D.Min. Update
/Dear Wyckoff Reformed Church,
I returned recently from my second week in residence at Western Theological Seminary for my Doctor of Ministry program, “Holy Presence: Eugene Peterson and the Pastoral Imagination.” Upon returning I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to do this, to be with these other pastors, to be in on these conversations, to devote time and energy to this task. I was also struck with the sense that I have not done a great job of including you in what I’ve been doing and studying. To be honest, I have wanted to include you but haven’t really known how. This letter—and those that will hopefully follow—is an attempt to remedy that.
First, the details. I was in Holland, MI from Sunday night, Jan. 9 to Friday night, Jan. 14. Like last time, I stayed with my parents in Jenison, about 25 minutes east, and borrowed one of their cars for the week. Our meetings began at 1pm on Monday, designed to give our group of 20 pastors time to travel and then get some rest and decompress before diving in. Our cohort is comprised of pastors from all over the country and from a wide variety of denominations and traditions, but the sense of community and friendship has run deep and fast. Our churches are all very different but we are here because we share a common vision of what we want to be about as pastors, how we want to live this pastoral life, and that has proved a strong bond.
We had the opportunity throughout the week to pray together, discuss various pieces of the five books we’d read over the last few months, share the 20-page papers we had written as we begin to discern what our individual projects will be, and hear from our guest lecturer, Rev. Dr. Tyshawn Gardner, pastor of Plum Grove Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, AL and Vice-President of Student Affairs at Stillman College. Dr. Gardner led us in a discussion of “Sacred Anthropology and Social Crisis Preaching”, essentially: how do you preach and pastor in a world that is not okay? Some of the most meaningful times, though, were the informal discussions we had over lunch, gathered around hors d’oeuvres at our director Winn Collier’s house, or over a drink at Butch’s Dry Dock after our sessions had finished. A personal highlight was getting to have dinner with Jacob Carlson and Liam Naumann, freshmen next door at Hope College, on Wednesday night at New Holland Brewpub (they’re doing great, by the way)!
Where our first gathering felt like going to summer camp—Will they like me? Will I fit in? Do I belong? How is this going to go?—this time felt more like going back for your sophomore year of college—you’re settled with your friends, know where everything is, and have an idea of what you’re studying and why you’re there. As I think about the overarching takeaway from the week I’ve come back to a growing sense of gratitude for this work and this life and for you. One of the things Eugene Peterson sought to do was recover the dignity of pastoring and to call pastors back to the holiness of their work. I’ve felt that call deepen and a growing sense of awe in your presence because of God’s presence with us. I hope you stop to pause some time to realize that these people around you any given week in worship are no ordinary people, but sons and daughters of the King. You are in the presence of royalty, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, alive and aflame in each of us. It’s a beautiful and remarkable thing.
Now that I’m back, these next few months will be made up of more reading (I already finished another book!), continued research for my dissertation project, a formal submission of a project proposal, and showing up to Flathead Lake, MT—where Eugene grew up and later retired—in late May with the first 1-2 chapters of my project drafted. I would appreciate your prayers during this time, not just for the work that needs to be done but for the formation God is working in my soul as I do it. Pray for discernment as I narrow the options for my project and begin to write. And if you want to know what I’m reading, let me know! I’ve wondered about how to read one of these books with you at some point but I’ve had to go through them so quickly that I haven’t been able to stop and figure out how!
Thanks again for supporting me through this adventure. I can tell you without a doubt that this is exactly where God wants me and what God wants me doing. Now let’s see what God is going to do with it!
In Christ,
Pastor Andy