A New Beginning

I have started my new semester with mixed feelings. I am very excited for most of my classes thus far. Church History this semester looks like it should be a much better class than last semester. I still have yet to start my last class since the lecture time is not until Thursday. I am also trying to switch my Radical Reformation class with a class called "The Search for a Christian America." The class is designed to explore the relationship between the Church and the State throughout American History, and this is intriguing to me especially during the 19th century. Unfortunately, the precept time on Friday interferes with my Hebrew lecture, so at this point I cannot add the class. However, there's another student in the class with the same predicament, and we are hoping that the professor will be able to work with us since we are both very excited about the class. I should know by Friday whether something has been worked out or not.

I am also beginning the process of looking into church placements for next year. I have four churches in the area that my field education advisor has looked into for me, so the next month will involve visiting those churches and seeing if any of them would make a good fit. Three of the four sound like they would be very good placements with good pastors. I will post more on them once I have had the chance to visit with them and the pastors.

It has been a bit stressful getting readjusted from break, especially being on campus last week but without work. By the end of this week I should be back into the swing of things, but for now it is a bit difficult. The lack of reading assignments due to less classes is also contributing since I have essentially finished all the reading I have to do for this week.

So the excitement continues. I'm starting to think more about starting/restarting the ordination process. It has been a bit complicated (probably more than it has needed to be) mostly because of my own hesitancy. Unfortunately (in my perspective), my last two years at APU did a lot to destroy my trust in the church, which has been difficult to overcome. Being at Princeton has done some to restore it, and I think the sites that my field ed. advisor has picked will do more. Still, I continue to wrestle over whether God is really calling me to be in a pastoral position and whether that calling is meant to be in a church setting. Though I feel fairly confident about the former, I am still skeptical about the latter. One of the things that I'm continuing to struggle with as well is whether I am being called specifically to the ministry of the Word and Sacrament. A few people that I have talked to have encouraged me to think of that more broadly than simply working as the head pastor of a church, which has been helpful to think about ordination in a more constructive way.

I realize that I could be doing much of this questioning as an Inquirer in the process, but that has been a little complicated as well. I am wrestling over whether Arcadia Pres. is really the best place for me to be under care. I realize that is probably a little shocking to some, and I'm not going to go into detail here since I feel it would be inappropriate. Reflecting on past events and experiences, I feel it is something I need to seriously consider.

Once I have my schedule more solidified I'll update more on my classes. It looks to be a very interesting semester.