Read Part One here.
Read Part Two here.
Northeastern Seminary is committed to the personal and spiritual growth of every seminarian. Through the innovative and integrative Personal and Spiritual Formation curriculum, students are exposed to the rich resources and disciplines of formative Christian spirituality. We affirm that the indispensable foundation for Christian ministry is a vital relationship with God through Christ, and so we seek to provide a nurturing community in which genuine Christian faith can deepen and thrive.
So how did it turn out for the apprehensive student journeying through faith sharing?
“Thanks to our facilitator who was patient and accepting, and the blessing of God, we learned to let our guard down. We felt more at ease with each other and most importantly with ourselves. We shared deeper and more intimate parts of ourselves, as with the grace and love of God, our nervousness was replaced with understanding, trust, and care for one another. Personally, I started looking forward to faith sharing because I was able to learn not only new things about myself, but I also started to examine in a new light some old beliefs, patterns and behaviors. I could see a change in group members who were also sharing more intimately as a safe environment and certain confidentiality had been established. The work in ourselves had begun under the guidance and direction of God.”
Click here if you would like to learn more about the Spiritual Formation curriculum at Northeastern Seminary.
A post by guest blogger, Todd Daningburg, adjunct professor at Northeastern Seminary.
Churches face the difficult, but not impossible, task of nurturing and developing people at all levels of spiritual maturity. Congregations likely include new Christians, others with more experience and training in following Christ, and still others who have lived long and committed lives of faith. Hopefully, there are also people who would not yet identify themselves as Christians, but who are present to learn from Christ-followers, encounter God’s truth, and discover God’s grace.
Based on Ephesians 4:11-13, an equipping model of ministry enables a local church to successfully foster the spiritual growth of all its members regardless of their starting point.
PREPARE AND EMPOWER OTHERS
The primary task of pastoral leadership is to equip people for ministry. Rather than do the entire ministry, this frees the clergy to encourage and facilitate the ministry of others. When one person tries to meet the needs of 100 people, the task can be overwhelming. However, if a pastor equips 10 others to share in ministry, his or her capabilities and effectiveness are multiplied exponentially.
KINDLE GIFTEDNESS AND CALLING
Every Christian is called and gifted for some type of ministry. Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12 are two passages indicating that every member of Christ’s body has a ministry. The fact that the Holy Spirit was poured out on all believers gathered at Pentecost (Acts 2) verifies that every Christian has been provided the necessary resources to help carry out the mission of God in the world.
ADVOCATE AND DEMONSTRATE “THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS”
The culture of the local church encourages everyone’s ministry potential. Rather than having a “dependency” model, in which the pastors “do ministry” and everyone else is a passive recipient, the mindset that “every member is a minister and every member has a ministry” is promoted and celebrated. People move from being consumers of ministry to becoming active participants in ministry. Pastors develop the perspective and habit of “giving ministry away.”
CREATE A FRAMEWORK
Systems that help people understand and use their spiritual gifts are developed and implemented. People are encouraged to experience ministry first-hand with opportunities for reflection and evaluation.
Ministry leaders are among the spiritual outfitters who prepare others to serve. In the church, with the right outfitting for ministry, spiritual hunger can be satisfied and lives nurtured toward maturity in Christ. How do you encourage the spiritual growth among the variety of people who are all at different places in their spiritual journey?
Todd Daningburg
Adjunct Professor
Northeastern Seminary
Todd Daningburg will be teaching Equipping the Laity on Monday evenings from February 27-March 26, 2012. Information about auditing this class can be found here.
A post by guest blogger, Barbara Bushart, MDIV, MSW, adjunct professor at Northeastern Seminary.
Between the ages of twenty-three and thirty I lost my hearing due to a genetic condition inherited from my maternal grandmother. I began to notice that the world is frequently inaccessible and sadder still, that Christian churches and ministries also are often ill equipped to offer genuine hospitality and inclusion to those living with diverse disabilities. Conversations with many people over the years have provided some common unhelpful approaches as well as a recommendation for incorporating people with disabilities into the full life of the Church:
The Overly- Enthusiastic Healing Approach
In this scenario, the person with a disability is viewed as an “opportunity” to display the power of God to the world by a healing event. Conversely, an absence of healing may be interpreted as evidence of unrepentant sin or a shameful lack of faith. The person with a disability may be judged as spiritually unfit in some regard and blamed for the persistent physical condition where healing appears to fail.
The Sainthood Approach
Here, people with disabilities are held up as examples of God’s special favor, chosen to suffer as Christ suffered and to demonstrate God’s strength through weakness. Living on a pedestal is nearly as difficult as living under judgment; in both cases the categorizations create obstacles to true fellowship and mutuality.
The “Many Members: One Body” Approach
Thankfully, many churches and fellowships are recognizing that individuals with disabilities are not objects to either cure or venerate, but simply people: people to be fully enveloped into the life of the Church, people who offer unique gifts and perspectives, people who complement other members and complete the Body of Christ. This approach requires an openness to listen to people with disabilities and to learn from them how to improve accessibility and create a church experience where the gifts of all God’s people are respected.
Barbara Bushart, MDIV, MSW, Adjunct professor,
Disability Awareness for Christian Ministers and Laypersons
Northeastern Seminary
Watch for helpful suggestions in part 2, learn more about the Disability Awareness class offered April 9 – May 7, 2012.
Visions of surfing in between theology classes in California or studying in the historic hallways of Boston architecture dance in the heads of many aspiring seminarians. For some, seminary is an extension of their wonderful undergraduate years and for others it is the prestige of studying at North America’s finest. Below are several compelling reasons why one should consider pursuing seminary in upstate New York.
1. Content is as abundant as the stars. You can find more books on ministry and theology than you could read in a lifetime. Contextual ministry, however, is the name of the game. Your location has unique challenges and pressures that may not be addressed in an Orlando, Florida seminary option. Going to a regional seminary that is attune to local upstate New York ministry challenges affords you the benefit of having the most prevalent issues regularly addressed during your degree.
2. Going to a regional seminary is a fraction of the cost of relocating out of state. Oftentimes, regional seminaries have flexible scheduling and locations that allow students to maintain their employment and residence while going to school (or earning a degree) at the same time.
3. For most seminaries, a supervised practicum (or field education) is critical to a student’s experience. Regional seminaries are positioned to place students so they can complete their field education in their current place of ministry if they wish to. And when that placement includes an intentional and effective oversight as a well developed goal setting process, all the better.
A post by guest blogger, Todd Daningburg, adjunct professor at Northeastern Seminary.
On a recent flight back to Rochester, N.Y. from Los Angeles, in seat 45K—the window seat in the last row, the person in seat 45J was very nervous about the flight. At one point, she intended to get off the plane before we left the gate because the co-pilot was running late and she took that as a bad sign. With a five-hour flight and little to do to fill the time, besides watching the movie, "Cowboys vs. Aliens," we chatted about our lives. When she found out I was a pastor, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. She thought that might reduce the likelihood that we would have catastrophic problems with our flight.
Clearly, she elevated a person in ministry to a "higher plane" (pun intended) than other "ordinary" lay people. Somehow, she believed that my vocation put me in a privileged and protected relationship with the Almighty, which she would benefit from (along with all 245 people on board) because she was sitting next to me.
I share this to point out a common, but incorrect assumption, that clergy are somehow "closer to God" than other people, and that lay people do not carry the same weight when it comes to interacting with God. Such thinking fosters the notion that pastors are special and privileged when it comes to things divine and that lay people are not as capable of hearing from and serving God. The reality is, we all, clergy and laity alike, have "equal access" to God through Jesus Christ. We are all called to follow and serve Him. The Holy Spirit is given to all who accept Him as Savior and Lord. Understanding, proclaiming, and implementing the principle of the "priesthood of all believers" in the Church will foster greater fulfillment of God's Kingdom mission in the world today.
How might you harbor misconceptions about the roles of clergy and laity and their relationship to God?
Todd Daningburg
Adjunct professor
Northeastern Seminary
Learn more about enrolling in the Equipping the Laity class offered February 27 – March 26, 2012.
A post by guest blogger, Glen Dornsife, M.Div. student at Northeastern Seminary.
The other day I ran into an old acquaintance in one of my seminary classes. We used to be a part of the same small group community within our church. I didn’t remember him being a seminary student at the time, and was surprised to see him sitting next to me that night. I asked what he was doing, and he proudly stated he was exploring the options available to him. He decided that auditing a class (An awesome one at that—Biblical Worldview, taught By Dr. J. Richard Middleton) was the best available option he had to go deeper into the Word.
I mentioned that I had remembered him sharing with me how he desired to go deeper into God’s word a while back, but wasn’t even sure of where to start. He wanted to be challenged and to understand more about the Bible, God, and all our faith’s mysteries. I told him it was an encouragement to me to see him follow through on his desire to know God more. He mentioned how even though he loved the Church he didn’t feel like a Sunday service or mid-week program offered an opportunity like this one!
I couldn’t agree more with his statement. In fact, one of the main reasons I enrolled in seminary was because at the end of the day I felt unsatisfied, unchallenged in my pursuit. Quiet time. Church. Volunteering. Repeat. Most of us remain in the dark when it comes to understanding who God is and what the Bible actually says. We deny our hearts the very one it grieves to see, hear, and understand—the mysterious Hidden who formed and fashioned our very lives. For me, attending seminary is leading me down a path to a richer and fuller understanding of God, the Bible, and my faith journey.
So, to answer the question – is Seminary for you? I came up with three things to consider as indicators that seminary may be for you.
1) You desire to know God more.
2) You want to discover the call of God on your life.
3) God created you to be part of a royal priesthood—seminary is not merely for the peeps behind pulpits. Seminary is for everyone, because everyone is a royal priest.
The Hidden is not just a feeling or a hunch, thoughts or mere experiences we have. The Hidden was meant to be discovered. All of us are inclined to believe there is something, someone out there, or in us. Something transcendent, eternal. Something that matters. A god, the God. The Hidden has become the quest all humans have embarked on, whether admitted or not, to find, discover, and encounter the reality we so often can’t perceive. To come to the place of knowing, our purpose, our Maker – the Hidden, yet so visible God. (Though I have molded it to my own understanding, I can’t take credit for the idea of the Hidden—see “The Priesthood of Humanity” by Countryman, a current required reading for class.)
Seminary creates a wonderful space for people to explore the rich realities often hidden or unexplained by everyday life. They are devoted to “revealing, explaining, and teaching” all they know about the Hidden. There is no greater opportunity to be “led, taught, and illuminated” about God than at seminary. Northeastern Seminary to be exact!
Stop sitting in the dark and come join us. Discover that seminary is for you!
Glen Dornsife, M.Div.
Northeastern Seminary
Faith sharing, according to Dr. Rebecca Letterman, associate professor of spiritual formation, serves as a counterbalance to our culture of hurry, efficiency, and the “fix it now” and “do it yourself” syndromes—a balance that enables us to live at the “pace of grace.” Suzanne Pearson (’09) found faith-sharing groups profoundly counter-cultural in that, “it forces one to listen to another without the violence of interjecting one’s own personal experiences and prejudices on another’s experience.” Baiba Peelle (’07) concurs, “When each person is allowed to share without commentary from the others, the group becomes a safe, accepting, non-judgmental place where differences are not divisive but become part of the whole community.”
Developing this discipline helps the seminarian begin to cut through the clutter of voices competing for time and attention to learn to discern the voice of God. Darlene Mieney (‘09) notes that group facilitators are there to help students listen to God rather than ask for opinions from others. For Gloria Roorda (‘02) “the experience allows God to touch something deep in us that up to that point we were unaware needed touching.”
Central to faith sharing is profound respect for the individual, the power of listening to what is going on internally, and the power of God to work in silence. There is a constant climate of invitation to notice and respond to what God is doing or continuing to do in one’s life—paying attention to one’s ordinary experiences. This engenders the understanding that God is active and able to work in profound and life-changing ways.
Still, even with all the fruit that may be cultivated through faith sharing it remains a challenge for some. Letterman observes that because of its focus on listening, it constrains verbal responses to others, a distinct difficulty for people who base much of their learning and ministry on words. And when students expect that the group exists for support, problem solving, or conversation, facilitator Mary Ann Fackelman suggests a readjustment take place before they can actively and accurately engage in the process.
Read Part One here.
A guest post by Thomas Worth, master of divinity and doctor of ministry graduate of Northeastern Seminary:
Like Walking on Water
By Thomas Worth
A Christmas Sermon for 2011
Like walking on water He came to us
When the night was half spent
And the wind was against us.
When our best efforts could not move us any further…
Like walking on water He came to us,
In the impossibility of the Virgin,
In the wide eyes of her wonder,
In the humility of her trust.
Like walking on water He came to us:
In the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost,
In the brooding of the Spirit of God
Over the face of the waters of our humanity.
Like walking on water He came to us:
When from the mountainside of heaven
He saw that we were in trouble and toiling,
Toiling against sorrow and sin,
Against the chaos that would whelm over us.
Like walking on water He came to us:
On the fluid, turbulent upheaval of our condition—
Neither hovering above it nor sinking beneath it,
But in contact with the troubled sea of our humanity,
Touched with the feeling of our weaknesses and infirmities.
Like walking on water He came to us:
Solid and real, not a ghost, but Incarnate,
He took hold of the gunwales of our nature with his bare hands
And hoisted Himself into the same boat we are in.
Like walking on the water He came to us,
In the familiar miracle, the startling humility of his birth,
Displaying who He really is and helping us remember
From the heart what we had failed to understand.
Like walking on the water He came to us,
Born to Mary and Joseph long ago
Born our Savior, Christ the Lord,
Coming to us in the fourth watch of the night
And saying, “Take heart! It is I! Do not be afraid!”
Tom Worth, D.Min. 07, M.Div. 03
Community Covenant Church
Manlius, N.Y.
A guest post from Dr. Nelson Grimm, director of field education at Northeastern Seminary:
- Apply ministry principles to the context of life
I will never forget when a student told me “Field education changed my life!” The student used her field education assignment to explore ministry options and found a perfect fit. In many ways, field education is a chance for you to test-drive ministry and to gain the insight necessary to make good decisions. It is the rich and effective bridge between the understanding and analysis that occurs in the classroom and the thoughtful and appropriate application that transforms both you and those to whom you minister.
- Discover how God has gifted you
As you prepare for more effective service within God’s kingdom, the field education setting helps you ask (and answer) questions like: How has God shaped you for life? What are your abilities and strengths? What experiences have you had that have been most rewarding? What societal needs challenge your heart the most? As you are able to test various ministry contexts, you are better able to confirm your sense of fit with your anticipated vocation and to develop skills and confidence. And when this “testing” is done alongside seasoned mentors, those who understand the nuances of the individual and communal aspects of their unique ministry context, the discernment process is further strengthened.
- Do something new—or do something in a new way
Perhaps you will, for the first time in your life, work on a new program for the disenfranchised “30-somethings” population, or preach a sermon, or develop a community service ministry, or engage in visitation at a hospital. Or maybe for you, field education is not be about doing something new, but about doing something in a new way. I recall a student who had been a pastor for many years before coming to seminary. When he came to discuss his field education focus, he indicated that he had done it all, that his twenty-plus years of pastoral ministry provided him with all sorts of experiences. I agreed; he had experienced the wide range of pastoral responsibilities, so I challenged him to think of what he could do in a new way. He chose to work on his preaching and designed a rigorous program including soliciting feedback from parishioners and videotaping sermons that he reviewed later with his mentor. Within weeks, parishioners were commenting on how much his preaching had changed. He moved away from overused words and awkward mannerisms. He improved his eye contact with people and structured his sermons more simply. Whether you are very new to ministry or you bring multiple years of experience, field education provides the opportunity for exploration and growth all within your context for living.
- Build a network of colleagues and resources
As with many placement programs like field education, you establish professional and collegial relationships that you can draw from as a resource long after you’ve completed seminary. Not only can placements lead to permanent employment, but because there is a propensity to become isolated in midst of a demanding ministry, these connections can become central, serving to sustain efforts, provide perspective, and re-energize visions. Ministry collaborations and vocational learning provide ongoing enrichment.
Dr. Nelson Grimm grimmn@nes.edu
Director of Field Education, Associate Professor of Applied Theology
Northeastern Seminary
Part One
The student was apprehensive, reluctant to fully engage. After all, those experiences and feelings he was asked to share were intimate—they belonged to him. The nervousness was palpable among the small group of students as they met for the first time. Thus, the faith-sharing process at Northeastern Seminary begins.
This process, a central element of the personal and spiritual formation program, is described by Associate Professor of Spiritual Formation Rebecca Letterman (‘08) as an intentional place and space in which students take time to reflect on moments of significance in their lives. It provides a way for students to slow down enough to perceive God at work in themselves and others. They experience the hospitality of interested listening and also have the opportunity to learn to listen deeply to others. In this setting students discover they are not alone; others struggle with similar things in their lives and ministries. And it provides experiential learning of the theological truth: "God is at work in the world—sometimes even without me!"
The intentional growth reflection sessions are led by a certified spiritual director, most often alumni of the program. Graduates recall that the faith-sharing experience, with its commitment to observing silence and creating spiritual and emotional space, has a counterbalancing effect as it allows for synthesizing data gathered in the classroom. As Suzanne Pearson (‘09) describes, “It offers space and time … for spiritual reflection on the massive volumes of academic material one is learning and to listen for the living word of God.” John Miller (‘04) agrees, “It moves the ‘information’ into the ‘formation’ of the person,” while Steve Dunmire (‘05) notes appreciation for the process: “Especially in hindsight, I think it’s one of the areas where Northeastern made my seminary years a time of spiritual growth, not just learning.”
Read Part Two.