Regional Director, Calling Congregations
August 01, 2009
Our last issue celebrated first engagements by young people of high school age with the language of theology and vocation. These newly conscious selves receive from their mother the food that feeds the heart and stirs faith; they begin to see their own story aligned with Jesus' story.
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Former President, The Fund for Theological Education
July 29, 2009
In a recent article for the Alban Institute titled “Teaching the Tradition”, Cassandra Carkuff Williams, National Coordinator for Discipleship Resources for the American Baptist Church makes the following argument:
"The power of human relationships offers a mere glimpse of the capacity of relationship with God in Jesus to transform us. Jesus promised us "an Advocate, the Spirit of truth," who abides with us and in us (John 14:15–17). This indwelling Spirit makes possible a transformation of self that affects all of our other relationships. Our primary vocation to be in relationship with God, which was redeemed for us by Jesus, makes possible restoration and renewal."
Any time I come across someone making a claim about our primary vocation, my hermeneutic of suspicion goes on high alert. My concern is largely around how so many presume a kind of religious authority that deems to know what is best for another, often with a claim that God has given the message to the messenger. Rarely do I hear such messages delivered with humility or with an inkling of doubt; instead, they often come with a confidence born on the shoulders of the kind of self-righteousness that has chased so many wonderful people away from our churches.
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Associate Director for Fellowships
July 24, 2009
This article reports on a 1997 study that indicates that race and gender
are significant factors in determining the quality of graduate school
experiences. African-American students reported that mentoring,
advising, and departmental environment were their most important
concerns with regard to the quality of their graduate school experience.
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Associate Professor of Hebrew and the Scriptures of Israel at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia
July 23, 2009
There are some
stories that I simply cannot share in public. Of those that I can,
highlights include having
senior white faculty whom I read as a student and taught as a professor
come up to me
after my first SBL paper, invite me to apply for a job, send me a book
to review and bring
me in for a prestigious endowed lecture.
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Professor of Old Testament, Director of Advanced Studies, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
July 23, 2009
The Personal Statement plays an extremely important role in the admissions decision. The majority of applicants to any Ph.D. program are generally qualified to enter a doctoral program, but not all of these students can be admitted.
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Former President, The Fund for Theological Education
July 20, 2009
The stuff of legend – that’s how one young person described C.T. Vivian after meeting him at a Sunday morning gathering, having heard him recount his experience on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. We can never say thank you enough for his courage, his fortitude, his unwavering commitment and his seemingly endless energy. Like so many of his generation, Rev. Vivian has been the kind of transformative leader that our world so dearly needs. And I want to let him – and everyone else know – we’re with you Dr. Vivian.
This past weekend, the Atlanta Journal Constitution ran a story about the work of Dr. Vivian and his continuing efforts to inspire the next generation of pastoral leaders for the African American church. He continues to strive through his C.T. Vivian Leadership Institute to notice, name and nurture leaders for society with the kind of vision and values that will not only honor the work of the first generation of civil rights leaders but will also imagine the needs for the next generation, that will not simply rest because we have come so far, that will empower the kind of collaboration necessary to sustain the fight against injustice.
We know these efforts as well through our work at FTE.
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Scholar-in-Residence
July 18, 2009
“Every single one of us has a “good work” to do in life. This good work not only accomplishes something needed in the world, but completes something in us. When it is finished a new work emerges that will help us make green a desert place ….” Elizabeth O’Connor, Cry Pain, Cry Hope
Make green a desert place. Take something barren, lifeless even, and slowly tend it with the right amounts of water, sunlight, and nutrients. Watch life return. Slowly green shoots emerge.
We’ve been looking for green shoots lately. We’ve been scanning for congregations where youth and young adults want to be, where young people are heard to say “If this is church, bring it on!”
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