Elation and Satisfaction

One of the things that always frustrated me about being a local pastor was the lack of joy one could have upon the completion of anything. For instance, there is a sense of joy that comes in the planning and preparation of a worship service (all the elements, including the sermon preparation and delivery). However, once it is completed, there is little chance to celebrate. You feel a sense of satisfaction at the completion of the task and you celebrate what God did, then you have to begin preparing for the next Sunday. You evaluate the service the next week and do what I used to call a postmortem on the previous Sunday, but you are already trying to put all your time and effort into the next week. Sometimes it is hard to find time to celebrate.
At other times you want to celebrate what God has done in people's lives. Decisions they've made, growth they have accomplished - but that was always terribly hard to measure. It's kind of like seeing a child grow up everyday. There doesn't seem to be nearly as much progress as when you live all the way in California and don't get to see your grandson in Illinois except once every six months and then you see a big change! But, I digress. (Just a cheap excuse to put in a picture of our grandson being held by grandma). Anyway, it is hard to celebrate progress when you can't always find the right tool by which to measure it.
However, in my Ph.D program I find that there are milestones that you get to achieve and there is time to celebrate. I finished my Comprehensive Exams today. Four of them over the past two weeks. I have spent more than 6 weeks preparing directly for them. I have been barely visible with friends and neighbors. It is the most intense thing I have ever done. Just before taking the last exam today (the fourth of four) I was informed that I had passed the first three. I think I did well on the one today (it was the easiest of the four) and I am confident that I passed them all. As of today, I am no longer a doctoral student. I am now a doctoral candidate. All I have left is the work that prepares me to write my dissertation and the actual writing of the dissertation. My goal is to have all my preparation work done by the end of next summer and to have completed the dissertation writing by December of 2009. That would mean that I will graduate in June of 2010. That means, from start to finish, I will have completed the Ph.D in 3 1/2 years. That is as fast as it can be done. I still don't know if I will be able to keep up the pace, but that is my goal.
But all that is in the future. For today, and the next few weeks, I am going to celebrate the completion of my Comps. I like that. It feels good to celebrate and to have a long, long party in which to rejoice. Amen.

Comprehensive Exams

Well, it is finally here. The next major hurdle in my PhD program. Comprehensive Exams. Four exams over the course of two weeks. Each exam is to show you have a comprehensive knowledge of the material for that area of study. It begins Friday afternoon (16th) and
they are scheduled for the following Monday, Friday, and then Thursday (29th). Each exam is one or two questions and you have three hours to take them. No books, no notes, not bible, no nothing. Just you and the computer and what it is that you know. So, this posting will be short and I doubt I will write anything until they are over. Here are the four subjects:
1. Practical Theology. I have to give a history of its development, an understanding of the major issues in the area, compare the work of two major theorists, come up with my own Practical Theology and apply all that to a specific case study.
2. Theology of Preaching. I am going to be asked about the meaning of being called to ministry, provide a historical background for it, tell about the call of women to ministry and use the case of an 18th century woman named Sarah Osborn to make an argument against the restrictions but on women in ministry by Martin Luther.
3. Word and Meaning. Two questions here. The first has to do with the 11 books and materials we read for class. I have no idea what the question will be but intend to be prepared to discuss several of the books. The second question is about the meaning and importance of metaphor in preaching and how it limits and expands preaching.
4. History of Preaching. Here I have chosen to deal with African American preaching. Specifically, I am comparing two scholars (Cleophus LaRue and James Earl Massey) and their views on what comprises the distinctiveness in African American preaching. I will be doing a comparison and a study of whether or not Massey's issue of festive preaching is part of the black hermeneutic. Sounds technical, I know, but it is interesting. I will also be analyzing a couple of sermons. One is from Jeremiah Wright. Might as well be contemporary.

Anyway, those are the questions. Pray for me. This is the last chance they have to flunk me out. I don't think they will but I must perform. Thanks.

Changing My Theology on Baptism

I've just had an epiphany reading Barbara Brown Taylor's book, "The Preaching Life." In talking about vocation, she is hitting hard the idea of the priesthood of all believers. I am in the process of studying to take a Comprehensive Exam question on the whole idea of the Call to Ministry and what that means. Doing the historical background, many interesting things have cropped up. Not the least of which has been the distinction in Martin Luther, John Calvin and in most theologians since the Reformation to recognize the fact that we are all called to be involved in ministry. Salvation is a call to become part of the Body of Christ and the Body of Christ is the Church and the Church is the ministering community of Jesus Christ. So, what was the epiphany?
Simply put, I have been teaching baptism incorrectly. I have not been teaching it in any heretical way. I have simply been missing an opportunity to tell others the full meaning of the baptismal event. In leaving out this important piece, I have missed a great chance to help new believers understand what it means to be part of the priesthood of all believers. Here is what I read in Taylor:
"Our offices are the 'texts' of our lives, to use a dramatic term, but the 'subtext' is the common vocation to which we are all called at baptism."
Baptism is the act by which a believer makes a public declaration of his or her commitment to Christ. In that sense, it is the witness and testimony of the believer that they have received the grace of God and "enlisted in His service." It this dimension that my teaching on baptism has lacked. I have certainly taught that it is testimony and a response to the salvation which God has given. I have talked about the symbolic meaning of baptism in the public witness of Christ's death and resurrection. I have used it to tell about how our lives have "died" to the old life and that we are "raised" to a new life. However, I have never subscribed to the idea that baptism is what saves you. I have spent some time making sure that candidates understood what baptism would not do and not nearly enough time telling them what baptism will do. It seems to me that one of the key features of baptism is that the candidate is ordained to ministry. Not to the Office of Clergy but to the Office of Ministry. If the world is going to be changed by the message of the gospel in a post-Christian world, it will be because those who are ordained to the Office of Ministry at baptism understand that they are accepting a call to minister in the name of Jesus Christ.