“As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work.” (Colossians 1:10 MSG)
I recently finished my first semester at Bexley-Seabury Seminary, taking a hefty course load of one single class: the “introduction to Church history” course. This is the course that gives a broad overview of the course of Christianity over last two millennia. Needless to say: I learned a lot in this course.
I’m one of the few students enrolled at BSSF who is not in the discernment process for ordination (at least, not yet…). Most everyone else is either a postulant or a candidate who is completing their M.Div. studies as part of their training, preparation, and formation for the ministry as an ordained leader in the Episcopal Church. They are following the more traditional route: discerning a call to the ministry, and attending seminary to help them be more effective at that call.
In contrast, I’m there because I want to learn. I figured a seminary program was a good place to learn more about the tradition, values, and theology of the wider Christian tradition, within the specific denomination of the Episcopal Church. I’m doing it the other way around: I’m attending seminary, adding to my knowledge “more and more” about “how God works,” hopeful that it will be of use to me in discerning “how to do [my] work.”
Hazelnut Notes 