Month: December 2013
Quick Hits
I really need to get back to work but I’d like to share with you two tidbits of information.
1) The new ELCA call process forms did not go live on December 9. They are now scheduled to be unleashed in “early 2014”. Formatta filler lives on.
2) LTSP is looking for a program director to oversee a new Masters of Divinity program called “The Cooperative model.”
In this model, a student does full-time coursework and part-time work in a congregation over the course of three years. The student gains insight and longer-term experience in congregational leadership, receives intentional and intensive spiritual formation, and has tuition and fees covered by work in the congregation. Congregations gain the benefit of nurturing and supporting a future leader and consistent leadership over the course of three years. Congregations that can no longer afford a full-time pastor may benefit from this model.
General Seminary has talked about something similar but is calling it a ‘Wisdom Year.’ The final year of seminary is spent half-time in school, half-time at a church, with the hope that the church would pay the tuition and housing of the student (and possibly nothing else). One of the first questions most seminarians are asking is “what church is going to give a seminarian control of the budget?”
Discuss.
Who has two thumbs, a gray cap, and is going to write a senior thesis next semester?
This guy.
A few hours ago, I trifolded three pages carrying the entire sum of my thesis proposal for next semester. After securing the signatures of my supervisor (General’s professor of systematics) and my second reader (one of General’s professors of history) at lunch time, I popped in my 100 word thesis proposal, a really minimal outline, and an initial bibliography with 25 sources on it. Come April 15th, and after about 8,000 to 15,000 words, I’m going to have a thesis. I’m excited. But I’m probably most excited about the title: Tweet Tarshish.
This thing is going to be epic. It is going to be stellar. It is going to require countless hours of research to develop just the right graphic to brand it. Ahhhh. I can’t wait.
I’m plugged in
Yesterday I received word that my forms successfully implanted themselves into the hive mind that is the ELCA database of available pastors. After two forms, twenty pages, and countless questions that are a tad too focused on the “Jesus loves me” style of theological reflection, everything worked. For the moment at least, I’m full mobilized and online. Let’s see come December 9, when the system is completely replaced by something brand new, if my data is still all there. And I hope it is. I was even told that I did a good job filling those forms out. Let’s hope that a few bishops/assistants-to-bishops agree with that assessment – I do need a job.
So, with that, well, I’m in the system. This is getting real.
Why the taco? Because I’m doing an Advent devotion and taking a picture based on one word a day. Today’s word is joy. I think this taco ornament works for that.