Former President, The Fund for Theological Education
April 15, 2009
As we enjoy the beautiful explosion of color from all of the flowers in Georgia, our children are beginning the annual process of standardized testing. The CRCT is administered to all children enrolled in public schools, and for many children, parents, teachers and administrators this is a season of great anxiety. The test scores can determine everything from academic promotion to school funding. And there’s almost no room for individuality, creativity or grace.
While I am a strong proponent of accountability and assessment in education, one-size-fits-all tests rarely measure either. A high score does not necessarily mean that one is intellectually exceptional; it may simply indicate that a student is a gifted test taker (or got lucky on a lot of multiple choice questions).
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Associate Director for Fellowships
April 15, 2009
What distinguishes a minister who carries out her/ his call with excellence? FTE conducted four consultations around this question with ministers across the country. The results were published in Faithful to the Call: Reflections on Excellence in Ministry
Here's a synopsis of what they said:
1. Excellent ministers believe what they are proclaiming.
"They embrace their faith as a living, breathing thing, and they share that faith with others by pointing to the scriptures and the life of the worshipping community."
2. Excellent ministers love their communities.
"Whether introverted or extroverted, gregarious or reserved, a good minister thoroughly grounds himself or herself in the life of the congregation."
3. Excellent ministers display agility, flexibility and grace under pressure.
"Excellent ministers are agile ministers. They move fluidly across a range of responsibilities, from the sublime to the everyday and the tedious."
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Asst Professor, Christian Education and Formation, Seminary of the Southwest
April 11, 2009
What is the role of family when nurturing the sense of vocation with its members? What are the practices, home rituals, and stories that help a person to draw contours of his or her vocational destiny? Reflecting back on the years of my own vocational formation, I recall a large oak table at my aunt’s living room where my family gathered on Sundays. We gathered for a table fellowship which included food but also stories from the family history, the life of community, politics, jokes, etc. It was in this context of table fellowship that a family narrative had been passed on to me and other youth in my family. I learned early on that my family had a history of intellectual leadership and pastoral service in the community, and this narrative shaped my sense of vocation around the values of emancipation, justice, and leadership.
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Associate Director for Fellowships
April 08, 2009
Here, a group of young women at Spelman College's Sister's Center for WISDOM share powerful testimony of the ways in which the issues of race and gender have affected their responses to God's call on their lives. The second person to speak is Meredith Coleman Tobias, a 2007 FTE Ministry Fellow from Yale Divinity School.
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Former President, The Fund for Theological Education
March 26, 2009
I just finished reading an article in the March 26 edition of The Chronicle of Philanthropy about Benjamin Jealous, the new president of the NAACP. At 36, Jealous is the youngest person to have ever served as president of this historic and vital organization. He completed his bachelor’s degree in political science at Columbia University in 1996 and a master’s degree in comparative social research at Oxford University in 1998. As I look at his accomplishments, at the evidence of his values and commitments, and at his remarkable courage to accept the call to lead the NAACP at such a difficult economic moment in our history, I am reminded quickly of so many of our FTE Fellows who, like Jealous, have heeded the call to service with such courage.
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Boston College Campus Ministry; Boston College Inter-Religious Study on Ethical Identity
March 06, 2009
“I’m coming to a place in my life where things are no longer happening to me. I’m part of making them happen.” This was an insight that a senior came to in my office. I responded to the caution in her voice as she recognized the impact of the choices and decisions in her life but, inwardly, I smiled because I knew that she was wonderfully close to developing discernment as a spiritual practice.
When I served as a lay Catholic minister at Boston College, I was privileged frequently with hearing the students’ experiences of relationships and transitions that engaged the central questions of their lives. In this role, my essential ministry was the practice of introducing, coaching and affirming a practice of discernment with them.
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Director of Ministry Fellowships
March 05, 2009
Young seminarians, recent seminary graduates, laity, seasoned pastors, new pastors, scholars, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, United Methodists, UCCer's, Lutherans, Pentecostal, East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, South, Canada, inner city, suburban, rural, small town, African American, Hispanic, Caucasian this is the diversity of voices that recently gathered in Atlanta to engage the topic of vocation and the role of the congregation in noticing, naming, and nurturing young people in their midst who demonstrate gifts for ministry.
"Notice-Name-Nurture: A Role for Congregations in God's Call" is a three and a half day learning event that creates a unique space, a space I refer to as a "comfortable uncomfortable space" where folks from a wide array of backgrounds begin to discover that what they share in common, their role as called people of God, is more powerful than any difference. The first day is my favorite. It is the day dedicated to noticing, noticing the other into existence, and in so doing noticing new things about one's own narrative.
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