Tony...Awesome! Mentoring...Not so Great.
Two things to tell you about:
1. Tony Campolo preached yesterday at the Christian Ethics conference at Truett. IT WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD! Seriously folks, I told him it was one of the best sermons I've ever heard. I think it just hit home for most of us seminary folks. I could try to give you a synopsis, but that would just ruin it. I'll just say that he talked about how we should be Kingdom of God minded ministers, and that means being counter-cultural from our capitalist democracy. That was the subject. I ordered it on CD, so if you are nice, I will let you borrow sometime.
2. So, I've pretty much put off the preparations for my summer mentoring as long as I can. I'm going to send out my first feeler e-mail today. I am afraid to death of being told no. I don't know why that word seems so awful, but it just does. I am also afraid that people will feel really bad if they say no to me. And if I tell them I'm a UBCer, will that just make them feel worse when they say no? I don't know. I have two places I want to check into for sure, but I need more ideas.
Here are my criteria. Let me know if you can think of any churches or people who meet this:
1. Tony Campolo preached yesterday at the Christian Ethics conference at Truett. IT WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD! Seriously folks, I told him it was one of the best sermons I've ever heard. I think it just hit home for most of us seminary folks. I could try to give you a synopsis, but that would just ruin it. I'll just say that he talked about how we should be Kingdom of God minded ministers, and that means being counter-cultural from our capitalist democracy. That was the subject. I ordered it on CD, so if you are nice, I will let you borrow sometime.
2. So, I've pretty much put off the preparations for my summer mentoring as long as I can. I'm going to send out my first feeler e-mail today. I am afraid to death of being told no. I don't know why that word seems so awful, but it just does. I am also afraid that people will feel really bad if they say no to me. And if I tell them I'm a UBCer, will that just make them feel worse when they say no? I don't know. I have two places I want to check into for sure, but I need more ideas.
Here are my criteria. Let me know if you can think of any churches or people who meet this:
- I would really like to work with a woman who has pastor in her title. (I checked into one possibility, and the website called her the college director and all the men serving in pastoral roles are pastors. Even her male associate was called associate college pastor. That just doesn't fly with me.)
- If the church is more of the "emerging" persuasion, this is a good thing. I want a place where I feel free to be myself. I realize that these positions aren't all around, and the chances of me actually being paid to do full-time ministry in a place that I will really love and connect with seem so slim right now. I'm discouraged, but I don't want to be.
- Some of my last conversations with Kyle were about this very topic. He said he thought it would be good for me to have a different cultural experience- I think he meant a place outside the Bible belt. I agree.
Yeah, I know it's a tall order. Ministry positions for women outside the world of children and youth ministry are not incredibly easy to find, nor are ones in churches like mine. Even more terrifying than mentoring is the idea of looking for jobs afterwards. I'll be more specific later, but for now, talking about it makes me so anxious.
posted by Janalee | 11:09 AM
3 Comments:
i understand being afraid of being told no. disappointment is one of the things i hate the most.
but worse than being told no is regretting that you did not even try. you should dream big. shoot for the stars. ask away. i regret that i did not.
possibilities -
karen ward - church of the apostles - seattle, washington
rachelle mee chapman - monkfish abbey - seattle, washington
danielle shroyer - journey - dallas, texas
dottie escobedo-frank - crossroads umc - phoenix, arizona (really neat pastor)
i'm going to ask around about contacts for a few more people i have in mind and get back to you.
i want to listen to the campolo sermon whenever i can borrow it.
i don't know if you want to stay in waco or not, but i had an interview with doris anne cooper over at lake shore baptist church. she is the pastor over there, graduated from princeton, and really cool. we talked about emergent stuff. she said that she doesn't consider their church emergent, but it definitely is different. kyle recommended anne pitman a few years ago to intern over there. she did and i think she liked it. i understand if you need to get out of texas and the bible belt--look what i'm doing: cali or new jersey.
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