Jess: I've always been a pretty good planner, whether for what we're going to do tomorrow or what we're going to do 10 years from now. So when our plans for school turned upside-down when I didn't get enough financial aid, I didn't really know what to do with myself. Wes, on the other hand, was able to adjust almost immediately--although I'm pretty sure that's 99% due to the fact that we didn't have to spend a semester separated by half of the country. Anyway, the result is that I'm sitting here on the couch trying to keep my eyes open till 10 after a week of 40 hours of work and 15 hours of babysitting/cleaning. Wes, on the other hand, just had to go to school...lucky.
It's amazing how much of the next 5 years are going to be devoted to school. I remember being so excited to graduate from high school, but then I went to another 4 years of school. And now I'm just waiting for the next time to go to school again. Geez. The way it's going right now is that Wes is going to be in school until May 2012, at which point he will start his three-year probationary period. Then I'll start school full-time (hopefully partway through due to my online classes), go to 1-2 years of school, have my internship, then return for my fourth year. By the time I'm done with that and Wes is done with his probationary period, it'll be 2015 and we'll be old. Lol.
Anyway, we're both going to be doing a lot of unconventional things to work our way around the various plans in place in our denominations. Wes is supposed to return to Texas for his probationary period, but there are no schools for me there. I'm supposed to be willing to go anywhere for my internship, but Wes will be full-time at a local church. I don't know where we'll be, but I know the next 5 years are going to be really interesting...
Wes: So now that Jess has given you the skinny, I'm not really sure what to say...
I guess I could start with telling you a little about the differences between our two seminary experiences. First, the Methodist plan:
I have to go to school for three years (as sanctioned by the school I chose). The only thing that my candidacy committee requires is that I take two classes on Methodism-- Methodist Polity and Methodist Doctrine. Other than that, I just need to succeed in finishing my Master's of Divinity. We in the Methodist church are pretty laid back.
Jessica, though, has it crazy. She has to take at least one year at a Lutheran seminary and has to do a year-long internship. The weirdest part? The internship is in between her second and fourth year, so they expect her to move her family to school, stay there for a year, move away to a church of their choosing, located anywhere in the nation, and then move back to school a year later. Crazy.
I could also tell you a little about our candidacy period. It's actually kind of cool, because they are not that different. Candidacy is the period of discernment into which people enter when they are pursuing a call to ministry. The process is set up to help individuals find out if a vocation in the church is the best fit for them as well as help the church affirm and encourage those individuals. Jess and I meet annually with our candidacy committees to help keep us on track and help make sure that we're on the right track with things. We also are given growth agendas to work on throughout the year until we meet with them again. My last growth agenda included meeting with a spiritual director (Christian councilor) on a monthly basis to work through my calling and to have a practical outlet for the theology in which my brain is constantly soaking and to engage in conversation with a Methodist pastor who is married to a Presbyterian pastor-- he probably knows what I'll be dealing with in the future ;-). After we finish seminary, our candidacy committee votes on whether or not we are fit to pastor, and then we move into doing ministry full-time.
So that's what we have to look forward to. Now you know what we'll be doing from now through 2015.
Well, thanks for dropping by! You stay classy, World Wide Web.
-Wes and Jess
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I think it is funny that Wes has a "probationary period". It sounds like he was busted doing something, and they are watching to see if he will do it again.
ReplyDeleteThe Lutheran rhythm has its virtues with the two years, internship, and final year. The internship really changes relationships between faculty and students. The students quickly learn on internship that there is still stuff they need to learn. The faculty receive them back glad that they have learned what we all need to learn at some point--we are mightily unprepared for what God is calling us to do. With knowledge of one's need for growth comes a space within which growth can happen.
That said, the system was created for single men or married men whose wives would up and move with them. Times have changed and a church that says every call is a call from God may have to rethink whether it is good to drag spouses out of their legitimate vocations in order to let their beloved serve the church. The Methodist practice of three years straight is at least a little more friendly to that practice.