Classes and Life in General

I have found a little time in my morning to give a quick post and to assure people that I haven't dropped off the face of the planet (though anyone who is my friend on Facebook probably knows that already).

This is the start of the third week of school, and I must say it's a little surreal to be back, married, and in classes. Some days, it seems like nothing has changed. Other times - especially when I'm stuck in commuter traffic - it's all too real as I glower at the drivers who cut me off and think about the convenience of campus housing. Then, I give myself a little shake as I remind myself that I would not trade anything in the world - even commuting - for Drew campus housing.

The privacy and remoteness is nice most of the time. I like having a place apart from the rest of the community to which I can come home and not think about any of the Drew drama (not that anything has happened yet, but it's bound to sooner or later). However, it's sad that I can't pop-over to see my friends or have more spontaneous gatherings because I'm 35 minutes away. It makes relationships more intentional. So - to my Drew friends - if I'm becoming too much of a hermit, please drag me out and help me remember that there are other people to spend time with aside from my husband (to my husband - I love you!).

Classes are...classes. I will have a solid grounding in old-style preaching, which I'm sure will be helpful, but I'm chomping at the bit to get more out of what "Proclamation of the Word" means than just "Preaching." I see Preaching as so much more than just delivering a sermon, and if you think about it, not many people really experience the Word of God through aural stimulation alone...so why just preach sermons all the time? Call me crazy...

Ethics will be intense, and I think it will be a fantastic class. I appreciate the professor's approach, even if the readings are a bit dry from time to time. Her emphasis is on the practicality of ethics; yes, there is theory but in reality, this is stuff that we will be having to make decisions about on the ground.

Church Planting will be informative, although we'll see how deep the class gets into it. We've currently been reading a fantastic book by Alan Hirsch called The Forgotten Ways and so far, it has some great insights into the nature of the church as it currently is and where the church should ultimately be. The problem is - I'm there and on the same page. I want more of the...how do we put this into practice? What do we do? How can we orchestrate experiences to draw people into relationship? How can we make the gospel be incarnational? Where do we go from here? I hope these questions will be discussed in depth rather than have the course scratch the surface of something much deeper for me.

Those are my classes. Tuesday and Wednesday...very nice. Makes for two intense days, but it leaves my Thursday and Friday free for work and church and other errands. Monday is my Sabbath (I'm really trying to be rather millitant about it this year), and Sunday is church work day...and other small things that need to get done. Hopefully, Saturday will be errand and house-work day. We'll see if this routine holds!

Religion and the Social Process: An Introduction

It appears to me that for the time being, there are going to be two consistent threads running throughout most of my blog posts. On thread centers on the theological implications of Get Fuzzy. The other will be about thoughts from one of my classes this semester called "Church and Society 401: Religion and the Social Process." To give you an idea of the class, it's affectionately known around campus as...Oppression 101. And many white heterosexual males tremble at the thought!

However, I'm really looking forward to the experience (and I know white males who have come through unscathed and who truly enjoyed the class). We'll be dealing with a lot of "-isms" (sadly, not evangelism...though as my previous post suggests, even evangelism can be used to oppress people). We'll be talking about racism, sexism, ecumenism, ableism...the list goes on.

After only two classes, I have almost a full page of snippets of potential blog posts that strike me during lecture. Often I'll only have time to jot down a quote and a few accompanying thoughts, but hopefully I'll pick one or two and try to flesh them out a bit.

Honestly, right now I don't have the energy for it. I, like a good seminarian, am practicing self-care and going to bed. So much for finishing my reading on conflict management...who needs it anyway? It's not like there's ever any conflict in the church... ;-)