Headed Off to School

At the end of this month, I'll be starting an M.Div. at Yale Divinity School . I'll also be a student at the Institute of Sacred Music, an interdisciplinary school focused on sacred music, worship, and the arts. Suffice it to say, I'm excited.

While I anxiously count down the days to the start of my first semester, I've had tons to do to prepare. Finding a small room up there, completing the orientation coursework called "Diving Into Divinity" that Yale offers, figuring out how I'll balance work and school, and planning how I'll pay for everything have taken up much of my time.

I've also been doing a bit of reading to prepare myself. I've been going through the "We Confess Anthology: Hermann Sasse" and listening to "Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis, a book I've returned to a few times. Additionally, I've picked up "Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth" by Richard John Neuhaus. Looking at what I've been drawn to, it's obvious that there's a bit of a subconscious desire to orient myself in my own evangelical-catholic tradition as I prepare to enter this very ecumenical environment.

While I've been reading these things, I've also had the opportunity to engage with a wide spectrum of Christian thinkers as part of the "Diving Into Divinity" coursework. YDS offers this course as a lead-up to school to help us become accustomed to the serious academic work we will encounter. Among the writers I've had the pleasure of reading, Norman Wirzba stands out as particularly persuasive. As a Professor at Duke Divinity School, he writes compellingly about sustainability, Christian ethics, human flourishing, and our role on this living planet, which we are meant to steward.

As I prepare for this time of study and formation, it's hard not to consider the telos, or "goal" or "aim," of my studies. At this point, my intention is to become a pastor and enter the Office of Holy Ministry. However, I'm open to this changing as I go along. One reason for my openness is that my own Church, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, has recently tightened restrictions on members attending other seminaries and further limited access to what's called "colloquy." This means that there isn't any way for me to become a pastor in our Church unless I attend one of their two approved seminaries.

While this is disappointing, I haven't been deterred. I believe what the Rev. Dr. Arthur Carl Piepkorn, an intellectual giant in the confessional Lutheran movement, maintained: that we are "Christians first, catholic Christians second, Western catholic Christians third, and members of the Church of the Augsburg Confession fourth." As the Lutheran confessions state, I believe the Church can be found wherever the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered. So, please pray for me as I explore and discern the options.

I'll have many more updates as the day draws near. But for now, I wish everyone a blessed Feast of the Transfiguration!