcome change from the sub-zero temperatures of just over a week ago. On Saturday I took my first outdoor walk since about October. Snow was melting into puddles all around me, and once again I saw people with their babies and dogs also enjoying the thaw. I had almost forgotten how refreshing and soothing it is to breath fresh air and feel the sun. Running indoors on a treadmill just isn’t the same!

Of course, it wouldn’t be a true Minnesota early thaw if there were not at least one person outside in shorts the minute the temperature rises above 35 degrees. I saw at least one of these this weekend, which confirms that spring is near!

In the midst of being busy with school and other activities, I’ve been learning to enjoy the “little things.” To avoid the chaos of morning traffic on the way to school, I’ve started taking the side streets to get to the freeway. With the gain in minutes of daylight, this puts me driving past Lake Calhoun just about sunrise. It’s beautiful, and reminds me that soon I will once again enjoy Minnesota spring/summer activities like walking around the lakes.

Everything seems easier in spring, especially parking on campus. With the snow melting, many more spaces in the parking lot have appeared out of nowhere, and two cars can actually drive down the side streets at the same time. And I can now see over the smaller snow banks as I look for oncoming traffic while making a turn (tall people don’t appreciate this “little” thing).

While no one knows how long our early “spring” will last, I plan on enjoying every minute of it!

Starting to pick it up

Here we are in week 2. Although with starting Week 1 on Tuesday, I didn't have all of my classes until yesterday. A fact that is strong in my mind as one of my Monday classes is Foundations of Biblical Preaching with Karoline Lewis, who is currently across the open space in Northwest talking on her cell phone...side note...remember that post I made last week of being surrounded by academics? This situation applies to that too.

But I diguress.

On Monday's I don't need to be on campus till 12:30, and I took advantage of that yesterday to hammer out a bunch of work for my single online class. However, I wrap up right at 4:30, which is not a fun time to attempt to drive across the metro. Behold the power of rush hour.

That being said, I've discovered a handy website that will show a map of the main driving routes and the current driving conditions traffic-wise. Its a good thing to have in the back pocket. I glanced at it right before packing up the computer and noticed that the stretch of 35W between 280 and 694 was moving really slowly. In my experience, this has been the worst stretch of the evening commute.

A fellow commuter that goes to my new church keyed me in to a tip a week or so back...buzz over to Snelling and go north. With the traffic report as it was, I decided to give that a shot yesterday. Now, I wish I could say that it worked perfectly and there were no delays at all, but driving any road at that time of day is going to be slow. That being said, I reached the intersection between 35W and 694 within about 15 minutes and as I looked down 35, I could see that it was backed up t the extreme. Probably would have been 30 minutes or more had I gone that way.

So it would seem that I had made a good choice. That being said, I also realized that instead of taking Como over to Snelling (which does curve ever so slightly to the south) I should have gone over on Larpenter. I'll remember that next time.

You know, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this.

A new way of thinking...

I now have one less week at Luther Seminary...
I'm enjoying my spring semester so far, even though I might have my strangest schedule so far. Somehow I have all my courses on Tuesdays, all five of them, meaning I go from 9 am to 9 pm. And that's it. Well, almost anyway, since I have a few classes on Thursdays as well, giving me 3 solid reading days every week as long as I can survive my Tuesdays. Something that shouldn't be a problem since I'm very happy with my courses so far. I also got reminded of something important this week. While attending class, I'm not just obtaining new information to cram into my head and then trying to apply it, I also to this a get to meet and be under the tutelage of many of the great minds at Luther Seminary. Sometimes I find professors who think in a way similar to my way of thinking, which is encouraging and makes them easy to follow and understand and sometimes I find professors who don't, which makes them a bit harder to understand. This time though I've found a professor who doesn't think like me, but somehow is easier to understand. In other words I'm being introduced to a new way of thinking, this is not the first time however (I've been studying at seminary for 3.5 years after all). But this time around it is different since the professor is actually challenging me to think in a completely new way.
Challenge accepted!

Greek, Part I

I gave the first part of my Greek for “church people” class yesterday. There were just four students, but they were enthusiastic, which makes all the difference. It turns out that they are each from a different country and at some point have had to operate in a second language, so explaining the importance of language was very easy. It also helped provide examples of the difficulty of translating a word from one language so that it has meaning in another.

Being my first time teaching a class of this sort, I had no idea what would grab people’s interest and what would be easier or harder to learn. So I put in a little of everything—history, the alphabet, pronunciation, grammar, formation of the New Testament—with the goal of reading some of John 1 and pointing out key words and their meanings. The students seemed very interested in all of it, and asked some very insightful questions I was not anticipating.

One man would ask really good questions that I could only guess at, then later in the class he would come up with a great answer on his own. It made me realize that the person teaching has a lot to learn from the students, and the role of a teacher is to provide a space for everyone to learn from each other. This became more clear to me as one student laid out in detail the grammatical rules in Spanish for accenting, syllables, etc., then asked me if Greek does the same thing. At times I could just smile and nod and say, “Yes, you’ve got the right idea.” (Spanish class was many years ago!)

So, four hours of Greek went surprisingly fast, leaving me now to think about next week’s class (the last class). I want to introduce some key grammatical concepts we didn’t cover yesterday, but that the students were asking about. One student told me he is interested in studying more on his own, so I think I will explain more about the tools for Bible study using Greek, and give resources so that they can keep learning.

The impression I’m left with is how there are people in the churches that are hungry to know things we are learning in seminary, but don’t have the same opportunity to study in-depth, as we do. I think the teaching ministry in churches is crucial, especially when there is so much that leaders learn from interacting intellectually with the congregation. Yet at least in many churches I’ve been in, it’s underdeveloped. This is something I hope to change.

Keeping up with the Joneses. And Andersons. And all of Luther Seminary--including the Noncord.

Whilst on internship, I struggle to keep in touch with my fellow seminarians, as well as the general happenings at Luther. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are vital in keeping touch with people. I also love the Luther Seminary website, namely the Inside Luther page.

One way to keep up on all that's going on at the seminary, including views on issues, general news, and what people have on their hearts and minds is the Concord Newspaper--read online. Being the lover of comedy that I am (even if I'm not actually funny), I adore when the editors of the Concord release the Noncord issue (an issue just came out!) . It's hilarious, though very contextualized. Knowing of the professors and students at whom the writers are poking fun is essential to work your belly-laughing muscles. You can still read it and chuckle at the cleverness, though.

I didn't figure I would miss the community at the seminary quite as badly as I do--and I am very thankful for the internet for keeping me connected and in the loop!

Spring Semester

As I mentioned previously, the line between my J-term and Spring semester was rather blurry. I turned in my final J-term paper last Friday, and started Spring classes on Tuesday. Despite not having a break, I really enjoyed my J-term experience and was glad to get a full credit done in a month. Now it’s time to focus on the new semester.

What’s new for me? For one, I have class every day of the week. I have been spoiled all my other semesters by having at least one day per week with no classes, typically Fridays. On the plus side, having class everyday means I see people more often and am more likely to participate in activities on campus, like discipleship group.

Another new thing for me is having an 8 a.m. class—3 days per week. I am a morning person, but even for me this seems early, mostly because I never know how long the drive to school will take at that time. On Wednesday I left an hour early and it only took me 20 minutes to get to school. Yet if I try to leave tomorrow at 7:30am I might be stuck in traffic for 45 minutes. I’ll probably get the timing just right by week 6, when this class ends.

Maybe I’ve gotten used to seminary, or maybe my classes have gotten easier, but looking at my schedule for spring, I do not feel at all overwhelmed (as I have before). I haven’t had my preaching class yet, but that seems to be more practical than intensely academic. I’d say the same for my church music class. And after the first day of my History of the Reform class, I feel very relieved to only be covering about 400 years of church history in one class, as opposed to the 1500 years we covered in the Early Church History class. Things are looking good.

My most exciting class is Greek Readings. I’ve spent the past semester and summer as a TA for the basic Greek class, getting a good grasp on the basics. Now I'm excited to apply what I’ve learned (or hope I’ve learned!) to actually reading the New Testament, which is why we learn all that grammar in the first place. I’m enjoying taking a class that is not an introductory level course, going deeper into what I love most about seminary—God’s Word and of course, ancient languages!

Week 1

Its Thursday of week one, and the last day I'll be on campus this week (of only 2 times this week, admittedly pretty minor). I just walked out of Chapel, and two things occurred to me. One was exciting, the other a little sad.

First, the exciting thing. I arrived on campus right at 11am this morning, and so chapel had just started when I walked into OCC. I walked in and sat in the back pew right next to the door, so as not to disturb anyone as I entered. A moment after I took my place, both President RichardBliese and Dean Kennedy walked in and sat close by me...not with me, but in close proximity. I looked around a little more and saw Professor Chris Scharen (who is co-teaching one of my classes this spring and also wrote a fascinating article that I just read and greatly appreciated). Professor Paul Westermeyer shared the scripture and commentary in worship.

In short, I realized that I am surrounded by "academia." I've been excited about the opportunity to study on campus for the duration of my seminary education, because at heart, I am an academic. I enjoyed college, and I've greatly enjoyed the chances to be on campus over the past 2.5 years for the DL intensives. Don't get me wrong, I've learned a ton during my online classes, and am even still taking one this spring. They are wonderful as well, but I've always been excited to be in the presence of some of the academic minds that wrote down some of the stuff I'm reading.

I've written several times about the up and downs of making the transition from DL student over to on campus (albeit it commuter) but this one was a good feeling. This one is exciting.

Now, the second thing that happened actually occurred as I was walking out of the chapel. Due to it being a wonderfully bright sunny day, light was streaming in from some of the second story windows and promptly blinded me. I waxed nostalgic for a moment because the same thing happened every single week when I would walk out of the sanctuary in my home church back in Iowa. Every single week. It made me miss home and it made me miss my church.

Granted, things like this are going to happen. Its common with any relocation regardless of whether or not it is for seminary or taking a call or simply moving on. But it is my prayer that they start to occur less and less. Minnesota is home now and will be for at least a couple years until I finish up school. Maybe longer depending on where I receive a call.

God has placed me here and with God's placement comes both joy and sorrow as I experienced this morning. But you know what...that's okay.

And Here We Go

Last day before the start of my first full time on campus semester. I find myself a little nervous, but at the same time excited and ready to get going.

A couple of thoughts that strike me as questionable yet funny at the same time. First off a question. Why does class start on Tuesday on not today. Wouldn't it make more sense to start on a Monday? That's the beauty of an online class. You can really start any day you want to, provided the week's assignment is posted. But with on campus classes, it doesn't quite work that way.

I first realized that we would not have class today a couple weeks back during the j-term intensive. I was in ethics class and a couple of fellow on campus students tried to explain the reasoning to me. I kinda got it, but mostly I just shook my head and accepted that I won't really understand it.

However, the paranoid part of my brain wouldn't stop there and I've continued to wonder about it. By wondering, I've also managed to place the question of whether or not it was in fact true in my head. Therefore, I emailed my Monday class professors last week.

One of my professors, who will remain nameless, responded back that, in fact, classes do not start until tomorrow. Said professor also mentioned that the reasoning behind it was a big mystery for them as well.

That made me feel a lot better. If faculty doesn't quite get it, as a brand new (kinda anyway) student, I shouldn't sweat it either.

My next thought as I prepare to head to campus tomorrow is a bit of a repeat from J-term. What time do I need to leave taking into account traffic. J-term I had an 8am class. After the first day fiasco (thanks in part to snow over night as well as traffic), I started leaving the house at 6:30. Traffic was still moving and I was on campus by 7. I would head to the caf and hang out with classmates as they had breakfast before heading to class. Now I have class at 9. There's no way I'm leaving the house 2.5 hours early in order to beat rush hour traffic. I'm just not going to do it. But the question is in my head...well then, what time?

I'm considering 7am, but that still seems a touch early. If the drive is about an hour (which is what I expect if the weather cooperates) then I'm still an hour early with nothing to do (provided I finish up the reading for tomorrow before calling it a day today). I'm also thinking 7:30 but then if things are really nuts about that time (which I fear it will be) then I may be pushing it to make it by 9.

I'm so confused. Seriously, I just need to get week 1 done with so I can start to find my groove. But before I can finish it, I've got to start it.

And now to use a token quote that I use at the beginning of every semester (though usually on Facebook)...And Here...We...Go

Last term...

The other day when I was thinking about my the spring term and all the courses I'll be taking, I suddenly realized that it is my last term at Luther Seminary! It's hard to think that I'm already past half my time here and in 4 months I'll be gone from the US...

The most recent 2 terms (Fall term and J-term), however, have been a very good time and I've learned incredibly much! Both from the excellent professors here at Luther Seminary (knowledge and experience I'll be happy to bring with me to my future ministry in Sweden!) and from my dear friends here in the US, helping me to experience and learn about the American culture (such as the Super Bowl), helping me to reflect on my own life and the culture back in Sweden.

As I mentioned in my previous post I'm happy that I've begun working out, especially since 3 of my 4 classes are in the same classroom, a classroom that happens to be in Bockman Hall, where I'm currently residing! But this is the beginning of my last term here at Luther Seminary, not the end of it. There are still things to learn, professors to listen to, books to read, people to get to know and papers to write!

Homecoming

Convo is over. The amazing crew from the Center for Faith, Life and Leadership are quietly sitting at their desks, recovering from all of the work needed to put this amazing event on. As a student worker in the Communications Office, I was asked to work at the registration desk on Wednesday. I love the registration desk. Aside from checking in people who attend the event, I was able to do a lot of people watching.

Convo seems like the unofficial homecoming of Luther Seminary. Students return from their own congregations to learn and to socialize with friends and colleagues they only see once a year. From the registration desk, I see people shaking hands, hugging and catching up. This year was the added opportunity of seeing the shell-shocked faces of those from warm-weather climates as they had to walk from their car to Olson Campus Center. (As every year, the Norwegian sweaters made their appearance though I think their numbers were down. I really believe Norwegian sweaters are the unofficial uniform of off-duty Lutheran pastors.)

For the first time, I experienced Convo as a homecoming. A friend who has moved to her first congregation across the country from here attended Convo this week. I have eaten out more than I should and laughed so much my cheeks hurt. It was an amazing opportunity to become closer friends and not just spend our time catching up (that’s what Facebook is for) but to talk about things we care about and the share story after story about our lives.

I was able to catch some of the keynotes and they were fantastic (I did have to miss the workshops, much to my dismay) But it was the homecoming aspect of Convo which truly came alive for me this year.

Mid-Winter Convocation

I made it to Convocation yesterday! I had some stuff to do in the Library, so I made a point to go to chapel while I was on campus. It was great to see the chapel full, although I felt a little out of place at first because I hardly saw any current Luther students there (but plenty of Norwegian sweaters, as promised!).

Then I ran into one of my friends that I have not seen since the end of fall semester. It was fun to see her, and hear of her adventures in Georgia for a J-term trip she went on. Slowly the pew I was sitting in filled up with students, and I felt a little bit better about being surrounded by life-long Lutherans!

Before the service started, three Faithfulness in Ministry awards were given to Luther graduates who are making a difference in the world by fulfilling their calls. The common thread in all their stories was working with or starting new congregations, in the US or overseas. This was encouraging to hear, since there is a great need in many communities for a church that meets the needs of the people there.

Then came the service, and a sermon by President Bliese. He addressed the general topic of “Engaging Scripture as Communities of Moral Deliberation” by speaking of some of his own humorous and trying experiences with difficult issues in the church. He reminded us that throughout history, God’s people have often resolved serious challenges in their lives of faith only through hindsight. Recognition and repentance can lead to communal discussions of what needs to change, and this also gives space for communities to retell their stories with a new perspective of faith.

It was a great sermon, and reminded me that for as much preparation as we get at Luther, life with a congregation involves a lot of trial and error and working things out together. I am sure we will all feel unprepared at some point to deal with some issue that comes up in ministry, but remembering that the process can be as important as the specific outcome is helpful. Communities grow together, and “failures” can be opportunities to reflect and start in a new direction.

Convo-A Little Different

I've experienced Convocation twice before. Both times it was happening during the MDiv DL intensives and so I was staying in Stub while it was happening. Its been my experience (in the past two years) that campus gets very busy, chapel is loaded, and parking is nearly impossible (translation-don't plan on leaving campus with your car during the day or you won't have a spot when you get back).

This year Convo is a little different from two standpoints. First, its 2 weeks later, which means that J-Term is pretty much wrapped and the cohorts aren't here anymore. Second, I'm still around and am driving over to campus.

I had stuff going on yesterday morning, so I didn't head over towards campus until about lunch time. So I missed the morning speaker, though I hear he was pretty good.

I knew one of my good friends was planning on being there for the day yesterday, but she had followed protocol and kept her phone on silent, so she missed the texts that I sent her once I arrived on campus. So I milled around in Olson for a little bit, discovered that there were free lunch wraps from the Caf (YAY!!! FREE FOOD), and then headed over to the library for some odd reason. All I did there was surf the web.

Then I headed back over to the chapel to listen to Professor Matt Skinner give his lecture. I've never really interacted with Dr. Skinner, but since I'm taking a class with him this spring, I thought it might be a fun way to start to get to know him. His lecture was about learning how a community (specifically a faith community) can learn to exist in the face of issues of opposition. I really appreciated what he had to say considering the division of my old congregation that happened last summer. Its hind-sight of course, but I wish they could have heard his lecture prior to the split.

After the lecture, I jabbered with my friend for a little bit, and then headed out.

A couple of thoughts:
There don't seem to be as many recent graduates of Luther at Convo...aka I didn't see past students that I recognize from my time.
Free food is awesome.
The chapel can be a tough place to hear a lecture when you are really crammed in (my legs and feet fell asleep...though fortunately I stayed engaged and did not fall asleep).
Seeing people that wrote some of my text books in person is amazing...for example, I get a charge out of seeing Terrance Fretheim sitting in the pews.

I'm not expecting to make it to campus today as I have a lot of errands to run with my wife today. Tomorrow morning is a possibility though, but we'll have to wait and see. The commuter status strikes again. Being on the other side of the Twin Cities can be detrimental to just "dropping in" on campus activities.

Almost There

Despite my good intentions, I also missed mid-winter convocation today. Not because I’m out of town or on internship, but because I locked myself away all day trying to get my final J-term paper done. As much as I like coming home from campus at the end of the day, sometimes I think it would be nice to live near Luther and be able to drop in on the stuff that goes on there. There’s always tomorrow.

The good news is that I’m almost done with my final paper, which really needs to be done so that I can focus on other things. The Greek textbook written in Spanish that I ordered arrived, reminding me that the Greek class I will be teaching is less than 2 weeks away. I realized that of everything I’m doing, this class is what I’m most excited about. Besides really enjoying Biblical Greek, I look forward to putting into practice all that I’ve learned to teach others. And I’m also learning new things in the process, such as the fact that the Greek breathing marks are called “spirits” in Spanish (perhaps that’s exciting only to me).

I’m also starting back at my teaching congregation this Sunday, meeting with the teaching team to talk about the new believer’s class that starts soon. I’m very glad to be getting more involved at church this semester. Being such a big place, I’ve felt a little disconnected by just going to services on the weekends. I typically run into one or two people I know, but it’s not the same as actually being part of the ministry. Sometimes I miss being at a small church where everyone knows you and is happy to see you on Sunday morning. Other times I appreciate how nice it is to enjoy worship without being pulled out to unlock the church office or make photocopies or do some other random task that comes with being on staff at a small church. There is a season for everything.

Speaking of my former church, I realized the other day that I still have my keys. I did not mean to steal them, but I haven’t seen my former pastor since a few weeks before I resigned. And since he is a recent Luther graduate, he has many of the textbooks I need and has generously been loaning them to me. He said I could keep borrowing what I need even though I don’t work for him anymore, which is quite nice, and another reason I’ve been reluctant to give back my keys! We decided that I’d turn them in when I’m done teaching this Greek class. In the meantime, I think I’ll stop by and “shop” for my spring semester books before I go back to the Luther bookstore. I guess leaving the “nest” of my former home church has not been as easy as I thought!

Missing things.

I love being on internship.

It's tough to beat the combination of whetting my appetite for parish ministry and learning a ridiculous amount of stuff and getting to know a wonderful community of people.

There are, of course, several things that are less than fantastic about internship. One of them is missing things. Yes, I badly miss my family and friends--but I mean missing things like events in Minneapolis/St. Paul and, more specifically, at Luther Seminary.

I miss the rhythm of walking to and from classes. I miss the impromptu conversations that sprout streams of inspiration and interest. I miss daily chapel (even if I didn't go every day). I miss grabbing a beer at Manning's or another local bar. I miss the familiar surroundings of the Twin Cities--and discovering new pockets of awesomeness that I hadn't yet found in my 20 years there.

Today, especially, I'm missing the Mid-Winter Convocation. I'm missing the gathering of thoughtful, passionate colleagues and friends. I'm missing the interplay of lectures and workshops. I'm missing meals where ideas and information are consumed just as much as food. And I'm missing hearing Will Willimon speak (that guy is great).

The official topic is "Engaging Scripture as Communities of Moral Deliberation." Maybe it's my Lutheranism running amok, but I often dismiss--or maybe ignore--Scripture as a moral guide. It is true, though, that as communities of faith, we deliberate over morals and seek our identity as a people. This convocation is a great opportunity to explore how Scripture speaks to--and, along with prayer, is central to that process. [Now I'm missing it even more...great.]

I look forward to reading blog posts and having conversations with some of my fellow Luther Seminary students about the convocation. I am on Twitter (@ericedward), and definitely plan on following the convocation conversation (clever sounding, eh?) at the hashtag #convo2011. But still, I wish I could be there.

I'm loving internship so far. I feel truly blessed. But I still miss things. Today (and tomorrow and Friday), I'm especially missing the Mid-Winter Convocation at Luther Seminary. But I'm not missing what can only be scarce parking--or the frigid weather.

Filling my time

So during this time off between J-term and starting spring semester next week, I've been concerned that I would get bored and go stir crazy. Admittedly, it did happen just a touch yesterday, but only a touch.

Today I had some more time on my hands and thought it more likely that I would get bored. However, after dropping off the kids and hitting the bank...side note, every time I go into the bank up here they try to saddle me with something new...annoying.

But anyway, I sat down and did my go-to time killer, which is of course facebook. I wasn't on there very long when one of my cohort classmates reminded me that internship sites were posted today. Considering that I'm up for internship this fall I figured that I best check them out.

What I didn't plan on was how long it would take to review them. I figured that it would be a quick scan through, but admittedly I was mistaken. It should be noted that I only read through the sites in the Twin Cities, completely disregarding the other sites listed.

It took me over 5 hours to work my way through them and line up my interviews with the supervisors.

No one was as shocked as I was. Well, maybe not. I guess anyone else that has done the same thing probably isn't surprised, but I sure was.

Next on the agenda, going through the interviews.