WANTED: A Challenging and Stretching Experience

Ultimately, I chose Garrett-Evangelical for several reasons. First, Garrett-Evangelical’s reputation preceded it. At least one of my undergraduate classmates pursued graduate study at Garrett-Evangelical and recommended it highly. One of the things I was seeking was a high level of academic rigor, because it is my lifelong dream to pursue doctoral studies. As I have learned from these first few weeks of “introductory” classes, academic rigor is one thing that Garrett-Evangelical has in spades.

More than just academic rigor, though, I was in search of an experience that would stretch me and expose me to different ways of thinking and seeing both God and the world.

You see, before coming to Garrett-Evangelical – in all my studies, which include three different degrees in religion or ministry related areas – I had never had a professor who didn’t look a lot like me. Eight years of Christian theological education from people that looked and talked like me. Don’t get me wrong, those were good years and I cherish the knowledge I gained from them...but I didn’t want more of the same. Instead, I wanted to hear from professors who didn’t look like me or talk like me or share a similar story with me.  Again, Garrett-Evangelical has that in spades.  It is obvious from even a quick look at the website.

Here in my first semester, I have two classes on campus. Both are taught by African American professors. It is challenging and exciting to engage learning from a different perspective, and I am grateful to Garrett-Evangelical for providing me the opportunity to do so.  Moreover, I eagerly anticipate the years to come when more and more such opportunities will present themselves.

When I began searching for a school at which I could complete my Master of Divinity studies, I had two main standards: academic rigor and a multi-cultural learning environment.  Oh, and it had to be close to home. I was concerned initially that I would have to sacrifice one or the other in order to stay close. I needn’t have worried.

Garrett-Evangelical is already proving to be just what I was looking for, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the journey holds.

---

Joe Boggs is a first year, Master of Divinity student at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.

What is the role of a Christian as citizen?

First year, Master of Divinity student, Annie MacNeal, continues to post about her first few weeks at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary on her blog Journey of Faith: Seminary. This week, she began a class taught by seminary president Dr. Phil Amerson called "Christian as Citizen." The following is an excerpt from her original post: 

Yesterday afternoon I made my way down to the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple for a class offered by Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary called “Christian as Citizen.” This class is taught by the president of our seminary, Dr. Phil Amerson and asks the question, “What is the role of a Christian as citizen?”

Over the three hours of the course we discussed many interesting and important questions that come up for us as citizens of the U.S.A., specifically as Christian citizens. We started off talking about how we, as people, have become a commodity. In the 1970s, the service industry made up about 25% of our workforce while the manufacturing industry (physical goods, farming, etc.) made up about 75%. Today, the service industry makes up more than 90% of our work force, while the manufacturing industry has been reduced to less than 10%. What does this mean for us as citizens? If most of our workforce is devoted to service, what is the actual product that is coming out of that? The answer is we are the product. We are reduced from living, breathing, human beings to a client; to a commodity. The important question to think about now is, “When did it all go wrong?” A member of our class pointed out that we can usually find the answer to that question by tracing the money.

We then moved this discussion to think about citizenship in the context of the Bible. Where in scripture do we find the topic of citizenship and what does this mean for us? Many people recalled the many times Paul discusses what citizenship should/should not look like in his letters to various peoples. An interesting thing to note is that when Paul writes about citizenship, he is looking at citizenship through the lens of being a Roman citizen. Another instance of citizenship in the Bible is addressed when Samuel is wondering if he should anoint Saul as a king. Samuel warns the people about becoming a state. After discussing many other instances, we realized that our Christian heritage is full of questions about citizenship. This led to the question, “Is democracy the ideal state for Christians?”            

At the conclusion of this first class meeting, I was left with many questions. Why, as people, did we let ourselves become a commodity? How did the foundations and understanding of Christianity come to be skewed by politics and the government? What is the ideal form of government for us as Christians? Although I hope to find some answers to these questions throughout the semester, I have a feeling that my question list will only get longer. However, I feel blessed to have finally found a place to openly discuss these important issues and be in dialogue with people who have different views from me. It is in places like these that we can truly have “holy conversation” around controversial issues.

           

New Friends, New Insights

Classes have been underway for two weeks now and our students are already reflecting on their classes, chapel sermons, and their journey to seminary. First year, Master of Divinity student, Annie MacNeal, posted her reflections on a sermon by Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary's associate professor of church leadership, Rev. Dr. Mark Fowler, on her blog, Journey of Faith: Seminary, titled, "New Friends, New Insights."


Sometimes I sit back and I cannot believe I am actually in seminary...finally! I was sitting by the lake with one of my new closest friends yesterday, reading. I stopped for a minute and looked out onto Lake Michigan, at the city of Chicago, and at the waves crashing onto the shoreline. It took my breath away and I could not believe I was finally at Garrett after all of this time waiting to follow through on God's call for my life.

Today during chapel, the sermon preached by Dr. Mark Fowler made me think about another aspect of God's call that I had not really thought of before. He spoke about Moses and the burning bush and how Moses turned aside to listen to God. Dr. Fowler pointed out however, that this was not the whole story of Moses' call. In the few verses before this, people were broken and crying out for God, so THEN God called Moses to address the needs of these people and minister to them. His sermon went on to talk about how when we were called by God, it was because there were broken people crying out and God knew that we would be the right ones to minister to those people, wherever they are. When I think back to my call from God and my warmed heart experience with God, I knew that I wanted others to feel that same peace, warmth, and love. However, I had never thought about who these people were, what they looked like, where they were located, and what exactly they needed. God knows who they are and God knows that I will be able to minister to them. It is so strange to think about, but it is also so humbling.

Something I am truly thankful for since coming here are the amazing people I met: students, faculty, staff, and others outside Garrett-Evangelical. There were a lot of things I was worried about as I prepared to transition into seminary, but I thank God that God has put these specific people in my life. It might be strange to those of you who know me from other places besides seminary to be hearing how I have all these amazing friends already that I am really close to. I do not really know how to explain it, but I am extremely thankful for the fact that I have close friends. I guess it is a combination of having a strong belief in God, a calling to ministry, passion for the same things (social justice, helping others, ministry, etc), and just appreciation for being at Garrett that brings us all together. I pray that as we move forward on this journey together that our bond as friends becomes even stronger.

P.S. Classes are going really well too! I am not really a history person, but I loved my first history class last night on the early church. Old Testament is fascinating and I will have my first Christian as Citizen class at the Chicago Temple this Thursday night.

Do You Remember Why I Called You?

Starting my third year (and final - woo hoo!) of my Master of Divinity degree, I have heard about calling... a lot. Today I heard yet another sermon on calling from Rev. Dr. Mark Fowler of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. It really was a fantastic sermon but after three years in seminary, the word “call” almost becomes cliché when it is constantly brought up in sermons during chapel, when we dissect and analyze it during VFCL, and over and over again you get asked the “tell your call story.”

Don’t get me wrong, our call stories are incredibly important and at the church where I am doing my field education this year, we’re hoping to spend a lot of time looking at the intersection of vocation and faith through our preaching, small groups, and other areas within the life of the church. But as a person in ministry, especially as we trudge through the ordination process in our respective traditions, calling can be a huge pain.

Calling can be exhausting, frustrating, sometimes even disappointing. It often seems to go from this brilliant flash of light illuminating the path before us to a dark rain cloud making us wet and cold but always reminding us that it is there. Sometimes the longer it takes to fulfill that call (i.e. the longer it takes you to get ordained) the more annoying and frustrating calling can be… And God help you if you’re calling isn’t crystal clear and you see not one path in front of you, but many.

So back to chapel and the sermon. Dr. Fowler truly did preach a fantastic, powerful sermon on calling. Yet, for the first half of the sermon, all I could keep thinking in my head was, “Yes, I know I’m called. I’ve done the whole ‘Here, I am. Send me,’ business. God, could you tell me something I don’t know?”

You would think I would have learned by now never to ask questions/make demands of God…

All I know is that the next thing that popped into my mind was, “Do you remember why I called you?”

Clearly, God takes after my professors who love to answer questions with questions (or maybe vice versa?).

And so I sat there, in the Chapel of the Unnamed Faithful, with the sun shining through the stained glass windows, surrounded by friends and fellow seminarians, a very impassioned sermon going on, and it was like everything faded away in that question.

Do you remember why I called you? 

Seminary has made me talk for so long about “what” I am called to or “when” I was called or “how” I was called but I don’t remember ever being asked “why,” why was I called. Why was I called at this time in my life? Why was I called to this thing or that thing? Why me?

Sure, we’ve talked about gifts and graces for ministry but I never found that those “spiritual gift inventories” to really be the “why” of calling – more of a justification for choosing to follow a calling.

Do you remember why I called you? 

As that question kept playing over and over in my head, I went back to all those moments where I felt called. The points of time in my life that I’ve written about in so many papers, told so many times to peers, professors, and mentors. I’ve talked about my love of the sacraments but God didn’t call me because I love the sacraments. I’ve talked about my gifts I've been told I have for preaching and teaching, but God didn’t call me because I can preach a good sermon and I can teach. Because really, those are things that have grown over time as I’ve 1) learned more about the sacraments and theology of the sacraments and 2) done more preaching and teaching to develop those skills.

It was during the pastoral prayer before communion that I remembered why. My calling, or at least that first nudge in the direction that would eventually lead me to this time and place in my life, came way back in high school, somewhere in the freshman year era. It was shortly after I had been asked to give my “testimony” at youth group. I didn’t know theology (or at least didn’t have the big words to articulate it), I barely knew the Bible, and I had only been actively attending church for less than a year. The only thing I had was a story of a truly hard-knock life and a story of how my life was better with God in it. From a preaching standpoint – it was a terrible sermon from the shaky, nervous delivery to zero exegesis – but those stories were why I was called.

 Do you remember why I called you? 

I was called because I had a story and more importantly, I had a story to share. A story of a girl who, to quote Rihanna (and this will never happen again), “found love in a hopeless place.” A story of a girl who discovered the transformative love of God for her and for all people and vowed to make sure everyone knew they were loved, both by her and by God. I was called because somehow God saw that despite having gone down a rocky road time and time again, I still had the capacity to love and that love for others and the love that I have experienced from God has continued to drive me ever since. That love helped me to slowly overcome my fear of public speaking so that I can give half-way decent sermons. That love drove me to Oklahoma City University for a BA in Religion, drove me to Garrett-Evangelical for an MDiv, and drives me to still pursue ordination. And that love has burned a story into my heart that, after all this academic study of the Bible, church history, church leadership, pastoral care, and years of deconstructing and reconstructing my theology, still rings true and I still believe must be told.

Do you remember why I called you? 

To be honest, I had forgotten. I had forgotten that, to be a bit cliché again, Jesus loves me, this I know. I had forgotten that story of love that set me on this path in the first place. I had forgotten why God would call an imperfect, broken misfit like me. God called me because God saw an imperfect, broken misfit who loved people, loved God, knew that God loved her, and had a fire inside her soul driving her to want others to know they were also loved because the world is full of imperfect, broken misfits who need to hear that message, who need to be not only told they are loved but shown they are loved.

Do you remember why God called you?

---

Tasha Sargent is a third year Master of Divinity student at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.