A new leg of the journey

On November 1st I started a new job. I am now the Community Architect at Church of the Apostles, a sacramental/liturgical/emerging church in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.  My main purpose as the Community Architect will be working to create systems of communication and connection that allow for the fostering of community within the church.  

This new leg of the journey has caused me to reflect upon the path that I have been traveling for the past few years (though it goes back even farther).  Back in 2005 and 2006 I completed a year of study at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.  During my time there I had the privilege of taking classes from the late Robert Webber.  In his classes on worship and spirituality Bob introduced me to ancient and liturgical forms of worship as well as integrating them into the postmodern world that we live in today.  He taught me that to worship is to participate in the enactment of the story of God (See Why Episcopal I, II, III).  Under Bob’s teaching I was soon an Evangelical on the Cantebury Trail.  

During this time I was also becoming more and more disillusioned (if you are at all familiar with my theological musings the reasons for this are quite obvious) with the church tradition that I found myself in.  This disillusionment and other circumstances that Kate and I were going through brought us to the realization that we needed to go West.  In the summer of 2006 Kate and I packed up our stuff and headed to Seattle to attend Mars Hill Graduate School.  We went to MHGS with the hope of re-imagining our Christian faith with the help of others.  Little did I know that my journey towards Anglicanism would pick up here in Seattle.  Some friends of ours were attending St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lower Queen Anne (the neighborhood that Kate and I moved into).  Upon their invitation we started attending, and it was pretty soon that Kate and I knew that we were home  (Again, see Why Episcopal?).   

However, this new found home also caused me a vocational dilemma.  I am now part of a mainline protestant denomination where most of the paid jobs belong to ordained priests and I just graduated from a little known evangelical/emergent seminary that has no ties to this church.  Where in the $&^% am I going to find a job?!  And then right as I am graduating I am presented with a unique opportunity to work at a church here in Seattle, that is both Episcopal and emerging.

I resist using language of “God ordained this” or “it was God’s hand leading me the whole way”, etc…  That language is difficult for me because one, I used that language to describe choices in my life before that turned out to not be the healthiest choices, and then I am left with the dilemma of “Did God want to cause me harm?  Or did I mess up God’s plan, etc…”.   And two, I believe that God wants me to make choices, wise choices, that reflect upon a whole range of things, only one of which is “What is God leading me to do?”.  

In this situation though, I can’t help but smile a little bit with the sense that God is walking with me as both God and I make our way into this next leg of the journey.

Done

Despite the fact that I “graduated” last May with a Master of Arts in Christian Studies from Mars Hill Graduate School, it was yesterday that I finally finished.  Though it has definitely not sunk in yet, it feels so good to be done.  Despite the fact that I love being in school, I love learning, I love classroom discussions, and yes I even love research papers, I feel that my time in the classroom is over, at least for now. 

MHGS is an interesting place.  In earning a degree there I have had many great experiences as well as numerous frustrations and let downs.  But ultimately in the end, I have truly been changed.  MHGS truly creates an environment where students can engage the material and each other with honesty, passion and vulnerability.  While many seminaries claim to train the whole person, I think MHGS is taking a pretty good shot at doing it. 

A great example of this occured yesterday in my last class.  Myself and several other students were participating in a research project where we were sent out to study organizations and ministries with in intent of learning how they are both contextual and sustainable.  We met this past Monday and Tuesday to reflect on our research.  Many of us in the class were frustrated on the process of reflection that our professors had planned for us.  So Tuesday the class was able to voice this discontent, and together with our professors we scrapped our plans, set a new course, and ended up having an incredible day of sharing the stories we heard, and constructing wisdom from them. 

As the class was coming to end I did feel a sense of sadness because I was not going to be able to continue to learn with these people.  Many of the students I came in with are on the 4-year MDiv track.  They will have the opportunity to continue to dialogue and discover together.  I wish them the best.  

I usually refrain from diaryish ramblings on this blog, but I just finished grad school and brain feels like jello.  So anyway, it feels good to be done.  Thank you MHGS and thank you to my professors and classmates who journeyed with me these past two years.

Graduation

  Saturday May 10th I graduated from Mars Hill Graduate School with a Master of Arts in Christian Studies.  Well, technically I will graduate this August when I complete my course work.  The ceremony went rather well (and it was only an hour and half!).  The highlight was the student speeches.  One representative from each degree program spoke (Counseling, Christian Studies, and Divinity).  They used the three days of Easter to organize their triune address, the first spoke on suffering, grieving and death (Good Friday), the second on being done but not finished (Holy Saturday) and the third on resurrection life.  As these students reflected on their time at Mars Hill and cast a vision for going forward it reminded me of why I came here.  At Mars Hill, my fellow students and I, have had the opportunity to see and engage life in a unique way.  This way I think is best described as integrated.  We attempt to live and do theology in a way that accounts for scripture, our traditions, and our personal stories.  This process involves learning to hold both suffering and joy, grief and love, despair and hope.  So thank you graduation speakers for articulating well what we learned and experienced here at MHGS.  And I can’t wait for August when I will actually be done!

Cornhole!

If you have followed this blog with any regularity you have probably noticed that there is a pause in the action every 4 or 5 months.  This is the standard sign that I am in the last throws of a semester and the small amount of brain power that I have left goes to writing papers.  However, to appease my hungry readers here are a few happenings in the life of Jordan:

Graduation: I will partake in MHGS’s graduation ceremony on May 10th.  It will be a tad anti-climatic because I still have 3 hours of course work this summer.  On another note, I am not the biggest fan of ceremonies, I’m not exactly sure why.  For one I don’t like to have to sit in one place for 3 hours. 

Husbandry: So tomorrow is Kate’s birthday!  My birthday present to her was helping her in the garden this weekend and going with her to buy some plants.  I feel like that birthday present signifies a new stage of being a husband.  I don’t know how to explain it but it just felt husbandy.

Cornhole: Today a cornhole arrived in the mail.  If you response is “gross!” get your head out of the gutter.  Cornhole is an incredible yard game that will forever ensure my connection to the Midwest.  But really, I am pumped about cornhole because it signifies something great about this coming summer: Free Time!  Yes with only 3 credits of school this summer I will have time to do things such as play cornhole in my backyard. 

It is Finished

I just printed off my final paper for the semester. 

It feels good to be done.

Mars Hill Graduate School

MHGS in movie format.

Click on movie.

Here we go again

The Fall semester has begun. Last week I was in Church History I (Early Church through the Reformation) Monday through Friday 9-4PM. It was a long week, but our professor was quite good and Church history is always fascinating.

One of the new thoughts that came my way was a discussion on the Reformers understanding of predestination. Why was it so important to them and what necessitated that belief? Their actions had caused the Catholic Church to excommunicate them, thus they were damned to hell. They needed some heavy duty salvific assurance to stand up to the one and only church: hence, it is only God who determines who is saved (i.e. predestination). Now I am definitely not trying to instigate a discussion on predestination nor am I implying that the Reformers simply made up doctrines to react to the Catholic Church. Rather I continue to find it intriguing to look at the contexts and circumstances that give shape to who we are, what we believe and what we do. Life is always contextual and that is the beauty of it.

This week I will start the rest of my Fall classes: Corinthians, Theology I, and Human Growth and Development. Following this Fall, I will have 7 hours in the Spring and then 4 hours next Summer and I will be done with my Masters! It feels good to be on the downhill slope.

Student Loans

How about this idea for paying off our Mars Hill debt a little faster?

The semester is over!

Well my first semester at Mars Hill has come to an end. These last months have been a blur. Kate and I moved into our apartment the day before school started and life has been in constant motion since then with school and work. But what a good semester it has been. A few notable events in the recent past:

Kate and I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at our place. In total there were 15 of us in our little apartment. Everyone brought fantastic food. Kate and I felt so blessed by all the people who came. They have invited us into their community here in Uptown and made us feel so welcome.

MHGS celebrated its annual Christmas party at our new building in Belltown. Our time in Bothell is officially over! The new building is incredible. It is feet from the Puget Sound, it has panoramic views of the Olympic Mountains and Mt. Rainer. Yeah, it is nice. But anyway, the annual Christmas party always entails a dance party. I found it quite funny that I found myself sharing the dance floor with our school’s Theology professor while Justin Timberlake’s “I’m Bringing Sexy Back” is thumping from the speakers. Only at a Seminary like Mars Hill.

Also, a giant storm hit the area Thursday night. Kate and I lost power around 2 am Friday morning. We were fortunate though, our power came back on Friday afternoon around 3 pm. Thousands are still without power.

And yesterday, now that I have some free time I finally made it out into the wilderness. I took a a guy from work (along with his three dogs) and we hiked out to some water falls in the foothills of the Cascades. It was spectacular. It felt so good to get out of the city for a little and walk among the snow capped peaks.

Anyway, I am far too mentally spent to offer anything profound or thought provoking so you will just have to deal with this summary of events. Thanks for reading.