Friday, March 11, 2011

Where the Call Takes Us

This has been an exciting last couple of weeks for our Senior and Middler students.  Two weeks ago our senior students heard the Regions to which they will be assigned for their first call process.  Senior seminarians in the ELCA are first assigned to a region and then to a specific synod within that region.  Many of our students were assigned to Region 3 (North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota) and others to Region 5 (Iowa, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, Upper Penninsula Michigan), but others will be heading much further east, south and west.  The Holy Spirit has led our seniors through their regional assigments and, from there, to the specific synods within each region to which they are called.  We are all praying for them as they now enter the call process for the specific congregations to which they are called.
      This past Wednesday our Middlers (2nd year MDiv students) received their internship assignments for this upcoming year.  This week was an exciting and anxious time as they learned where they will be spending the next year of their lives.  The internship year occurs during the 3rd year of the Master of Divinity track and is a very formative part of the seminary experience.  Students are paired with supervisors who will guide them through hands on experiences of leading services, preaching, visiting the sick, and general experiences of full time parish ministry.  We are excited for the Middlers who will be moving on to internships next year and the blessings that God is leading them toward.
      All in all, this week has been a reaffirmation of the call process as a whole.  Though anxieties and stresses come with being led by God to new places and new ministries, we have no doubt that when we get their God will be there with us.  I for one, before coming to seminary, did not fully realize why I was coming to Wartburg, I simply knew that this is where God wanted me to be.  In coming here I think that most everyone has found that God is present in very real ways.  Likewise, as we are called away from Wartburg, God is there with us.
    So, congratulations to our Senior and Middler students! May God guide you down every road to which you are called.

-Seth

Monday, March 7, 2011

This Place is Getting Bigger All the Time

In terms of size, Wartburg Theological Seminary isn't much bigger than a lot of other seminaries.  With an average class size of about thirty new Masters of Divinity and Masters of Theology students coming new each year, the seminary averages about 90 students on campus at any given time and 120 students total if interns are counted.  When I visited from my alma mater of about 4,000 students, the small size of Wartburg's campus was evident from the beginning.  Though many students have families which make the campus feel quite a bit bigger than the student numbers reflect, it is not the largest place to study.
       Yet, as I was sitting in class last Friday surveying the view of campus through the window, I was struck by how big Wartburg seems to me now.  It is not nearly as small as when I first set foot on campus and actually seems to have grown in size since then.  I am not totally sure why this is, but I have a few guesses. 
       First off, I have gotten to know people on campus better than when I first came to visit.  This is natural and inevitable, but it has led me to view campus as having many more views, personalities, friends, and possibilities than it originally appeared to have.  As you get to know people better your shared experiences with them grow in depth and breadth.  Now, only after having been here for a couple of months my relationships with others seem to have changed this campus to be much larger than it originally seemed.
       Furthermore, this campus seems to have gotten bigger for how my understanding of God, church and the world has been challenged since I have started.  Though I had encountered many topics we have studied at seminary at different times in my life, seminary study has forced me to look at them together in light of my pastoral preparation.  They have laid a contextual and theological challenge for me to explore connections and disconnects between different ideas in new ways.  The act of theological exploration has led me to view Wartburg's campus community in which this sort of exploration takes place as bigger than it previously appeared.
      All in all, Wartburg is growing on me.  In my perspectives of the community in which we live, the classes we take, the texts we read, I am seeing this place continually in new and different ways.  I have to say that, from a student perspecive, Wartburg Seminary is getting bigger all the time.