From the time I had graduated college till the time I started seminary, if you had asked me if I was interested in going back to school, I would have just laughed at you. I’m not sure where and when the disconnect happened but there was a time somewhere in junior high school where I checked out. The model of lecture based classroom instruction just did not appeal to me any longer. I worked just hard enough to get good grades, calculating the exact grade I needed on a final exam to get an “A” in the class and then only studying hard enough to hit that mark on the test.
In high school I latched onto theater classes because it gave me a chance to learn through experience. I had never had a class before that allowed me to learn on my feet and truly experience education in an embodied way. I poured all of my time into the theatrical community and eventually decided that my calling was to be a professional actor. I was accepted into Wright State University’s prestigious acting program and attended there for a year. I realized during that year that while I really did enjoy acting, it was not my ultimate calling. I was more attracted to the experiential nature of theater than the actual process of memorizing scripts and constant auditioning.
Over time, I realized that ministry was my ultimate calling, but the idea of going to seminary was terrifying.
I did not want to go back into the lecture-based classroom for three or more years. The idea of two years in the classroom and a two-year internship is what drew me to Trinity Lutheran Seminary’s Master of Divinity program. I figured I could power through the two years of classes in order to engage in the learning that most appealed to me, the experiential learning of an internship.
A lifetime of learning is important! When we stop learning we stop growing, we stop flourishing, we accept the status-quo, we allow others to shape us in ways we might not even realize. As this new year of programming begins at Lord of Life I encourage you to find the ways that you can grow in faith. It might be a lecture-based class at an online seminary, it might be a pastor-led Bible study, it might be a women’s Bible study, it might be serving as a Sunday School volunteer, it might be becoming a Stephen Minister, it might be serving as a Ministry Area Coordinator (MAC), or any number of possibilities. Find the style of learning that engages you and plug into it. Embrace the gifts that the Holy Spirit has empowered you with and grow personally, grow communally, and grow in your relationship with God.
Still learning,
Corey