The Fund for Theological Education held their conference in New Orleans
this year. Two uncertainties already in my mind: what is a ministry
conference like and how does New Orleans look after two Gulf Coast
disasters? The shuttle from the airport to Dillard University was cold
and full of chattering voices. I observed how we instinctually
categorized each other: What kind of Fellow? What denomination? What
seminary? The words felt empty when I said them. They did not actually
say much about who I was. It was like placing everyone on a map and we’d
only just met ten minutes ago. My own response to people’s answers was
mixed. Some traditions conjured vivid images while other denominations
were relatively unknown to me. It seemed hopeless. A real live person
standing in front of me, and I was asking them assist my assignment of
the most convenient preconceived notion I had for easy future reference.
As we left the airport and boarded the bus to go from the airport to
Dillard University where the conference is being hosted, I was assaulted
with the heat and humidity of the Southern summer. Riding through the
traffic on the freeway, I looked out the window wondering if I would
catch glimpses of the damage and recovery from Hurricane Katrina. We
exited the freeway and were stopped at a red light and I saw a person on
the side of the road “panhandling.” He had written some illegible words
on a sign he was holding that I couldn't read. But I caught a glimpse
of the back of the sign which used to hang at an apartment complex and
read “The American Dream, for rent now!” I was struck by the completely
contradictory message, this guy was definitely not experiencing the
American Dream standing on that corner in the oppressive heat and
humidity.
Day 1: Getting off of the airplane and touching ground in New Orleans, I let go of my worries, frustrations, anxieties of home life and welcomed in the spirit of God to fill me with the comfort of simply being present, listening and conversing with others on their journey of faith as spiritual social change agents in a world of complacency and despair. I am honored to be in the company of such greatness of minds and comforted in the knowing there is hope for the Christian church and hope does not disappoint...
What I have experienced here at the FTE Leaders in Minstry Conference in New
Orleans is so powerful that I feel compelled to try to put it into
words. Why? I have experienced community, and it is good.
I don’t actually remember how I came across this fellowship. It may
have been suggested to me by my pastor or possibly the seminary I will
be attending. What I do know is that despite my research, I had no idea
what to expect when I left for my trip to New Orleans. In my wildest
imaginations, I would not have pictured what this conference has become
for me. One of the most wonderful aspects of this conference is the
people I am meeting and the friendships I am forming both with other
Lutherans and with people outside my denomination. I am surrounded by
Mennonites and Baptists and UCC and Methodists and Episcopalians and
Presbyterians and Jesuits and Pentecostals and Christians unaffiliated
with a denomination.
It seems like talk of “practices” is popular again. People and groups
both inside and outside the church are re-discovering that our faith is
not just about beliefs or intellectual affirmation but about a way of
life, a way of living, that connects us to one another and to God. These
are not in and of themselves “salvific.” In other words, practices for
practices sake, for getting our own spiritual fix, are not
transformative, are not converting. But if we engage them with...
On Saturday, June 4th, FTE doctoral and dissertation fellows attended
the panel Scholarship in Dialogue with Diaspora: A Reflective
Conversation. Drs. Diakite, Hucks, Braga, Hopkins, and Lartey reflected
on experiences with African and African diasporic communities. Among
others, the theme of identity played a critical role in the reflections.
The thrust of these comments was that theological and religious
discourse in both the church and academy must resist the tendency to
define Christian identity in terms of a bipolar, exclusionary logic that
consecrates a hierarchy in which the Christian is naturally superior to
the heathen. As Christian pastors, preachers, and educators, we must
begin to think about ways of conceiving our personal, congregational,
and denominational identities in ways that admit the ambiguity of
distinctive qualities between saved and sinner, church and world, “us”
and “them.”
"Are you traveling to colonize or are you traveling to be a co-learner?"
This was the query posed by Dr. Margaret Aymer to FTE fellows at the closing panel discussion at the 2011 Leaders in the Academy Conference. After all, in the pursuit for excellence in scholarship in our fields of theological education, we are on a quest. This quest encompasses, as Dr. Emilie M. Townes proclaimed in celebration of the great legacy of Dr. Sharon Watson Fluker, great oeuvres along the way.
