Claimed, gathered and sent

Philemon 1:1 Παῦλος δέσμιος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ καὶ Τιμόθεος ὁ ἀδελφὸς Φιλήμονι τῷ ἀγαπητῷ καὶ συνεργῷ ἡμῶν 2 καὶ Ἀπφίᾳ τῇ ἀδελφῇ καὶ Ἀρχίππῳ τῷ συστρατιώτῃ ἡμῶν καὶ τῇ κατ᾽ οἶκόν σου ἐκκλησίᾳ, (Phm 1:1-2 BGT) Yup, that's Greek and the new semester has begun. Boy, I feel so rusty and so emotionally unprepared to be back at school. Part of my heart is still in Garrett County, MD. The transition from even a brief 2 weeks of full time ministry to full time classes again is difficult. Now that I have been in Epistles class all morning and then our small group this afternoon, I feel like it will be ok. It was absolutely amazing how much theology is in the greeting of Philemon. We all seemed to enjoy the class and it was good to have our prof back from sabbatical. By the way, LTSGers, doesn't this picture of Paul look a little bit like Dr. Carlson? It's been a good day and we had some social time together as well tonight. So...........WE'RE BAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!

We as Lutherans don’t talk much about the Holy Spirit. For some, even the words Holy Spirit conjure up images of Pentecostals, holy rollers and so on. My own journey has taken me from being a nominal Roman Catholic by way of the charismatic movement to the Lutheran church where I have seen the Holy Spirit’s work through Word and Sacrament, in our worship together, in the community of faith, and in our outreach. In Luke, we first hear of the Holy Spirit as Gabriel makes the promise to Mary that she will be the mother of Christ. The Holy Spirit is also on the scene at Jesus’ baptism descending upon him like a dove. Once full of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. Today’s gospel reading occurs right after that temptation. Strengthened by his time of testing, Jesus is now ready for his public ministry and the Holy Spirit is at work once again. After his baptism, he had begun teaching in Galilee, the

When I thought about being in Appalachia for 2 weeks, all kinds of images flowed through my mind. I had a particular economic group, social class, and geographic location in mind. My time has been spent primarily in Garrett County, MD. The more people I met, the more similar they seemed to myself. One of my professors always challenges us to go deeper than the obvious, to "look under the rug." Part of this took place last night and today as those of us who spent January term here met togethe rin Morgantown, WV, at WVU with campus pastor Matt Riegel, Dr. Gil Waldkoenig (professor at Gettysburg Seminary), and Bishop Ralph Dunkin (bishop of the WV/Western MD Synod of the ELCA). One of the things I discovered was that parts of the Southern Tier of my own New York State, are technically part of Appalachia, including Jamestown, the birthplace of Lucille Ball. Hmm...that certainly caught my attention. There are those places however, which do typify what I had originally imagined. Fo

This morning we went to a nursing home to do the Lutheran service for the residents. It felt like shades of CPE at Bethany Village where I was this past summer. It was wonderful, but at the same time, I have realized that however much I may love the idea of chaplaincy, I desire even more so to be in the parish administering the sacraments, preaching, and loving and visiting the people. In essence, I can have the best of both worlds. Whether chaplaincy or pastorate, it's all about loving the people the Lord sends you to. It was a bit of an epiphany for me. Later in the day, I attended a church council meeting with the pastor. It was very small and the people work so hard. There were times though when I could not help but think of the vestry meetings from the PBS show "Vicar of Dibley." The pastor is familiar with the show and agreed that the meetings can get like that. Please see the clip below and you'll have a better understanding. The wonderful people and the glorio

A passage of scripture that has become so real to me in the days since the earthquake that has caused such devastation to Haiti is from James 4 . There were some seminarians from the Wartburg and Trinity seminaries of the ELCA in Haiti during the earthquake. One student, Ben Larson , lost his life in the quake. He was a senior, already approved to go into ministry following graduation, and he had a family. We often take for granted the time we have on this earth. I am a second year seminarian spending my January term in Garrett County, MD. Ben was spending his January term in Haiti. I anticipate returning safely to my husband and friends at Gettysburg Seminary to begin the Spring semester. I'm sure Ben anticipated returning to Wartburg for Spring semester, which would have been his last. He was looking toward graduation and first call. As one pastor said this morning, the church has lost a future pastor. The passage from James warns us to not assume what tomorrow will bring. We do

I've only been in Garrett County for a few days, but I have some observations. For one thing, these are among the nicest, most hard working, godly people I have known. They're wonderful. That being the case, why aren't the churches growing? Or perhaps the better question is, why are they losing members??? A Missouri Synod church is Accident is losing members as they are waiting for a new pastor. This begs the question of the role of lay leadership. In talking with the candidate for pastor there, he thought churches were flailing because of lack of leadership. Now I wonder if he meant strong pastoral leadership (Herr Pastor) or did he mean lay leadership? In the case of my home church, Emanuel in West Warwick, RI, there was strong lay leadership that had been nurtured over the years. With an interim pastor for nearly two years, the church did quite well. The deacons assisted, actually led worship. All the committees functioned including church council. So I wonder...as this

Today another seminarian and I were on the road with Pr. Randy. We went to a chaplain's meeting at the Garrett County Memorial Hospital and got a tour of the hospital. Later we had lunch with another area pastor and then visited a congregant who was in the nursing home. Much of what we did today reminded me of the ministry I was involved with at Bethany Village for CPE. Driving back to where I'm staying in Friendsville, I could not help but be caught up by the beauty that surrounded me. It drew me in. I listened to see what God was saying. I could see myself in a similar setting. The people here are wonderful. I didn't hear anything. The Henri Nouwen devotion below spoke to me concerning the issue of hearing God's voice for direction. Enough Light for the Next Step Often we want to be able to see into the future. We say, "How will next year be for me? Where will I be five or ten years from now?" There are no answers to these questions. Mostly we have