A Routine Self-Evaluation That Does Not Happen Often Enough

I spent this holiday season staying at school instead of going home. So over winter break here at seminary, while nearly everyone else was gone, I spent a lot of time with just myself. And this gave me some considerable time to do some long-overdue self-reflection.

I had the opportunity to just sit myself down and say, “Self, what is going on with you these days?”—Although, for me personally it was more like: “Self, how is that career discernment thing going?” A part of me still has no clue exactly what I will be doing with my life when I am done with my time here. However, that has not stopped me from spending a good deal of time getting prepared for my Field Education next year (think of it as an internship I get credit for).

More recently, my bouts of self-reflection have come up once again during my courses for this semester. I am currently taking an Educational Psychology course and a Neuroscience course—that is right, you are not wrong…I am still attending seminary—so I have been inclined to do some of my own personal childhood development reflections from when I was a kid. Personally, I actually find all of this science/sociology stuff to be absolutely fascinating, and in many ways applicable to ministry.

A Very Grateful Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving break just around the corner, I finally get the opportunity to relax from all the usual stresses of being a seminary student and take some time—FINALLY—to write another blog post. And in the typical Thanksgiving fashion, I want to take the time to reflect on what I am thankful for.

The past three months (my-goodness, has it really been that long already?!) of my first semester at Princeton Theological Seminary has been a roller coaster of a trip. It hardly seems like that long ago I was packing my car as a new college graduate to drive off for the next chapter of my life in New Jersey! But yet, here I am.

Homosexuality in the Mennonite Church: The Pittsburgh Experiment

Every two years, Mennonite Church USA holds a biannual convention to bring together Mennonites from all over the country. It is an opportunity to reunite with old friends, to worship God, and to celebrate a religious heritage that goes that goes all the way back to the Reformation in Europe. 

This convention also gives Mennonite Church USA’s delegate body—composed of representatives from member conferences and affiliated organizations—a chance to decide the direction that the broader denomination will take. And where I was always more concerned with the other aspects of the convention, it is the workings of the delegate body that I now find interesting.

And it is specifically the issue of inclusion of homosexuality that I particularly direct most of my attention.

Homosexuality in the Mennonite Church

One of the primary issues facing the Mennonite Church in North America today is the issue of inclusion for homosexuals in the church. 

Granted, this issue has been discussed for a long time now; but prior to 2009, a gag order had been in place, essentially putting this particular discussion on hiatus for decade or so (that is, at the denominational and conference levels anyway. Individual congregations could still have discussions as they so pleased).

The gag order understandably came into place due to the newly forming Mennonite Church USA—presumably to allow the new denomination to settle-in after the merger from two separate denominations, and iron out all of the kinks that goes along with that before engaging in such a divisive issue. 

So, for ten years, no one was allowed to express their opinions openly concerning homosexuality…that is, until Columbus ’09.

A Letter to My 13-Year-Old Self

Dear younger me,

I know what you are thinking, what you are feeling. Even though you may not want to admit it, I know what you are going through.

I know what is buried down deep inside you which you are scared to let out. I know how conflicted you feel; how confused you are with the situation you live in; how frustrated you are that things could not be different.