Theological education, the church, the world all seem to be changing faster than we can keep up. New questions, new technologies are complicating old problems and answers...
For the past years, FTE has graciously supported faithful leadership for the church and academy. It has primarily accomplished this work as a fellowships-granting organization. But now that the church is in transition and there are major shifts in demographics and cultural trends, FTE is pausing to reexamine itself as it looks to move forward.
Fran Davis-Harris spoke with FTE Alumna Jennifer Ikoma-Motzko about her call and vocational journey. She shared a glimpse of what it was like to be a young, woman of color trying to find her place in the world of Christian ministry. Read on to learn about her journey from swearing off organized religion, to becoming a seminarian and discovering her place in ministry.
When was the last time you turned on your mobile device and saw that all is well and good in the world? Were you satisfied with what you saw? Were you like me and asked how is the church, with other partners, addressing big issues we face as a community, nation and world?
On March 13, the Roman Catholic Church elected a new leader: Pope Francis. Seeing him come onto the balcony felt like a dream: could there really be an Argentinean Jesuit as Pope?! He was not one of the buzzed about contenders (he was not European or from the curia).
One of my basic theological assumptions is that we are essentially creative. In fact, when I read the first chapter of Genesis and hear of a god who makes human beings in the divine likeness, I simply imagine a Creator who creates fellow creators...
“For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing…Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” –Matthew 25:35-40, NIV
God is hungry and waiting to be fed. This hunger is reflected each day in the faces of children standing in long soup kitchen lines and in the panicked voices of desperate fathers searching for a way to put food on the table for their families. Each day their numbers grow as God waits to be fed, the text of Matthew 25 resounding in repetition. When God's creatures are hungry, God is hungry. Through the living witness of my work I have come to believe that our God is one who laments with us and feels the depths of our pain.
