Pocket Sized Pastor*

To be honest, when I applied to LTSP, I had no idea what Field Experience meant. When I arrived on campus for my visit, my conversation with the admissions director, brought up the concept of “site”, “field education”, and other such terms. I had the vague understanding that it meant that I would work at a church at some point. I heard phrases such as “first year rotation”, “second year site”, “first year site”, and all that, and I really did not know what that meant. It wasn’t until I arrived on campus, two weeks before the semester officially started, that I figured out what Field Education meant. It meant what I thought it did – working at a church a few hours a week, including Sunday. For the typical first year student, instead of working at a church, they instead go on “rotation”, traveling to a set church for 3 Sundays in a row and talking about what they see. As a non-typical first year student (i.e. I did not grow up Lutheran and I would be in NYC on the weekend), that would not fit me. Rather, I needed to jump with two feet into what is called “first year site field experience”. I would do my first year what is typically done by second year students. The only problem, however, is that when I arrived on campus, I didn’t have a church lined up to work at yet.

Eep.

Luckily, my home pastor knows people and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I started my field experience last Sunday. I arrived at the church in Manhattan early to help blow up helium balloons to tie to the pews as it was Rally Day in the congregation. They did not teach me how to blow up helium balloons in my first two weeks at LTSP but I have discovered that there are many things that Seminary does not teach you – I just now need to add blowing up balloons to that list. I helped out in my first service there, being an usher, and filling in any roles that needed to be filled. After the first service, I jumped in and helped teach a group of Sunday school students the parable of the lost sheep and lost coin and had to explain to 7 year olds what repent means. At the second service, I stood in the back and passed out programs. After each service, I was introduced as Vicar Marc (which is just so weird to hear and say), and after the second service, I went with the youth group to play some baseball.

When I first heard about Field Experience, no one told me about baseball. I wish they had – I might have been more excited about it.

My Sundays and Fridays (and some Saturday mornings) are going to be quite busy now that I’m back in New York. I like the opportunity to apply what I’m learning in the classroom to an actual parish (though I’m not sure how much Hebrew a 7 year old would need to know) and I’m really enjoying how the parish has no problem letting me jump into things. In fact, I’ve realized that most of all my positive church experiences start that way. When I first started attending Trinity LIC, K had no problem volunteering me for anything and everything. And Trinity had no problem bringing me into the fold and letting me make a small difference in some ways. This method isn’t the best way to reach all people but it seems to be the best way to reach to me. I think I’m going to enjoy my first year field experience.

Lordy, Lord, Lord. What a week.

My first class took place a little over a week ago. At the start, let me go over my current course schedule. Introduction to Christian History, Old Testament 1, Hebrew 1, and Thinking About God (i.e. Introduction to Systematic Theology). When I say Lordy, Lord, Lord, I mean that in a good way. For the first week, I have been getting use to being back in school. Luckily I love absorbing information (though how well I absorb it is another matter). Some of the differences between Seminary and my undergraduate education is a) I am actually showing up to class now and b) instead of problem sets, I’m reading. And by reading, I mean I am reading. Most of my nights involve eating dinner between 5 and 6 and then staying in my room till midnight, reading. Part of this has to do with my attempt at limiting the text books I bring home on weekends but a part of it also has to do with the amount of information that I am being asked to read – easily 600 pages a week. And, because I need to take notes to absorb information, this is not the usual fast reading that I am capable of. It’s slow, methodical, and I’m under the full impression that I will not fully memorize what I have read until I digest it again before the quiz. If I had a quarter for every time a professor asked a question about what I read and how clueless I looked….

But I am enjoying my time here at LTSP. I’m learning different professors, their lecture styles, what they view as important, and what they want from their students. Each professor is a tiny bit different. I am finding one common theme is the attempt for students to be able to look at a bible verse or a piece of writing and deconstruct it not only into it’s specific parts but also try to figure out the assumptions that created that piece of writing, it’s context, how to apply it, and also the consequence of said writing. In a sense, we are to grok what we are reading (sci-fi reference for the win!). To be honest, this can be quite overwhelming at first. In fact, it is still very overwhelming while I think about it. But I’m at least keeping up with the reading, participating in class, and hoping that by the time my first papers are due (3 weeks from now), I might sound like I know what I’m talking about. Here’s hoping at least.

One thing that I will admit to not participating in on campus, much, is chapel service. There is a matins service at 7:30, a service around noon, and a compline service at 10pm. I will make Eucharist service, and I’ve been to one compline, but matins and compline are really not on my schedule at the moment. I find myself sitting in the library at 11:50, hearing the “WORSHIP WITH US” bells ringing, and if I’m in the middle of my book, I’ll just keep reading. One thing that I have been curious about is, now that I’m in field experience (more about that later), how I will handle not having a worship life where I just attend rather than actually work at. I’m attempting to establish that at Seminary but I’m not sure how easy it will be with the constant rotating worship types, styles, preachers, and presiders. I know it’s early in the school year, and I will mostly establish a connection to the people I am worshipping with rather than who is actually leading service, but I am curious to see how that aspect of my need for worship will develop over the next few months.

I was hoping that, at some point, to highlight the interesting things I’ve discovered during lectures, sections, classes, reading, etc. I’m still hoping to establish that at some point but, at the moment, it seems that most of my blogging will take place during my downtime waiting for the bus to take me back and forth between NYC and Philly.

I am terrible at following my own blog homework. It’s been quite awhile since I calculated my theology costs for your folks yet. Here’s an update.

After tracking down all my receipts, including my new clothes (I gotta look good), my dorm decorating, my bus tickets, and my need for milk shakes, my expenses add up to around $1200.00. This doesn’t include housing, seminary fees, or anything like that. Books are going to eventually end up costing me more than $500 (which is more than I originally thought) and one of my classes represents around 60% of my book budget for this semester. I almost dropped that class because of the book load but, sadly, it fit my schedule too nicely. I really hope I find all these books useful or else it is going to annoy the hell out of me that I had to buy them. I’ve already bought and sold/trashed/thrown-into-alligator-pits one academic library that I built and I’d really hate to do it a second time. Though there might be more gators in the sewers of Astoria. I hope they like theology tombs.

I did have one bit of excitement today, I locked myself out of my apartment for the first time. With 30 minutes to kill between meetings, I ran to my apartment to take care of some of the applications necessary for my CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) summer program. While gathering everything together, I ran out the door and left my keys on my desk. This is the first time I have locked myself out of the house while at seminary but it is the second time I’ve done this in the past two months. I hope this isn’t a pattern. I think the next time I lock myself out, it will cost me 5 dollars. That’s 5 amish whoopie pies. I need me some chocolaty cream filled deliciousness.

I woke up this morning quite early. I had stayed up late playing Teen Titans (for the Gamecube) with two seminary classmates of I and I planned on sleeping in, rolling out of bed, into the shower, and then arrive at opening day Eucharist service right before it started. I was really hoping I would be able to do all of this in one smooth motion as well. Alas, it was not meant to be. Instead, I woke up two hours before the time set on my alarm due to a nightmare. I hate nightmares not because I mind being scared but because I hate not being able to go to sleep after them. I dreamt that I was being driven around by my pastor through a strange town. We missed our exit and we were driving quite fast before hitting a curve in the road, missing it, and landing in a lake. The car began to sink, I undid my seatbelt, took off my shoes, and watched as the water began to creep higher on the window pane. I put my hand out, grabbed the window roller and was about to start my escape (though quite aware that I most likely would drown) when I woke up. And then, for shits and giggles, my brain tried to remember the Hebrew alphabet. I got seven letters in before I gave up.

So that’s my first official, non-prologue/orientation day at Seminary began.

My pastor drove my wife and I down to Seminary on Labor Day. He graciously took me to target where I bought new speakers, some wall hangings, and a few odds and ends so my room would no longer look like a hotel room. My pastor and wife left yesterday evening, I went to the gym, I worked on some Hebrew, and then I received a facebook invite to help desecrate the statue infront of campus. No one has to ask me twice to do that.

I like our handiwork

I actually did none of the real work on our project. It is an annual tradition that the Junior class dresses up the statue (a tradition not one of us heard we were suppose to do until a few days ago). I wrote “BACK” on one of the signs. Others supplied the decorations, the hats, the lightsaber, and beards. You might not find it very funny but the decorations pretty much sum up our prologue experience and education. And it only took a few hours to dream it up and execute it. I think we did an okay job.

Today consisted of opening Eucharist, convocation speakers, a picnic, advisor meetings, and standing outside having lovely conversations with new friends. Tomorrow is when classes really begin and I currently only have one scheduled, Introduction to Christian History. I am excited to experience Dr. Wengert. The amount of stories about that man on campus is wild and I have no idea what he looks like. But any person who actively disengages with his advisees, admits it, and refuses to change that situation, must be quite fun in class. Plus, he is currently IT when it comes to academic Lutheranism right now. It should be a good time.

When I arrived home on Friday at 3:30 in the afternoon (door to door travel time was 5.5 hours), after saying hello to the dog, the wife, and the cat (not necessarily in that order), I immediately turned on the WiiFit to see how much I weighed. After 2 weeks of seminary food, I wanted to see the damage.

I lost 4.5 lbs.

Now, I’m of two minds about this. First, I’ve actually wanted to lose some weight since I gained quite a bit over the last few months (I am now a kept man). This weight loss then can be a good thing. But this weight loss is a TERRIBLE thing because it just shows how bad the food at seminary is. I have just stopped eating.

I told this story to quite a few of the people I saw here in New York that many of the themes of our meals are by color. Before we left, one of the themes was brown: chicken in brown sauce, brown rice, and vegetables in brown sauce as well. And everything was encrusted in salt. I couldn’t eat it. I believe that living in New York, and having a lovely chef for a wife, has ruined me on processed food. The workers at the Refectory do a good job but they just have terrible tools to work with. At least while I’m at school this time, I won’t need to worry about the freshman 30.

Since my return to NYC, I have done nothing but eat. Fondue, burgers, lamb sausages, spicy chicken salads, ball park hot dogs, popcorn, booze, and a red velvet cake from Martha’s Country Bakery (which was the special surprise my wife bought me). In fact, I think I will finish that cake for breakfast this morning. There is a fat man inside me that just wants to come out.