Somebody's gotta do it...

People often wonder what I do and what it means to be a campus minister. There are many parts to my position, some of which seminary adequately prepared me for: preaching, teaching, writing, developing leaders, answering questions about about God and the universe, etc. etc.


There are other things that seminary did not prepare me for: fundraising, keeping budgets, house maintenance, computer problems, etc.


One of the most important parts of my job happens twice a year. Like Jesus teaching on the mount, crowds flock to the Wesley House with excited anticipation. The line extends throughout the house, everyone longing to see, but only a few being able to experience the wonder of it all. What is this holy event that I'm describing? The Pancake Exam Break, of course! And one thing seminary did not teach me, but I have learned with much practice is how to make a griddle-sized pancake. OR as someone said last night, 


"That's not a pancake. That's a MANcake!"

The Official Word

I just received the following email:

D.,

You have completed all of the requirements for the MDiv degree. I will be posting your degree this afternoon, and your diploma will be mailed in the next couple of weeks. It should arrive early to mid-October.

Thanks, and congratulations!

Cue Hallelujah Chorus....now!

Read Along

We are currently in the season of Kingdomtide in the Church Calendar. This is a time to focus on the ministry and person of Jesus. Every fall, Asbury Seminary publishes a common text reader for students with the goal that we will learn about the kingdom together by reading together. This reader is also published daily online at www.asburyreader.com. I encourage you to bookmark it and read along. Below is an excerpt:

p r e p a r e t h e w a y f o r t h e l o r d
a prelude to kingdomtide

Three hundred years of Heaven‘s silence. Not a word. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, enters the greatest prophet of them all, the forerunner of God, and the floodgates of Heaven open. Words literally begin falling from the sky like rain. John, “The Baptist" emerges at the river‘s edge declaring a message as hot as it was hopeful. His urgent message reverberates through the labyrinthine corridors of history, reaching back to Isaiah yet echoing from the locked gates of lost Eden.

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

...click to keep reading.

The End of the Beginning, part 2

Our time Oxford started with a great deal of excitement, but also with a fair share of fear and trepidation. In a six month time period, we were going to experience a new home, new positions, new friends, new church, and a new baby. Somewhere there's a chart of the most stressful things that people have to deal with and I think all these are in the top 20 (if not 10). We will always look back fondly of that first year in Oxford, but I look back now and realize it was very much a honeymoon period for us.

This is especially true of the ministry at Wesley.

I came in with grand ideas, plans, and expectations. I had just come from seminary, after all, and I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to run a top notch ministry. All my ideas, though, quickly fell by the wayside when I realized what the ministry (and the running of the ministry) was versus what I had expected. There's not enough room to here to go in to detail, but suffice it to say that while I was excited about where God had led us that first year, I was also disappointed and frequently frustrated.

One expectation that did not match up has to do with how I perceived myself when we got to Oxford. In my overconfidence and naivete, I expected to be the teacher for the students, the one imparting wisdom and guidance, the one leading and inspiring. This is what it means to be a leader, right? While some of those things might have been true, I see myself now more as the student, not the teacher, a follower, not a leader, and a journeyman, not one who has arrived. My role as campus minister has more to do with listening to students than telling them things, and empowering them to be leaders by first being faithful followers...through my example as a follower of Christ.

Forty hours of classes, three years, and two kids later, I am finishing my seminary career. I am once again reminded of the seedbed, and now I understand what I didn't understand three years ago. While the seminary is a special seedbed, a unique season of learning and growing; the life of ministry is one as well. Sometimes we (as ministers) get so caught up in helping others grow that we fail to see how God is trying to grow us as well. But we need to see each ministry opportunity, each season of life, as its own seedbed and be asking God:

What are you trying to teach me? Am I being teachable? Forgive me for not seeing what you want me to see, or hearing what you want me to hear. Open my eyes that I might see, my ears that I might hear, my heart that I might be truly transformed in to the likeness of your Son.

The End of the Beginning, part 1

96 credit hours + 35 classes + 23 As + 9 Bs {3 classes were Pass/Fail - I passed all 3} + 5 years = 1 degree.

Five years ago, Corrie and I had just moved back to Wilmore, KY. We had been married just over a month, and within the next few days I would be going back to school. I had spent the previous year as an intern for Wesley here in Oxford as a way of confirming my call to ministry (and to be close to Corrie - whew, glad that worked). Now, I was about to start Asbury Theological Seminary - a more formal way of beginning my life as a vocational minister.

We lived in a basement apartment just behind

Asbury College. In fact, I even did laundry in my old dorm a few times because it was closer (and cheaper) than the laundromat. The basement was maybe 500 square feet, and as I started school, our income came from Corrie teaching adjunct English classes, and I working part-time for a church in downtown Lexington.

I remember listening to JD Walt during New Student Orientation talk about how seminary comes from the word seminarius, meaning "seed bed". He went on to say that seminary is much more than a place to learn about God, but it is a place where we begin a season of growth to really come to know God.

As I went to my first classes, I could see that what JD said was true. I sat in awe of my professors; they had spent their lives studying, writing, and living in their respective fields of study. They were so knowledgeable, so published, so well known, but more than that, I could tell that they really desired to know God.

My dad thinks seminary is a place that teaches you to grow facial hair to be more like Jesus. He's half right - it is a place to learn to be more like Jesus (I grew the goatee just because). Many think seminary is a place to learn theological terms, theories of biblical interpretation, ancient languages, and pastoral counseling skills. As if it's the vo-tech for pastors. But seminary is much more; seminary is place to be fed from the rich resources of Christian tradition, passed down from those who first heard, saw, and touched (1 John 1:1) the minstry of Jesus to those who faithfully give their lives to teaching it to men and women called of to God lead the Church.

Just after a year of living back in Wilmore, Corrie got the itch to start the process toward her PhD. Soon after that we received word that the Wesley position at Ole Miss was going to be hiring for the next year. We began to pray about our next steps. We didn't really want to live in Mississippi (10 and 12 hours away from our families), and I wasn't sure I was ready for a full-time ministry position. God called us anyway. With 56 of 96 hours complete, and no full-time ministry experience, we moved back to Oxford from Wilmore on July 1, 2006. Corrie received a full fellowship from Ole Miss to pursue her PhD, and we were expecting our first baby the following January.

to be continued...