I am writing this from a hotel room just outside of Chicago. I find myself at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary attending the 2007 Conference on Excellence in Ministry that is hosted by The Fund for Theological Education. I am here because I was named one of their Congregational Fellows for the year. This is a scholarship that is in place to aid seminary students in their first year of seminary.
Thus far it has been good…tiring, but good. I find myself surrounded by others getting ready to embark on a similar journey that I am preparing to take. We have been blessed with the presence of scholars, college chaplains, pastors, priests and ministers who are preparing us for the task of ministry in today’s world. All around me are young seminarians from across the denominational spectrum. My roommate for the weekend is a Baptist. Those in my “roundtable” are Episcopalians, Methodists, and Catholics. I have met Lutherans, Reformed Church, non-denoms, Presbyterians, and the list could go on. We have discussed America’s rampant consumerism and its influence in our churches, the ordination of homosexual priests, the balance of the ecumenical spirit with devotion to the doctrines of ones tradition, and many more conversations that are off limits in nearly every other setting. It is refreshing, and draining, to be constantly in discussion about the issues that face the church with those that will be attempting to solve them in the near future.
However, the highlight thus far has been the two speakers we had this morning. Two preachers from Boston, one from an inner-city African-American AME church and one from a white, suburban UCC church, discussed their ten-year partnership. They have united their churches in regular worship, and worked together to improve the public education system in Boston, reduce violence in inner-city Boston, heal the wounds of racism and do world missions together. It was truly a blessing to listen to their story of trials and successes in bridging two worlds through the one faith in Christ. Some memorable quotes were…
- “The Church’s job is to create misfits.”
- “Jesus still knows how to get his friends in trouble.”
- “Taking in lost sheep can be messy business.”
Two and a half more days left. Let’s see what other wisdom comes my way….
