How does a doctoral student prepare for and learn to successfully negotiate a doctoral program? During my years of working with highly gifted fellowship recipients here at FTE, I have had the opportunity to both observe and help impart behaviors and practices that set these achievers apart. I’d like to share these eight habits of success with you...
Here we are again. It’s the month of August—that transition month. By this point in the year, those summer plans have given way to summer vacation memories of adventure trips and special times with family.
At FTE, making space for conversations and convening is part of our DNA. As you approach this season of transitions and new beginnings, we invite you to join us in planting seeds for a new future in theological education.
Getting into a doctoral program is one thing but having the resources to complete the degree is sometimes quite another…
The praise service ended, the scripture had been read, and the way was clear for the sermon. Reverend Doctor Joseph Lowery walked slowly to the pulpit with his cane. He was scheduled as the guest preacher for the Sunday morning worship service---there to help celebrate a local Atlanta pastor’s 22 years of service to the church and community. Dr. Lowery wore a dark suit (a preacher’s suit) and white shirt. Peering down from the balcony where I was sitting, I could see there was something different about his attire--- around the collar of his shirt hung the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom he had just received from President Obama at a White House ceremony just a few days ago.
Mission
As a co-founder and President Emeritus of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Dr. Lowery is no stranger to mission and advocacy work. He began in the early 1950’s in Mobile, Alabama fighting for the desegregation of public transportation and accommodations as head of the Alabama Civic Affairs Association and in 1957, along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of the co-founders of SCLC serving in a number of roles including vice president, chair of the board, and president. In addition, he has travelled to many countries around the globe working for social justice.
Aside from his national standing, Dr. Lowery’s role as local pastor bears special mention here. As a minster of the United Methodist Church, he has served as pastor to churches in Mobile and Birmingham before coming to Atlanta. Anyone who has observed him throughout his career or listened to his sermons and speeches would know he views the church as a connector in helping to identify the next generation of leaders and pastors. In this regard, The Fund for Theological Education is a partner with him in its mission to identify and support young people interested in ministry.
What’s going on?
I had many conversations over the past several weeks---with family around the dinner table, with friends at holiday house parties, with familiar people in my neighborhood grocery store check-out line, and with random strangers in department store parking lots as we all rushed to place our purchases in the trunks of our cars. Everyone had plenty to talk about: the economy, politics, high food prices, job lay-offs, terrorism, the war in Iraq, the education of our children and on and on and on. Some level of anxiety seemed to permeate many of these conversations. There just weren’t too many folks feeling optimistic about very much. On one occasion, I found myself asking, “What do you think we need to get out of this mess?” Some said, “We need good leadership!” Others suggested, “Trouble don’t last always!” In many respects these responses were on target. It seems to me --- good leadership and hope may very well go hand in hand during times like these.
