Читать книгу Bread for the Journey - Thomas W. Currie - Страница 6

In 2001, the board of what was then Union-PSCE (and now, Union Presbyterian Seminary), located in Richmond, Virginia, voted to call me to serve as the dean of a proposed extension campus in Charlotte, N. Carolina. For 25 years I had been a parish minister of two congregations in Texas, serving each for 12 and a half years. This new campus in Charlotte was intended to serve second-career students, new immigrant populations, and the strong African-American Presbyterian constituency in North and South Carolina. Dr. Billy O. Wireman, who was then president of Queens University of Charlotte, graciously enabled this fledgling enterprise to nest on that university’s lovely Selwyn Avenue campus.

Classes began in February of 2002, and continued on the Queens campus until the fall of 2012, at which time the seminary moved into a new building of its own on land leased from Sharon Presbyterian Church.

Because most of our students were working in full-time or part-time positions and were themselves scattered over a wide swath of North and South Carolina (one or two from Georgia and Tennessee), commuting to school at nights or on weekends, the seminary worked hard from the very beginning to put in place ways that a community of learning and faithfulness might be established that would contribute to their formation as pastors and teachers. Regular worship, weekly table fellowship, admission by cohort, small group tutoring sessions, and strong administrative support from colleagues in Richmond and Charlotte helped build a vital sense of community that in some ways was more formative and visceral than that known in residential settings.

One of the most important ways the seminary sought to build and maintain a “life together” was through weekly notes from the dean addressed primarily to the students. Many of these notes sought to encourage those who were undertaking the hard work of preparing for ministry. Often these notes reflected on the even more challenging work of ministry itself, pointing out the peculiar joys and burdens hidden in that form of Christian discipleship. Many of these notes share insights from others who have traveled this way, some of whom articulate the journey poetically, while others describe this path in more strictly theological terms. Sometimes note is taken of specific events within the life of the seminary itself (e.g., a death of a student) or some local or national event (e.g., the Iraq War, school shootings, etc.), or events in the life of the church (e.g., a denominational split or church council decision) in an effort to provide a theological context for reflection. More often, the beginning and ending of terms provided occasions for self-examination, asking again and again what we thought we were doing in studying and preparing for ministry. Some of these notes deal with certain disciplines of the faith like prayer, reading, worship, and learning, - sanctifying gifts that strengthen disciples for this journey. Sometimes the notes are simpler, expressing unapologetically the joy of being alive in God’s creation and being called into God’s service.

The purpose of these notes from the dean was not simply communication or building community or offering words of encouragement or exhortation. Rather, these notes sought to offer a vision of Christian discipleship that would inspire, and even make one glad that God had called one to walk this particular path. Does that seem too pious or idealistic or happy? Perhaps it does, especially if such inspiration overlooks or ignores the messiness of ministry and the challenges of bearing faithful witness to Jesus Christ today. But neither ministry nor theological education, however rigorously undertaken, is a dreary thing. The task is overwhelming and there is plenty of reason to be discouraged, especially when we look at our own resources. Still, in the witness of both Israel and the church there bursts out, unaccountably, the praise of God and the joy of being called into this work. The psalmist is not reluctant to confess just such joy in being glad to come into the house of the Lord. Jesus is not afraid to speak of a joy that cannot be taken away from those who follow him. Paul sings in, among other places, prison. “Why this juice and joy?” as the poet asks. Indeed. That is the underlying question behind all these notes, the question I hoped our students would engage. Unless one sees the vision and can rejoice in it, theological education and the ministry it seeks to support become exceedingly boring things. The God of Jesus Christ, however, is not boring, and neither is theological education that seeks to serve this God by preparing women and men for ministry. It is the intent of these notes to bear witness to this eternally rich and ever surprising God who calls us all to rejoice and be glad in his service.

Although these notes were written over a period of 13 years, I have not arranged them chronologically but rather according to certain themes or categories. Some of these categories, like ministry itself, overlap. I have also included a homily for entering students in 2010, and a sermon preached before Charlotte Presbytery toward the end of my service at the seminary.

The original audience for these notes was a group of students who were preparing for ministry at Union Presbyterian Seminary’s Charlotte campus. The work of ministry possesses its own idiom and seeks to foster its own set of skills and virtues. But since this work is carried out on behalf of the whole church and for the sake of its mission, there is no part of it or its preparation that can be divorced from the joys and challenges of Christian discipleship. That is why these notes may be of interest to pilgrims who are not studying for the ordained ministry but who are facing the same joys and challenges in seeking to live the Christian life. In making these notes available to a wider audience, the dean who first wrote them hopes they will strengthen any who venture on to this path. To employ a theological term often scorned today but worth recovering, these notes seek to serve as an element of sanctification in the lives of those who follow Jesus Christ.