More shoes and BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS

Ahhhh. Seminary.

Over the last few days, I have become officially entrenched in seminary.  I received my email account and my login information into one of the most basic online student information tool I have ever seen.  The tool I used at Cornell in 2000 was incredibly detailed which makes the tool at LTSP look really really sad. However, they promise to unleash new features soon so I’m looking forward to that. At least I’m now able to see that I really am enrolled at LTSP and that, in a lot of ways, is all I really need.  It made me comfortable enough to add LTSP to my facebook page.  I can’t get more official than that.

Today, the book list for my classes arrived and – well – it didn’t shock me too much. I expected to spend close to $500 a semester in books and, if I did the math right, I won’t reach that amount this semester. I am, of course, completely ignoring the ‘suggested’ book list for one of my classes.  If I bought those books, my total book cost would double.  Two of those books I will most likely buy (for fun) but I’m very curious to see if my professor is the type of professor where ‘suggested books’ are really ‘required books’.  If yes, I might end up spending most of my time in seminary at the library reading those suggested books.  I don’t think I have the physical space in my bags to carry those books between home and seminary every week.

The email containing the book list also included a small plea from the administrators that I purchase all my books from the seminary bookstore. I understand the sentiment.  I fully want to support the book store. I have, already, purchased some items from there even before I was enrolled.  The book store does have a 20% discount on most titles I am required to pick up which, in some cases, is less than amazon.com’s prices.  And that’s great.  And for those few books, I will be picking them up from the store.  But if I’m going to save $20 bucks buying a new copy from an amazon.com partner, I have to take that deal.  I hope the bookstore can forgive me.

And being the engineer that I am, I quickly threw together a spreadsheet of the books I need, their price points on various websites, and whether buying the books on a Kindle was a possibitly.  I don’t have a Kindle yet but I want one – ooooooh, do I want one.  Only a half a dozen titles, or so, are available for the Kindle and the savings between buying a new/used copy and the kindle copy does not make up enough to justify buying a Kindle right away.  Over the long term, I’ll probably save money. And I’ll probably save money on any future back problems that I’ll develop while lugging those books back and forth.  But, sadly, too few of my books are un-kindle-ized at the moment. I hope that changes.

After placing a small book order, I then went out to TJ Maxx and bought some more Chucks.  Getting those shoes 40% off is a deal I will take advantage of all day, every day.  Thus, my total seminary cost is, at the moment, slightly north of two hundred.  So far, so good.

I love my Iron Man pajamas.

In three weeks, I will start seminary.  In three weeks, my budget and my financial planning will be torn to shreds.  But I refuse my financial discipline to be as damaged as it was when I went to university as an undergrad.  I want to know how much seminary really costs me. I want to keep track of EVERYTHING.

And I need to share.

Every school year begins not with registering for classes, paying the tuition bill, or waiving health insurance. Oh no.  The school year officially begins when you start buying new clothes. BOOYAH! I am really excited about this part.

So far, I bought new shoes, one new vest-hoodie from Forever 21, and something from wal-mart.  I will share my wal-mart purchase with you because it is the greatest.  I give you my Iron Man Pajama bottoms.

The amazing thing is that I use to own everyone of the comics depicted on the pants. From Iron Man Submariner #1 (from 1968) to earlier Tales of Suspense issues and through the picture frame covers from the late early 70s. I loved those issues. The stories are ridiculous, the writing dated, but the art was just fantastic.  K found this for me yesterday and I’ve been wanting to wear them outside every day.  I, however, won’t because I also refuse to be the grad student who wears his pjs to class.  What would Stacey and Clinton say?

So, so far, my clothing cost is currently at $72.94.  My first book for my intensive course (Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces by Jon Pahl) cost $28.16 .  Total seminary expenses : $101.10.  That will go up.

Urban Leaders Institute

Late last week, Pastor Paul and I headed into Manhattan and the Inner church building to enjoy the Urban Leaders Institute, a conference organized and run by the Black Pastors group of the Metropolitan New York Synod.  I, sadly, was only allowed to attend two out of the three days (day one was only for clergy it seems).  Around 100 people registered for the event.

Day Two (but day one for me) started with breakfast which is always a good way to start a conference. The fact that I ate breakfast before I came did not stop me from buying everything I could.  Well, that’s not entirely true. I would pick up a bottle of diet coke (nectar of the gods) and a piece of fruit.  The cashier would always hesitate to ring me up, stare me straight in the eye and go “that’s it?”  I love commentary with my dining choices.

What’s great about this kinds of conference is, for me at least, isn’t the workshops or the keynote speakers or the like.  What I love is meeting different pastors and lay leaders – hearing stories and struggles and the struggles pastors have leading their congregations.  This is research for me.  Since the conference was organized by the Black Pastors (and the Asian Pastors were in attendance as well), I got a window into a world that I will be entering in four years.  The ELCA is not a racially diverse organization – the Metropolitan New York Synod’s diversity is an exception to the rule.  The struggles of race permeate through the entire organization – from individual congregations through interaction with the bishops office and church wide.  And much of it is coached in the language of black struggles since before the days of civil rights.  It was quite interesting to see the fact that the Latino Pastors were not in attendance, that the third day of the conference was less well attended than the first, and – in the stories with the individual pastors – how congregations do self-segregate.  I find all of this fascinating and it will always be a big part of my future ministry.

One other thing that I love seeing what the different languages that were being spoken at the conference. I don’t mean that spanish was heard or korean or anything like that. Rather, the black cultural religious experience was on full display. The names of big black pastors were dropped easily, with the assumption that everyone in attendance would know who was being talked about. Bishop was a common descriptor of pastors by other people.  The use of praise and worship songs, the call-and-response preaching style, and the active participation of the congregations were all part of a language that I don’t experience quite often. And it’s all a language I love to be a part of.  Many years ago, when I first began church shopping, I attended a black baptism/pentecostal church for several months. Three hour long services, call and response, lots of shouts of “Amen!” and Amen being used as a language convention like “right?” – I enjoy it.  It wasn’t where I was called to be but that’s okay – the service was always fun for me.

Pastor Iglata, in his sermon during opening service, mentioned something that drew me in for a moment and leads into something I’ve thought about quite a bit recently.  As long as Jesus is being proclaimed, how the service works isn’t THAT important.  I, personally, go to a high church Lutheran service.  It is how I prefer to worship.  But the low church service down the street or the luther-costal service out on Long Island doesn’t mean that my church experience, what I need, is everything that everyone needs.  The Church is large enough to include what I need.  And that’s a comforting feeling.  That, to me, is the important of being at the Urban Leaders Institute.  It’s a reminder of how BIG the church is – the variety of worship, of views on leadership, and on different ways to praise and proclaim Jesus.  But the church is also very small – something that I experienced in spades while at the conference. The Black Pastors group opened up to me, supported me, and gave me a million pieces of advice before I head off to seminary in 3 weeks.  I might have experienced something many seminarians don’t but I did feel like the pastors actually cared about me and want me to succeed.  The future pastoral leaders of the church need that kind of support – a support that comes from the ministerium and not just one individual pastor or their own congregations.  It’s a big affirmation of calling, of direction, and purpose.